A Sheepdog is Returning

Today is Saturday, Jan 6, 2007. It is the day that my friend Jay, U.S. Marine Master Gunny Sergeant, and his troops are scheduled to leave Iraq. They have completed their one year deployment in the dangerous and volatile Anbar Province. Jay’s family and friends have been holding our collective breath, and we won’t be totally relieved until his boots are standing on U.S. soil and we once again see his smiling face. We are going to celebrate the return and honor Jay and his teammates later this month.

Jay’s war in Iraq was very personal, as can be expected when someone is trying to ventilate you and cause your blood to spill on the ground. As Jay put it in his understated manner,

We have actually completed our last patrol in this place. It's just a little melancholy. Ok, not so much. Of course, our last ten days happened to be the most interesting, with Saddam's execution and the new year's jihad proclaimed against all of us infidels.

Jay didn’t have his blood spilled on the ground to pay our installments on freedom, but he did sweat and freeze and bust his hump in the dust of Iraq. And, he did have colleagues who paid with injury and death.

Jay will retire from the U.S. Marine Corp in the not too distant future. Last I heard, he is serious about beginning a new career in law enforcement. You can’t keep a good Sheepdog down.

Read Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s piece: On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs.

Go to Daughter of the Night for her piece entitled, I Run to the Sound of the Guns, for another piece by Lt. Col. Grossman.


Previous Posts:
Sheepdog Blood Leaves Queasy Stomachs
Thank You Sheep Dogs for our 230th. Birthday—Fourth of July 2006
Are Sheepdogs Born Or Raised?
The Indecent Sheep Bleat