GHOSTS

I've never been an advocate of the supernatural
But I know that ghosts exist
They exist in the small towns of Southwest Oklahoma
And Lawton and Marlow
And Duncan and Comanche
And they exist in Iraq
And Baghdad and Balad and Diwaniyah and Al Kut
The ghosts of 152 men who no longer exist
152 men left their homes in August 2005
And friends and family anxiously awaited their return
They're still waiting
The men left the small towns of southwest Oklahoma for the cities of Mesopotamia
Leaving their familiar lives of old for new lives, new adventures new behaviors and new emotions along the streets of Iraq
Each slowly slipping into a new skin,
A new normal
These men acted differently in their skins and reacted to new stimuli in new unfamiliar ways
To assert that the skins are interchangeable is to deny the evolution of a man's character
When these men returned to Comanche county and Stephens County their old skins no longer fit
Families were torn apart trying to force these men into old roles, old skins and old lives
That cannot work however
These are different men with new lives
I know ghosts exist because every so often these men act like the men I once knew
But these men are gone never to be again
While their friends and family still await the return of the men they once knew
As they occasionally catch a glimpse of the ghosts they once knew
The citizens of Iraq wrestle with the Ghosts of who those men became
I deployed with 152 men of August of that fateful year and not all of them were married
After our return in December 2006 over 60 of them got divorces
The ghosts of who those men once were still haunt the families of Southwest Oklahoma
The war is tearing our families apart

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