Knee Deep in the Hooah!

Hey folks! It’s been a very busy Friday here to say the least. I actually got to talk with Bryan last night, and Mike this morning! I can’t remember when I last got to talk with both of them in such a short period of time! What a great treat and a wonderful way to enter the weekend.

I thought I would put up a couple of fun military videos for you today. Every time we are at Ft. Benning, the curly headed Pirate always looks for “singing and dancing soldiers!” That is what she calls the cadence and marching she has seen. I love it. She always asks her papa on the phone “Are you a singing and dancing soldier, papa?” Well, here are some singing and dancing soldiers and sailors. Enjoy!

Military Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Oh, and if you have not seen this one you are in for a treat. It has been around for a while, but it is awesome! The Lazy Ramadi Rap!

I found this video through a thread on RN. Enjoy. There’s a little bit of language at the end and it’s basically a bunch of Sailors dancing and having some fun. Enjoy - only I will not be held liable if you get the Numa Numa song stuck in your head!

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A while back I had posted about a precious little boy named Yousiff, who was victimized by masked terrorists in Baghdad. He was set on fire and was in serious need of surgery and additional treatment than what was available in Iraq. I have noticed today that my blog was being hit a lot by people doing a search on Yousiff, so I investigated and found the following article. Yousiff and his family are here in the US getting the treatment he needs. There is still a way to help Yousiff and his family if you are able and are inclined to do so.

Best wishes to Yousiff and his family.

Excerpt
LINK to entire article

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Youssif, the 5-year-old Iraqi boy who was savagely burned by masked men, arrived in the United States late Tuesday with his family — the first step toward his lengthy rehabilitation.

For a family whose lives were tortured by the random and brutal violence of Iraq, the sheer magnitude of stepping onto American soil was surreal. His parents were rendered speechless. Quite simply they grinned from ear to ear. They didn’t need to speak. The joy on their faces was palpable.

They had traveled more than 7,500 miles to get help for their son, from war-torn central Baghdad to coastal Los Angeles. It marked the first time the family had ever left their homeland, let alone flown on a plane.

“Oh my God, it’s so green. Am I in heaven?” Youssif’s mother, Zainab, said after arriving in Chicago before the family flew on to Los Angeles where Youssif will be treated.

“I feel like I’m in a dream,” said his father, whom CNN has agreed not to name.

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If you are drunk and need to call your “mah-maw” at 2:30 am, make sure you have the right number. Make sure you are calling the correct home lest you wake a mother with a deployed son from her already fitful sleep and cause her heart to pound out of her chest and her adrenaline to surge when she is startled to a wakeful state from the sound of the phone unexpectedly ringing at that time. Please don’t be offended when she is not in the mood to chat with you and if she doesn’t care about your drunken problems right now. I do not know who it was that called — it was a wrong number obviously. If he ever calls again I am going to give him the number to AA and tell him there are people there who would love to talk with him.

Then, please forgive her if she sounds really ticked off and relived all in the same breath. Whew. What a night.

Hit the ground running, folks! I hope you all have a great day.

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I have posted before how old songs take on new meanings when our circumstances in life changes. I am sure everyone has experienced this with either music or poetry, or other forms of communicative art. When your framework for reality shifts drastically you can expect that a lot of the things that once sounded like they meant one thing, may actually take on a new meaning. It is part of the reflective process. If you stare at a blank white screen for long enough eventually you starts to see shapes and images that have taken residency in your brain. If you stare at another image long enough and then stare at the screen that particular image is what you will see. It is our human nature to notice in our reflection that which is affecting us in the most profound and immediate way.

Our lives have been greatly and permanently altered as a family. It has taken some time for me to really figure out which way was up, and right now I only have a clue — I still am not 100% sure where we will all end up when all is said and done. Regardless I know we will be OK, and we will get through the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. Failure at coping is not an option at this point in the game. No one in this family is allowed to sit down and proclaim that they resign or give up. Retreat will not be accepted — however a little R&R (a.k.a escape) is a must!

I escape mostly through my exercise everyday. It’s amazing to me how much 5 miles on a cross trainer can do for your mind and body! I also escape through the music that I listen to when I am driving and exercising. I have very eclectic taste in music, and you all might be a little shocked to know that I have everything from Mahler to Nirvana on my MP3 player. I can’t help it. This past week I added some Van Halen to my workout play list. I thought it would be great exercise music and I was right. The song below is one I downloaded for a warm-up or cool down period. I can’t believe that I have overlooked the words to this song until now. I seriously did not know what the song was about or what the lyrics really were until this week.

It reminds me of both of my guys and what they must go through being so far away from home and far away from those of us who love them so much — it also reminds me of “love walkin’ in” when they come through that front door again! I know that “Earth may return to what it was before,” but our lives will not.

Below are some excerpted passages that I just love from this song:

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For those of you who have never hugged a soldier while he is wearing his ACUs you are really missing out on something. Well, that something could be good or bad depending on where he is coming from when you give him that hug. If he is coming straight in from the field without a shower or a visit to the washing machine first then it may be a nose curling experience! However, I have found that even after washing his ACUs, Mr. Hooah’s! uniforms do not lose their Army smell. It doesn’t stink, I swear. It’s an interesting smell to say the least… and one for which I am developing a very strong affinity.

Let me back up a moment and say that I have always been a scent oriented person. Smells evoke very strong memories for me. I am already anticipating my favorite smells of the Fall and Winter months. The smell of smoke coming from distant chimneys, the smell of apples cooking, pumpkin butter simmering in my crock-pot, and spices. I also know that wafting in the air of my home amid these seasonal smells I should have that ACU smell too, hopefully from both of my soldiers! Sure they won’t be wearing their ACUs while at home, but the scent will be somewhere in the home. Now don’t get to concerned. I do not, I repeat do NOT, sniff combat boots. No thank you.

I am bringing this up because I swiped one of Mr. Hooah’s! t-shirts the last time we were together. Actually I was eying it and he offered it to me. He wore it one morning when he had to pull duty before the rest of us were up for the day. He came back to the hotel and changed into his civilian clothes. That’s when I caught the scent of that shirt. I grabbed it and took a deep breath with my face buried in it. I could tell he thought I was acting strangely. I mean before he left home I never sniffed his shirts — well actually I used to walk by his business shirts and smell the collar because there would be traces of a very subtle cologne that he would wear. I remember smelling that cologne on me when we would kiss good-night after a date! Ah! It was a very subtle clean but distinct smell (Clinique’s “Happy” for men — good stuff!) Well, that scent of the intermingling of Mr. Hooah! and the Army simply melts me.

Cologne does nothing for me now. It’s that ACU smell that I long for. It is like the smell of dirt. Even after washing them they still smell like dirt — but not in a stinky way. I don’t mean like sweaty, dirty grimy dirt, but just dirt. Dirt and big machines. Of course my father was an Operating Engineer so maybe that is where I get this affinity for dirt and big machine scent. I don’t know. I do know that I love the scent of that shirt and it has not left Mr. Hooah’s! side of the bed since I got home. I don’t know how long it will hold his smell before the smell of fabric softener on the sheets corrupts it. I hope it holds out long enough for me to replace it with another shirt — only next time I hope that Mr. Hooah! himself is in that shirt that I bring home with me!

One quick random thought here and then I am off to the gym — Yesterday I was walking through the store and couldn’t believe that the Halloween stuff was out already. Normally this kind of thing irritates me, but then it dawned on me that the the military ball we will be attending the night before graduation will be on Halloween — and this means that graduation is so close that I am already seeing evidence of it just around the corner! A little more than 6 weeks. 6 weeks!!

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Picture is from Operation Gratitude’s website

Hat tip to Ann who sent me the link on Operation Gratitude. I had not heard of this particular organization before, so I wanted to post a portion of their mission statement, and encourage folks to go to their HOME PAGE to see what you can do to help them, or what they can do to help you if you are a soldier or have a loved one who is deployed.

Thank you Operation Gratitude for your faithful and tireless support of our faithful men and women in uniform!

Excerpt of their Mission statement taken from their THIS page:
Hundreds of thousands of American troops are deployed in hostile and remote regions of the world, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa, Guantanamo Bay and on ships throughout international waters. The physical conditions they must endure are difficult and they may be separated from loved ones for long periods of time. OPERATION GRATITUDE seeks to lift troops’ morale, and bring a smile to their faces by sending care packages to service members overseas. OPERATION GRATITUDE care packages contain food, toiletries, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support.

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I have spent the past few days in a bit of a stupor. It’s the kind of stupor that you see a boxer walk around in when he has been knocked a decent blow in a long fight. I am not ready to go down by a long shot, but my jaw took a punch that was enough for me to remember that there are harder blows that could be dealt before this fight is over. Of course being punched like that can also cause a stir deep in your gut that causes you to dig your heels into the floor and stare your opponent down with a deadly glare. I am wildly oscillating between the two states of mind - do I shake my head in hopes of getting the marbles back in their respective place, or do I charge straight ahead? All of this is metaphorically speaking of course since I can do nothing in actuality to help my son. Ah, and herein lies the rub!

I am finding that, for myself personally, the hardest part of hearing difficult news like a wound in battle (no matter how small) is the simple but profound fact that someone I love more than life itself is in constant danger and I am not — not only am I here where I am safe, but I am not able to do anything immediate to aid him. It is unnatural for a parent or a spouse to feel comfortable in this position. For parents, we are the ones who blaze the trails. We are the ones who take the sucker punches of life while our kids are growing up. Of course when they fly the nest they become the adults that have to take those same punches at times. When it’s normal life stuff like minor relationship problems, financial difficulties, job issues, etc. it’s a little easier to watch them struggle and grow. When it’s issues of the battlefield it is not easy to watch the struggle.

Yet, here I am. I am home. I am here, and this is my job. This is my lot in this war. I am not complaining, I promise. I am grateful to be home caring for my youngest son and my little daughter. I am grateful to be here for my friends and family, and I am grateful to get to write this blog everyday and meet all of the wonderful people I have through this thing called the “blogosphere.” I am simply trying to reconcile it all in my heart and in my head.

When contemplating Mike’s latest encounter on the battlefield, and his close encounter of the shrapnel kind, I was not nearly as concerned for the minor physical wound he sustained. Rather my concern is focused on the larger issues this war may bring on for him later. He’s my son, and this means that he will hold it together well while he is in the thick of it all, and then fall apart later. It’s a genetic curse.

This is where and when the second battle is fought. The first battle is fought on the battlefield with an enemy that is tangible. The second battle is fought with an enemy of memories and sensory issues that allow the once tangible enemy to continue waging war on a soldier in an intangible battlefield. It’s a war that is fought in the mind and the neurological system, and a war where the enemy seeks to rob the occupied mind of it’s peace and its ability to feel a sense of the ability to trust that the environment is not going to crash down on top of oneself with no warning.

Until it is time to evaluate to what degree that second war will need to be waged I will have to be here keeping a home for them to come home to. A home that allows them to let their guard down, take their boots off, and enjoy their surroundings so they can melt away some of the tension. I know that keeping this home together, keeping the family affairs straight, keeping us all healthy and strong is a significant contribution to the efforts of both of my soldiers. I will one day get to provide for them both a safe haven to rest, and maybe then I will not feel like I am standing on the periphery. I know that it will not be easy, and reintegration really starts now.

I haven’t heard from Mike again. No news is good news (I live by that mantra now). He is undoubtedly back on the job doing what he loves to do — he was born to be a soldier and he is happy when he is doing what he was born to do. I don’t understand it, but I am very proud of him to say the least.

So, life goes on. A shrapnel wound to the arm is a hiccup in life these days… and we continue to move forward. I will work here at home, Bryan will be working his way through OCS and then onto BOLC II and III, and Mike will be actively working with many others to bring al qaeda to their knees.

It’s a weird life, isn’t it? “I’ll make cookies while you search for terrorists honey.” I wish there was another way, but we all know there simply is not.

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Here is the LIVE FEED if you are not near a television, but would like to watch what the General has to say.

Here is a link to a transcript that is being blogged live as the hearing continues.

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Do Generals ever get a “thank you for serving our Country?” pat on the back? I have to wonder. I saw the horrible, slanderous and ridiculous ad taken out by a propaganda pushing organization. They had the nerve to call the good General a traitor. So, forgive me for never saying this before, but I think that Generals are taken for granted. The fact of the matter is General Petraeus has served this Country faithfully for many years. He is a soldier, and by all accounts that I have read he is a brilliant man. General Petraeus, from this Army wife and mother, thank you, sir! Thank you for your service to our Country over the years. Thank you, very much!

And now onto some random stuff…

first: thank you all for the get well wishes, prayers and kind thoughts. It is all paying off. I am still a tad under the weather today, but I am getting better. I have decided that my best strategy is to keep a continual dose of Advil in my system. I take the highest dose I can as often as I can. I will keep that up for the next day or two. I think that I had a combination of pure exhaustion coupled with a virus. The achiness is not too bad now, but I give Advil the credit for that as well as keeping the low grade fever under control. I took Emma to her gymnastics class today, and even worked out a little this morning. I didn’t do as long or as intense a workout as usual, but it felt good to move a little.

I got 2 boxes packed for Mike today and when the Pirate gets up from her nap we will venture out to the Post Office and get them sent out. I just put a good variety of snacks, supplies and writing stuff in them. I also printed off a bunch of news from his favorite websites and sent that on too. I have a funny Pirate story concerning these care packages though. I bought a couple of boxes of the Nabisco “100 Calorie” snack packs of cookies. I got them because they are individually wrapped small packs of little cookies… a good snack to throw in an ACU pocket. Well Emma caught glimpse of them and asked for a pack. I said “Well, I bought them for Michael, but he would want you to have one pack… but the rest are his, OK?” She quickly agreed and in her little crumb-snatching manner took off scurrying into the living room and quickly opened that pack of cookies. I was watching her closely and I noticed she was not at all impressed with the hard, dry and low fat cookie biscuit (I think she was under the impression that these were to taste like Oreo’s or something!). Anyway, she looked at me after getting a good taste of them and said “You buy these for Michael, mama?” to which I replied “Yes baby, but I know he would like you to have a pack of them!” and then Emma looked at the cookies, looked at me and thought a second before she retorted “No, I think Michael wants his cookies back!” This child keeps me in stitches!

I talked with Bryan yesterday. We had scattered conversations with isolated moments of complaining, longing and just commiserating. We are so ready to be back together as a family! In due time, though, in due time! The OCS class he is in will enter their Senior phase next week. As Bryan says “Same stuff different Ascot!” He will switch from a black Ascot to a white one. Way to go Mr. Hooah! It’s not long now honey, not long at all. In one month from now we will be close to coming down for graduation! It’s so close, hang in there!

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Granny Hooah! sent this to my email. It’s a well done tribute by the VFW for our military members on tomorrow’s anniversary of 9/11. It is very well done. Remember to fly your flag tomorrow if you do not normally have it out. If you have any pictures to share of your flag please send them! I love to see pictures of the American Flag waving from front yards!

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