OPERATION MOUNTAIN STORM

Long hot days and short, lonely nights,
each day is just the same.
Time is slowly passing by.

No news from home, no books to read,
nothing but the mountains and the silent solitude around to keep me company.

With plenty of time to think,
and thoughts of home always on my mind,
I sit in agony, missing the loved ones I had to leave behind.

I think about our reunion and all the things that I would like to do and say.
Happy thoughts like those keep me motivated and bring smiles to my face.

There are always reasons to complain and things that will bring you down, but it’s how you deal with it that counts, I remind myself.

This deployment is almost halfway over.
What an experience it has been.
I’m keeping track of every moment so that I can share each story with family and friends.

On a fun scale of 0 to 10, humping around the mountains of Afghanistan and getting shot at is more towards the lower end.

However, it doesn’t get much more real than this.
Here we are serving our country,
putting our very lives at risk.

Every Marine & Sailor attached to the 22nd MEU knows the danger they face, but that’s a decision we were all willing and chose to make.

We have pride in our country, ourselves, and our abilities, and we will carry out the mission no matter what it takes because we believe that terrorism is a cause worth battling.

Honor, courage, and commitment are the values the Navy instilled in me.
Combined with the Marine Corps motto, ” Semper Fidelis”- always faithful; it’s a standard that the enemy can’t beat.

___________________

This first appeared in The Havok Journal on January 11, 2022.

Click here to learn about OPERATION MOUNTAIN STORM.

Lori Butierriesis a full-time caregiver to two children with disabilities. She uses her life experiences and the medical knowledge she gained from serving as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy to help others facing similar hardships. Lori is an author for The Havok Journal, an official columnist for AwareNow Magazine, and a contributor to The Mighty. Likewise, other news sites like MSN and Yahoo! News have also republished select articles Lori  has written. Lori’s writing extends to children’s literature. Her debut picture book, GIFT FROM GOD, was self-published at the beginning of 2021 and placed as a finalist in two categories in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Lori’s long-term goals are to use her writing to educate others about, advocate for, and dismantle negative stereotypes regarding disability, mental health, and the military/veterans community.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.