My Guardian Angel
Original Post Date: Dec 28, 2023
I’m not religious, first of all, I should probably get that out there. I used to be, and I was raised in a Christian household where my mom definitely leaned into Christian family values, and bible stories, and we went to church fairly often — up until my parents’ marriage was on the rocks. I’m not here to argue whether there’s a man in the sky or not, we’re all allowed to make our own choices, and believe in whatever we want to..
You know what I believe? I believe that there are forces at work in our lives that cannot be explained, I don’t think religion is the reason for that, but I’ve seen things like karma happen to people that, I believe, deserved it. Or how you can manifest good/bad things in your life just based on your mindset, and how you view/interact with the world around you, the Law of Attraction, and all.
This one.. is one of those things I can’t explain. Maybe you can, but I’ll give you the story, and you can feel free to speculate.
About a month or two after Ky was killed, my platoon drove out to a smaller outpost we had set up in the same area, I believe we were searching for IDF teams that kept firing rockets at our larger base. We would be on this mission set for the next few months, pretty much until we redeployed and headed back home.
My team, especially, was feeling the loss of Ky. He was the spotter in our sniper/spotter duo, and we didn’t replace him.. instead, we added a Forward Operator, and our sniper became a solo. It was alright, because we didn’t really do anything else that required long-range accuracy for the rest of that deployment.
We started shuffling up our duties on my squad. My squad leader wanted to give some of the younger guys experience in different positions before we ended up back in garrison again, so, even though I was still carrying a machine gun.. I got to lead our movement more than once. If I remember right, we did about 3 missions while we were at this smaller outpost.. nothing crazy — we’d leave the outpost at night, just after it got dark, and then we’d silently walk a couple kilometers out and set in somewhere in the middle of trench, or a field that we could go unnoticed, and wait for the indirect fire to start.
Haha, have you heard the saying, “a watched pot never boils”? Same thing applies here. Regardless of how quiet we thought we were being, every time we left the base, not a single rocket would be fired. Still though, it didn’t stop us from taking our nightly strolls.
One of those nights, I got to lead our movement.. it wasn’t anything crazy, I just got to pick the pace and make some calls, but I got to be out front, leading the group, and it does feel a bit different. I stood up a bit straighter, the hair on the back of my neck was always on edge, and my head was on a swivel with purpose, looking for anything dangerous that could potentially harm us.. but there was nothing.
Nothing that wanted to harm us anyway.. I noticed something the first night we went out, though – it was no surprise that Afghanistan was filled with stray dogs, that part was something we just got used to. The strange part was that there was a dog that sat next to the gate the first night, and waited for us to depart.. and then followed us on our movement. He looked like a mix between maybe a border collie and some type of shepherd.. a mutt, but pretty well taken care of for a stray.
I love dogs.. and I’ve got ADHD.. so, while my head was on a swivel, I was also keeping track of this dog. I lost sight of him before we made it to where we planned to set in for the night, and didn’t see him again until we packed up, and started heading back to base. But the moment we were back in formation and started walking, that same dog appeared.. and walked about 20 feet ahead of our formation.. leading us back to base, and then when we got to the gate, he diverted off into the village we were near.
He never once begged, he never came looking for food, he never wanted to be pet.. he just led our way back home.
It takes a whole lot more than just a single walk with an Afghani dog to leave an impact on my life like this.. and it did. Because, like I said, I think we did 3 missions while we were there.. and that dog was with us every single night. He would never get close enough for us to interact with, but anytime we were packing up to leave, he would appear. He’d lead us back to base, and on the night where I got to lead our formation.. of course I was nervous for it, just because it was a new responsibility for me.. but that dog, like clockwork, was waiting by the gate for us when it was time to walk out. And when it was time to walk back, he was there to walk in front of me. During the daytime, I couldn’t find this dog anywhere.. and trust me, I fucking looked everywhere around the base. And for something like this, just for the thought that this dog could be.. well, I was looking for this dog in desperation.. as if it were Ky himself.. just hoping to get close enough to see if I would recognize anything that felt like Ky..
I know there doesn’t seem to be a lot of significance in this.. but towards the end of that deployment, “toe-poppers” were starting to make a comeback. Smaller IEDs that could be connected to a tripwire, or a pressure plate, or hidden in garbage somewhere in hopes that someone would step in the wrong spot, most likely losing at least half their leg.. if they’re lucky. We had several casualties from my unit that stepped on them, but even more from the unit that we were attached to. As fucked up as it sounds.. this dog was ‘clearing’ the path for us.. I was following in his footsteps because I knew it safe, and he knew the area better than we would. It’s crazy to think that any sort of reincarnation could be real, of course, I would love if it were.. but I don’t think this was reincarnation, I truly believe that this was Ky’s presence. Guiding us through our last few missions before coming home.. Truthfully, I don’t even know if that dog was real or not, but I know that my squad and I saw him every single night that we were there, watching over us, leading the way, and asking nothing from any of us.
Maybe it’s just a hope that something like this could happen, just one last move on Ky’s part to guide everyone home safely. If that was his final mission, he did exactly what he set out to. Fly High Sky Soldier, you’ll forever be remembered.
‘Til next time,
Cowboy