Most eyes were on the Soldiers, standing tall in formation.
But I couldn’t keep mine off of their boots. Probably because I’ve been in their shoes.
My feet have experienced the roads of war, as well as the returning speedway back home. Every Soldier’s experience is both uniquely different and the same, and I felt oddly comfortable watching those restless boots in the formation.
As the crowd kept their eyes locked on the rotating prestigious faces with their prewritten words behind the standard wooden podium and the always interfering crackling microphone, my gaze kept returning to the block of boots.
My formation was much the same. Same faces — both behind the podium and in the crowd. Same nerves of being home. Same anxious feet not knowing which direction to step once allowed freedom. Same side glances at the the smiling faces and the same gut-twisting feeling of not knowing how I was supposed to experience this concept of coming home.
I served for one year during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Feb. 2004 to Feb. 2005. Stationed in Kuwait, but hauling equipment throughout Iraq, most people who haven’t experienced war assume it is a hard situation to deal with. And they probably assume right. But the hard part is leaving war and returning to the normalities of every day ho-hum life. Of learning how to take off the boots and put on the loafers, the heels and the sneakers of civilian-hood.