“smaller Larger facebooktwittergoogle pluslinked ininShare.37EmailPrintSave « More . .smaller Larger By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal Troops shield themselves from the dust as a helicopter takes off at Forward Operating Base Nolay, in Sangin District, Afghanistan. .After surviving four tours of duty, a suicide bomb and a bullet wound to the chest, Sgt. Karl Martin wonders whether he'll ever again feel so intensely alive now that his war is almost over. Sgt. Martin, a 27-year-old Marine, has been going off to fight his entire adult life, and, in frank moments, he admits he's going to miss it. Photos: Wages of War View Slideshow Michael M. Phillips for the Wall Street Journal For American soldiers accustomed to war, the coming peace may prove complicated, writes Michael M. Phillips ..Related Nicholas Kozeniesky dropped out of college so he could sign up for the Marines. His goal: to see battle in Afghanistan before the U.S. pulls the bulk of its troops out of the country. WSJ's Julian Barnes reports from Parris Island, S.C. .Hopeful Young Marine Trains For His Chance to Serve ."In a way, it just feels like what I was supposed to do," he said at his base in Sangin, Afghanistan. The sentiment is shared by his commander, Capt. Sean Ramirez, who said he felt aimless after returning home from Afghanistan last year. He hit the bars, played videogames and gained 20 pounds. He began looking for a way back to the war before it was over. "When I was in Afghanistan as a platoon commander, I had a task. I had a purpose," said Capt. Ramirez, a 28-year-old from Lakeville, Pa., who led three dozen men in near-daily firefights. "Every day I knew what I was going to do." Capt. Ramirez dreads boredom most of all. He spent his second tour under attack almost every time he and his men left their Afghan outpost. "That was everything I wanted," he said. "An infantry platoon in the closest thing there is to a front line." Two months after he was wounded, he was back in Fallujah. "I wanted to come back to the war, to the most warlike piece of the war," he said. "I think a person misses the intensity, the seriousness of purpose, having the authority." ”
