The Cost of Freedom

August 2, 2002 was a fairly tough day for about 323 sailors that I knew. I was also not happy to see this day come. This was the day we were leaving for our six month deployment. Going on a deployment isn't all bad, but it is nowhere close to all good. With most things you take the bad with the good, and this was one of them.
The sun was shining bright on a typical Hawaiian morning. There was a fast paced hustle around the ship while we were preparing it to go out to sea. All of the sailors were in their dress white uniforms saying their goodbyes to family and friends.…