Always Faithful by Thomas Schueman

Author:Thomas Schueman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

Part II

The Escape

11

New Beginning

ZAK

I DIDN’T CARE about the sand that flew in my eyes as I watched the huge, gray Marine Osprey lift off with my brother, Lieutenant Tom Schueman, as he departed FOB Inkerman in April 2011. He was sitting in the rear door, waving good-bye to me as the aircraft rose into the air. I wanted to remember the moment and all the ones before it. We had fought too hard for them to let any be forgotten. To live the way we had each day, not knowing if we would live or die or be mutilated, created a love that made it hard to accept that I would probably never see him again.

The nose of the aircraft dipped toward the earth as it lumbered forward, then gained lift and rose into the sky. I thought back to the time before I came to Sangin, back to conversations with my father. I realized that with First Platoon I had done the things I came to do. We fought the Taliban. We protected the people from IEDs and attacks. We tried to make a better future for Afghanistan. We learned lessons that kept us alive. Sometimes we were just lucky. Sometimes we lost our friends and brothers along the way.

I lifted my arm and waved at Tom. He waved back. I watched the helicopter fly until he was out of sight. He waved the whole time. First Platoon was gone. Tom was gone. I had been beside him for seven months and now I was alone in Sangin. I missed my Marine family and I missed my real family. Walking back to my room, I looked out at the brown hills of Sangin from the walls of FOB Inkerman. I thought of Kunar’s mountains. I knew my family still needed money, but I was ready to go home. I called my father for his wisdom.

“Father, my team is gone and I am tired. But I can stay with these new Marines. I know we need the money.”

“Zainullah, there are jobs here also. It is too dangerous there in Sangin. Come home, son.”

“The money is good here.”

“Son, you cannot spend money if you are dead. If the Taliban has Sangin, we will have Kunar. Come and help at home. You will find a job in time. We want you safe. Your mother cries for you.”

“All right, I will call the Mission Essential Personnel contact at FOB Jackson and resign.” I went to my room to pack. I was going home.

MEP SAID THEY would give me work in Kunar if something came open. In the meantime, they flew me to Camp Leatherneck and on to Kabul on American aircraft. But this time there was no bus convoy. Once I was in Kabul, I had to hire a taxi. The threat of Taliban checkpoints had increased. After most of a year fighting them in Helmand’s flat dirt, cornfields, and desert wadis, I was anxious riding through the rocky hills and river bottoms of Laghman Province and through Jalalabad.

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