Noah:

I could feel the sweat running down my face, like rain drops on a window. I took a sip of water from my flask and walked towards the shaded area that was under a tree. It must have been 100 degrees out there in Iraq. 

"Hey Noah! You coming to eat or what man?" Someone yelled out. We called him Rick. His real name was unknown to the rest of us, but all we knew was that the colonel chose that name for him. 

I started walking towards the boiling food, took a ration pack then got back in the shade. My other pals joined me right after. Once I was done eating, I took my helmet and put it on my head to help shade myself. I went to the tent to talk with Mikey. He was one of the newest and youngest recruits the army had. He was 18 and very shy. He usually kept to himself and didn't bother anyone. Most of us here were 25 or 26 years old so he didn't feel like he belong with the group. He was all alone is a small corner, so I decided to go up to him and and say,

"Hi Mikey! Do you mind if I join you?" He looked up at me and tapped the floor by his side. He just looked at me and smiled. 

"Thank you for actually talking to me, I really feel lonely these days." I smiled too. 

"You're Welcome, buddy." I pat his shoulder, and continued talking with him for hours. 

As the days passed, Mikey and I were really getting to know each other, and becoming good friends. We were always together. He was like a brother to me. We tried to help each other the best we could during our simulations. We talked about the lives we left behind by coming here, 2 months ago. He had his mother and little sister waiting for him back home, while I told him about my beautiful wife at home. The love of my life, Rebecca, that I had met in a grocery store.  She had dropped her food on the floor and I went to help her pick it up. That was when our eyes met for the first time. Mikey looked at me with sparkles in his eyes. I asked him how he found love, but had said he hadn't found the right girl yet. 

After a hard day of practice, I went to see the other guys and tried to join their conversation. They were talking about their guns. I didn't really feel part of the group, since guns weren't the greatest subject to talk about. I saw Mikey coming out of the outhouse toilets and I met him back to our sleeping tent. At around 4 in the morning, we all heard and felt a massive explosion coming from near our location. We knew what this meant. It meant that all our hard work comes to this crucial moment: War.