My address in afghanistan and some parting words.

So, I’m going to war tomorrow. I guess I never really thought I’d ever type that sentence and mean it.

I wish I could expound on all the feelings and fears and anxieties that are all churning through my soul tonight, but I’m not much in the talking mood.

I don’t know what the next few months will bring, but I’m sure I’ll have some stories to tell.

People ask me all the time what I’m feeling and how I’m dealing with it all, and I always wish I have a good answer ready so they could understand. But the truth is I never know how to answer that, because I’m numb really, which when matured forms resolve.

I have a job to do, and upon completion of that job I will come home. There is no room for feelings, not now. Those will come later.

I cannot express how humbled I am by the sheer support and love I feel from from friends and family almost on a daily basis, I cannot thank you all enough, and will work to do the job well enough to deserve such high accolades, so thank you all. You are my support network, my relief, my mental medicine, I would be a shell of a leader without you.

My address in country for those of you who have been asking is as follows:

Lt Hardy, T. J.
3/7 India Co 2nd plt
Unit 41570
FPO AP 96427-1570

If your itching to send something, I’d ask you wait a couple of weeks for us to get settled. We have enough stuff as it is.

Tonight I looked into the faces of 45 Marines in my charge whose lives will be intertwined with mine for the next seven months and they are ready. They are trained, taught, rehearsed and drilled and the time has come for the test.

Tomorrow I will look their families in the face and tell them how proud I am to lead them, to mentor them and how great a pleasure it has been to lay myself low that they may be better. Which is all true, but it will be in the knowledge that some will not see their sons again. I cant really describe that kind of weight.

Very soon I will meet an enemy that hates me so bad he has dedicated his life to seeing my destruction. And I don’t know how to react to that because I don’t feel that way about anybody. When I figure it out I’ll let you know. Maybe that’s what Jesus felt like.

That’s all that’s really on my mind I think. The longer I do this job the more sound action becomes appealing and the less stock I have placed in words. Idle talk is cheap. I’ll do my very best to write as often as possible and keep you all updated as to what all is going on from day to day.

I guess I’ll end this like the first note I wrote the night before Officer Candidate School which seems apropos:

“I am reminded of a Robert Frost poem,

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

I will see you all on the other side, Godspeed.

Christ is all,”

I have the greatest friends in the world, I am thankful for a savior who travels with me and will keep me company, and I have no regrets. See you all in seven months.

~Lt T. J. Hardy