Behind the curtains of an enlightened shadow

I've begun posting on this board without any introductions. Seems like I had appeared out of
nowhere to express my views and yet, no one
knows who I am.
I will not give out my real name, although if I get to know some of you well enough, I might just do that in isolated cases.
Now without further ado, an introduction so I can get to know you:

I was born and raised a mormon, but for many years, felt an emptiness in my soul unrequieted by the propaganda enforced by the heads of the church. I was well aware of the past the mormon church hides, as I did research upon research into the religion my parents so forcibly tried to make me accept and believe in.
It is amazing the efforts the mormon church goes into decieving its' members and the thorough job of brainwashing they embellish in. However, the teachings condition mormons at such a young age that truth from fiction is often blurred.
Currently, even though the records still show my name as being a mormon, I am non-practicing. I am in search of truth, of a sense of belonging, of a separation from the lies I was brought up with.
Granted, mormons have great moral upbringings, but the deeper eschelons of mormon faith are shady at best. Trust me, I would know. Most of the things I know about the mormon church continue to go unknown by the rest of the mormon population.
I have been in the US Air Force for nearly two years. I am just now being able to leave the middle east after a 7 month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
My interests lie in the unexplained, the paranormal, in extra-terrestrial existence, and in my own spiritual growth. In essence, I am an X-philer or aka "mulderite".
I know that the truth is out there and that there is an effort to distort the truth.
If I remain in the military long enough, I hope I can uncover a few "truths" for myself. But we'll see.

This is my introduction and I hope to continue to get to know many of you on this site.....Lets bridge the gap and allow ourselves to maybe become friends...

Yours truly,

ABB

hi and welcome!
also great thanks on fighting freedom!

hope you find the answers you are looking for...
the truth is out there!!!

Belated welcome and greetings ABB.
I hope you have already found ATS to be a well opinionated environment and with obvious varying opinions. All-in-all, one of the best information BB's around, but thats my opinion.
Great folks here and I hope you enjoy your stay.

regards
seekerof

Greetings AgentBlueBook!

Welcome to ATS and please make sure you post a message with ur CO to tell him where u are and make sure that he knows ur not AWOL!

I bet your glad to be out of Iraq...trust me...the first night i got back i went into my room and cried...then scarily enough i came here to talk to some friends!!

They're all a great bunch....

Hope to see u around and you never know...i may have met u when i was doing my little stint in the area???

Take care

Gryff

Gryffen,

Fortunately, I never had to go to Iraq. I strictly remained in a secure location in Northern Kuwait for my 7 month stay in hell, oops, I mean the middle east. :0)
However, I wasn't fortunate to avoid the dangers of war. Throughout the major conflict between the United States and Iraq, my base was the essential target for the 15+ "scuds" that were launched from Southern Iraq.
In fact, when I did a security detail some few miles from my base, we came across a crater from which one of the "scuds" had landed. I was able to acquire a piece of the wreckage for my own war souvenir collection. I've got other stuff to date as well, like some Fedayeen Saddam Basic Training Certificates complete with translation into english from arabic. I had gotten them translated by the security forces translators after I had gotten the certificates from some British Soldiers who had returned to Kuwait from Iraq.
I am so glad to finally be returning home that I can barely sleep at night lately. Friday night when I am back at my home station, me and some of my buddies are going clubbing and I am getting drunk. It's gonna be kinda like my homecoming party. :0)

Can't wait to get to know people here at ATS, and maybe I've allready met you Gryffen and we didn't know it.

Later

ABB

Hey ABB

I remember that now....i know where ur talking about...i flew over there when i was on Medivac!

Agree with u on the hell hole...never been so scared in my life but i have my own stories and souviners from there...including some nice body souviners!!!

U take care and if u wanna chat...u know where to find me!

Gryff