Hi everyone,

I live in Muskegon Michigan. I was born and raised there. I still live pretty close to where I grew up, just in a better neighborhood. I grew up in the inner city after college I move to the outskirts of the city. I went to a small buisness/tech college. I now chose to work in the inner-city where I was raised. I'm a paramedic and a Haz-Mat Tech. I'm married, my husband Scott is a police officer. I have been an any soldier junkie for about as long as the site has been around and before that I strongly supported Help Hospitalized Vets (still do). My parents taught me the when I was in 4th grade the power of a letter to a soldier during Operation Desert Storm and it has carried through until now. I currently only have 1 contact that I talk with on a regular basis. Her name is Angela Jackson, she is from up state New York. I have had many great contacts through the years however. In the begining I supported only combat medics and MP's (the reason is odvious), but now I just read postings daily and if one jumps out at me I get a letter or package on the way. Right now I have been focusing on sending stuff for the hearts and minds contacts and school supplies to anyone that asks for them. I truely believe winning the children of these countries over is the way to win the war for good and not have our children see our troops back there 10 years later so I try my best to help those helping the children.

Holly 

Hi! I was born in Mi, and moved to East Bay, CA when I was 7. I lived there and met and married my husband (who is from Peru) and then 10 years ago moved to Las Vegas. We moved back to the East Bay 3 years ago. We have 5 children and all of us love supporting the soldiers. We usually support 2 or 3 troops at a time...and there is no rhyme or reason to who we choose! We just love our soldiers!!!!

I think the best way to honor our fallen warriors is to keep our heads and make sure that the freedoms they gave their lives for are not chipped away or undermined at home and to give all of our returning warriors a free, safe and loving place to return to.

 JoCee, you make some very valid points. We have freedom of speech thanks to our brave men and women in uniform who have willingly put their lives on the line down through our nation's history. The Constitution and bill of rights grant all citizens the same freedoms and rights; nowhere among those freedoms and rights have I heard "the right to not be offended by the innocent use of a simple word or phrase." I don't believe the use of the phrase "roll call" to be disrespectful or intentionally offensive to any person or group of persons. I work for a public school system, and every day that school is in session, the first order of the day in every classroom is "roll call" to see who is present and accounted for. The Retired Teacher's Association begins meetings with "roll call," as does the monthly School Board Meeting. It's not like we're not already bombarded with "political correctness" in every aspect of our lives every day, now we have to be sure our every use of any innocent word and phrase doesn't offend anybody anywhere? I don't believe that is the concept our fallen heroes have given their lives for. That's just my own humble opinion. If it offends anyone, please accept my apology, then let's move forward and get along...this is all about supporting our troops, something we all have in common.

PatrioticLady:

then let's move forward and get along...this is all about supporting our troops, something we all have in common.

HI! I'm from Long Island-Suffolk County-near Port Jefferson. Love Any Soldier and the forums. Have lived on LI my whole life, grew up in Lake Ronkonkoma. Husband is a native LI'er also, though he traveled when he was in the Army. I have family all over the eastern seaboard. Some of my AS contacts are originally from New York, Virginia, Florida and California.  Have ties to Lt. Michael P. Murphy of Patchogue, Medal of Honor recepient, Operation Redwing, KIA 6/28/05. I have two active boys, ages 7 and 9.

For the NY and LI residents here-i posted info in the general chat area about the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride coming to our area 7/24-7/26. Great opportunity to go out and cheer on our wounded soldiers.

You guys and gals are great!

 I am Mary Anne and live in South Carolina, just south of Charlotte, NC.  I am the mom of 5 kids ranging from 19 years old to 10 year old twins.  Met my husband Matt here in the Carolinas.  Both of us moved here in '92.  He is a Navy brat with mostly New England roots.  I am born and raised Chicago Northern suburbs and school a few years in North Dakota.  Being the youngest of 6 kids, I got to watch what they all did and learn a bunch from it.  Dad was National Guard.  One brother enlisted Army, one brother Air Force officer, one brother enlisted Air Force A-10 crew chief, one sister went to the Air Force Academy and met her hubby there.  He is a Lt Col in the Air Force reserves currently.  Have watched a niece and a nephew go in the Army and over to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Have a nephew enlisted Marine, one just graduated USAFA and one more is starting his 2nd year at USAFA.  My oldest son is dying to enlist in the Army when he hits 18 next year.  Lots of military in my immediate family.  Have done what I can for AS since I got the first email about helping out in 2003.

The good thing about this thread is you don't have to weed through 5 dozen "welcome" responses to get to where people are from! 

I never knew that the term Roll Call was used specifically the list the fallen. I appreciate learning something new, and I do believe I will think of that and consider how I use the term in the future, to be sure I'm not being disrespectful.  Since we're already 3 pages in, at this point perhaps it's best that we simply remember Ann's post and keep our fallen heroe's in our minds when we post here (not that we don't always think of them anyway...) ... I believe in our junkie hearts we would never show disrespect to our fallen heroes. 

I personally understood this thread to vary from the Introduction thread by the original post, when it was suggested to share where you are from and where your contacts are originally from, in order to help junkies find contacts from their area.  To me, that's different than introductions, and I think that was a unique and helpful idea. Jmho!!! :o)

Thank you, Kristen that is exactly what my intention was.  I grew up in school with a "roll call" and I was indeed hoping for people to share where they hail from for connections.  I never grew up military, and just as I would not intentionally offend someone's religious beliefs, my intention was not to offend...  I am REALLY enjoying hearing from people where they grew up and where they have traveled and settled.  Makes it feel more like home.  Thanks for everyone sharing of themselves.  This is fun.

Debbie

Well, I'm Bourbon, better known as Bo to my friends.  Nope, not my real name, but has been hung on me for so many years, I don't know if I remember my real name.  I joined the board at the behest of my friend Lisa/Jetakai, who got banned (and is very muddled as to why).  We live about 6 houses apart in Alaska, which is fun, especially in winter.  I love to go on cruises, which is why the "roll call" thing really confused me, as we have roll calls all the time on the cruise boards, to group into a single thread where people are from, who is still around, what they are up to and to encourage chatter, get people to talk about what they are doing, what they have in common.

Sometimes on AS I am afraid to say things because there are so many people who take offense.  I know many people have lost soldiers close to them.  I haven't lost anyone, but I was very sad when they went home, like they didn't need me any more.  One said he would be back next year and I am actually looking forward to it, and that seemed so backwards, but it will be his 9th combat tour and he says he likes being a senior NCO because he gets to do things officers never do.  I have learned a lot since I have been here, both from my contacts, from my friend, and from so many open, friendly people on AS who are bright and cheerful about everything, and I think we all have to remember that our soldiers chose their life, just as we choose to support them.  There have been people since the beginning of mankind who feel a calling to defend their society, just as those who chose to serve by teaching, and those who chose to serve by healing.  We love and appreciate them dearly.

I wanted to leave a couple of links too, I think this is mentioned above.  Roll call is from many different places, and you can check out wikipedia to see how it is used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_call

I believe the original term came from the list of names being read off a scroll or "roll".

The "Roll Call of Honor" is a ceremonial roll call of honorably fallen people or a list of these people.

Hi to all...and no I didn't put myself on the introductions forum because I didn't think anyone would find me very interesting.

 Bo

Hey Bo,

I, too, am a friend of Lisa's and still keep in contact with her.  Lisa was banned, as was Glen (Marine 5), George ATL....I don't know if he was banned but has left the forum because of all the "cat fights" his words.

Life is so short, and people are dying for our country.  The innocents of 9/11 who were in the four planes, the Pentagon, the two..... 110 Story, Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, all the responders, the policeman and the fireman who were lost, all the soldiers who are fighting for our freedoms and giving up their lives and the families of the fallen soldiers and the families who lost their Mothers, Fathers, Sister, Brothers, Aunts, Uncles, Sons, Daughters and babies..on 9/ll.   What does this say to them that you are quibbling over a term "ROLL CALL" that has many meanings.

We are in a war like no other this country has seen.  We are fighting people who hate us.  We were hit on our "own" soil.  New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.  This is why the soldiers and we are at WAR.  This is why we are supporting them, and trying to do our part by helping the soldiers.  This is what this site is about.  SUPPORT.  And to lighten up a very intense situation for everyone, humor is injected to help everyone cope.

I am a New Yorker, and proud to be a New Yorker, and before anyone banns me, you better let Marty know first, because if you don't, I will. 

I mean no disrespect to anyone, everybody is entitled to their own opinions, and this is mine.

The Soldiers are not playing War games.  It is a real war!

Mimi

 Hi from Colorado. I was born and raised in NE Kansas but moved here right after college (with the spouse in tow). Been here for 30 years now! Love the mountains, love the weather, just can't get over how great it is to be outdoors here both in the winter and summer!

I consider myself well traveled all over the west though and am familiar with many places: from Montana and Wyoming, to New Mexico and Arizona, to Utah, and even to Nevada. Even though I don't live in all those places I feel as though the "West" is where I am truly from in spirit and embrace the cultures and lifestyles found here - everything from cattle ranches to ski towns to the uniqueness of Las Vegas is a part of our great western heritage here.

I try to find soldiers stationed at the local Colorado bases to sponsor on anysoldier as often as I can, but I also watch the forum and pick up a few special ones from there! Sometimes somebody's post just makes me reach out to them no matter where they are from and I just have to write to them as well. Funny story is that one of my units (from CA) is going home soon and their replacements turned out to be from here, so with my permission, the original contact passed on my email address to them and is making the introductions for us - so now I can make some more new friends!

I personally have 2 friends in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan as well right now and another friend who just came home recently, so I get to hear lots of interesting things from them as well. 

 By the way - I just thought roll call was a way to take attendance too. We do  this process at work and at Scouts just to make sure every one is where they are supposed to be at any given time. If someone does not answer "here" then you had better go look for them because they are probably in trouble! The other  phrase I have heard recently to use for that process is "report,  (name or  # of people) present and accounted for" which I am guessing is the more modern method.

That was interesting information about the "Roll Call of Honor", so thanks to Bo who posted that. The origin of words can be an interesting thing to study sometimes. Living languages change and evolve much over time - that is why Latin is called a "dead language" because it is not used by a modern culture and never changes.

Ello. M'sharky.  Ohio, here.

I guess the reasons I'm here are complicated and also extremely simple. My feelings on this war could probably be considered divisive so let's not get into that; but at the same time, those are still my country's soldiers out there because I didn't speak up loudly enough. I'm pretty horrified by the emotional burden we have to put on our soldiers--I've never had to take a life and I never want to. (Can't say I'm a fan of getting shot at, either.) I know they take it on voluntarily, but it's still huge. If I can strengthen someone's resolve and give them another layer of psychological armor on a bad day, I'll do it.

I'm also made extremely uncomfortable by the "outsiders cannot understand" take which many in the military hold, because we're going to be the ones welcoming our vets back (I hope) and reintegrating them into society, helping them and supporting them while they rebuild lives. So I guess what I'm also doing is reaching out. ("Here, have some toilet paper, and btw it's okay to trust me when you get home." Kind of an odd message, but if it works, y'know?)

I've gotten more active on military forums and hear a lot of casual anti-gay flak, which is why I've come out twice--three times here, now, actually. :p Sorry, not trying to be in your face, it's just that I'd rather have it and get it over with. I've been very pleasantly surprised to have anything not get chucked at me. Thank you. :3

Hey Shark, welcome, and I won't chuck anything unless you ask me to (be out if you want to :) )

I think sometimes for our military it is more the insiders who can't understand.  It is the families who have a hard time embracing the returning soldier.  People like us, who spend time on sites like this and others, get a feeling for these people, but you have to see it from the families who welcome them home.  18 yo left, 19 yo returns, and they see them as the same person.  But this "kid" has matured by 10 or 15 years, seen his buddies shot (with all the horrible bodily functions we never talk about, even if you do watch ER), worked 14 or 16 hours a day in a place where there is no bug spray strong enough, under unbearable heat, drinking more water than your stomach can naturally hold, so you don't get to eat and keep pushing and pushing and pushing, and unable to sleep because of the heat and the bugs, and then they get home, and crash, and sleep 20 hours a day, and dad says, why you not doing anything. Buddies say come get a beer, while our soldiers here about how stupid the war is, or someone complains they don't have enough gas money, or they see their ex girlfriend who just couldn't wait for them to get back. People talk about TV shows they've never heard of.  America lives by TV and Media.  Think about what was on TV 6 or 8 months ago and if you missed it.   It is not just the shoot or be shot, our own cops do that, firemen risk their lives daily, it is the total loss of touch with America, the smell, sight, sound, taste.  Driving by Burger King and smelling a real hamburger cooking, or seeing people that look like you walking down the street.  One of my contacts and I have been holding an interesting conversation about the differences as he sees them.  I have learned so much.

I wish more families and friends took the time to "adjust" to their returning heroes rather than expecting them to forget what they see over there.

Bo