THE GRUNTS
HUFFINGTON
03.16-23.14
PREVIOUS PAGE: BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
HOW DO WE BEGIN TO ACCEPT THAT NICK
RUDOLPH, A THOUGHTFUL, SANDY-HAIRED
CALIFORNIAN, WAS SENT TO WAR AS A 22-YEAROLD MARINE AND IN A DESPERATE GUN BATTLE
OUTSIDE MARJAH, AFGHANISTAN, FOUND HIMSELF
KILLING AN AFGHAN BOY? THAT WHEN NICK
CAME HOME, STRANGERS THANKED HIM FOR HIS
SERVICE AND POLITICIANS LAUDED HIM AS A HERO?
Can we imagine ourselves back
on that awful day in the summer of 2010, in the hot firefight
that went on for nine hours? Men
frenzied with exhaustion and
reckless exuberance, eyes and
throats burning from dust and
smoke, in a battle that erupted after Taliban insurgents castrated a
young boy in the village, knowing
his family would summon nearby
Marines for help and the Mari