by guest blogger Danielle

My husband was an infantry assaultman in the U.S. Marine Corps for 4 long years. He got to travel the world. He helped dig people out of the mud in Leyte, Phillippines in 2006 when an earthquake caused a mudslide to fall over an entire town. He was in our local newspaper. The next year he was sent to Iraq. He was stationed in Ramadi and Kharma. He worked every single day for 7 months. Not a day went by that I did not worry about him. There were no days off. He was involved in dangerous fire fights and was nearly ambushed once when a Humvee broke down. After my husband was out of the Marines I was talking to my uncle, a Marine who served in Vietnam, and I said something about my husband being a “former Marine.” My uncle was quick to correct me, “No,” he said, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” And how right he was! These experiences are woven into the fabric of my husband’s being. They have made him into the man I know today. He cannot unlearn the lessons that he learned while he served in the Marine Corps. He is not active duty anymore, but he is still a Marine and a combat veteran. [Read more…]