Playlist for an Old Soldier | There and Back Again

Music is I think, an integral part of most people’s life.  I think even more so for a person that lives life on an edge like soldiers do. The poets’ words speak to all the things inside us that we maybe don’t have our own words for, and gives the words our emotions in each note of the song.

Here is an Old Soldiers playlist for the guys and gals that have been deployed since 2001. The songs in the middle are songs that were often the most requested karaoke songs and frequently were sung with all the feeling (and sometimes more) that the original artist put into it.

The idea here is to take you musically and emotionally through a deployment, from the pumped up feelings at the beginning to the relief and questions it leaves us at the end.

I have two personal recommendations here and that is Mortaritaville, and Kryptonite, more on these further on. Enjoy my friends

If you are going to be successful you figure this is what you must do and be. This is for an early 20 something soldier, a statement of yoru training and attitude, God help your enemies cause nothing else is gonna!

And if a Warrior is what you are, then this is what you're gonna do...

Once you get there you already begin to understand that you are changing, the inner isolation starts to niggle at you,...

This video has a hard edge or two in it, it is what it is, and that is how you start to see things, The inner isolation grows, and resignation and sadness are right behind but you have a job to do and your buddies and country are counting on YOU.

You begin to realize death is not the worst thing that can happen to you here (being separated from your boots while they're still on your feet). You make peace with that.

During your off time you have some fun with your buddies....

You're nearly done, and you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Some nights you're not so sure that's a good thing, what will it be like when I get home, now a whole new unkown begins to creep in and the personal isolation gets really strong, You don't joke around as much, you have to stay focused on getting home.

You've made it! But the isolation begins to wrap itself around like one size too small body armor. You wonder why it is you that made it and not your buddy. You feel like every breath you take is robbing the families of the friends you lost. But you are a Warrior no time for this the next deployment is coming in a sixteen months and now you'll need to get the newbies ready. But you wonder in the back of your mind if you'll ever really sleep again..

This did not start out to be a hub about PTSD, but sometimes the Road Less Travelled takes you down a path with obstacles that you just have to deal with to keep moving forward. Many do make it home with out PTSD in its worst manifestations but none return home unchanged. The Movie Stop Loss was a television movie that spoke to this and I think the guys on the bus did a great job of acting out the process. Look at the faces as these guys get nearer and nearer to home unit, they look more like they're getting ready for an airborne drop or an air assault than coming back to folks who love them.

If you need help guys get help....