Well, it's spring break here in the states, but I don't think anyone's taking a week off where Blake is. We got a couple of calls from him this past week and the best news of all is he's back to his own base. That's really good because his base is very safe and secure, while there are others out there that are a lot more dangerous. We learned that he had not been in quite as safe a location as he led us to believe. He came back with quite a few stories that were a little more than unnerving.
One thing he told us about was one evening while he was sleeping, a suicide Taliban wasp broke through the perimeter and stung him on the face. This, he said, woke him up right away and while he was dancing around the barracks screaming and waking up everyone else there, his sergeant called out asking what was wrong. When Blake told him, the NCO told him that he might get a purple heart for the injury. Blake was not impressed with the idea, thinking that getting a purple heart was a jinx and he wanted no part of it. We asked him to get someone to take a picture of his face and send it to us. So far, no picture. I'm not holding my breath.
The really good news is he's gotten his orders to return. He said they're for the end of June, so he should be back and able to visit with everyone by the first part of July, which will be just in time for Dusty's birthday. There's a couple of weeks of debriefing to get them acclimated to being back in the US, but once that's over, he can take a nice long leave. He has some business to take care of in Houston, but once that's over, we're hoping he can spend a lot of time here and in Dallas with Dusty.
The bad news in all of this, if it's bad news, is his unit is scheduled to return sometime around November, 2010. He's talking about reenlisting, which will put him there when he does. This, he believes will be an advantage if he gets a reenlistment bonus. Smart boy, especially considering how hard it is to get work in the US now. He may be the only one of us safe when the depression hits us.
Well, more news when we know more. Till then, take care and keep him and the other members of the military in your prayers. They need it now more than ever.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
All the News That Is News
The news of the day is there's not much news. Now before you drift off to another site in disgust, let me explain. Blake has been moved to somewhere else and can't get on the internet, which means he hasn't been keeping his MySpace page current, which is where I get most of the info on him. I sent him a text message last week saying that we were getting a little concerned since we hadn't heard from him and he called later that same day.
He's been moved from his home base to another location that needed replacement personnel in his career specialty for about a month. He's been there now for 2 or 3 weeks and said that he would be there until sometime in the middle of March. I asked him how safe this base was and he said they got a little more shelling there than where he was before, but nothing serious. "We're being shelled but it's not serious," sounds like an oxymoron to me, but he was perfectly comfortable with the idea. We'll just be glad to see him get back to his home base. Or home period for that matter.
He gave us a little info on what it's going to be like when he comes home. He said he would get a few days off right away, but didn't know if he would be able to leave the base or not. Then he will have to go through about 3 weeks of debriefing to get them all acclimated to being back in the U.S. From that point, he said that he will get a 30 day leave. He's not sure that he has to take it all then as he would like to split it up over the holidays later this year. In his mind, he would like to take the month of July off, mostly to celebrate Dusty's birthday with him.
He's almost 100% sure that he will be leaving for Kentucky once he returns to duty in the U.S. His unit is moving from Ft. Hood to Ft. Knox, and while he could change units and stay in Texas, he doesn't want to be in a position of being deployed with a new unit sooner than he would normally have to be.
He's even talking of re-enlisting since the job market is so bad here. We've talked about it and decided that that would probably be the smartest thing for him to do. He also wants to be stationed in Europe, and reenlisting would be the only way to make that happen. Or so it seems now.
He's worked with several civilians who do his job over there and has been excited with the possibility of doing this when he gets out. He says there's a lot of money to be made if you're willing to be deployed, and so far, he hasn't had a problem with that.
Also, he'll be up for promotion soon. That's something else he said when he called. Don't know when, but he thinks it will be before he comes back home. That would be nice. He can't wait to come back home and see his friends and family again.
Well, I guess there was more than I thought to report when I first started. Till there's more, just keep him in your prayers.
Later.
He's been moved from his home base to another location that needed replacement personnel in his career specialty for about a month. He's been there now for 2 or 3 weeks and said that he would be there until sometime in the middle of March. I asked him how safe this base was and he said they got a little more shelling there than where he was before, but nothing serious. "We're being shelled but it's not serious," sounds like an oxymoron to me, but he was perfectly comfortable with the idea. We'll just be glad to see him get back to his home base. Or home period for that matter.
He gave us a little info on what it's going to be like when he comes home. He said he would get a few days off right away, but didn't know if he would be able to leave the base or not. Then he will have to go through about 3 weeks of debriefing to get them all acclimated to being back in the U.S. From that point, he said that he will get a 30 day leave. He's not sure that he has to take it all then as he would like to split it up over the holidays later this year. In his mind, he would like to take the month of July off, mostly to celebrate Dusty's birthday with him.
He's almost 100% sure that he will be leaving for Kentucky once he returns to duty in the U.S. His unit is moving from Ft. Hood to Ft. Knox, and while he could change units and stay in Texas, he doesn't want to be in a position of being deployed with a new unit sooner than he would normally have to be.
He's even talking of re-enlisting since the job market is so bad here. We've talked about it and decided that that would probably be the smartest thing for him to do. He also wants to be stationed in Europe, and reenlisting would be the only way to make that happen. Or so it seems now.
He's worked with several civilians who do his job over there and has been excited with the possibility of doing this when he gets out. He says there's a lot of money to be made if you're willing to be deployed, and so far, he hasn't had a problem with that.
Also, he'll be up for promotion soon. That's something else he said when he called. Don't know when, but he thinks it will be before he comes back home. That would be nice. He can't wait to come back home and see his friends and family again.
Well, I guess there was more than I thought to report when I first started. Till there's more, just keep him in your prayers.
Later.
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