I'm not one to live in the past - but there have been days where significant events shape lives - and today is one of those days of which I keep close and remember what's happening right now, right this instant, would be a stretch to be as bad as this day in March, 2006.

I've posted some of the narrative before.

My time spent in Iraq with the US Army was a mixed bag of following orders and trying to figure out what we were really doing there. In the mean time, I survived - yet I always remember how lucky I am of those who didn't and those who did with their lives being changed forever.

And that - gives me perspective of present day life.

Scorch marks on the asphalt - where two buried 120mm Chinese rockets detonated and impacted the passenger, drivers side of the Humvee. The Marine is apart of the QRF.

Schrapnel impacted the Sapi plate.