Uncle Steve the Marine

This picture is of a soldier in Iraq interacting with three young girls.  I could have chosen a dark and dreary picture of a bomb explosion or a dead civilian or a number of other things, yet I chose this image instead.  My uncle is enlisted in the Marines, and is in for 5 more years to be discharged with disability, and when he can finally be out after so many years of service, his pension will be quite nice.  I like to imagine that this is what his duties were like.  In a dark and dangerous time and place, when all hope seems to be gone, the smiles on these girls faces would be enough to get him through another horrific day.  This picture, and others like it, were taken to show the moments of life in the war.  Their purpose were to invoke to the ethos of civilians, to comfort those back home, to tell them, "Don't worry about your loved ones; they're alright, and they're making other people's children smile while protecting their own."  The light colors in this picture, compared to the dark colors of bomb pictures or the trenches, show a more positive view of the war.  I hope that's how my uncle saw it.