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Comment by Dyon Abbott - Kevin's Mom on February 28, 2009 at 11:15am

Good Morning Mary -

Well, I sure hope that I can ease the anxieties of those of you that have sailors headed overseas. I honestly believe the current facilities in Iraq are much improved over what they were a year or so ago - we have a family friend (Army) that served at Camp Speicher back in 2007.

Also, a quick note to Dawn - Kevin really enjoyed his tours with the HST - and, the HST has a great web site; I'd encourage you to check it out. Here is the address:
http://www.truman.navy.mil/

Our family always enjoyed the "Give 'Em Hell Herald", the Truman's newspaper. If you folks are able to go to Norfolk - I'd encourage you to go and visit on Family Day - the HST is awe-inspiring!!

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 28, 2009 at 9:16am

Rene, I'm glad you are feeling better this am. I'm sure a lot of it is the sudden release of all the stress you've gone through the past 13 weeks. Tell Jared to stop worrying about it until he has a reason to worry. His over achiever attidtude is going to make your head explode! Maybe since it's Saturday some of your regular customers will be at your tables this morning so you don't have to put up with sleezy conventioneers.

Barb thanks for the info. I will probably have to figure out how to navigate my way around on that ning site to find the tech support. Actually though I was able to read one that you responded to the other night but the one I sent back in response I got back this morning as undeliverable. I'll see what I can do.

Valerie, I still did not hear a peep out of Chris last night so I don't have a clue what's happening. Maybe Anna can fill us in Monday when she gets back from VB. ChrisA likely does not know much though since I'm sure he left right after school to pick up his Amanda and Catherine for family time.
I hope Anna and the rest of her family make it there and back safely it looks like the weather is not going to be nice to them. It's raining here this morning so it's probably already raining there as well and then I saw where snow is a possibility tomorrow. Maybe they will get out of Virginia before that happens.

Dyon, Thanks again for joining us. With so many going over there you and Kevin can be a big help to us. I believe you also said (I'm too lazy to go back and read right now) that he was on the Truman? Dawn's son, Christopher, (imagine that, who would name their child Chris?) just left Thursday to report to the Truman so I'm sure you will have more than a few things for her as well.

Have a good day everyone. Will be back later.

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 28, 2009 at 12:22am

Barbara, maybe at some point you can tell me what you did to correct your settings. I'm having a similar problem. The little group mailings, I have been getting and thought I was replying to them and suddenly tonight they all started coming back to me as being undeliverable.

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 28, 2009 at 12:17am

Dyon, Thank you that does help (maybe, I can at least say that right now while he is still in school) :) I know it is hard on all family members when they are away, no matter how long they have been in nor what the job is. I suppose that scares me a lot thinking that Chris may end up doing this for many years.

Barb, I hope the S'mores goes over well. Ellen was on earlier and reported tha the boys made a miraculous recovery right before the weekend! ;)

Comment by Dyon Abbott - Kevin's Mom on February 27, 2009 at 11:54pm

Barbara.....
Kevin really enjoyed Bahrain; the facilities there were really nice. Of course, he underwent some training before he went over - learned about the government, the customs, etc. He told us that the locals there had a super (and unique) way of letting the Westerners know that the business establishment did not want Westerners in their shops or resturants - there would be a black cloth over the window. Bahrain is the among the oldest allies of the USA in that part of the world. It is a very clean country, and Bahrainians do not work in any service related jobs, they consider it beneath them. So, there are a lot of internationals living and working in Bahrain.

Comment by Dyon Abbott - Kevin's Mom on February 27, 2009 at 11:22pm

Mary:

To me, the waiting is the absolute hardest part of being the Mom, or wife, or daughter, or etc. of any military guy (I'm sure it's the same for those that have daughters, wives, or mothers serving, too.) I guess I'm just a bit more used to the idea than some - my dad was a career Air Force man, so I am used to the long waits without any news.

Hhuummm - sounds like LeJuene or Ft. Bragg folks are doing some heavy duty training missions. It is scary when you first see fully armed helicopters or fighters!! It's also a rush. (I always loved being close to the airstrip when the B-52 crews were undergoing their 'touch-and-go' trainings - whoa! when all the engines were full throttle - that was POWER!)

Anyways, enough of being out on the tangent! Kevin has always seemed to enjoy his tours on the sea - he served aboard the USS Wasp, then, he had two tours aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. From our experience, and seemingly from the experience of others, the sailors have easier access to emails aboard ship than that in the field - especially in Iraq. I can tell you that the food is OUTSTANDING aboard ship; however, Kevin assures us that the food at Camp Speicher is the best he's had in the Navy.

Boring?? Kevin has not seemed bored with Intell - he's a very Alpha personality - and he has for the most part (from what he can tell us) it is great work. I guess for us here at home, the most surprising thing about Intell is that it has so many facets. There's the 'regular' cryptology, there's the satellite interpretations, and so on. Kevin was an instructor at the Naval War College's Surface Warfare School at Newport, RI in 2006 - 2007; then, he was transferred to Gitmo at Cuba 2007 - 2008; then, back to Newport before getting transferred to Bahrain the latter portion of 2008; then, on to Iraq.

We usually hear from Kevin every 7 to 14 days - and let me tell you, those two week intervals are nerve racking, especially when the news broadcasts that some soldiers were killed north of Baghdad!! Friends tell me that I handle that stress extremely well, but, they truly don't realize the turmoil going on with the emotions - as I pray that I won't have two young sailors at my door, carrying tragic news. Yes, Kevin goes out into the field with his squad - 'beyond the wire' it's called.

I suppose I would advise you that the patience will come - don't overworry too much about it. We all live for those fleeting moments when we hear from our sailors!!! I hope my words have been a help for you (and to others).

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 27, 2009 at 11:19pm

Hope you feel better soon Rene. I feel your pain. Have a good night.

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 27, 2009 at 11:01pm

Weekends cure all, Ellen. I'm glad they are on the mend.

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 27, 2009 at 10:39pm

Valerie, Grrr! I know the anxiety. Chris left me hanging Monday night after the test.

Comment by Mary (Chris' mom) on February 27, 2009 at 10:36pm

Ellen, How are your boys? Better now that the weekend is here? I understand about the celebration. I'm beginning to think Rene had too much celebrating at Starbucks last night. We all had the wine for her but she is MIA this evening. Very unusual for her.

Dyon, I've been seeing action at LeJuene or Ft Bragg lately. It seems that almost daily now there are choppers flying over. I don't know where they go but 3 or 4 hours later they come back over. Yesterday, it was two of the big choppers that have the rotors on top at the front and the rear. Ususally it's the smaller faster ones that have been by. I saw a couple the other day and they were flat out scarey, I mean fullly armed.
I guess that's why I like the Navy, I don't live near the ocean so I don't have to look out and think about my son on a ship out there. I know he is excited about getting out of school and getting on a ship but I'm not so sure I'm excited. I'm happy to know that Kevin enjoys Intell. When I talked to Chris' recruiter he told me that the job would be kind of boring but that the Intells have the greatest life. The recruiter is a Nuke and says that he likes it but he wished he had done Intell once he knew a little more about it. Do you get to have very much contact with them when they are overseas? I guess Iraq might be a different situation since there is combat going on there but as a rule is there still contact with him?
I've got a lot to learn in the patience department so I'm trying to not get over excited when I don't get a call for a few days. But it ain't easy!

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