When war becomes your normal

Stepping off the C-130 plane that July day was like stepping into a very dusty, smothering oven. It was 126 degrees with windstorms periodically surging into sandstorms. There were maybe two random palm trees surviving among the flat, gray buildings and worn, tan tents. Machine gun fire and pistol shots rang out – interrupted only by the sounds of bombs.
I had joined the United States Army to serve my country, to help save lives, to do my part. I was deployed to the Iraq War in the middle