A soldier says thanks

[indianajoe]

I was taking a break at work today and went to check out the FB page of a favorite author. Steven Pressfield (Steven Pressfield Online) has written numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, including Gates of Fire, Tides of War, The Afghan Campaign, The Warrior Ethos,The War of Art, and most recently, The Profession.

There, I saw a young Army staff sergeant posting a note to Pressfield:

Dear Steven, I wrote you some time back while in Afghanistan as "Solder in Afghanistan" with various questions regarding moral and mental questions I had inwardly about combat. The simple fact that you wrote me back greatly increased my moral, and will to train and fight harder than ever before. We were in COP Michigan in the Peche River Valley. We're gone now and our COP was destroyed in a pull out of that area, yet looking back I miss it more than ever. Life was simple with no complications. ght to survive and cherrish the good moments more than ever because they were fleeting. Your sound advice lingers with those memories and I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. God bless you.

I was moved by this. Not only by this young squad leader reaching out to say thanks, but that a successful author cared enough in the first place to have responded to a roughly worded letter sent him by a grunt in the field.

I chimed in on the comment string and told the staff sergeant I appreciated his words. I told him it was the best thing I'd read all day.

We went back and forth a couple times. After a few paragraphs we developed a rapport. A FB "friending" and I'm then browsing some of his pictures from Iraq.

This one had a great caption:

 

[climber409]

Great story.Thanks

 

[Icarry2]

Intresting.. I have a bro over there who is a 50 gunner on transports and sent me a picture of a pile of brass and clips with the caption "good day, got 4"

Hats off to any and all who serve this country, now if we can only get a "commander in chief" that understands the real world of bullets and bombs..