Old Friend

I finally got contact with my buddy that I graduated through basic training with today. He is currently serving with the 1st Cavalry division in Baghdad, Iraq. The last time I talked to him, the day before he was on a patrol where they came under attack and he got lightly injured by a hand grenade that was tossed at him. He told me it hurt like hell. After that, we hadn't talked in months. Now I finally got to talk to him again. I asked him how it was going in Baghdad, and he explained to me about them having to go out all the time and fight. They also work with the ING too. He didn't seem to have much respect for them in their fighting skills. I talked to him about IEDs and such and how they've learned to deal with them. I wont post anything like that on here for information security reasons. He told me about a story how a few feet from him a sniper shot one of his buddies through the head and it took them like 2 weeks to find the fucker that did it. I guess it has gotten to the point where they only do patrols on Bradley's. It was enlightening to get to talk to him again. I should be in Iraq before he leaves and goes home, so maybe I will get to see him. It's funny how guys you only know for a year can become closer to you than your own relatives you've known your whole life.