It's hilarious.

"Man, we lit up your world like the Fourth of July."

Toby Keith- "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruNrdmjcNTc

Alan Jackson- "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPHnadJ-0hE

American Soldier by Toby Keith is very good also.

there was a goldfinger song that was terrible. there was that "have you forgotten?" song that was terrible...

can't think of any good ones.

Agreed we played that a lot too.

The army was weird. It was all rap or country. I met hundreds (thousands?) of soldiers in my time there and literally couldn’t find someone with similar music tastes to me. EVERYONE listened to country or rap, or both.

Agreed we played that a lot too.

The army was weird. It was all rap or country. I met hundreds (thousands?) of soldiers in my time there and literally couldn’t find someone with similar music tastes to me. EVERYONE listened to country or rap, or both.

I’ve always assumed 80s and classic rock had a foothold with the infantry.

LOL. Well, we could probably get into a social and economic discussion why that is true.

But let’s not.

Thanks for your service, FF.

I mean it. Feeling very patriotic today. 20 years ago was a crazy emotional day.

Oh yeah. A lot of bad decisions in that regard, and it wasn’t the guys making those decisions paying for them. Wish he would’ve been in charge

Lack of smart phones and internet and generally not caring about that shit from 2008-2011 means unfortunately I don’t have many pictures from my time down there.

But here’s one of the few I do have taken outside of our barracks. The guy on the right is SPC Evan Utterback. He was a genuine hero. I never got the chance to go overseas but he did two tours there and he saved two guys lives after an ambush. He was one of the most interesting, thoughtful guys I’ve ever met anywhere, let alone the Army.

One of my very best friends, greatest guy you would ever meet, went 4 times. He was there to train the Afghan police and military. He was a 20-year guy, retired now from the Army.

Was your friend actually in the Army at the time? I have a friend who did what sounds like a similar job, one year in Iraq and one year in Afghanistan. She is a retired Milwaukee police officer. At the time it seemed kind of dangerous to me, especially for a woman, but she actually didn't mind it over there and loved all the guys she worked with. And the money was unbelievable. I think she got $120,000 without tax the first time and even more when she reupped for a second year. And she didn't spend a single dollar of her own money when she was over there. Plus every month her pension hit her account via direct deposit and just kept accruing until she got back home.

But the thing that kind of sat wrong with me is that we have actual Army guys doing similar shit, guys like FavreFan and they're making less than minimum wage when it gets down to it. I don't begrudge my friend her six figs for spending a year in a hellhole, but it does seem a bit like war profiteering.

Do you recall if Evan was a Hoosier? There is an older guy names Utterback who does ag commodity trading info/recommendations weekly on our local early morning ag TV show, it's not a common surname.

Look at you guys dropping the big bux for some Coronas! No limes?