⚜️Happy throwback Thursday! 
This goes back to a time where eight months was as long as 1000 years and an 18-year-old could become a man in an instant with an IED blast and a ride back to base longer than the longest drive in imagination. So long for reasons that only those who have been there know and many who have been there wanting to forget. I never want to forget, I want to use every bit of everything that killed weaker versions of myself and forced stronger versions of myself to exist by the grace of God. Once upon a time, I was born of water but in this place, I was reborn of sand and fire. Every once in a while I still feel like there’s moon dust in my soul and I love it. Oh to live again I’ve had to make this new world my battlefield, I’ve had to make it hard and see the danger that kills so many of us that many people never perceive. I thank God that I’ve been able to make it so and I hope that I can win enough small battles to one day when the victory of the destiny that is befitting of the potential I believe God is given me… I just can’t let this Grace That’s been placed upon me be given to me in vain and so I must fight and die worthy of the call I feel beating in my chest. Worthy even if it is only for the trying I do with all of my heart…. so many battles since then, so many scars, so much trying, slain enemies, slain versions of myself, the honor of the fight, never run away. I may fall, I may lose right in front of you, you might be there to witness my last breath and my eyes lose both the darkness and the light that I carry. In this, you may feel sorry for me but I retain my self-respect for the trying and for making myself valuable enough to be a worthy sacrifice on the field of life and battle. I’m just another man fighting in the name of all that I love and believe is holy. ?

Semper Fi – do or die – death before dishonor

PROTECTOR by nature and by trade
Byron