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Gypsy's Travels


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

We Can Start the Countdown


Gunner left today. Of course, it wasn't that simple. He was supposed to leave at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, so we all gathered and hurried to wait, just as Army families have been doing for years, but his deployment was delayed. Then it was delayed again and everyone finally got a couple of hours sleep. Deployment departure finally occurred about 11 a.m today. You will notice there are no women here. This is a combat unit.

Today DD#2, Gunner's Mom & Dad, and I, stood around and bantered for 3 hours. It was decided not to put the children through another day of show-up-and-change, so they were all dropped at school. His Mom & Dad had already taken 1 1/2 days off work and we were still in limbo, so they had to leave. Finally, we went into the gym - troops in one door and families in another. Ribbons of tape separated two areas in the gym where loved ones said their final goodbyes - troops on one side of the tape and families on the other.

Em is old enough to understand now that Daddy will be gone for a while and Abs is close to that age. Of course, Dad is gone a lot - to the field, CQ all night, training in another state, and now his 3rd tour to Iraq. Gunner is sad to go but is well-trained for his job, has lots of equipment, and reacts automatically. Jr. slammed a drawer behind Gunner's head this morning and Gunner dropped to the floor. While our soldier has been waiting, he has been mentally preparing.

A conversation with Em told another part of the story when she lamented that her Dad would be leaving again.
"Well, he has been home a long time now and it is time for him to go and let someone else come home. He has been home 15 months. That's a long time," her mother explained.
"But he will be gone a long time," Em cried.
"Only 15 months," her mother said, "that's not so long."

Well, time is relative, isn't it?

6 comments:

  1. I had figured it out and then got the pic's. Now with an address, the packages will start rolling out.

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  2. A very nice post.

    My granddaughter celebrated her 21st birthday going into Iraq during the start of this war and she survived. We are thankful for that.

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  3. Thanks, Abe. I am glad your granddaughter is safely home.

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  4. What a touching post. Your soldier looks very brave. I will be praying for him and thinking of all of them every time I read your blog--so keep up the great posts!!

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