Weezy, we miss you.

As those of you who are FB friends already know, I got a call early Tuesday morning from a good friend of mine who is a SGT in the USMC. He was calling to inform me that a mutual friend of ours, SGT Cesar Ruiz had been killed by an IED in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. This was a serious blow to me. While I was in Afghanistan, I travelled around the country opening up new Forward Operating Bases for the various branches of the military. Most of the time, there was another carpenter named Mark on my team. On more than one occasion, we would run into the same Marine unit, the 3/3. The 3/3 has an Engineering Company with them, and we would frequently work with the same guys at every camp. There were two guys in particular that we hung around with, Shane and Ruiz. When we expanded FOB Jalalabad, we worked with them for a long time. I really felt like a part of the unit. As civilians, we had many privileges that active duty did not have. I had access to a satellite phone, and although many of the soldiers had cell phones, they didn't work all the time where we were at. When one of the Marines wives was delivering his first child, I managed to sneak the sat phone to the Marine compound so he could call his wife and talk to her after the delivery. When I didn't want to be found, I went to the Engineers tent and hung out with them. We even had cots set up where we could crash. I hadn't seen Ruiz for a while, he was discharged from the Marines. He went home to Texas and started a family. Last year, he was recalled to active duty involuntarily. The military sometimes does this if the person holds a critical Military Occupation Specialty. Shane was assigned to Camp Pendleton, close to where I live in San Diego. Shane has a family, and lives on base. When I came into some money last year, and was going to the casinos all the time, I invited Shane and his wife and son up to the casino, and we sat by the pool in a private tent, chilled out in our luxury suite, gambled some and generally had a good time. It was the least I could do for the guy who had helped me so much overseas. When Shane called me and gave me the news, and asked me to call Mark and tell him, I was shocked. But I suppose that's what happens when you're a Marine. All I know is Cesar leaves a young wife and one year old son who will never know him. Hey, Mr. Obama, when are we going to get our boys out of Afghanistan?