By 
It’s still Tuesday isn’t it?
Sorry for the late update, I would have done a strip last night, but I worked a twelve hour day on a couple hours of sleep and just wasn’t up for it. I almost copped out and put up a Marine Corps Times strip, but I love you all and I wanted to provide you with the Terminal Lance content you desperately crave in the night.
It’s hard not to feel like an old man talking about Iraq. When I enlisted, Iraq was all the rage. Civilians barely even knew about Afghanistan at this point, and most of the Marines were being cycled to the Cradle of Civilization, as it’s known. Having never been to Afghanistan, I’m often met with confusion when I tell people I was in the Marines and went to Iraq twice instead of stepping foot in the ‘Stan. Of course, I was enlisted at a time when this was normal, but it seems many people have already forgotten about Iraq.
Marines enlisting today were born in 1994.
Take a moment to let that sink in.
…
They were 7 years old on September 11th, 2001 and 10 years old during Operation Phantom Fury in 2004. Iraq is merely a bedtime story to them. The flat, palm tree-laden desert landscape flourishing along the Euphrates isn’t common imagery anymore to the new enlistee. This has all been replaced with FROG suits, plate carriers, mountains and mud huts. This soon will fade as well, with the major withdrawal coming up from Afghanistan, Marines will be back in peacetime mode. Only old salts will remember their time in the middle east. They’ll seem old and grizzled, and the fresh faces will stay fresh.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, and I dunno about you, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be enlisted during peacetime.
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