"I miss the experience of being on an impossible task"

"Joint Base Balad, Iraq- Sometimes what one experiences in a little over a year can seem to fill two lifetimes.

You’d have to say Lieutenant Todd Baldwin’s journey to Iraq began at Virginia Military Institute. He played football there. He grew to love the deafening roar of the crowds, the feel of pads crunching and teammates who carried values of leadership and service on and off the field. When his roommate joined the National Guard he said he began to think about joining the Army himself.

“I was attracted by the leadership aspect,” said Baldwin, 25, of West Des Moines, IA, who had a scholarship to play football at VMI. He didn’t join the Cadets until his Junior Year. From then on, everything seemed to speed up. Baldwin was made captain of the VMI team, and then he graduated and prepared to deploy to Iraq with the 101st Airborne."
IN-iraq