Nathan Slate

Refreshed by a fleeting journey of the soul across time and space, I found strength in the shared silence between stars, and returned to the desert ready to march again.

In a dusty courtyard outside Taji, surrounded by curious children and cautious sheiks, we built fragile bridges with bottled water, schoolbooks, and the stubborn hope that kindness could hold back the war.

I didn’t end up in that desert by accident—every hardship, every hard lesson, every quiet moment of doubt had been sharpening me for that exact stretch of sand, steel, and responsibility.

In the stillness between IED craters and ambush points, barefoot children in sunlit fields reminded us—without knowing—that peace still dared to exist.

Beneath the corrugated shadows of the Taji Market, where farmers and fanatics shared the same dust, we moved—alert, measured, and unwilling to let the chaos define us.

Under Saddam, theft wasn’t a crime—it was the national business model, sanctified by fear, filmed for posterity, and sold back to the people like a bad memory on repeat.

As we marched through the ancient dust of Iraq, chasing the mythic promise of Eden, I couldn’t shake the feeling that what we were truly searching for wasn’t a place—but the fragile hope that such a place might still exist.

The Biblical Wilderness wasn’t some metaphorical idea anymore—it was a sand-scoured reality where time held its breath and ancient suffering walked barefoot beside us.

A man’s worth, my father taught me, isn’t measured by his words when it’s easy—but by the truth he stands by when it’s hard.

The training warned us about Wahhabis and zealots, but no one mentioned the schoolhouse meetings, mushroom clouds in quarries, and the quiet courage of village Sheiks.

Soldiers don’t just serve—they believe, sacrifice, and love. Their bond, forged in hardship, is deeper than duty. It’s who they become.

She never wore a uniform, but Lisa served every bit as faithfully as I did, holding our family—and often the whole unit—together with nothing but love, grit, and grace.