There's a new component to The War Project: first-person accounts written by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The first comes from Sgt. Carlos Reynaldo Farias:
Sgt. Carlos Farias served in Charlie Company, 1st Platoon, 1-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was deployed to Afghanistan from January 2007 to April 2008. "I wrote [this] days after the event," he wrote in an email. "The day was hell. ... I documented it to help me get over the situation, a venting process if you will. It did help some but even at that for weeks I could not sleep fearing that either one of the members of my team or myself would die in the coming missions."An excerpt:
Well it was the morning of the 6th, D day to be in fact, June 6th 2007 and we were south of Musa Qala and the Kajaki dam. Wake up was at 0120 and that was shitty on my part cuz I couldn’t fucking sleep all night and only got a couple of good hours during the day. So damn hot that you couldn’t really sleep well and if you did you woke up dehydrated as hell.Moving forward, the site will feature interviews, letters, and photos. If you're not yet familiar with the project, visit the About page. If you're an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran interested in getting involved, here's the email.
[Sgt. Carlos Reynaldo Farias]
Photo credit: Spc. Tyler Harrell.