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home. The war is over.”
    “Sir, do you think they are going to disband our unit? I mean after all the money they spent training us they would get rid of us last, right?”
    “Well that, in my mind is precisely why they will probably disband us. This war isn’t ending because we won, far from it actually. They are ending this shit because the country is broke and can’t keep borrowing money when they can’t pay it back. So yes, I do think they will have us close up shop for the same reason you think they should keep us…we cost too damn much money.”
    “So that’s it then sir? It’s all over and we have to just go home and find work, just like that?”
    “Afraid so, Mike, I’m sorry. It’s gonna be hard on all of us but you’re young and smart. Go to school and try to find a job that is still needed.”
    “Yes sir,” Mike nodded to the Colonel, turned and walked to the phone room. He kept thinking about his men. If they had just made it back from that mission they would all be going home with him. The team would get back, buy a bunch of beer, and pretend to celebrate the end of this war.
    In one week Mike would be sitting in the rear of a plane heading back to Montana while his team was packed onto another plane in metal boxes heading to Delaware. Mike wished more than anything that he could be in a box next to his men. He didn’t know what was going to be waiting for him in the civilian world but knew that every time he went home on leave there were fewer and fewer jobs. As far as Mike knew the money he was making on deployments was far more than anybody was making that he had gone to school with.
    Over the next week Mike barely slept and rarely ate. Every time he drifted off to sleep the nightmares started. When he did find a small appetite he chose to stay in his room and eat the food he had left from gift packages. The phone calls were painful. With each of his soldiers’ loved ones that he called he got to hear a new set of sobs and even screams. It took every ounce of integrity he could find to pick the phone up and dial one number after another. He used his free time to pack up all of his soldiers’ belongings and personally send them to their families.
    Before he knew it the week was over and he was sitting on a plane starring out the small window at the mountains of Afghanistan for the last time. He had hurt and bled in these mountains. Friends and enemies alike had died in front of his very eyes here. This might be the last time his eyes would ever see these mountains but his mind would never be able to get rid of them.

Chapter Three
    M ike Hoffman was an ordinary kid from a small town. He grew up in the college town of Edinboro, Pennsylvania just a short drive away from the city or Erie. Growing up Mike always did well in school and in sports. He played football and excelled at that just like he excelled at everything else. Mike was your normal, small town, all American kid. He was tall, good looking, and from a young age it was apparent that he was very gifted both academically and athletically. Mike’s sharp, knowing blue eyes, and thick head of light brown hair made it easy for Mike to attract the girls in his town.
    Mike’s father had spent four years in the Army before Mike was born. After leaving the Army he met Mike’s mother while going to college in the small town that Mike was raised in. While in college Mike’s mother became pregnant and both of his parents dropped out to start their family. His dad found work at one of the plastic shops in Erie and shortly after Mike was born his mother went to work at the same shop. Mike’s father took every ounce of overtime he could find so that his mother would have more time to spend with Mike rather than working extra hours herself.
    Most of Mike’s childhood was spent playing in the woods behind his house. He always felt at peace when he was alone with nature. All day long Mike would be in the woods building forts, climbing trees, and