So. Fuck.

Deviantart is the only place I can write this, because no one (except the closest of friends) actually knows me. Pretty lame, right?

Another one of the guys I served with just got killed in Iraq.

Fuck.

I manage a fucking retail store. And dudes are still dying. What the fuck am I doing?

This guy wasn't your run-of-the-mill Marine, either.

There is the falsely motivated, and the deeply motivated. There is the leaders you follow because you don't want to get yelled at, and the leaders you follow because you don't want to let them down. There is the leaders that yell to get their point across because they assume you are stupid, and there is the leaders that tell you what needs to be done, and expect you to get it done.

These truths are evident to the boot Marine. When I was a young, innocent 18/19 yo PFC/LCpl, Wojo was that guy. An NCO who put his money where is mouth was. Who actually believed in what he was doing. Not just a romantic, or an idealist, but a guy who believed, AND WAS MAKING IT A REALITY.

This is one of the guys that I tried to be like when I became a team leader, a squad leader, an NCO. This is one of those guys who is always a hero, a role model, in the back of your mind. That static image of standards that never slipped, discipline that was there even when no one was watching, unwavering surety in his abilities as a leader, and your abilities as a Marine, unless you failed and proved otherwise. But even then, he was that kind of Corporal that would take you aside, tell you man-to-man how to make it right, and that he believed in you, and you just needed to believe in yourself and try harder to succeed.

And now SSgt Wojo is gone.

Thanks, insurgency. You guys are a bunch of assholes.