Knee Deep in the Hooah!

The article below was found on The Olympian. It caught my eye, of course, because my son is a 4/2 soldier who was involved in some of this list of what the guys in his Brigade and Division have been up to since the start of the surge nearly 15 months ago. Ready for this chit list? It made my head swim reading it. The surge has done the job, and this is why… because the men who went in made it happen!

According to brigade records, 4-2 soldiers conducted 138 battalion-level operations and 413 company-level operations. The soldiers found and secured 552 weapons caches, cleared 87,324 kilometers of routes of improvised explosive devices and other hazards to secure safe travel, and captured and destroyed more than 25,000 pounds of explosives.

Also, the brigade detained 1,700 suspects, and captured 212 high-value targets. Additionally, 718 enemy and 20 high-value targets were killed in action, and 176 enemy personnel were wounded in action.

The brigade conducted 278 air and ground raids, resulting in 324 bombs dropped, as well as 4,663 mortar rounds and more than 11,000 artillery rounds fired.

Soldiers encountered and cleared 2,216 improvised explosive devices, including 72 house-borne, 25 suicide-vest-borne and 31 vehicle-borne IEDs.

The brigade left Fort Lewis a month earlier than expected, to participate in the “surge” strategy. The brigade joined Fort Lewis’ 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Diyala province, then remained there under the command of Multi-National Division North - eventually assuming responsibility for an area of operations that had previously been covered by two brigades of its size.

Tags: Army, Berkeley, Junk Drawer, Main Stream Media, Shack Pack news, Troop appreciation, combat, deployment, family life, music, veterans, war on terror, worry by Claire
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I just came from my monthly MOPS meeting. Emma and I always have a great time gathering with the other women and children. We laugh, share, talk, cry and pray about the things that weigh heaviest on our hearts. Today one of the ladies who attends shared about the success she has had going through a cochlear implant. She had an implant many years ago, but the technology has improved so much that she was recommended to Vanderbilt University to have a newer and better one implanted. She is a wonderful mother and wife, and a dear sister to know.

She told us this morning of her journey through extremely limited hearing from the old implant, to total deafness while the new implant site was healing. When they first turned the implant on, our dear friend shared, the first thing she heard (and the first time with this clarity and volume) was her husband’s voice.

I was taken back for a moment. I have never before contemplated what it would be like to not hear my husband’s voice, and then my thoughts turned to the spectrum of emotion a voice can raise within us. I can not imagine not being able to lay in the dark with him, when the house is asleep, and not hear him talking to me. I can’t imagine not hearing his voice say “I love you” as I am walking away. Until this morning I had never contemplated what an enormous gift my husband’s voice is to me — even when he was away from us, I still took for granted that I would hear his voice again. I can even imagine his voice and what he would sound like talking about certain things. His voice was already deeply ingrained in my memory and senses. I never thought of not hearing his voice at all.

Of course the parallelism as a Christian goes beyond my marriage on earth, and transcended to thoughts of Christ and His Bride. When I think of my friend’s overwhelming joy at hearing her beloved husband’s voice, clearly, for the first time, I have to wonder what joy we will have when we can clearly hear His voice. I know we hear Him while we are here through scriptures, but I am contemplating His voice without the veil of a fallen world and nature. I am imagining His voice without the noise of worry, grief and the daily grind competing for my attention. I can only imagine it in as much as my friend’s experience has allowed me to vicariously experience that feeling. Anything beyond that is unimaginably joyful.

Tags: Things I love, faith, family life, worry by Claire
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We are fast approaching the one year anniversary of Mike’s deployment.

One year.

One very long, tiring and scary year.

He turned 22-years old the day they landed in Kuwait. I remember the picture he sent me through e-mail of him sitting at a picnic table drinking a very nasty looking near-beer in celebration. A lot happens in a year. I think we have both aged far more than 365 days though — and I am sure he aged more than I did. We have lost time together that can never be replaced, and we have lost some common ground. My son is now among that highly respected group of Americans known as Combat Veterans.

Even though I know he has grown and changed during this time, he will come home and look about the same to me, undoubtedly. There are a few facial expressions that he will have for the rest of his life that will always make him familiar to me. All of my older kids have a few (and Emma is developing hers with flare). It’s a raised eye brown, a crooked smile, a tilt of the head… some signature physical form of expression that takes my breath away for a quick second. When I see it I am immediately transported back in time and can see the small face of a child who is either in trouble or is thinking of a way to get out of trouble. Nothing bad, but maybe a cookie that has been snatched or a dish that was broken from careless play after being told not to. Those little things never fade, and those are the treasures that mothers bury deepest in their hearts. It’s a treasure that doesn’t seem to fade — at least not in this stage of life.

I don’t know what the years of war do to a military mom’s memories. It does alter them to some degree. The memories are so entangled with fears and pride. It’s all so surreal because the memories are a little fragmented between the contact you have with your soldier, and the news you hear on the home front. It is all intertwined with a stew of mixed emotions that slowly churn over the course of time.

War has taken so much from so many people. For some it has taken someone they love dearly away from them. They will not behold that face again on this earth. I am grateful that I have not had to walk that path, and I pray for those who have. Some mothers will embrace a son or daughter coming home who has been so badly wounded that she will once again take upon herself the duties of a mother, and probably most will do it with a willingness and a magnificent grace that would put Florence Nightingale to shame.

And, yet, in that light of sacrifice, I still support the efforts in Iraq (as I always have) because I see the larger picture. I can not succumb to infantile thinking that allows people in protest to spout off that wars only happen because we have weapons. That’s the most preposterous, sophomoric, over-simplification of the human condition that I have ever heard. Anyone who believes that still believes in dragons and faeries. The sad part is those who hold this childish non-sense up as truth also choose to act worse than spoiled children toward those who have seen the realities of war - those who do not believe in the dragons and faeries of childhood, and who have “seen the elephant” in their manhood. Berkeley is a shining example of infantile mental and emotional regression.

I am truly more worried now than I have been in the past about the climate in this Country and the escalating hate that is being poured forth from the anti-military and anti-war crowd. We have heard recently about domestic-terrorists (let’s be honest … remember in Rules of Engagement the importance of properly identifying your enemy… ) bombing recruiting centers, praising the bombing of recruiting centers, harassing Marines and speaking of them as if they are second class citizens, threats being made toward those who want to shield our Citizen Soldiers, and protests that have turned into a blatant display of disregard for the laws of the land (and lawmakers who let it happen!). Can you see why a mother, a wife, a family, or anyone who loves a returning Veteran would have cause for concern? Just as our soldiers have sworn to “support and defend” so have we promised ourselves to do the same for them.

I am waiting. I am anticipating the moment when I know his boots are here on American soil. It’s a thought that can instantly put a smile on my face, and suddenly for a moment I feel like the richest woman whose ever lived.

Tags: Army, Army Mom Posts, Army Wife Posts, Morale, Shack Pack news, Troop Surge, anti-military, combat, deployment, family life, military, politics, redeployment, reunification, updates, veterans, war on terror, worry by Claire
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I got an email today. It was a request from Mike. He has ordered a hard cover guitar case, but the company doesn’t ship to APO addresses. He asked me to figure out how to ship it to him.

Now, I know this doesn’t seem like much of anything on the surface, but you all realize why he is asking for a hard guitar case, don’t you? Yep! You guessed it. He is preparing for redeployment in the near future. It’s still a handful of months away, but we are truly on the downswing of this long 15-month deployment.

Please pray that his legs, heart and mind stay strong! He still has a lot of work ahead of him, and we are entering the season when violence does tend to have an upswing. Being in Diyala makes the Springtime a little more scary too. Enough of the worry though. Tonight I am celebrating early. I am celebrating because I know it won’t be long and he will be back here on American soil.

I am celebrating because I can’t wait until he can lay his head on a clean and comfortable bed, sleep in a real room with walls around him, sleep as long as he needs to, eat homemade meals, take a hot shower, and not have to walk around with over 50 pounds of gear on when he leaves the house.

Tags: Army, Army Mom Posts, Morale, Shack Pack news, combat, deployment, family life, military, war on terror, worry by Claire
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I have recently started taking a class called “Body Sculpting” at the YMCA. It is an intense one-hour long class that targets specific muscle groups and works them to the point of fatigue. I never knew how painful exercising could be until I started this class, and I honestly mean that. Several years ago I took Yoga for a period of time. I loved it. It was a lot of work and it would leave my muscles a sore, but nothing like what I am experiencing in this new class. The odd thing about the pain is … I like it.

I like to feel the pain after the workout because I know that I am building muscle. I like the pain because it is the type of pain where you know you are not injured, and you know that you have done something good and beneficial. This pain will make me stronger, and there will come a point where these types of workouts will get easier and I will have to add more weight on my small barbell and use bigger hand weights. Weight lifting, running, Yoga, and other repetitious types of exercise gets easier with time. It’s not just because you are building muscle either.

Muscle memory is a large reason why an exercise gets easier with time. Just like memorizing lines for a play — the more you say them, read them, and see them the better you remember the lines — your neuromuscular system remembers the movement of an exercise. The memory makes the muscles more efficient in their movement and more accurate in their target. The body no longer needs to build muscle in order to do the repetitions, and it no longer exerts the same amount of energy. This is why we have to step up our work outs all the time in order to stay healthy. It’s important to keep up the exercise or you will eventually lose some of that muscle memory, but the old saying “just like riding a bike” is also true. Once you learn a skill and learn it well, even if you quit for a long period of time, you will gain the skill back quicker than when you learned it the first time. When you hop back on that bike after giving up the pedals for 10-years you may be wobbly, but it doesn’t take long to remember how to balance.

So, what does all of this talk about muscle memory have to do with coping and deployment? It serves as a very good parallel that is helping me understand the journey I have been on for the past ten months. Not only have I been building muscle and cardiovascular capacity over the past year, but I have also been building coping skills and abilities. It’s something that I set out to intentionally tackle, and now that I am 10-months out I can see that my “coping muscles” are getting stronger and have more definition to them. That does not mean that the difficulties of deployment have gotten easier — it means that I am coping with them more efficiently and more accurately now that I have some “behavioral-emotional memory” to draw from. [Read more →]

Tags: Army Mom Posts, Army Wife Posts, Morale, deployment, family life, mental health, military, war on terror, worry by Claire
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One very frustrated and tired voter is desperately seeking a Presidential Candidate who can fulfill the duties of the Office of the President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the greatest military on the face of the planet. Over time, flexible hours and a deep sense of patriotism is required.

The job requires the following skills and knowledge base:

• An in depth knowledge of the Constitution of the United States and a deep understanding of the history of our Country. Knowledge must be accompanied by a deep desire to uphold said Document and respect said history.
• The ability to appreciate good Generals and their advice and leadership on wars (present and future).
• The ability to balance your own budget without taking money from other people (aka: citizens). Possessing a personal budget that looks like an average person is a plus.
• Must have passed “Introduction to Economics” in college with an A+, and have a basic understanding of “Supply and Demand” theory and its reciprocal impact with Federal government involvement.
• The ability to say what you mean and mean what you say.
• Must possess a spinal column.
• Must have a good understanding of the boundaries of Government, and absolutely MUST understand that he/she works for the tax paying citizens of the US and not the other way around.
• Must have good public speaking ability, and must be able to deliver speeches that motivate and encourage the citizens of the USA (this also ties in closely with the “mean what you say” aspect of the job as well).
• Must possess moral authority.
• Standing up to the fickle winds of political correctness is absolutely required.
• Must understand the basic functions of government and be able to construct an action plan to put the scope of the federal government back to where it belongs. Must also understand that the following functions are not the job of the Federal Government:
  • welfare
  • health care
  • bailing people out of financial problems when they overspend on their budgets
  • putting a chicken in every pot
  • putting a pot on every stove
  • legalizing pot
  • regulating stuff
  • turning a blind eye when people invade our Country everyday by illegally crossing our border
  • taking citizens’ hard earned money for the “common good”
  • taking citizens’ property for the “common good”
  • telling citizens that they can not have a gun or protect themselves
  • promising citizens that you will keep them safe and tuck them in at night
  • promising citizens that their wildest dreams will come true under your leadership
  • treating citizens like stupid, blind, sheep
  • allowing the treasury to print more money so we have more to spend
• Cowboy boots and hat are optional
• A love for and appreciation of Ronald Reagan is not optional.
• If you have ever used the words “Hope” “Change” or “I promise…” in a campaign slogan you are automatically, unequivocally-with-out-a-doubt totally and utterly disqualified (you should have your butt kicked by someone from Texas too).

Only serious inquires need apply. I am too flippin’ tired to thumb through a bunch of applicants who are just as crooked, out of touch, and self absorbed as the current applicants. Also, if you have ever appeared on MTV to “rock the vote” you should have your butt kicked again by two Texans — and don’t bother applying here.

Tags: politics, worry by Claire
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I am not superstitious. Not only am I not superstitious, but I am painfully suspicious of most things that are rooted in intuition and other immeasurable things. I am a skeptic. I learned to scrutinize every possible explanation for cause and effect relationships while working in research. There’s an alternate explanation for nearly everything. So, why am I now haunted by and succumbing to these superstitious feelings that I could somehow “jinx” his redeployment? I know it’s irrational, so I am not entertaining the thought as even a remote possibility, but rather I am processing the wild and erratic ride my heart has had me on for the past several months.

I am not sure if this is a temporary mind set, or if this will be my “new normal” since deployment has obviously altered my, “already skewed enough as it was,” brain. I am wondering when your guard finally comes back down. When can I actually allow that one muscle in my shoulder blades to finally un-spasm itself? When I was younger I used to think how wonderful it would be to take life totally and utterly as a fragile thing. I thought that living like the next breath is not granted would be such a blissful state. We really are not supposed to take our next breath or day as a promised thing. It’s a very refreshing place to reside I think. It really is when it’s done for small periods of time, but the truth of the matter is mere mortals are not equipped to live in that state all the time. We just aren’t.

I want to plan. I want to start a “countdown” timer to a redeployment time frame, but I don’t dare. I gasp even thinking of it. If I get too excited maybe he will get too excited. If we both get too excited then maybe mistakes will happen, and I can’t allow myself to think about what happens when mistakes are made. When you let your shoulders relax the world will certainly fall!

Atlas has no clue as to how heavy the world really is when someone you love so dearly is “walking the beat” so to speak, in the Middle East.

Even when he boards the plane in Kuwait to head off into the sunset of redeployment and the surreal feeling of walking down a street without 50 pounds of gear on, or the feeling of not having to eye people approaching him with suspicion and fear that their intention is hidden in a malignant vest under their clothing, he will not be guaranteed safety. [Read more →]

Tags: Army Mom Posts, Morale, Shack Pack news, combat, deployment, family life, military, veterans, war on terror, worry by Claire
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Remember the old Tootsie Pop commercial where the little boy asks the owl “Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?”

The owl grabs the sucker out of the kids hand, licks it three times and crunches it to the bottom, and then he concludes “Three!”

The announcer closes by saying “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.”

Today my question is, “When will we get Bryan’s final check from the Army?”

So far we are working on nearly 3 months. The money is there. It’s out of audit, and has been for a long time. It’s not been deposited and no one knows why.

“How many months do you have to be chaptered out of the Army before you get your final paycheck?”

The world may never know.

Tags: Army, Army Wife Posts, Shack Pack news, family life, getting old, military, politics, updates, worry by Claire
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