The D Word

Its coming.  It really is.  No matter how many attempts I make to make it seem farther away... every day is one day closer to.... the D word.  Deployment.  Again.  I don't know why I do this to myself.... but whenever I think about it, I pop in a DVD like "The Patriot" or "Pearl Harbor" to remind myself that its OK to be scared... but its also OK to be proud.  Not to mention all these "Coming Home" shows... gives me goosebumps to remember that feeling you get when they doooo come home.  Today- I opened my Netflix envelope to see "We Were Soldiers" had arrived.  Harper was napping, and I had nothing better to do so I popped it in.  It didn't take 15 minutes and I was already holding back tears!!  The main characters daughter asked "Daddy, whats a war?" and all I could think about was some day Harper is going to ask that same thing. Lately I even hate going to the commissary because she sees all the Sailors in their Blue Camo... and every time- she looks around and asks "daddy??".... I tell her "yeah, there are lots of daddy's here... but yours is not home yet!"  I try to be positive... but as she gets older, its getting harder to find an explanation of why hes not here.

I dread the D word.... not only for myself... but because Harper will be almost 2 1/2.  When we stand at the pier, and watch the sub pull away- shes going to know hes on there.  And 6 months is a looooong time to kids.  Its going to be hard I think to keep the sanity at the house. ha ha ha.  I have a few ideas up my sleeve to help her through it... plus we will have little sister to keep us both busy.  I remember in one Army Wives episode, someone had asked General Holden who he thought had the harder job, the wife and family or the Soldier.  He said something to the extent of: "The wives and family do. We as soldiers go through training to prepare us for what we need to do, there is no training to prepare them for what they have to do."  I love the way he worded it... and I am going to find his exact quote some day... even if it means I have to watch allll 5 seasons again.  Not that that's what its about.... we both have very hard jobs. I just liked the fact that he had acknowledged the fact that our job is hard as well

Anyway.  Dang you deployment.  I hate you.  And I try not to HATE anyone or anything.... except things like flys, spiders, rats... all the gross stuff.  But Deployment- your right there with all that.  I just had to remind you.

I guess we will head into this with thoughts like this never leaving our minds: "Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle, rather a beautiful reminder of just how strong true love can be."

~Author Unknown

There was one funny part in the movie I just loved. 

This Soldier was in the field talking to his head officer.  The officer asked why he was a soldier.  The young man replied "My daddy was a soldier, my great grand daddy was a soldier.  Two of my great grand daddy's were soldiers.  That's how I came to be.  Each of them lost a leg in the Civil War.  My great grand daddy Galloway lost his left, and my great grand daddy Reed lost his right.  They met in a shoe store in Galveston.  Every year after that, on the same day, they met there and picked out a brand new pair of shoes together.  One had a daughter and one had a son, my grandparents." The officer asked how in the world they had the same shoe size, and the Soldier replied "I don't know.  It was meant to be I guess." 

I thought that story was pretty neat.

I wonder if there are any stories like that on the good ol' hunk of metal that I love and hate.