I feel that nobody needs to know my busness except for yours truly.  Much easier that way, I s'pose ...

I was burned during a bomb blast.  Got burned on my chest, stomach, upper legs.  Looks like hell.  It's a miracle I survived, but it left me with ongoing pain and frustration.  No  matter what I do, no matter what meds I take to quell the pain, I can't ever get any relief.  It's torture, man, nothing but pure torture!

This happend in Iraq, just outside Baghdad.  Some mo-fo' enemy soldiers caught me by surprise and as I was tryin' to escape the blast, the force of the bomb knocked me to the ground, and I couldn't get away in time.  Got burned ... literally.

Spent over six months recovering from my wounds, from surgeries, and ongoing therapy.  It was a very hard time.

Still have nightmares now about the bomb blast.  I was the only one out of eight people who survived.  Saw my buddies blown up to bits; blood and guts went everywhere.  Still makes me nauseated whenever I think of it; there are some things that people just should not see ... this was one of those things ...

Whenever I go out in public, I do my patriotic duty to cover my scars/wounds up.  Don't need pryin' eyes or questions about what happened.  I don't need to tell them what happened.  I figure it's best to keep this to myself, y'know.  It's my own private battle, mine and mine alone.

Angry? Hell, yeah, I'm angry.  I wish those who did this to me (and killed my buddies) would rot in hell.  To me they are nothing but monsters; they ceased being human when I began to piece together what happened while waking up at the hospital in Germany.  I want nothing more than revenge; I want people (our guys and gals) to go over to that part of the world and turn that area into a sea of glass: kill as many dirty enemy soldiers as possible.

What's worse than the ongoing nightmares or the physical pain/scars/wounds is when people stare at me and call me "Baby-killer".  For what? Defending my own country, trying to keep the enemy from taking over??  Buddy, you'd best listen and listen good:  my buddies died for our flag, and I swore up and down on a stack of Bibles that I'd defend her as well.  I was the only one who survived.  If it wasn't for people like my conrades (or yours truly), you wouldn't be free!

Remember that next time you see me.  You'd best bend down and kiss my lily-white ass!  I bet you wouldn't do what I did.  I'm way braver than you will ever be, and you'd best start showing me some long-overdue respect and honor, or you'll hear about it from me!