The well runs dry...

Marine Corps Colonel B.P. McCoy wrote an excellent and moving book titled "The Passion of Command". For anyone who wants to know what it truly means to be a leader of men in the context of combat and military operations, look no further than this book. It is raw and unforgiving, and best I can tell it is true. But this is not a plug, simply a prelude...

COL McCoy writes about the "Well of Fortitude", where commanders and soldiers alike must go within themselves to find the strength to go on, to find the willpower to keep up the seemingly impossible pace that we are asked and expected to maintain. One goes to this well to draw from to muster up the energy and courage to keep up with their duties, and I fear mine is running dry...

The past week has been particularly tough, with an accumulation of disappointments, let downs, changed directives, run-arounds, and all together hassle. Some self inflicted, some out of my control, but all of it emotionally and physically taxing. I have taken my first personal time off since I've been here, to lay at home and close my eyes with the hopes that things will be different when I open them again.

There's only a few weeks left... It would be too easy to give up now and let the rest of my deployment coast from the momentum of all the hard work I've put in up to now. I'm too proud to let that happen, and my selfishness would only serve to hurt those depending on me.

As life tends to do in these situations, the hits keep coming... The cable to my laptop appears to have given up the ghost and my battery is near dead. I will MacGyver it the best I can, as anyone who knows me would expect. Some bubble gum, a hamster wheel, and a little luck and I'll be back before you know it.