2 days after my 19th birthday and 2 weeks after getting out of training I was deployed to the middle east. Almost every day for 9 months, be it sand storm or clear skys, I would watch the sunset in silence and smoke a few cigarettes.
What you see was what I did almost every day for 9 months. It was the quiet moments that I left quiet. I didnt listen to music in those moments I just had the distant droneing of a light generator kicking on and the occasional animal or vehicle off in the distance. As someone who normally doesnt do silence it meant everything. Those moments were some of my favorite and most cherished memories of a place I would call hell on earth.
Some of the most important moments and memories I have, are spaced out in those final hours of light. Not knowing if I'd see it again, I'd watch it leave like an old friend heading home from a visit.
