The other day, I bumped into an old Companymate of mine. We were plebes together. He was shy and scared and quiet. He was someone that I rarely ever talked to much afterwards, and became good friends with another Companymate of mine, Charles, who I stayed with all four years.

He's now an Armor platoon leader who has been here almost a year. It was amazing...I hadn't seen him in six years and the difference life has made in him. It's strange, to see so clearly someone move from boy to man. But he was, for lack of a better term, a man now. Watching him talk to his soldiers and interact...make decisions and deal with Iraqis. He told me stories of his experiences so far and I sat in awe. Not so much at what he'd done, which most every officer has done, but at what he'd become. I couldn't help but think...you know, if he hadn't have been with us those years, where would he be now?

I wonder if most people realize that the military is producing the kind of people it's producing, and if the country will capitalize on that in the future, of if the business world will snatch them all up for middle management for bottom line profits. I hope it's the former, but fear the latter.