CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Four months after coming home from Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Cpl. Kyle Bruehlman is helping to prepare his unit for another deployment. But this time, Bruehlman will be staying home at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Due to security issues, Bruehlman declined to give specifics about his position with the Marines. However, he would say he is helping his previous unit to deploy by providing training and any other support he can.
"I felt like I left a lot of work unfinished," said Bruehlman, a 2007 Argyle High School graduate.
Bruehlman, 22, spent seven months in Afghanistan, from July 10, 2010 until Jan. 8, 2011. He also did a seven-month tour in Iraq in 2008.
He said it's hard to re-adjust to the civilian world.
"You get used to a certain way of life; a certain pace, the adrenaline rush on a daily basis," said Bruehlman, who served with a specialized unit whose mission he declined to discuss. "And when you get back nothing is the same as you left it. You have changed, the people you knew have changed, everything that was when you left is now different and it's very difficult to adjust."
During his tour in Marjah, Afghanistan, Bruehlman said, the landscape was a far cry from what he was used to back home. Farming was done by hand, and included working the soil with shovels.
"It was insane," Bruehlman said. "I think I maybe saw two tractors while I was there."
And one of their biggest crops was used to produce heroin.
"Poppy is one of the biggest crops in the area which is used to produce the large majority of the world's heroin. And that is harvested in the late spring," Bruehlman said. "The summer to fall has a large variety, watermelon, cotton, corn, marijuana, pomegranate orchards."
Seeing farms in Afghanistan also reminded him of home.
"The windrows of cotton and corn was something I wasn't expecting when I thought of Afghanistan," Bruehlman said. "Mountains and desert was what I had pictured."
By contrast, Ramadi, Iraq, where Bruehlman also was stationed, had an old-world, urban feel, he said.
"It's pretty hard to explain. The people drove cars, most had generators for electricity, but the buildings were all traditional architecture; something you would have expected to see 1,000 years ago. The clothing was the same way," Bruehlman said. "Most of the women covered their faces and would not speak to Marines unless they were very young or very old."
Bruehlman enlisted in 2006 and went to basic training after graduation. "I always wanted to since I was a kid," he said.
And while the military has played an important role in his life, Bruehlman said he is ready to move on. He has been married to his wife, Kasey, for almost three years.
"I have no plans to go back" for another tour, said Bruehlman, adding he would like to go if he could.
"But I really don't want to put my wife and my family through another deployment," he said. "There were periods of time were I wouldn't be able to call, write, or e-mail my wife for weeks at a time."
Bruehlman's family remains an important aspect in his life. Now that he's back in the States, the young Marine's mother, it seems, will finally be able to relax this Memorial Day.
"The whole thing was very difficult, not being able to talk to him," said Rita Novak, Bruehlman's mother who lives in Monroe. "You worry about your kids all the time. It doesn't matter how old they are, you are always going to worry."
Due to security issues, Bruehlman declined to give specifics about his position with the Marines. However, he would say he is helping his previous unit to deploy by providing training and any other support he can.
"I felt like I left a lot of work unfinished," said Bruehlman, a 2007 Argyle High School graduate.
Bruehlman, 22, spent seven months in Afghanistan, from July 10, 2010 until Jan. 8, 2011. He also did a seven-month tour in Iraq in 2008.
He said it's hard to re-adjust to the civilian world.
"You get used to a certain way of life; a certain pace, the adrenaline rush on a daily basis," said Bruehlman, who served with a specialized unit whose mission he declined to discuss. "And when you get back nothing is the same as you left it. You have changed, the people you knew have changed, everything that was when you left is now different and it's very difficult to adjust."
During his tour in Marjah, Afghanistan, Bruehlman said, the landscape was a far cry from what he was used to back home. Farming was done by hand, and included working the soil with shovels.
"It was insane," Bruehlman said. "I think I maybe saw two tractors while I was there."
And one of their biggest crops was used to produce heroin.
"Poppy is one of the biggest crops in the area which is used to produce the large majority of the world's heroin. And that is harvested in the late spring," Bruehlman said. "The summer to fall has a large variety, watermelon, cotton, corn, marijuana, pomegranate orchards."
Seeing farms in Afghanistan also reminded him of home.
"The windrows of cotton and corn was something I wasn't expecting when I thought of Afghanistan," Bruehlman said. "Mountains and desert was what I had pictured."
By contrast, Ramadi, Iraq, where Bruehlman also was stationed, had an old-world, urban feel, he said.
"It's pretty hard to explain. The people drove cars, most had generators for electricity, but the buildings were all traditional architecture; something you would have expected to see 1,000 years ago. The clothing was the same way," Bruehlman said. "Most of the women covered their faces and would not speak to Marines unless they were very young or very old."
Bruehlman enlisted in 2006 and went to basic training after graduation. "I always wanted to since I was a kid," he said.
And while the military has played an important role in his life, Bruehlman said he is ready to move on. He has been married to his wife, Kasey, for almost three years.
"I have no plans to go back" for another tour, said Bruehlman, adding he would like to go if he could.
"But I really don't want to put my wife and my family through another deployment," he said. "There were periods of time were I wouldn't be able to call, write, or e-mail my wife for weeks at a time."
Bruehlman's family remains an important aspect in his life. Now that he's back in the States, the young Marine's mother, it seems, will finally be able to relax this Memorial Day.
"The whole thing was very difficult, not being able to talk to him," said Rita Novak, Bruehlman's mother who lives in Monroe. "You worry about your kids all the time. It doesn't matter how old they are, you are always going to worry."