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attitude.
    â€œI’m not projecting anything. I just want to make sure you’re making the right decision. I don’t think you made the right decision by signing up for six years initially. All you had to do was sign up for four, and if you liked it, go for another enlistment,” Gordon admonished.
    Sebastian stared his brother down, frustrated. He loved him so much, but hated when Gordon acted like a parent. He figured that after two combat tours, one in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, his brother would finally treat him with respect. He knew it stemmed from two things, one being that Gordon and Sebastian’s parents had died a few years back. Gordon took it upon himself to fill that role for his much younger brother. The other issue was Gordon’s anger toward the Marine Corps. He felt betrayed after the incident in Fallujah ten years before.
    â€œGordo, I know what I’m doing. Scout Snipers are a tight unit, professional and motivated. I wish you would stop second-guessing me. I know you asked me not to join the Marines, but I did. Then you were against me signing for six, but I did that too. I needed to guarantee the job I wanted. You were against me being a TOW gunner and now you’re second-guessing this. I’m a man; I know what I’m doing.” Sebastian sat straight up in his chair and looked his brother directly in the eye.
    â€œOkay. Okay,” Gordon replied, waving his left hand in the air and rolling his eyes.
    â€œI’m gonna make a head call.” Sebastian put down his beer and walked inside.
    Gordon rested his head on the back of the chair and looked up at the stars. He thought back to that day in the mosque in Fallujah. In the years immediately after, he’d mentally replayed the incident over and over again. Every time, though, he’d concluded that he’d do it all the same. It frustrated him to no end, the ridicule and hatred he received. The investigation from the NCIS team proved he made the correct decision, but those stories are not interesting and always land on page D9 of the newspaper. Stories of Marines shooting “unarmed and wounded” prisoners, on the other hand, make for headline news and political fodder. He hated the politics most. The entire situation changed how he looked at his country and countrymen. When his time for reenlistment came around, he opted to get out. He could no longer risk his life to defend a country wherein half the citizens either hated him or, only slightly better, thought nothing of him.
    Gordon had joined the Marine Corps right after the attacks on September 11. He dropped out of George Mason University in his third year because he felt it was his generation’s calling to serve, walking away from a full academic scholarship. At the time it felt like the right thing to do, but now things had changed.
    He often questioned why he had sacrificed so much. For what? So people could hate him? So people could take their freedom for granted? For all the lazy asses and all the dumb shits who want to sit around and do nothing? Fuck them, he thought. Never again would he sacrifice himself for anyone but his family and friends. Now his brother was putting himself in harm’s way so those same worthless people could sit back and enjoy their freedoms and abuse their rights.
    Sebastian knew how he felt, but he was never the idealist Gordon once was. Sebastian loved his country, sure, but he was in it more for the adventure. He loved the action. Sebastian felt lucky that people would pay him to blow things up. He never thought much of politics, thinking it was a waste of time. Gordon would love to share his brother’s outlook, but how can our country survive if all we do is look out for ourselves? Ideologically, he was conflicted. Practically, though, until his anger went away, he would not put anyone else before himself or his family.
    Sebastian’s return interrupted Gordon’s train of