This originally appeared on November 11, 2011.

• The bite of gravel into my palms as I did my best to push Missouri back into the ground, along with 200 of my closest friends
• The feeling of accomplishment the first time I qualified expert on the M-16
• The rush I got the first time I did an Australian rappel
• Sunset at the Asilomar
• Coming out of the building in Augsburg and realizing I hadn’t seen the sun in 6 weeks
• The sound of a little girl crying because I had told her her mother hadn’t survived
• Sunrise over the Chiracahuas
• 6 inches of snow in an hour over a convoy of diplomatic cargo in Russia
• Laying in a snowbank on top of Mount Vis
• The color and smell of the earth in that field near Mostar
• Watching young soldiers learn what my team was teaching them
• Night driving my track
• The taste of red dirt on four continents.  Seriously, did the Corps of Engineers do a study to find all of the places on earth where there is red clay just so they could send me to visit all of them?
• The weight of the hanger on the day I hung up my uniform for the last time