“It was my last night of pre-deployment leave. I was 23 years old and had just finished saying goodbye to some of my childhood friends at the bar in town. I was sober and I came home at about 1 in the morning. I walked up the stairs and looked into my mothers room. She was asleep in bed with our family dog passed out on the floor.

I walked in and sat beside her and thought about all the times I was a kid when I got scared of the dark or had a nightmare and came into her room to be comforted. Now here I was, a grown ass man, being a combat veteran of two deployment already, seeking my mothers comfort once again.

I laid beside her on top of the covers and whispered to my mom that I loved her. I fell asleep beside her like that until 4am when my father arrived and it was time to head to the airport to go back to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

I’ll never forget my mothers face as I buckled my seatbelt and waved goodbye to her to go to war one last time. It was the loneliest I had ever felt in my entire life. It took everything inside of me not to cry in front of my father.”
– Anonymous US Marine. 2nd Marine Division. 2011
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This account was documented by Battles and Beers (TM) Every soldier has a story, and every story deserves to be told.