Military families?
10-20-2010, 07:32 AM
#31
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Posts: 1,915
My son is Air Force Combat Controller! He has been to Iraq, Afghanistan, Columibia... and Qatar 5 times~~~Will be heading back in the future. I love and appreciate all our military. I have a 5th grade class working on fabric postcards for our heroes. Tell all your family members in the military that they have our appreciation for all their sacrifices.
10-20-2010, 09:39 AM
#33
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: fremont nebraska
Posts: 393
my daughter is doing a year in Kuwait. She did a few months in afghanistan. I will be happy when she is done doing the remote tours. But she loves the Air Force. I am happy for her. It is great to be able to do something you love.
10-20-2010, 09:52 AM
#35
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Newberg, OR
Posts: 1,911
I grew up in a military family. My father deployed to Vietnam three times while I was growing up. Believe me, I am sympathetic to how frightening it is to have a father/mother/sister/brother/husband in a war zone, but I'm also a little tired of hearing about it.
With digital cameras, webcams, email, and cell phones, it's nothing like it used to be. If I wrote a letter to my dad, it took two weeks for him to receive it and then two weeks for him to send something back to me for a turnaround of at least one month. (That included the letter I wrote to tell him I was getting married. One full month to hear back from him.)
If we were able to speak on the telephone at all, it was arranged weeks in advance through a ham radio operator. Everything we said was followed by "Over." And then the next thing could be said. So imagine a conversation like this. "What have you been doing in school? Over." (Pause) "Oh stuff and things. (Pause) Oh yeah, Over!" (Pause) "How is the dog? Over." (Pause) "The dog is doing fine. (Pause) Oh yeah, over!" It was impossible, and of course, the ham radio operator had no choice but to listen in, and so the conversations could never be very personal. They were also very limited in time because LOTS of families were waiting their turns to hear from their dad/husband/brother (not many women deployed back then). These phone calls happened no more than twice during a 13-month deployment.
The other day I heard a radio story about a camp for kids whose fathers/mothers were deployed. They interviewed a little girl who said she liked camp because the kids "could relate" to one another. Puh-leez. What kid says something like that? She was parroting what a grown-up had told her about why she would like camp.
I'm not saying deployment isn't hard, and that families don't suffer. I'm just saying it isn't as bad as it used to be, and we all got by. It's part of the gig in a military family. We never talked about it. It was what it was. We expected it. And we didn't complain. And nobody else complained for us either.
My dad did 32 years in the Marine Corps. I'm proud to be from a military family, and I know lots and lots of military families. I grew up with them. They are much tougher than we give them credit for.
With digital cameras, webcams, email, and cell phones, it's nothing like it used to be. If I wrote a letter to my dad, it took two weeks for him to receive it and then two weeks for him to send something back to me for a turnaround of at least one month. (That included the letter I wrote to tell him I was getting married. One full month to hear back from him.)
If we were able to speak on the telephone at all, it was arranged weeks in advance through a ham radio operator. Everything we said was followed by "Over." And then the next thing could be said. So imagine a conversation like this. "What have you been doing in school? Over." (Pause) "Oh stuff and things. (Pause) Oh yeah, Over!" (Pause) "How is the dog? Over." (Pause) "The dog is doing fine. (Pause) Oh yeah, over!" It was impossible, and of course, the ham radio operator had no choice but to listen in, and so the conversations could never be very personal. They were also very limited in time because LOTS of families were waiting their turns to hear from their dad/husband/brother (not many women deployed back then). These phone calls happened no more than twice during a 13-month deployment.
The other day I heard a radio story about a camp for kids whose fathers/mothers were deployed. They interviewed a little girl who said she liked camp because the kids "could relate" to one another. Puh-leez. What kid says something like that? She was parroting what a grown-up had told her about why she would like camp.
I'm not saying deployment isn't hard, and that families don't suffer. I'm just saying it isn't as bad as it used to be, and we all got by. It's part of the gig in a military family. We never talked about it. It was what it was. We expected it. And we didn't complain. And nobody else complained for us either.
My dad did 32 years in the Marine Corps. I'm proud to be from a military family, and I know lots and lots of military families. I grew up with them. They are much tougher than we give them credit for.
10-20-2010, 11:52 AM
#37
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 238
My son in law just got orders to leave for Afganistan in January or February. I have a flag quilt made and intend to give it to him to take with him. Pray for his safe return. He just came back from Iraq a little over a year ago.
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