A man handed me a phone card and said, thank you for your service; I responded thank you for the years. See the moment he handed me the cards, I was 21yrs old again, sitting on the hot deck of the USS Lake Erie off the coast of Jebel Ali dreaming of home or a cold beer to wet my thirsting throat. The days of turning-two in the high-noon, before cellular and email, when letters came few and between months, when everyline was followed by “over!” We only wish that it was and prayed that it wasn’t. He smiled and said, “you’re welcome!”