I started the day picking our contacts for the week, and one of our Heroic Troops is currently at FOB Propserity.  As we always do, I go and Google it, to find pictures and show my kids (3 and 5) so that they can get a (semi) real idea of who we're sending this to, where they live, what their surroundings look like etc.

Well after the first fun 1/2 hour of "Google-Imaging" pictures of the Palace and the Reflection Lakes and fantastic Dining Hall I sent the kids on their way I went to find alternate links under "FOB Prospeity".  Amongst many other things, I found a blog by an Army Doctor from 2005-2006 at FOB Prosperity.

I don't even know this guy, but he has a way with words, and I'm so over come by emotions.  He uses fairly raw language, but it makes it even more real.  And my heart just weighs so heavy. How do you Military families DEAL!  I don't know how you do it!  I'm sure what I read today is just a drop in the bucket for your day to day life. But I'm semi devastated.  He wasn't political, maybe opinionated, but he covered the board.  From the local oppresion, to Military red-tape, to cracking jokes (My favorite being "Suffice it to say, if you put two-hundred eighteen year old boys behind the wheels of very big trucks, one of them is going to rear end someone.  Even at 30 mph.") to daily routines, there were some graphic pictures of patients.

I don't know how you do it and not go crazy.

Thank you all so very much.  Thank you, because of you and the choices your families have made, there is no draft.  And to know you have chosen to be, or support a person who choose their country over their own families.  Seriously, I do not know what gene makes you decide to do that, knowing what you may go through.

I'm just feeling so sad and so over whelmed right now. And I assume my emotions are a millionth of what must go through your head daily.

I dunno, I'm rambling.  But being a civilian I didn't really know where to go with my feelings, so here I am.  I know you guys will understand.

How do we do it?  You suck it up and do the best you can with what you have at the time.  I was one of the fortunate ones who had family close by when my husband was in Viet Nam. My mother and a couple of my sisters provided baby sitting duties while I worked.  My two brothers provided male support for our little boy.  It is nice to have a large family. Our daughter and her husband were stationed at Nellis AFB in Nevada during the first Gulf War. She said  there was a lot of moaning, groaning and complaining from the young wives about their husbands having so many TDY's. - That's Temporary Duty for you civilians on board.  Finally the base commander got fed up with the whining and called a meeting of the wives.  From the reports she got, he really read the riot act to them. (I think that at one point he called them a bunch of cry babies.)  Remember that it had been a long time since we had had a serious conflict.  Anyway, the complaining pretty much stopped and the troops were better off for it. At least the guys in her shop had better attitudes. I sure wish I could have been a fly on the wall at that Commamder's Call.  Some spouses can't adapt to military life. A lot of marriages fall apart.  It is not easy by anyone's standards. And if you have  kids that act up, you can bet they will do it while dad or mom is away. And get sick! Never fails. Sooo---I don't know how we do it, some of us just do.  A lot of love, strong family support and close ties. Determation. Guts. Friends. And civilians who understand and appreciate the sacrafices the soldiers and their families make daily. Thanks for you post.

Boy did you take the words out of my mouth..  My dad was gone all the time.  We lived in Germany,  so no exptended family.  We did however have our Army family.  We sucked it up and and made it work.  My mom never whined and she never cried in public.  I see these women on tv crying, I will miss Christmas and all the other holidays with him.  I can't even count all the things my dad missed with us.  We just sucked it up and moved on.  When he was home for a holiday, he would have every single G.I.  he could find at our house for dinner.  I always thought that was great.  My dad also had a very long arm.  I don't know how he did it, but he always knew when we were screwing up.LOL.  I remember thinking, dam how does he do that.

I thank God everyday for the military life we had.  I learned so much.  Yes sometimes it sucked, but most of the time it didn't.  I was able to see many other countries, I learned to travel by myself at a very young age( about 11).  I spoke German, French, and Spanish all by the time I was 10.  I have also lived in many different states and I have at least been to all the lower 48.  WOW,  what a life. 

Last year for Christmas I found a very beautiful globe orniment.  I gave it to my dad for Christmas that year.  On the card I wrote

Everyday I thank God for giving me to you, because you gave me the world.

What a wonderful thing to say to your dad.  I know he loved it.

 I wish we had had an overseas assignment when the kids were old enough to learn from the experience. My one and only tour was to France just as they decided to pull out of NATO.  I came back to Georgia with our son and six months pregnant with our daughter. Although they didn't have the experience of a Europen tour we did have a few choice assinments in the States.  Florida, New Mexico ( Indians and all that.) and Colorado. The Air Force Academy. 

Our grandchildren are benefitting from the military life, though.  Our daughter just finished a four year tour in Italy.  The baby was speaking Italian before she could speak English. They are in England now for another four years.  I can't wait to hear that British accent with a Southern drawl. LOL  I'll be going over in a couple of weeks.

Have a great day.  And say hello to your dad for me and a big THANK YOU for his service! And to you mom for her bravery.

Thank you.  We were in NM and CO.  Also.  I also went to England for a summer to stay with my best friend I met in Alb. NM.  Kirkland AFB.  ( we were Army, my friends always razzed me about that)  We were also stationed at FT. Carson Co.  Thats what is so great about military life.  You meet people who have walked in some of the same placed as you.  Instant friendship.  For all the parents who are going overseas and have to send you high schooler to a boarding school.  I can tell you all the things they are going to do.  They don't call us Army Brats for nothin!!!

We were at Kirkland in the early 70's.  The army had moved out by then and we were given quarters on Sandia Base, as it was called at the time. I guess it is all Kirkland by now.   Let me tell you a funny story about the Air Force cadets.  Just an example of the workings of young men's brains when they want to play a dirty trick on someone.  The annual Air Force /Army football game is always a BIG event.  The Army has their mascot, the mule, shipped down from West Point by train, ending up at Ft Carson a day or so before the game. One year while we were there, some AF cadets dressed up like soldiers, got an Army truck - no one knows from where -  and drove out to Ft Carson and picked up the mule.  They took the hapless animal to a farm in the Black Forest community and housed it in the farmer's barn.  Needless to say the Army cadets were p---ed. They searched for two days and could not find the mule.  They finally had to leave Colorado minus the mascot.  A few days later, the "soldiers" took the mule back to Ft Carson and complained loudly about the West Pointers not picking up the mule.  I think he had an armed escort back to West Point. Attempts were made to kidnap the Air Force mascot.  It is very, very hard, however, to kidnap a Falcon.

That just cracks me up.  I really got razzed ALOT!!  I also really wanted one of those AF jackets, you know, the ones with the fir trimed hoods.  My dad said that there was "no way in H... his kids are going to dress AF".  He bought me a proper fatige jacket, he even had my last name on it.  At the time it was really no consulation.  Looking back, however, it was really rather sweet.  He just wanted me to be proud of our branch of service.  He said no matter where in the world we are stationed, we would always be Army.  Don't tell him this, but most of my contacts are Marines.  I do love that uniform.  I guess it's good we were never stationed at a Marine base.  Dad would not have won that fight.LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

What fun stories!