My dad is my Hero.

My hero happens to be my father.

When I was in 5th grade my dad went to Tal Afar, Iraq and I was really scared. He wrote me every day. My dad has a great amount of courage for going through what he went through and I could never be more proud of him than i am today. The day he left everyone was fine and no one in his unit had started to cry besides me. I was 10 and my best friend was my dad. He was so strong and I couldn't understand why he wasn't as upset as I was that day. He took me into the parking lot and as soon as the door closed, as soon as no one could see him, he broke down. He cried. My dad, he is a strong man and never in my life had I seen him cry. I knew it was bad if he was this scared. He told me that he loved me and everything would be okay. I couldn't help but cry. I cried silently for about an hour straight. When he went to walk on that bus I couldn't control myself. I fell on the ground and I started to cry hysterically. I was screaming "Daddy please don't go!". He couldn't even look at me because he knew if he did he wouldn't leave. My grandma had to hold me back and it took everything I had in me to not stop my dad from leaving. Watching my dad walk on that bus was the hardest thing I will probably ever do in my entire life. He was my best friend, and to this day talking about it makes me cry. I don't know how I got through 2 years without him but I did. He is the bravest person I have ever met. I could not respect anyone more then him. I don't even know how to describe what we have. The bond between a father and his daughter is never really that great, but mine and my dad's, it's magic. And the reason he is my hero is not because he had to leave and not because he has killed a man. It's because it took every ounce of strength for him to leave me behind like that. He did it because he loved me and I understand that today. My dad is so much more then a hero to me. And i could not ask for anything more then what he is.

Kristyn Swan