January, 1988

I've been doing a lot of research and I'm gonna to do it.

I'm gonna go be a sniper. If I gotta run away to do it I will. Pa wants me to go to college. He says I'm too smart to waste my life dying in a war. He says God made men to fight and protect so that I didn't have to.

Also women ain't allowed to make sniper.

I'll show 'em though. I'll show 'em I'm good enough. If I'm better than the rest of the recruits then they'll hafta take me.

I tried to join last year, but you gotta have parental allowance to join when you're seventeen. I'm eighteen now, so I'm going. I feel bad for my momma. I told her I was gonna go. She cried a little and gave me a hug, but was smiling.

God, thank you for my momma. Thank you for my little brothers and keep 'em safe when I'm gone. Help me forgive my Pa and please fix his hurt feelings when he realizes I left.

Piper.