Mike's family weekend was 10-3 through 10-5. We arrived early thinking he had a 2 hour leave on 10-2 but that didn't turn out to be the case. We did get to circle his barracks for 1.5 hours, til the DS's noticed me and asked if I needed help. I told them what I was there for, and reluctantly, who I was there for...JUST in case he was waiting somewhere for me. He wasn't. According to him, when he told me the next day, he was in the large group of what Anastasia called "dirt bags" (they were Soldiers sitting on the ground - to her they looked like bags of dirt. Hey, she's 7!) And he watched us drive by all 903 times.
We left and went through a drive through, brought food back to the hotel in Elizabethtown and proceeded to pass out without eating any of it. At this point I'd been up for 37 hours, 16 of it spent driving on the highway. I was totally wiped out.
We were all up early the next morning and went to breakfast and then headed back to the base. His ceremony was due to begin at 13:00 but I wasn't taking any chances. The night before the DS said the doors would open by 12:30...so we were there by 11:45. They had some tanks and a Humvee out for people to get their picture taken with. The girls had a blast on/in them.
We wandered around the front of the Olive Theater for a while, met up with one of the other Mom's I'd talked to on GAP and eventually got to go inside and get a seat. There was a group of bald men in camo sitting up near the front and I was afraid if I took one look at them I'd start crying so I sent my mom and the girls up to take a picture of them, hoping we could figure out which was Mike by looking at the pic on my camera. No chance. I can see it enlarged now and I still don't know which was him.
They are all bald, wearing camouflage and can't make eye contact with you. It's a semi-hopeless endeavor. Then a woman announced that if your Soldier was graduating, he would not be seated in the theater yet. Ok. um. Mike wasn't technically graduating so...damn. He was in that group of bald men. This wasn't going to be easy.
The ceremony started and it was great. Lots of emotion and tears going on in the dimmed theater lights. I think most people were just so on the edge of exploding from the happiness of being so close to their Soldier. I know I was.
Ceremony ended and I passed the mom I saw earlier as she was going after her Mike who had gone back in the theater and I was going towards the barracks to see if I could find Mike.
Did I ever mention how many Mike's there were in this Platoon? Lots!
As we were standing there waiting for either him to find us or for everyone else to leave and he be the only one left...he ran past us. And all of a sudden I couldn't understand how I couldn't have found him before. He looks like...Mike. He's been bald before. He's even had a mohawk or 5. So I've seen him bald. For some reason I couldn't find him but now...here he was. He got back in with his Troop and we waited til they did what they had to do and he happened to see us waiting and nodded.
I have never been so happy as when I got to walk over and hug him and I tried really hard to not cry. Really. I did. I just started leaking a bit but I got it under control. He introduced me to others, who had leaking moms and dads, so it was obviously not embarrassing him. We met the Soldier we were adopting for the weekend and then I signed them both out and we were on our way.
Gotta go get some food on the stove...part 2 to follow momentarily...
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Showing posts with label family weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family weekend. Show all posts
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday phone call
I got TWO calls on Saturday!! I was just sitting down to a huge plate of BBQ ribs when he called the first time. We talked for 26 minutes. Then while I was doing dishes (yes I ate my ribs cold, he's worth it) he called back again. This time for 10 minutes.
I was totally unprepared for the second call so we just babbled. I told him we are going to have to stick either him or Mark (the Soldier we are adopting for family day, and his best friend there) in the back of the Escape. After some grumbling (and me saying we could leave them both there, or just tie them to the luggage rack) they agreed it would be JUST FINE! LOL :)
He sounds like he's definitely past the point of being depressed, now he's just ready to go be a Soldier. NOW!
He wants to go to Six Flags in Louisville, I have to make sure that's an authorized destination before I buy tickets that we can't use. I'll ask on GAP but if anyone here knows it's definitely off limits, please feel free to let me know.
I asked about when he gets his beret, and he says he has it already. He doesn't like it much either. (I won't even tell you his words to describe it :( ) He would rather have his Stetson. I really never ever in all my years ever would have imagined my little boy wanting a Stetson. It makes my cowgirl heart so proud. :D
Now I have got to go get some work done.
Talk to you all later!!
:)
I was totally unprepared for the second call so we just babbled. I told him we are going to have to stick either him or Mark (the Soldier we are adopting for family day, and his best friend there) in the back of the Escape. After some grumbling (and me saying we could leave them both there, or just tie them to the luggage rack) they agreed it would be JUST FINE! LOL :)
He sounds like he's definitely past the point of being depressed, now he's just ready to go be a Soldier. NOW!
He wants to go to Six Flags in Louisville, I have to make sure that's an authorized destination before I buy tickets that we can't use. I'll ask on GAP but if anyone here knows it's definitely off limits, please feel free to let me know.
I asked about when he gets his beret, and he says he has it already. He doesn't like it much either. (I won't even tell you his words to describe it :( ) He would rather have his Stetson. I really never ever in all my years ever would have imagined my little boy wanting a Stetson. It makes my cowgirl heart so proud. :D
Now I have got to go get some work done.
Talk to you all later!!
:)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
IV's and deployment news
Well, he got certified to give IV's. Mike says he gave a successful one on his first try. Unfortunately his battle buddy didn't do too well. I think after 4 attempts, lots of blood and a swollen arm, Mike cursed a lot and walked off. Can't say that I blame him really.
He's making a list of items to eat on Family Weekend. He's up to #25. LOL
I had sent him a letter trying to explain how proud I was of him and at the same time so scared something would happen to him. But that the pride always won out and I was crying tears of joy when I was talking to him. He says he knows it's got to be hard but then his excitement over the very word I dread won and he started telling me all about how he's supposed to go for Stryker training right after he gets out and that he's off to Iraq in January. I could have done without the specific details, that included things like "hotspot" "lots of action" and then the number of times it's been hit by rockets and mortars. He finished all that with, "It's gonna kick ass!!"
*sigh*
He's also upset that he only got 32 out of 40 when he qualified for sharpshooter. And even though that was sufficient it wasn't good enough. He also says that coughing like mad from bronchitis at the time didnt' help, but it's not a good enough excuse for missing 8.
He also gave me a list of guns to check out on YouTube.com. (we already had to check out the M240B recently) This time he wants us to see the M2 .50 caliber machine gun. He uses the "F" word 4 times in one sentence to describe how much he liked that one.
Once again...wants buffets and Dairy Queen on Family Weekend.
He said 4th platoon was sneaking phone calls so his platoon might go to red phase for the rest of BCT because of it. He says his DS's are very rough when provoked. (obviously!) He says one is "very tough and scares the F*** out of us!" The one he likes better (or so it seems) isn't as rough, "even though he made me do iron mikes for 30 minutes the other day"
What the heck is an iron mike?
Gotta go check that one out on google.
He's making a list of items to eat on Family Weekend. He's up to #25. LOL
I had sent him a letter trying to explain how proud I was of him and at the same time so scared something would happen to him. But that the pride always won out and I was crying tears of joy when I was talking to him. He says he knows it's got to be hard but then his excitement over the very word I dread won and he started telling me all about how he's supposed to go for Stryker training right after he gets out and that he's off to Iraq in January. I could have done without the specific details, that included things like "hotspot" "lots of action" and then the number of times it's been hit by rockets and mortars. He finished all that with, "It's gonna kick ass!!"
*sigh*
He's also upset that he only got 32 out of 40 when he qualified for sharpshooter. And even though that was sufficient it wasn't good enough. He also says that coughing like mad from bronchitis at the time didnt' help, but it's not a good enough excuse for missing 8.
He also gave me a list of guns to check out on YouTube.com. (we already had to check out the M240B recently) This time he wants us to see the M2 .50 caliber machine gun. He uses the "F" word 4 times in one sentence to describe how much he liked that one.
Once again...wants buffets and Dairy Queen on Family Weekend.
He said 4th platoon was sneaking phone calls so his platoon might go to red phase for the rest of BCT because of it. He says his DS's are very rough when provoked. (obviously!) He says one is "very tough and scares the F*** out of us!" The one he likes better (or so it seems) isn't as rough, "even though he made me do iron mikes for 30 minutes the other day"
What the heck is an iron mike?
Gotta go check that one out on google.
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