I enlisted into the U.S. Army in the winter of 1999 after growing up in Lakeside Montana. Four years later in 2003 after being in Afghanistan from January to July, my enlistment was up. I got out and was ready to move on with my life. I found civilian life not to my liking despite four years of looking forward to it. I stayed in North Carolina with my girlfriend, got an apartment with her and soon asked her to marry me. I enlisted in the National Guard to get training in computer networking. A month later I was mobilized as an Infantryman as that was my MOS during my previous enlistment. I was to be sent to Iraq to fill out a unit already in country. This was really scary because the rest of the “fillers” were all inexperienced. They lacked the six-month train up those in this new unit had gotten. I felt justified in Afghanistan. It made sense to be there. Iraq just felt wrong to me and it killed some of my closest friends. But I did what I had to do and did it well. After all I had given my word as a man to my country and my fellow servicemen. We were bound by honor to a dishonorable man who was careless with our lives and to a nation that was too apathetic and afraid to stop him. I just hope a mess like this will teach a lesson we will not forget.