Love

My goodness it's been forever since I've posted.  Kudos to anyone still reading.  Instead of rambling about my complaints about Ft Bragg etc I'm going to tell you about something really special that happened recently.  I was home (see how I still call it that?) home, my Ohio home, with my family several weeks ago and it just hit me like a ton of bricks.  These people love me.  They do.  They.  Love.  Me.  I've always proclaimed my ever lasting love for my mom, dad, sisters and brother but to think of the reverse is so different and so wonderful. 

They love me.

There's no other place in the world I can go except my mom's kitchen and look around and know and feel that these people love me for me, forever.  They are my best friends in the world.  This doesn't take anything away from my husband and kids, by the way.  I know they love me too, and it's a two way street.  But when I was sitting at Mom's kitchen table with her and my sisters right there, I realized that there's no other place in the world I can have what I get from them.  I started crying and realized that is the only home I want to have. 

So it was then that we decided that Gunnar isn't going to re-enlist when his ETS (end of term of service) comes around next year.  We're done.  The Army life isn't for us anymore. 

Of course we still have a long time before that can become a reality.  But Gunnar and the kids and I drove around and picked out our houses we want to live in when we come back.  We want that life, our own house and garden in which all our roots can grow and thrive.  The transiency of Army life will never make that possible.  I want my kids to be close with their cousins, just like I was when I was a kid.  I want my new baby nephew to know me and me to know him.  I'm tired of missing out on get-togethers and being able to lend a hand when someone needs it. 

To have an uncertain future is scary as all hell.  But fingers crossed, we'll make it work.  We have a little time to figure out if there's jobs available when we move back etc.  And we're hoping Gunnar doesn't have to deploy back to Afghanistan in the meantime. 

By the way...I drove around Fayetteville recently and took some pictures of things that make me smile.  I'll post them soon (I promise!!) and hope you get a little chuckle too.

As if war wasn't dangerous enough

Gunnar's unit are still working on some phase of the Intensive Training Cycle to prepare them for their next deployment (which currently doesn't even have actual dates!).  Somehow they seem like they are always scheduled to be out sleeping in the woods when the weather is the absolute worst.  Last time a tornado blew through here, leaving a heck of a lot of damage in it's wake.  This week we had the hottest days of the year so far and the guys were of course, out in the field again. 

I know these are tough guys and the Army isn't into coddling anyone.  However, putting their lives at risk is completely ridiculous and totally unnecessary.  War is dangerous enough!  There are enough soldiers dying over there, we don't need to kill them in training over here!  Earlier this week the temp reached about 101deg here.  Which means the heat index was at least 111deg at some parts of the day.  There were guys passing out from the heat.  They have medics out there but their jobs are definitely to treat those hurt by the heat, and no one is preventing the injuries.  On top of that, there was a thunderstorm that night and one of their vehicles and a soldier were hurt by lightening. 

A few weeks ago a paratrooper died during a night jump.  It could have been anyone.  This guy lived through a few deployments before he died in training.  No one is going to make it to the next deployment if the Army kills them before they go.  This was an accident, but there's no excuse for putting these soldier's directly in harm's way for training.  It's irresponsible. 

I wish there was a way to vent to people that might actually listen, or care or do something about it. 

Gunnar, of course wasn't sleeping out in the woods during the thunder and lightening storms - they had him sleeping on the concrete floor of the arm's room.  Stupidest idea ever, but at least I know he's safe in there.

All American Week 2011

A few weeks ago I had the enjoyment of experiencing All American Week here at Ft. Bragg.  I vaguely remember this going on last year (it's an annual event, usually before Memorial Day) but without Gunnar here to explain anything to me, I really didn't know what was happening except for lots of road closers etc.  Ft. Bragg is home to the 82nd Airborne and they are called the "All Americans" because when they were first organized, there was a soldier representing each state, at the time.

Did you know this blog has a fact-checker now?  It's true.  And I'm sure if I messed up any of those historical details, we'll all be properly corrected.  Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah!  All American week.  I sort of compare it to when you're in high school and they have Senior Olympics right before graduation, but on a much grander scale.  They had tug-of-war competitions and wrestling (rasslin'?) and combatives and volleyball, to name a few.  There was a Division Review, which is a really big deal type of ceremony.  I really wanted to go but had Gus's preschool graduation at the exact same time.

I was really glad to attend the few events that I was able to.  This whole Army base was teeming with veteran's from the past and it was amazing to me to see how far they had traveled to get here for this event.  There really is a lot of history here, most of it unpleasant war stuff, but it's still part of our country's history.  Here's a few of the highlights from the week...

This was the Division Run.  Imagine 20,000 guys running in formation.  Each company (little group of guys) had their own cadence to sing to.  This was a really neat thing to watch.  I'm working on uploading a video to show you the full effect.  One of the funniest parts was the accordion effect that happened over and over again.  Eventually the soldiers would get all bunched up, then they would be running in place till the whole group started moving again and they would have to run at a dead sprint to get back in place.  That's the Army!  Also, running with reflective belts when there's 20,000 people on a closed road seems slightly unnecessary but it was cute.

We were actually able to find Gunnar in the mess of people.  Not an easy feat considering they all look exactly the same!!

We headed over to Sicily Drop Zone a few miles away to watch the paratroopers jump competition.  They were jumping from these helicopters.  Very, very cool.

See the guys dangling legs?  Crazy!

Helicopters this close to me is always the coolest thing I've ever seen.  Every time. 

Three in a row!  I love it!!!

I argued with my Father in law quite a bit over this.  I was pretty sure this huge "tent" was really a huge parachute, but he wasn't convinced.  It really is actually a massive parachute and they use these to drop Humvees and crazy big things like that. 

Break time

We came back to the Sicily Drop Zone to see a Joint Operational Access Demonstration.  Logistically, the entire set up was a nightmare getting to and from the drop zone (why expect anything else?) but the actual demo was pretty interesting.

The kids enjoyed the show but it was HOT that day and we spent a lot of time sitting around waiting for the next thing to happen.

Gunnar

They invented a game of running back and forth, which I liked a lot better than the previous game of making snow angels in the dirt.

The Army has a marching band.  Who knew?

This guy was in Gunnar's unit too.  I loved meeting and talking to these guys and hearing their stories and their pride.

Jumping instructions.

"Jumping" seems to be a waste of energy.  Gravity will get you where you're going.

Humvee that was dropped from a C-17.

This was breathtaking.  Seriously.  Dozens of paratroopers dropped from a C-130.  This was amazing to watch.  Alternate title "It's raining men".

Weapons demo.

Juxtaposition.

More helicopters!!

Just wouldn't be right if they didn't blow something up!

Cars don't go on trees

We had some uncommonly severe weather in North Carolina a few weeks ago.  Gunnar was safe and sound sleeping in the arms room.  Probably the safest place I could dream up during a tornado.  It's 12 inches of solid steel and concrete, what could be safer?  The other guys in his unit however were still out sleeping in the woods.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I have read that outside in a ditch is much safer than being in a house or a car.  But then again, it would take a good amount of time to dig a ditch to jump into.  Just saying. 

So we had some tornadoes blow through Fayetteville.  Somehow Fort Bragg was missed by the tornadoes and we suffered only high winds, broken trees and 24 hours of no electricity.  Just outside the gates to Fort Bragg however, was an entirely different story.  Roads were closed for nearly a week while crews cleaned up the debris.  Dozens of businesses and homes were completely destroyed.  Roofs were gone, trees had fallen and were laying in all kinds of crazy places.

Growing up in the Midwest, I'm not unfamiliar with tornadoes.  Plenty of times we've headed down to the basement with a radio and flashlight and nothing significant ever happened.  Of course here my whole house is windows and I have no basement.  I have no idea where I'm even supposed to go for a tornado.  Next time I'll be in the arms room if I can! 

Here's a photo Gunnar took about 2 miles from our house:

Notice the minivan in the tree.  And the tree on the cars.  There used to be buildings right there too.  Such an incredible amount of damage was done around here.  Driving down some of the roads smells like Christmas because of the ridiculous amount of pine trees snapped in half. 

Tornado recovery is going to take a long time around here. 

ITC

ITC is the Intensive Training Cycle Gunnar and his unit are in the midst of currently.  It's an 8 week program that should help them to prepare for the next deployment.  Basically they go spend a lot of time out "in the field" doing training exercises etc.  This is what it mostly looks like:

The guys have been spending several nights at a stretch out in the field and have only been able to come in for a couple of nights here and there and then off they go back to the field.

Gunnar is in a slightly different situation as the armorer.  He is responsible for all the weapons in his company and that's a pretty big deal.  He ends up going out to the field, spending a few hours then someone realizes they'd prefer to have him back in the arms room.  Here's the funny part.  Even though he's not sleeping out in the field with the others, they make him sleep in the arms room. 

Cozy concrete floor, don'tcha think??  It's not a matter of security for the weapons that he's been sleeping on the arms room floor.  More of a nobody-gets-to-sleep-in-a-bed-so-you-don't-either sort of thing. 

This morning Gunnar left and said he actually might be sleeping in the field, not the arms room this week.  Who knows if it will actually happen, but I think I'd prefer the outdoors to the concrete floor!

DRAMA!

I've been wanting to say something about this for a while now but because we've been without internet for several days, I haven't had the chance.  (Oh yeah, no cable or internet because we MOVED!!  Down the street.  Another post for another day.)

Did you all hear the grumblings about the military supposedly not getting paid because of a government shutdown?  Oh my if you live on an Army base, or have a lot of Army friends on Facebook, you'd know the level of ridiculousness that we hit last week. 

To sum it up briefly, Congress needed to reach a budget agreement in which spending was cut somehow, somewhere by last Friday at midnight.  If they did not, the non-essential government offices were to be shut down until an agreement was reached. 

Somehow this translated to people who likely can't read that the US military would not receive paychecks. 

Somehow this meant Obama hates our troops and doesn't want to pay them.

Somehow it turned into being pro-life or pro-choice or somehow about abortion.

Somehow the Dept of Defense completely jumped the gun, and posted the military's earnings statements online showing a reduced paycheck before the shutdown was even scheduled to happen.  Oh yeah, which it didn't, by the way.

Somehow I was actually glad I had no connection to the media for a few days.  I do support our president and I didn't think for a minute we would actually not get paid.  I wanted to tell everyone "I told you so" but couldn't find a more eloquent way to put it. 

The lessons to be learned here are big.  So big that I really hope everyone paid attention to what's really important like don't let 1 week's pay make or break you.  Try to have at least enough in the bank to buy groceries and not get the rims on your car repossessed if you can.  Don't believe all of the crap out there.  Try to learn what's really going on.  And for the love, if some gov't office writes a memo suggesting a military pay freeze, don't think that the world is against the troops.  Don't re-post bullshit Facebook statuses that perpetuate the misinformation just because you're a Republican and don't like our current government. 

So just to set everyone's mind at ease, we received half our paycheck today and the second half is pending deposit tomorrow.  Really.  Looks like a whole lot of worrying for nothing. 

"Even when they're here, they're gone"

My friend Bekah recently told me about a show on Lifetime called "Coming Home".  Basically it's about soldiers coming home and surprising their families.  It's a tear-jerker to top all other tear-jerkers.  One soldier was saying that even when he's not deployed he still spends very little time with his family.  His wife said "even when they're here, they're gone".

I get it now.

Gunnar is currently in ITC (Intensive Training Cycle).  It means that his unit is simulating a lot of combat exercises during the week, including sleeping out in the woods.  For about 8 weeks they are only able to come home Friday through Monday each week.  Gunnar's position is slightly different as the armorer so he has only had to spend a couple of nights actually outside.  So far.  He did have to spend a few nights last week on the concrete floor of the arms room, but hopefully he'll be able to come home this week.  Eventually.  He's been at work 14 hours and counting right about now.  I'd tell you what he's doing there so late but it's so dumb you might not even believe me.