Marine: 'We're Starting To Fall To The Wayside

Marine: 'We're Starting To Fall To The Wayside'
by TOM BOWMAN

July 5, 2011
A very small number of Americans are now serving in the military — less than 1 percent. Some are looking for direction; others are inspired by a sense of patriotism or by a family member who served in an earlier war. In the series Who Serves, NPR looks at the troops who have made a decision few others have — to fight in America's wars.

Just after dawn one day last month, Sgt. Jon Moulder led his patrol of Marines out of Combat Outpost Reilly — basically a collection of tents and sandbags and razor wire — and headed down a dusty road in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Moulder is a short, compact Marine from Nashville, Tenn. He's on his fourth combat tour, split evenly between Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's meant a lot of time away from home.

"Yeah, it's this whole family thing, deploying and keep leaving," Moulder says. "I have my personal views and opinions on things."

Moulder has a wife back home, and a 2-year-old child from a previous marriage. This is likely his last deployment.

But he acknowledges that this life is exciting. It's fighting America's enemies; it's danger; it's firefights.
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Marine We are Starting To Fall To The Wayside