War Nostalgia

It's a f***in' odd thing. War nostalgia. I'm sure many of you have read at least a quote from Sebastian Junger whether you know it or not. One of which pertains to this piece that I'll share with you now.

“War is a lot of things and it's useless to pretend that exciting isn't one of them." - Sebastian Junger (pg. 144, War)

See a great many of us miss the war. Our war. All of those excruciatingly exciting times, and by excitement, we lean on the definition that there is a solid chance you may die. Must I quote Churchill's comment on what is exhilarating in life? I don't miss my friends and I eating breakfast only to have one of them not there for breakfast the next day. I don't miss that experience. I miss him. I miss all of them. I miss the nostalgia of being dirty, and smelly, and under mortar attack while playing cards in a dusty hooch in a shithole city that wanted to see nothing except our demise. I miss that.I miss sitting behind our hooch, by our firepit and feeling like it was Sandals Resort. I miss that.War nostalgia...never have I felt such love for something so horrible and destructive to the world around me and my own consciousness. I haven't forgotten the hard times, the mangled and twisted humvees. The flash and a huge puff of smoke, dirt, and debris...many of the explosions were not like the ones I saw growing up. Unless they were fuel enhanced. Just an earth-shattering boom followed by a cloud engulfing the humvee with five of your best friends. In that moment, it was surreal. Did I really just watch five of my friends vanish?Luckily they came over the radio, laughing, not a one of them harmed...the IED was buried too deep.I miss that joy, the fact that they were all laughing that they'd just cheated certain death due to our enemies ineptitude. Some may not find that funny. That day, they did. We all did. We were glad they were still here.There are few if any other circumstances like this...sure police, firefighters...they're in danger, but most of them are close, relatively speaking, to home. It's not a slam on them, there is just something different about being thousands of miles from home with a bunch of degenerate malcontents who at the same time are the most honorable and faithful friends, brothers even...that could exist on this planet.So do I miss war...yeah as shitty as it may seem. I guess I miss war...