The Sand Storm

The Sand Storm by Sean Huze is an incredibly honest and powerful play that centers around a group of marines, each telling their war story after being deployed in Iraq. My initial reaction to reading this play was sadness. I felt so sad for all the heinous things those marines had to live through and witness. I can’t even imagine having to shoot innocent women and children, then live with those memories for the rest of my life. It breaks my heart that these guys suffer emotionally from the pain of war and are expected to return home and act as if nothing has changed them. After I read one particular line, I felt overwhelmed with grief for our military. “Father, son, brother, friend. Track star, quarterback, Marine. The things we use to define ourselves, who we are, what we are. Boom! Just like that. And you’re gone. Fucking mist and a memory is all that’s left.” (Huze 16) How profound this line is to someone who fights wars and defends our freedom. One moment you can be saving lives or taking them, and the next you could be gone. And maybe to those marines, they are dying for something they don’t really understand. Sean Huze uses profanity and harsh language in his play, maybe to signify how harsh and profane war is? Maybe he is angry about the things he saw, and how could he not be? I felt as though the profanity only added to the emotion of the play. The truth is, that is how a lot of marines talk and it is simply their honest words coming out, letting civilians know how hard it is over there. My husband also served in OIF, received a purple heart and a bronze star with valor, all before his 22^nd birthday. I read things like this and my heart breaks again. I remember the awful things he’s seen and the stories he’s told me, and I become sad. I know I cannot erase his memories of the dead bodies and the awful screams, nor can I erase the memories of the marines in Sean Huze’s play, but the empathy I feel for those guys who fight such a war is strong. This play is an eye opener for those who don’t know what our military goes through and it is the stories of so many who have a hard time sharing them.


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