A Text Message Is No Place For The D-Word!

As you may or may not know, Mike graduated Thursday and is officially a Cavalry Scout. He received his orders a few days prior to graduation and was expecting to go back home and resume his life as usual, with the exception of going to drills and training once a month with his Unit.

He left Ft. Knox at noon on Thursday and got home in Pennsylvania sometime after 1am.

We left Ft. Knox shortly after Mike did (we went shopping in the PX! Too neat!!) Since we didn't have to be anywhere at any specific time, we decided we deserved to be tourists this once. We never got to do it when I was younger so we were doing it now!

We stopped to see the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. AWESOME!! We went shopping in the store and then went across the parking lot to shop in the Opry Mills mall. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe in there and really relaxed for the first time in a long time.

We got a hotel outside of Nashville and slept like a bunch of rocks (I think we actually forgot to turn off the lights in the hotel room - we were that tired!)

The next morning, we stopped at Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls and Rock City. It was while we were in the gift shop at Ruby Falls, looking at keychains that I got the worst text message I have ever gotten.

It was from Mike.

It was pretty simple.

It said, "I'm f***ing deployed! They just pulled me. I go train now."

(notice only ONE instance of the F-word, this is pretty amazing considering he just got done with OSUT)

My heart stopped. Hell! The whole world stopped spinning! I'm pretty sure I actually heard it screech to a halt!

Now, my first reaction was to call him. He didn't answer. So I called again (not like me, but I was starting to panic at this point). This time he picked up and hung up immediately. Hmmmm....

I get a text message a few seconds later. "Can't talk. That's why I hung up"

HUH???

Can't talk because he's upset?

Can't talk because he's celebrating?

Can't talk because he's with a {insert any Army personnel higher than a Private here}?



Talk about creating a need for therapy!

We got in the car, drove to Starbucks (I had already been on a Starbucks hunt since the hotel and there was one at the top of the mountain next to Rock City) and tried to grab a hold of my wildly out of control emotions.


At this point, we had already planned on stopping at Stone Mountain in Georgia to show the girls. I had spent a few summers there as a teenager and wanted to show them how neat it was. So we got on the highway and headed for Atlanta.

While walking around Stone Mountain, he finally called me back. I wanted to hug him so bad at that point but just hearing his voice and knowing that he was calm helped me a lot.

He is staying at Fort Indiantown Gap until Monday when he goes home to get his affairs in order and spend some time with his family. His dad's family is up there so he will get to spend Thanksgiving with them there.

Then he is off to catch up with his Unit that deployed in September. They are still in Mississippi going through Stryker training. He ships out to Iraq sometime in the beginning of 2009.


I'm fairly certain that I am still in denial. But I had to start writing it down because I feel like my body is reacting without my brain going along for the ride. I'm sick to my stomach constantly but my brain hasn't actually grasped the situation.

I'm not looking forward to being near me when it sinks in.

It is not going to be pretty.