The next day, I again found myself waking up earlier than I would have liked. My family and I met a good friend outside of Raleigh for breakfast at 7am. Yay for the Cracker Barrel. After some yummy breakfast, I found myself having some deja vu moments. I was on my way to Camp Lejeune, which I had drove passed the two previous days while traveling to and from the beach.Camp Lejeune is a large military base which is home to the 2nd Division, Expeditionary Force of the US Marines. It was a neat experience at first. I had never been on base, but had been by it a few times. When we first arrived to the main gate, we had to check in and get a temporary day pass. It was an especially busy day, because 1,200 troops were leaving base to go to Iraq.

We waited in line, got our pass, then headed into the base, which is freaking huge. It’s definitely a city in itself. We found our friend and his family at his barrack, finishing packing and cleaning his room. In that area, they had dormitory style buildings with three soldiers to a room. They layout and rooms weren’t all that bad; granted, I didn’t have any idea of what to expect.

We hung out their and watched some of the soldiers get their gear outside into a nearby field where everyone was congregating, waiting for orders. They apparently do a lot of hurrying up and waiting in the military. We were outside for a large portion of the day. Marines were coming and going and around noon, most of them headed to the armory to receive their rifles.

The buses finally (depending on how you look at it) arrived around 2:30 pm. Let me just say, the whole experience was very emotional. Being out their all day, knowing that you are about to go to war, makes you think. I wasn’t one of the Marines, but I tried to put my place in their shoes. It was hard though, because I was the only male in attendance that was close to their ages, that wasn’t a marine. Besides other marines that were not being deployed or ones that were wounded, I was the only male in the upper teens to lower twenties who wasn’t going to war.

I felt many emotions and had many thoughts standing around talking to and watching some of the marines. About half of them had family and friends present to say goodbye. The others just hung out with each other and their platoon or company. The scene made me think about why they were leaving and that made me pretty pissed off and angry. I also felt sadness because some of the soldiers will never see American soil again. The majority of the marines were younger than me; they were kids. Yes, there were a few higher ranking officers in their upper 20s and lower 30s deploying, but most of them were 18-22. I felt like a prick and I did not (and still don’t) want to know what some of them were thinking about me.