Combat Veterans and ‘The Switch’

A warrior poet’s musings on the vital on/off switch, ‘forged in steel but ... grown rusted from all the blood, sweat, and tears.’

A U.S. Marine with 1st Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, 2nd Marine Division, inserts for the final mission during Exercise Platinum Ren, at an undisclosed location in Norway, on May 20, 2019. Sgt. Tayler P. Schwamb, U.S. Marine Corps

Commentary

Seventy-two hours, give or take, is the breaking point where the lack of sleep catches me—embracing me like a lost lover whose touch can ease the pain. The line between what is real and what is fantasy begins to blur. Eye muscles start to flex like a rubber band stretched to its breaking point, like the innocence of a child at war, snapping back with hate and discontent, compartmented over years of the same insanity.