Below links and an excerpt from Veterans Day 2010 remarks I delivered in the town of Gaithersburg, Md.

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For more information on the event, visit the following link: http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/poi/default.asp?POI_ID=309&TOC=309;&id=4698

For a video from the event, visit the following link: http://gaithersburg.patch.com/articles/video-gaithersburg-veterans-day-ceremony

The Gaithersburg Patch also ran an article on the event at the follwing link: http://gaithersburg.patch.com/articles/in-honor-of-those-who-served

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In the 1990’s I had no idea I myself would become a war veteran. After all, I’m still young and most of the veterans I dealt with were well into their middle years. But, that all changed on Sept. 11, 2001.

I worked for the Physics Department at the University of Maryland, and 9/11 had started out like any other day. The weather was clear, the temperature was pleasant for that time of year, and there was not a cloud in the sky. But, when my wife called me with news of a plane crashing into the World Trade center, I knew in my gut that it was not an accident.

After watching these events unfold, I eventually left the university, accounted for my family members, dawned a uniform and reported to the DC Armory. As I approached the front steps of the Armory, a news reporter stopped me and said, “Capt. Smith … did you guys shoot down that fourth airliner?”

I would later find out that Capt. Cliff Patterson, a man I went through ROTC with and was part of a group from Howard University that attended Airborne School together, was lost in the Pentagon. This really underscored the magnitude of what was going on.

I served as an Army National Guard PAO during changing times. From the posting of armed Guardsmen on Capitol Hill for the first time since 1968 to the mobilization and deployment of many units from the DC Guard, I stayed busy responding to media requests from around the globe. It got to a point where I got nervous and expected a phone call every time I heard jets take off from Andrews AFB because the DC Guard had the air sovereignty mission over the National Capital Area.

By 2004, I was the only one of three boys in my family who was not a veteran. My younger brother was the first with his service in Operation Desert Storm, and my older brother was second with his year-long deployment to Iraq from 2003-2004. By July of 2004, I finally had my chance. I had volunteered to serve in Baghdad for six months as part of a team responsible for training Iraqi security forces.

When I got off the plane in Baghdad, no one was there to greet me, so I got on a bus and went to the U.S. Embassy. [Comment on Lt. Col. Gass]

I ended up serving as the Deputy Director for UN Coordination as well as the Deputy Chief of Staff. For me, the highlight of that experience was helping the UN get reestablished in Iraq ahead of the January 2005 elections.

I was having the time of my life because I finally felt like I was doing something important – making an impact. It was great – until I broke my wrist and had to come home. During my trip from Baghdad to Balad, then to Landstuhl and finally the U.S., I had a chance to see up close some of war’s costs. There were patients on that C-141 with me whom the flight medical staff was hoping to preserve long enough for their families to see them one more time. One patient coded in flight and we thought we were going to make an emergency landing in Iceland before the world-class medical team stabilized him. This is the cost of war.

In 2006, after working for a year as an Army Civilian at the Pentagon, I became weary of my job. It was a great job, but my duties included preparing news releases on Army casualties for DoD to release. It revealed the escalating cost of the Iraq war. There were days I felt sick in my stomach, and one evening when I began to cry when I saw two kids from the same small home town and of the same age die in two separate incidents three days apart. This is the cost of war.

That same year, I was asked if I wanted to go to Afghanistan and work as the Public Affairs Officer for the organization responsible for mentoring, training and equipping the Afghan National Security Forces. By December that same year, I was back on a plane headed to Kabul, Afghanistan.

As a Major, I served in a Lt. Col. position, and worked closely with the Ministries of Defense and Interior to build strategic communications and public affairs capacity within their organizations. The organization for which I worked was the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan. It was a joint, multi-national organization with the mission of helping develop the Afghan National Security Forces to a point where they could defend their own country. This is no simple task, and requires the full commitment of all governments involved to establish a foundation for success.

I had a chance to work with many exceptional people. Among them were two soldiers who served in the Military Police branch. Because my branch is MP, I always liked to talk with others who have served as MPs, these men were just great people. In May, 2007, an incident occurred at a prison outside of Kabul. As a result, COL James Harrison and MSG Wilberto Sabalu were killed. I remember the stunned feeling that came over me when I received the news, and how I had to shake it off as media calls from around the world started pouring in. This was a terrible day for the entire organization, and I still feel for the families of both men. This is the cost of war.

In 2008, I was working as a contractor for Northrop Grumman. I was on an Army contract, enjoying the work I was doing in support of the military. Later that year, duty called once again. There was a unit out of Florida – the 143d Expeditionary Sustainment Command. They were preparing for a year-long deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Major from the Army Reserve command who called me said I was the first person he thought of when this requirement reached his desk. That’s how they butter you up. By December, I was with the Orlando-based unit in training at Ft. Hunter-Liggett, CA. I still remember the last day of training when the general had us all in the post auditorium. When he delivered the news that our destination had changed from Kuwait to Afghanistan, the reaction was mixed. Some were excited while others worried.

Once we hit the ground in Kandahar, we saw how much work needed to be done. Until that point, there had not been much of a U.S. presence in that region. It was mostly led by the British, Canadians, Dutch and others. My unit was the first Expeditionary Sustainment Command to ever serve in Afghanistan, and we were responsible for sustainment operations throughout that country. The 143d paved the way for the expansion of U.S. operations and the surge that’s currently underway.

As operations in Afghanistan began to ramp up, so did the number of our brothers and sisters we were sending home by way of medivac flights and ramp ceremonies. This is the cost of war.

With defending this great nation we live in and the freedoms we enjoy, we should never lose sight of the cost of our freedom that so many have paid and many others continue to pay.