Already Called Home

When Sergeant Maria Reyes received her reassignment orders at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Afghanistan, everything looked the same — the dust, the heat, the concrete barriers. She still wore the same uniform, still walked the same gravel paths to the mess hall. But something fundamental had shifted. She was going home. Her bunkmate noticed it first. Maria started talking about her daughter's upcoming birthday, about the lemon tree in her backyard in San Antonio, about Sunday mornings at her grandmother's church.…