We're back in the Socialist Republic of New York. I decided to drive straight through instead of stopping over at my sister's in MD. We left NC on Saturday evening at 1830, took us 11 hours of driving but the night traffic was light. We left from the coast at Cape Carteret and arrived home at 0700 Sunday morning. Stopped only for gas, breakfast and a 20 minute siesta to rest my eyes.
Our girl is well, but depressed over the condition of her friend John. He is getting much better physically but his brain trauma is manifesting itself in his behavior. He was moved to an Army hospital facility in Texas shortly before her return so she never got to see him. We are hoping and praying that his recovery will continue and that with God's grace he will be restored completely.
We took one of her soldiers out to dinner on Wednesday. This is a very interesting fellow, an Iranian Jew whose family emigrated from Iran to LA about ten years ago. He is a very handsome lad, about 6'5" and strong as an ox, he said that our girl "rescued" him from his unit's former platoon sgt. who was replaced because of poor performance issues. Our girl calls him her Jewish bear. I asked him why he joined the Army as his previous position in his father's import business paid him very well. His reply was that in memory of 9-11 he decided not to buy a t-shirt but joined the Army instead. He enjoys getting paid to carry a gun and is looking forward to getting deployed again. IMHO he is a classic warrior.
As an E6, our girl now receives an allowance for housing, so she is looking to rent a house. We spent three days looking at prospective homes throughout Fayetteville. I really liked one in particular but it doesn't have much of a yard and she wants to get a dog ... a large one if possible. Due to the large turn over of military personnel in the area there are many choices and options for housing but you have to be careful. IMHO there are many less than desirable homes and you have to go through them thoroughly. I gave her a lot of pointers - I used to do home construction and remodeling on the side.
We are truly blessed with friends who put us up for the entire week. He is a retired Lt. Col. and his wife works for a rental management company and they have three wonderful sons. We met them when the Army sent him to Comptroller School at Syracuse University in the late 1990's. My wife taught their children in Sunday school and our Army daughter baby sat for them. Their kids were not even in elementary school then and now one is in college and the others are graduating from high school! They are all handsome lads and all are either in or planning to enter Army ROTC just like their Dad. We thank the Lord for this godly family, for their aid, comfort and guidance for our daughter as she navigates her career in the Army and for their friendship to us - they are truly a remarkable family.
On another note, my knees are getting worse every week. It's been bone on bone for over two years and this trip was a bit of a trial. I am now in the process of scheduling the first of my knee replacement operations. Fortunately I am a good candidate for partial replacement so my recovery times will be shorter and there will be less chance of complications.
In any event, sometime next month...
It's good to be home.
BTW - except for the post where I am embracing my daughter, all the other posts were written prior to our departure for Ft. Bragg last week. Today is my first since then.
Here's some more photos of the home coming for the 319th MI BN.
Typical army hurry up and wait. The 319th's flight from Baltimore was delayed by DHS as our daughter's 1st SGT's last name was the same as someone on the terrorist watch list. So they delayed 150 people because DHS didn't like the name of a decorated 12 yr Army veteran with over a half dozen deployments. Typical useless federal jackholes, they are nothing but speed bumps. The Battalion almost lost their flight to Ft. Bragg that night because of them.
The 319th finally comes marching in after waiting another half hour for some two-star general to get his dumb ass to the terminal. They made them stay on the plane until he showed up. They almost had a mutiny on their hands.
The Chaplin gives a prayer of thanksgiving. Everyone made it back. The soldiers in the maroon berets are a detachment of 82nd Airborne who returned with the 319th.
Now the general has to shoot his mouth off for awhile. We're proud of you, job well done, yada yada... and of course after telling the troops they're released to finally join their families he schedules another meeting immediately after the ceremony for some more army BS. Ties us up for another 20 minutes. All told we were at the terminal for about five hours.
Hey, we're delighted and thankful that she's back. But the same thing happened after her first deployment and you'd think that they would eventually get it right. Finally the real welcome starts
And Mummsie got the lovin' first.
So that was Tuesday night. Then she had to go back on Thursday morning for a half day of meetings. She was pretty pissed off when she returned; seems like the Army is very condescending towards it's soldiers and treats them like high school sophomores. I won't go into detail but from what she said, our leadership is nothing but a bunch of prissy spinsters who are afraid of offending everyone but soldiers.
Obama's army.
The first four photos are from the 319th MI BN Facebook page. I took the last one. Almost blew out a knee climbing to the top of the bench. That's what happens when you're excited. The friends we stayed with are right in front of me to the right. He's holding up our welcome sign. They were as excited as we were.
Just got word, she rented a nice 3 bdrm ranch with a big backyard! This was about the fifth house we inspected last week. Her rental agent is a retired Army E7. We spent some time going over the property and talking about stuff; he seemed like a straight shooter. I gave him my business card and told him to call me if, ... you know...
He just grinned and said. "we're dads."
Our girl is well, but depressed over the condition of her friend John. He is getting much better physically but his brain trauma is manifesting itself in his behavior. He was moved to an Army hospital facility in Texas shortly before her return so she never got to see him. We are hoping and praying that his recovery will continue and that with God's grace he will be restored completely.
We took one of her soldiers out to dinner on Wednesday. This is a very interesting fellow, an Iranian Jew whose family emigrated from Iran to LA about ten years ago. He is a very handsome lad, about 6'5" and strong as an ox, he said that our girl "rescued" him from his unit's former platoon sgt. who was replaced because of poor performance issues. Our girl calls him her Jewish bear. I asked him why he joined the Army as his previous position in his father's import business paid him very well. His reply was that in memory of 9-11 he decided not to buy a t-shirt but joined the Army instead. He enjoys getting paid to carry a gun and is looking forward to getting deployed again. IMHO he is a classic warrior.
As an E6, our girl now receives an allowance for housing, so she is looking to rent a house. We spent three days looking at prospective homes throughout Fayetteville. I really liked one in particular but it doesn't have much of a yard and she wants to get a dog ... a large one if possible. Due to the large turn over of military personnel in the area there are many choices and options for housing but you have to be careful. IMHO there are many less than desirable homes and you have to go through them thoroughly. I gave her a lot of pointers - I used to do home construction and remodeling on the side.
We are truly blessed with friends who put us up for the entire week. He is a retired Lt. Col. and his wife works for a rental management company and they have three wonderful sons. We met them when the Army sent him to Comptroller School at Syracuse University in the late 1990's. My wife taught their children in Sunday school and our Army daughter baby sat for them. Their kids were not even in elementary school then and now one is in college and the others are graduating from high school! They are all handsome lads and all are either in or planning to enter Army ROTC just like their Dad. We thank the Lord for this godly family, for their aid, comfort and guidance for our daughter as she navigates her career in the Army and for their friendship to us - they are truly a remarkable family.
On another note, my knees are getting worse every week. It's been bone on bone for over two years and this trip was a bit of a trial. I am now in the process of scheduling the first of my knee replacement operations. Fortunately I am a good candidate for partial replacement so my recovery times will be shorter and there will be less chance of complications.
In any event, sometime next month...
It's good to be home.
BTW - except for the post where I am embracing my daughter, all the other posts were written prior to our departure for Ft. Bragg last week. Today is my first since then.
Here's some more photos of the home coming for the 319th MI BN.
Typical army hurry up and wait. The 319th's flight from Baltimore was delayed by DHS as our daughter's 1st SGT's last name was the same as someone on the terrorist watch list. So they delayed 150 people because DHS didn't like the name of a decorated 12 yr Army veteran with over a half dozen deployments. Typical useless federal jackholes, they are nothing but speed bumps. The Battalion almost lost their flight to Ft. Bragg that night because of them.
The 319th finally comes marching in after waiting another half hour for some two-star general to get his dumb ass to the terminal. They made them stay on the plane until he showed up. They almost had a mutiny on their hands.
The Chaplin gives a prayer of thanksgiving. Everyone made it back. The soldiers in the maroon berets are a detachment of 82nd Airborne who returned with the 319th.
Now the general has to shoot his mouth off for awhile. We're proud of you, job well done, yada yada... and of course after telling the troops they're released to finally join their families he schedules another meeting immediately after the ceremony for some more army BS. Ties us up for another 20 minutes. All told we were at the terminal for about five hours.
Hey, we're delighted and thankful that she's back. But the same thing happened after her first deployment and you'd think that they would eventually get it right. Finally the real welcome starts
And Mummsie got the lovin' first.
So that was Tuesday night. Then she had to go back on Thursday morning for a half day of meetings. She was pretty pissed off when she returned; seems like the Army is very condescending towards it's soldiers and treats them like high school sophomores. I won't go into detail but from what she said, our leadership is nothing but a bunch of prissy spinsters who are afraid of offending everyone but soldiers.
Obama's army.
The first four photos are from the 319th MI BN Facebook page. I took the last one. Almost blew out a knee climbing to the top of the bench. That's what happens when you're excited. The friends we stayed with are right in front of me to the right. He's holding up our welcome sign. They were as excited as we were.
Just got word, she rented a nice 3 bdrm ranch with a big backyard! This was about the fifth house we inspected last week. Her rental agent is a retired Army E7. We spent some time going over the property and talking about stuff; he seemed like a straight shooter. I gave him my business card and told him to call me if, ... you know...
He just grinned and said. "we're dads."
3 comments:
People carelessly offending soldiers; I went in the Army in 1962 and it was that way then.
Welcome home.
PS: Get your knees fixed.
You're home. She is home. All Good Sig.
Best of luck with the knees.
WELCOME HOME!
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