I was looking at my old pair of boots last night and considering their history.
They were given to by my older brother, a vet from the 82nd Airborne, when I joined the Army. Not sure if he had warn them, but probably a decent chance that they had since they had inserts inside.
In early 2009, I refused to buy any more pairs of boots (money was very tight) and I wore this pair through the entire three months of my Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course.
In April of 2010, when I was finally assigned to my beloved unit, I dusted off the same old pair. My brother subsequently gave me another couple of pairs that he had--all unused, I believe--but I stuck with the tried and true rather than lace up another pair.
Every so often, someone will notice my boots and say "Wow, those look like the pair I wore in OIF a decade ago!" Yep. Probably the same boots.
In these same boots, I attended monthly drills for three years, and three ATs (annual training)--two in southern Virginia and one in the California desert.
I wore these boots to my promotion ceremony in early 2012 and to my Chaplain's Captain Career Course later that spring.
On top of the extra pairs given me from my brother, I also was given two new pairs of all-purpose boots down in Texas as we mobilized for this deployment. I finally took those pairs out of my ruck sack last night...and put them in my locker.
I am not sure if my brother wore these boots for the brief time he was in Iraq, before his time there was cut short due to the malfeasance of another (which also likely took a toll on his military career).
But by the time these boots come home, they will have finally tread the arid landscape they were meant for and made their way through a deployment.
And I hope that there is something symbolic in all this. My brother came to this part of the world in a time when things were much more dangerous and uncertain. His service paved the way for my own.
By the time I come home, my family will have completed one deployment in the Middle East.
And just as I am proud of my brother's service (and now my cousin in Korea as well), I will be proud if one day, one of my children laces up a pair of boots and continues this tradition of service.
