So, here’s how they all ended up… ten years later.
“Ten Years Later” effectively brings them up to the current date, which I had planned to do for some time. I had this comic mapped out on my mind since last year, which sort of explains why I am not 100% accurate by portraying things like mask wear, social distancing, or restaurants being closed or limited seating. Working those elements in would have made this much longer and unworkable. SO I just went with my original vision to wrap things up. The Memorial Table setting reflects both Achmed and Philip, with a Bible for Philip and a Qur’an for Achmed, even though neither of them was particularly religious.
Obviously, Joe Rock stayed in and took Sergeant Dawg’s place; Rock is now a freshly-minted Master Sergeant and Dawg is a Sergeant-Major that is retiring. Juni Okuda became an Intel Warrant Officer. Josephine Hana Rock-Okuda is 10 and a half years old and enjoys being doted on by both sets of grandparents.
Carlos Alvarez’s legs were burned in the command-detonated IED attack that kicked off the final ambush and fight. They weren’t able to heal completely and he was medically removed and on disability, although he can walk with the aid of the crutches. He’s started a political career running for a City Council seat and hopes to go farther.
Cecelia Glass lost her left leg, has permanent scarring on her left forearm, and a piece of shrapnel also went up the right side and bounced off the hatch ring and scratched a line along her face. Her right eye can only perceive shapes and colors but her left eye is fine. She’s on disability as well but refuses to be less active and has in fact become much more of an avid hiker and mountain climber.
Willow Albright invested Philip’s life insurance payout in a local building called “Boise Linen Supply”, a historic building in Boise that is semi-unused (it gets opened up for special events on a case by case basis). I’ve always wished I had the money to buy it, fix it up, an make it a brewpub and wood-fired pizza place. In the world of comics, at least, I can do that.
Chloe Patterson immigrated to the US and she and Brad Patterson decided to remain in Boise. She naturalized and they live with their now 5 kids nearby. Brad still suffers PTSD and is undergoing treatment, and no longer drinks. Chloe is his reliable rock in this and she makes enough to support them as a diesel engine mechanic at Motive Power, now working on train locomotives instead of ships. Their son Watson is turning 16 and is considering eventually joining the 213th Battalion but Brad secretly hopes he doesn’t.
William MacGregor went on to command another unit, finally making Captain and eventually Major; the last anyone heard of Mirav Mizrachi she was a CIA liaison to the US Embassy in New Delhi. She checks in from time to time with friends in the Battalion.
Hakim al-Mansoori and his family are still in Iraq, living through dangerous and uncertain times.
Many others have come and gone, as people do in various units, but there’s usually a core of people that always seem to stay in and make their home there. Joe and Juni are among them.
So this Epilogue wraps up the “whatever happened to…” questions for the characters. It wasn’t meant to be necessarily funny or anything else, I just like tying up the loose ends. There is potential for more story if I wanted, but I hesitate to commit to another big project at the moment. As mentioned before, there will be more comics in the future but they’ll be just “joke of the day” type stuff, and come out infrequently. They will also exist outside of time and events, so for example I may do a comic with Brad Patterson and Cecelia Glass still in the unit, or with Joe Rock as a Staff Sergeant, or something like that. I will also do comics from time to time that will just be posted in Patreon, as well.
But in the meantime, thanks for being along on this journey. Thanks for reading my humble comic, and I hope you enjoyed the characters and stories presented in them. I’ll keep you appraised of other projects that come up in the future… and let’s all watch out for each other.
Take care.
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