The tapes in the box
Corby Vinson posted his 2004 Iraq patrol videos on TikTok. The children in them, now adults, found him. He calls it redemption.
Memoirs of a Warfighter · written by those who served
Every war has a history. Every warfighter has a story.
Write down the people and moments you still carry from your service: the children who ran beside the patrol, the interpreter who kept you safe, the friends you served with, the letters from home. Keep them here so they are never lost, and read what others remember.
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Killeen, TX2026MEMOIRS
Every story here was shared by the person who lived it, by choice, in their own words. Nothing is edited, and nothing is posted without consent.
Memoirs of a Warfighter
Our Founding Legacy
CW4 (Ret.) Luis Bonilla
Lead the Way Logistics & IT, LLC was founded to honor CW4 (Ret.) Luis Bonilla, who served 31 years in the United States Army. An Airborne Ranger and Special Forces Soldier, he was recognized with the Legion of Merit upon retirement. That legacy is our operating standard. Warfighter First.
Warfighter First. Battle-Ready. Always.
Voices from the board
The newest stories, with comments shared publicly on Military.com’s Facebook post, November 2026. Select one to read it in full.
Why these stories
What we are trying to capture
Behind every deployment are moments that never reach the history books: a child who learned your name, an interpreter who became family, a letter from home read by flashlight, the friend who kept everyone laughing. Most were never written down, and the people who lived them have carried them quietly for years.
This site keeps those memories in the words of the people who were there, as a lasting, searchable record, so the people in them are remembered and anyone who recognizes themselves or a loved one has a way back to the people who still think about them.
It started with the children. When Corby Vinson’s old tapes reached the grown children in them, hundreds of veterans answered with children they still wonder about. Those memories are our first theme, and every story that honors the people in it is welcome.
What helps a story most:
01 · WHERE AND WHENThe place and the yearA town, base or region, and roughly when. It is how someone may one day find themselves here.
02 · WHONames and nicknamesWho was there, and what you called each other. First names or nicknames only for children and local civilians.
03 · THE MOMENTSomething you rememberA game, a gift, a word they taught you, the day you left.
04 · NOWWhat it means to youWhat you wish you knew, what you hope became of them, what you would say today.
Your words, as you write them. Sharing is voluntary, and every story is posted with its author’s consent for the public to read. Each one appears exactly as its author wrote it: spelling, slang, emoji and all. Nobody rewrites or “improves” it, and no AI touches it. A person reads it and either posts it as written or, if something cannot be shown, asks the author to change it.
Please leave out anything classified or operationally sensitive, and the full names or photos of children and other private people. Hard memories are welcome. If yours includes injury, death, combat or loss, tick the content note so readers can choose when to read it. Every story is read by a person before it appears, and any story may be flagged as inappropriate and not posted at the site owner’s discretion.
Iraq2004TIKTOK
Where this started
Former Army Sgt. Corby Vinson of Copperas Cove, Texas, kept the camcorder tapes from his 2004-05 Iraq deployment in a box for almost twenty years. After he had them digitized and posted the clips on TikTok, Iraqis who appear in them as children began recognizing themselves and messaging him. One is now a father himself. Hundreds of veterans answered in the comments with children they still remember.
Most Honored
What people have honored
Honors are counted only for signed-in members, and only on stories and tributes a person has approved. You may Honor the same piece more than once. A short pause between Honors is the only limit.
The board
Read the stories
Filter by theme, year, war or contributor. Some people have shared more than one memory; choose their name to see them all.
No stories match these filters yet. or share the first one.
Around the web
Stories others have already told
Reunions and friendships between service members and the children they met, published elsewhere. Each link opens the original.
Ali and Ahmed in Baghdad
Justin Cliburn, an Oklahoma Guardsman training Iraqi police in 2005, remembers a shy boy named Ali and his outgoing best friend, Ahmed. His story is archived at the Library of Congress.
Coming home with Ala’a
Wisconsin National Guard officer Scott Southworth met a young orphan with cerebral palsy while serving in Iraq. After he came home he could not forget the boy, and adopted him.
Stories turned into art
Founded in 2012 by Marine veteran Robert LeHeup, Bullets and Band-Aids pairs veterans’ stories with writers and artists and tours the results as an exhibit and a book.
Amir and the blue watch
Canadian peacekeeper Justin Frye befriended a refugee boy in Bosnia in 1994 and brought him crayons and a watch. Decades later he found him again.
Support
Help for when the memories come back
Remembering can be healing, and it can also be heavy. These services are free and staffed by people who understand military life. Many are veterans themselves.
Veterans Crisis Line
For veterans, service members, Guard and Reserve, and the people who care about them. Free and confidential, 24 hours a day. You do not need to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care.
Vet Center Call Center
Talk any time with a fellow combat veteran or family member about your service and coming home, and get connected to a local Vet Center.
877-927-8387 (877-WAR-VETS)va.gov/rcsNational Center for PTSD
Plain-language information on PTSD, self-help tools and treatment options from the VA.
ptsd.va.govMilitary OneSource
Free, confidential non-medical counseling and support for service members and families, 24/7.
800-342-9647militaryonesource.milMake the Connection
Veterans telling, on video, how they found help for stress, sleep, anger and memories.
maketheconnection.netStop Soldier Suicide
A veteran-founded nonprofit offering free, confidential support for service members and veterans.
844-889-5610stopsoldiersuicide.orgGive an Hour
Free mental health care from volunteer licensed professionals for the military community.
giveanhour.orgCohen Veterans Network
Low-cost or free outpatient mental health clinics for veterans and military families.
cohenveteransnetwork.orgTeam Red, White & Blue
Local chapters that get veterans moving and connected through fitness and community events.
teamrwb.orgPreserve your story permanently
Library of Congress: Veterans History Project
Record an interview or donate letters, photos and memoirs to the national archive created by Congress in 2000.
How to participateStoryCorps
Record a conversation with someone you trust. Interviews can be archived at the Library of Congress.
storycorps.orgThese links are for information. This site is not a medical or crisis service and is not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, Military.com or any organization listed. In an emergency, call 911.
Submission Terms and Privacy · version 2026-11-06
What you agree to when you share
Plain-English terms between you and Lead the Way Logistics & IT, LLC (“we”), which runs this site.
Voluntary and public
Sharing is completely voluntary; nobody has to post anything. Everything posted here is posted with its author’s consent and is public: anyone can read it, copy it or share it, and search engines may list it. Write only what you are comfortable making public. You can ask us to take a story down at any time (section 7), but copies other people already made may remain.
1. Your story stays yours
You keep the copyright in what you write. Sharing it here does not transfer ownership to us.
2. Permission you give us
You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual license to publish and display your story on this site exactly as you wrote it, to translate it, and to adapt it, in whole or in part, including shortening or editing it for length in adaptations such as short stories or episodes, including into animated or live-action series, films, videos, podcasts, books and games, and to use it to promote those works. We may extend this permission to production partners who work with us on them. Non-exclusive means you are free to share your story anywhere else too.
3. How adaptations work
Your original always stays on this site in your own words. An adaptation, such as a short story, an episode or a podcast segment, is a separate work: it may be shortened, edited for length and dramatized. We may change names, places and dates, combine stories, or add scenes, to protect privacy or to tell the story well. We are not required to publish or adapt any story.
4. Credit
We will credit you the way you choose on the form wherever a work carries credits. If you choose anonymous, we will not use your name. How a credit appears depends on the format.
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Sharing is voluntary. There is no payment, royalty or fee for a story or its use unless we agree to one separately in writing.
6. What you promise
The story is your own experience, or you have permission to share it. It is true to the best of your memory. It has no classified or operationally sensitive information, and it does not make false statements that would harm someone’s reputation. You will not include children’s full names, photos or other details that identify a private person without permission. You are 18 or older.
7. Taking a story down
You can ask us to remove your story from this site at any time with “Request a change” on the story, or by email to memoirs@leadthewaylogistics.info. We will take it off the site promptly. Removal does not recall a work that has already been published or is in production.
Your account
You register with your email address, or with Google, so your stories stay linked to you and nobody else can post or change them under your name. We use the email to sign you in and, if you ticked it, to reach you; it is never shown. You can edit or remove your own stories at any time from “My stories”, and ask us to delete your account by email. If you send without registering, you agree to these same terms by ticking the box on the form; you cannot edit or remove the story yourself, but you can ask us to through “Request a change” or by email.
8. Follow-up, interviews and podcasts
We contact you only for the things you ticked. You can say no at any time. Any interview or podcast appearance will have its own short agreement before recording.
9. Review, and your own words
A person, not AI, reads every story before it appears. We never rewrite, correct or “improve” a story, by hand or with AI. If something cannot be shown (a child’s full name, operational detail), we ask you to change it if you left a way to reach you, or we do not post it. Stories can be raw; hard memories carry a content note. Any story may be flagged as inappropriate and not posted, or removed after posting, at the discretion of the site owner; we usually decline only what breaks these terms, such as classified detail, identifying private people without permission, hate, threats or harassment. We do not owe an explanation for a decision, but we will try to tell you if you left a way to reach you.
10. Privacy
We collect what you type in the form. Your full name, email, phone and credit name are never shown on the site. We use them only to reach you for what you allowed and to credit you, and share them only with production partners who need them for that and keep them confidential. We do not sell your information. It is stored on Google Cloud. You can ask to see, correct or delete it by email. We keep a record of the terms version you agreed to and when. Honors are rate-limited and protected by database security rules. Bot-protection (App Check) is not yet enabled. If enabled later, sign-in and submissions would send a security attestation to Google.
Security checks and fonts
Honors are rate-limited and protected by database security rules. Bot-protection (App Check) is not yet enabled. If enabled later, sign-in and submissions would send a security attestation to Google. Stories are stored on Google Cloud, as described above. Cormorant Garamond and Source Sans 3 are served from this site, with a size-adjust fallback so the swap does not move the page. Oswald and Courier Prime are not requested from Google Fonts; labels use the system font stack.
11. Comments quoted from social media
Comments shown from public social media posts are quoted with credit to their authors. They are not covered by these terms, and we will ask the authors before any other use.
12. The fine print
Stories are the personal accounts and views of the people who wrote them; we do not verify or endorse them. This site is not a medical or crisis service. It is provided as is, and to the extent the law allows we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses from using it. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas. If we update them, the new version applies only to stories sent after the change.
Moderation
Review queue
Stories post exactly as written. Decline only classified or operational detail, children’s full names or private people identified without permission, hate, threats or harassment. Check that hard stories have the content note; if one is missing, ask the author.