On Memorial Day, This Is My True North
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAG5gQCQSxl9XpqoEl00Uj_9GqNqvCv7RrXDe-Rdn-fiuPZs1DWkI62h58aMmAAJ_sPAsxBI_V6DLVwldyTkbIZG8UrJi4ChOIH6kc3CtwH3bnbmG1e_SmxWVfxJZz-i-VW9oDS0FZo7ZplnBHvvSbiXJYNFR22lg02lvYnmKZyAh2vMCljDSaoGihYHo/w585-h307/5ecbb9f8ee9fafe91ffb2343_memorialday.jpeg)
**The Following Post is Adapted from a X post made earlier in the day by the author, it's been edited slightly from its original version** In 2012 I was 9 months into my deployment overseas. I had a two week leave at the latest you possibly could have it. To coincide with my then-fiancĂ©'s law school graduation. By this point, time was moving excruciatingly slow. As an engineering company we mostly knew our hardest missions were behind us, and thankfully we were kept very busy still, but we were very much in the rear. At the time I was disappointed by this, which is something I look back on with shame. My personal disappointment was more relief for everyone who cared about me. But you don't think about these things when you're a young man. In this era Afghanistan was becoming more and more of a mess, and worse, an unreported-on mess. ISIS was a “JV team” and I knew the country back home was checked out. This fact frustrated me further. When I got to the last point