A couple years back my father would serve in the Iraq war for 90 days then come back on leave for 90 days. It was a long, nerve racking experience for me and for him. I would receive letters from him about every couple of weeks when he was away in Iraq. These letters let you see who he was missing and how he felt about this whole idea of war.
There is one letter though that is quite special to me. One that I will cherish for ever and ever.
I received it in 5th grade during lunch at the time. Reading it was quite impossible without a tear. I decided to seal it back into the envelope and read it at a time when I was alone. A time where I could truly just shed tears. Once I read the letter I couldn't stop sobbing. A picture of him kept fluttering through my head repeating lines from the letter. Lines that were the most breathtaking, memorable sentences.
One of them read, "Well Doddle, I have more work to do, so I just wanted to say help and to tell you that I LOVE YOU!!!"
I would have to say the part that hurt me the most was when he was describing the place where he lives. A tent with a bunch of others guys without running water. It was a nightmare! No showers and porta-potties. He said he hadn't been gone (hah yeah right) and could use a shower. To me this reveals what a total nightmare it is over there. It shows how much dedication he and his crew have to protect our country. I mean I definitely wouldn't stay in a tent with no running water at all. But for them it was a feeling of accomplishment. A feeling that will stay with them forever and ever.
For this blog post I had to recently take out this letter. Which I haven't taken out since January 13, 2004. When I read it and analyze it, it is so much more than just a letter. It is a bunch of words that reveals significances of the war. The major thing that it reveals is the significance of a human being. Now not a human fighting in the war but a family member or civilian. When reading this letter I can feel my dad's tension and how he will feel like a failure if he doesn't come out alive. It shows how much one family member can influence a soldier's mind. He wasn't only fighting to protect our country but to protect me and to show me how great of a dad he is. It is just like in "The Things They Carried" when Tim O'Brien doesn't want to tell his daughter about him"killing" the young boy. He doesn't want his daughter to see him as a killer or failure. That is exactly what this letter reveals. It shows how tough my dad wants to be just for me. Its like memories of me are running through his head when he is suiting up for the battlefield, getting him ready to show who he really is. This letter is a letter of a lifetime and tells so much in so little, by just reading in between the lines of the writer.
