This was published in our local base newspaper and I think it paints a great picture of what our spouses put up with when we’re deployed. It’s from a wife named Nikki and was written to her mother. Her mom says she talks with her several times a week to see “how she is doing,” and of course always gets the same answer: “Oh, I’m doing OK, and so are the kids.” Then, the other day, Nikki sent her mom this letter and told her “’Just a little something I would share with you all…’– Love, Nikki.”

“I’m the one you walk past in Wal-Mart smelling a man’s brand of deodorant and buying the same brand of shower gel. I’m trying to remember his smell. I’m the one that sprays his cologne on his pillow so it seems like he is by me when I go to sleep.

“I’m the one you see in the back of the church, a tear running down my face as the congregation prays for our country and our troops. He’s one of them. “I’m the one you beep at for sitting at a green light. I was looking at the flag blowing in the breeze at the corner gas station and thinking of all it means to me, to him, and to our life together.

“I’m the one with a trunk full of flat rate boxes and customs forms, I know my local postal workers by name. The package I send him makes him seem close to me.

“I’m the one that has silly superstitions like wearing the same necklace throughout the deployment because he gave it to me and I will not take it off or change it. I’ll wear it every day until he comes back home.

“I’m the one you walk past as I completely fall apart and lose it because I left my cell phone at home. You might think ‘it’s just a phone,’ but it’s the life line of my marriage and it was his day to call.

“I’m the one you have labeled as quiet or reserved, the one who is never really part of anything, you don’t know I wear the faraway look because my heart boarded the plane with his.

“I’m the one that hears ‘tell him I say thanks, that I’m praying for him’ at least once a day, and I always tell him for you, but I can’t help but think, who prays for me as I continue to do my best to serve him.

“I’m the one that nods right along as you say that you understand or that it’s better now with the Internet. I know that it is, but what you don’t know is that nothing will ever replace the joy of receiving a letter or that the webcams and instant messenger just remind me of all the million little things about him that I love and miss.

“I’m the one that is so used to saying I’m fine, to being numb, to missing him, that I can’t remember any other way to be. I wonder at times if the ‘fine’ he tells me is the same ‘fine’ that I seem to be these days.

“I’m the one that hates Friday and Saturday nights because if he was home we would have the option to go do something… whether it was a movie or dinner or even just stay home and have family night and watch a good movie with the kids.

“I’m the one that eats out more often because it’s just not the same to cook for me and the kids…. He enjoyed home cooked meals…. And I enjoyed how much we enjoyed dinner and sitting at the table all together.

“I’m the one that is as strong and patriotic as the hero I married, not because I stand on the frontlines but because I stay behind stoking the homefires for months on end with a quiet resolve not unlike the one that personifies him.

“I’m the one that tells an ACU teddy bear or the moon good night, that I love you, because it makes me feel less lonely and because I hope he somehow hears or feels it.

“I’m the one that turns the porch light on at sunset to light his way back home, to me, to our life together, to the love and the good times we once shared.

“I’m the one that will see a white bus full of Soldiers or empty and start to cry… because it’s that same bus that took him away from me and I wish he was on there to come home to me.

“I’m the wife of an American Soldier; I’m the hope that lives within him after storm clouded days. The freedom from war that gives wings to his heart, may they reach across the miles and bind our hearts together against all that we must face in this world.”

Susan K. Edmunds
Proud mother/mother-in-law
and retired staff sergeant

The Berzerkeleys are at it again. In a recent editorial in the Berkeley Daily Planet former Berzerkeley Councilmember Mark McDonald slanders military recruiters and leaders. He presents three fallacies that I’d like to correct him on.
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“In the last 7 years, have you consulted with a mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, etc.) or have you consulted with another health care provider about a mental health related condition? If you answered “Yes,” provide the dates of treatment and the name and address of the therapist or doctor below…”

This is one of the questions on Standard Form 86, the security clearance questionnaire for national security positions. It is used as a basis for granting access to classified government information and determining one’s allegiance and suitability for such sensitive positions.

But, until recently, Question 21 above posed a morale dilemma for many Soldiers about whether or not to seek the help they sorely needed.
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America.gov reference

Provincial Reconstruction Teams or PRTs are the key to Afghanistan and it becoming a sovereign nation that can defend its own borders, protect its people, and sustain an infrastructure. These PRTs are located all over the country and are commanded and staffed by whatever country has responsibility for that area. The US used to run the ones down where I was, but that is where the Polish have stepped in to help. This has freed up more US assets to focus on the real fight and work on eliminating the enemy.

You can read a lot more about PRTs at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincial_Reconstruction_Team

Of course the basic concept of war is to kill so many of the enemy’s people that they eventually give up because they don’t want any more to die. However if the enemy has a bottomless pit of bullet fodder because they are brainwashing them all over the world, then the next step is to empower the local people, help them build an infrastructure, give them something to be proud of and want to protect. This approach should empower the people to stand up on their own, produce goods, and foster a lifestyle where they do not scrounge for everything and they have to be so corrupt.

I dialed into a bloggers roundtable yesterday with BG Dennis Rogers and CSM Deborah Strickland, Deputy Director and Command Sergeant Major of Installation Management Command respectively. While waiting for the attendees to dial in, Matt and I spoke a little about his recent trip to China and the fact that Blackfive is actually banned in China!! So, kudos to Matt for that esteemed honor!!

We were gathered to discuss the recent video that surfaced on YouTube about the barracks at Fort Bragg. The video depicted deplorable conditions, to include sewage leaks in the latrines and mold in various locations. It was assembled by the father of a Soldier who had recently returned from a deployment to Iraq staying in those very same barracks. Naturally, he was very upset with what he saw.

The entire issue with the barracks at Fort Bragg and other locations boils down to a single point of failure - NCO Leadership. As I’ve said numerous times here and everywhere else, our job as NCOs is to take care of Soldiers. Since the beginning of our military it has been an NCO responsibility to ensure that the living quarters of our Soldiers are up to standard. Naturally, that standard depends on the NCO inspecting the area, but there is a general agreement about the living conditions in which our Soldiers reside. The issue at Fort Bragg was an NCO leadership failure at every level from the most junior of NCOs to the to the most senior on the installation.
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With a highly politicized election year upon us, it’s important for military members to understand and abide by the rules and regulations that govern our involvement in the political process.  If we aren’t aware of our boundaries, we can’t exercise our rights as citizens of this great country. 

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Really?

There’s been a lot of talk by those who detest this administration and are clinging to anything they can that “supports” their notion of an unjust war.  One of the reasons they site for why we shouldn’t be at war in Iraq is that the military has had to resort to “lowering our standards” with more moral waivers than ever before.  The fact is that moral waivers have been increasing since prior to the war in Iraq.

Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.

 Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

Those numbers represent a fraction of the more than 180,000 recruits brought in by the active duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007. But they highlight a trend that has raised concerns both within the military and on Capitol Hill.

I have another perspective I’d like to share.

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I learned an important lesson on April 1st - People are gullible!! I also learned that you can draw a lot of attention by saying the right (or wrong) thing on a military blog. Not long ago the military tried to crack down on military bloggers with new and improved regulations (we didn’t take it lying down!). In an effort to prevent drawing unwanted attention by Big Brother, I humbly offer some rules to those military bloggers concerned about crossing the line (and how to avoid it).
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=77695

Until we are able to either convince the enemy that this will not be tolerated (via dying) or we are able to convince the local people that they need to step up and not allow this to happen, progress will never be substantial. The people of Afghanistan are largely illiterate and the coalition forces are trying hard to change that. We have built school after school over there. Businesses, private citizens and even civil groups have worked hard or donated money and items to supply schools or at least supply village children that don’t have a school yet with the necessary supplies.

The story in the link above just sickens my heart, because I was there and I saw what little to nothing these kids had in everyday life and how an open courtyard underneath the blistering sun served as a school because there was nothing else. The Taliban and their supporters only attack these schools because they allow females to attend. When I was there, I was on more presence patrols than I can even count, and the first thing we would ask people was “where is the school?” And if there was one we then asked “are girls allowed to attend”. If the answer to both was “yes”, then we knew there was a good chance that no Taliban lived in the village. That did not mean no bad guys lived there, it just meant no Taliban lived there. If the answer was “no” to one or both of those, especially the second question, then we knew with certainty that Taliban either lived there or came through often enough that the local people would not even chance allowing a girl to attend school.

The kids of Afghanistan have it hard enough. Just being born there has the odds stacked against them. If they are a girl then they have a hard life no matter where they turn until they return to the earth. I always felt the most sorrow for the little girls because I knew dogs were treated better than them and that were born into a life of abuse, unfairness and hardship. Now that we have essentially kicked the Taliban out, our country along with all of those of the coalition forces are trying to spread education and maybe give those little girls a fighting chance one day.

Until we can kill all Taliban and send them home to Allah, little girls will never have a chance at a life.

I found this story from November 07 and can’t believe it’s taken me six months to find it. It’s very motivational. I like that the story includes all first responders and along with the military.
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