Anyone with Sailors/Soldiers/Marines in War Zones and Combat Areas
For parents and loved ones of deployed and deploying military personnel...Aghanistan/Iraq and any and all war zones. Please introduce yourself on the main comment page.
For parents and loved ones of deployed and deploying military personnel...Aghanistan/Iraq and any and all war zones. Please introduce yourself on the main comment page.
Debby
May 23, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 23, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 23, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 23, 2011
Much Trouble
May 23, 2011
Debby
May 23, 2011
Debby
May 24, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 24, 2011
TexasDocMom
Baby Joseph's mom called...he's doing better, they had a tough week but today he's good. They are balancing one issue against another, his perforated intestine problem is healing so they've been able to start more lung therapy and reduce his Oxygen support. She says he's known as the "feisty" one...and even when brand new, let out come cries to let them know he did NOT want to be messed with...he likes peace and quiet, and "don't mess with me". She got to hold him finally on Sunday, they put him right down in her shirt, skin to skin, and he snuggled in and went to sleep. She also thanks each of you for your love and support and was so touched to hear that with all you have to worry with, you great moms are including her son and family in your thoughts and prayers. Me, too...
May 25, 2011
Debby
So happy to hear that Baby Joseph is doing well please keep us updated TDM..
So my brother got official word from the Pentagon that he will be deployed normally they wont deploy when they are close to separation but he will I guess the good news that we need to have good surgeons in Afganistan and they will soon have one of the best Navy Surgeons in the service..
All I can say is.. here I go again...
May 25, 2011
TexasDocMom
My friends and singer/songwriters Steve Brooks (from Austin TX), Donna Frost (from Hendersonville, TN) and Patric D'Emion (Elgin, TX) as they performed yesterday in brain injury rehab near my home. I'm sharing this photo because I can't share the one of a young man, about 14, in his chair with his parents close by. This young man, in rehab there with the results of a brain aneurysm, had on a brand new ball cap with an Army brigade logo on it. His big brother is in Afghanistan. I was overwhelmed, not to meltdown state but when I turned to his mother, I almost lost it. I just told her that I was a miltary mom, and my son had been deployed...and she took my hand...I told her that if it would help her to please find us on this board and we'd be here for her. I said "you can talk, scream, cry or laugh...and we'll listen...every single day." She just grabbed me and hugged me. Can you imagine? her younger son is in a world of hurt with that severe closed head injury....and her older son is deployed. My God. How can she get up each day?
May 26, 2011
TexasDocMom
Judy, it's hard when there is little communication, we all know that feeling. If he's busy, he won't have time to get on line, or he might have moved to an area with no internet connection. I can remember watching for that online movement, sure made me feel better to know he checked in. I'm sure he'll check in as soon as he gets the chance, and I'm hoping for you it will be very soon. Please let us know the second you hear from him or see him online...we will wait with you.
May 26, 2011
Much Trouble
Greetings to ALL! I haven't said much lately...but I check in at least once or twice a day and keep up with everyone. (No matter how busy, I will reply to the Mom in distress if no one seems to be here at the moment.)
TDM...I am following your reports about Baby Joseph...and thrilled to hear he seems to be a little fighter. He has a long hard road ahead of him and will have good days and bad days.
Judy, take a deep breath and relax. I know we all hate hearing that old chestnut about "No news is good news"...but it is true. If something bad has happened, you will be the FIRST to know. I never actually heard from my son...he is married, with children, so my DIL got all the calls. However, there would be "Tell Mom..." messages passed on. He would also call home in the middle of his night...and there was still much static and many disconnects. Frustrating...but at least we would know that everything was "okay".
P-Bear's Mom...Yes, it is strange, but one person's "Please send me" list is another person's "Do NOT send" list. I guess a lot of goodies are donated to the troops, but the distribution in Afghanistan is poor. Remember the Mom that posted the pic of her son grinning from ear to ear with his stash of Girl Scout cookies? When I told my son, apologizing for not sending him any, he rolled his eyes and said they were getting them and the Boy Scout popcorn by the pallet loads. It seems to be either feast or famine with that stuff...so find out what YOUR kid could use.
May 27, 2011
Debby
May 27, 2011
mikes mom
Welcome Cancer !
P-Bear's Mom so glad you got a call : ) Nothing like hearing that voice : )
May 27, 2011
vettespace
May 27, 2011
mikes mom
May 27, 2011
vettespace
May 27, 2011
mikes mom
May 27, 2011
sjtina
May 27, 2011
vettespace
May 27, 2011
sjtina
May 27, 2011
mikes mom
May 28, 2011
Dan's Dad (John)
May 28, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 28, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 28, 2011
sjtina
May 28, 2011
Debby
Meloney is he going to the Presido at Montery? He will more than likely have to go there first to secure housing. If he is going to live off base the Army has a website that he can look at to find housing.. Army generally will have a list of approved off base housing. (I will see if I can find that link) They do the foot work as far as making sure the housing is sutable and to make sure the landlords are on the up and up. They don't want their guys to be taken advantage of.. I personally like on base housing but there is usually a waiting list. I know he would want them there the same day but that might be to difficult. Here is the link for the montery presidio http://www.monterey.army.mil/Index.html there may be some info there to help you..
I know how hard it is to have 1 navy 1 army (especially during football season) My brother will soon be leaving for AFG its funny I added up all the deployments between nephew, 2 son's cousin and now brother and we will have 15 between 5 men, my cousin is a LT Col and has been to Iraq and AFG the most and he recently retired.. anyway I digress... Remember we are here for you even on the bad days..
May 28, 2011
mikes mom
May 28, 2011
mikes mom
May 29, 2011
TexasDocMom
Free Download of "15 Months" link
My friends, Misner and Smith, are offering a free download of their song about deployment, called 15 months. I remember standing in my living room, and Sam Misner asking me about my son, and the photos of my family, including those in uniform. My son was deployed at the time. He asked me something, I can't remember what, I just remember saying "mostly I'm just scared." And then a few months later he sent me a copy of this song. It will make you cry, but to me it's another piece of support, my friends in music sharing their thoughts, making the rest of the world remember that we are in two war zones. Make them think about our kids serving....
May 29, 2011
LMC -mom of 2 Sailors!
May 29, 2011
TexasDocMom
Thinking of all of you with kids in harm's way today...saw online where the folks in Afghan took a moment to remember the fallen, God Bless them all, and you that wait at home as well. I'm so thankful that today my son is on US soil and it's my biggest wish that we someday can shut this group down and meet elsewhere as our kids are all home safe and sound and moving forward in their lives in a safer world.
Cancer, my son's thought is that Texans and others from the Southwest should deploy in the summer hot months and those from up north should deploy in the winter months to that place....the heat didn't bother him like it did others. The cold, that's another story!!
Enjoy the day, whatever it brings, and I hope it brings you each a phone call!!!
May 30, 2011
Debby
Cancer have his girlfriend come here and join us.. doesnt matter that she's not a Mom she loves him and he's going to be there so she could use the support.. We all know... I just sent my sister in law my 8 steps for surviving deployment. 1. Jack Daniels.. 2. Work a lot.. 3. take some college classes 4. Jack Daniels 5. Exercise/take long walks 6. Scream at the moon in the middle of nowhere ( it scares the neighbors if you do it in your yard) 7. Jack Daniels 8. Jack Daniels...
I have invited her to join us since she is a Navy Nurse she probably needs it more ....
Debby
May 30, 2011
TexasDocMom
Oh, Deb! what am I going to do with you? Jack Daniels kills brain cells, ask me...I know! make the switch to Canadian Blends...I prefer VO, but most like Crown Royal (too syrupy for me...)
Yes, all loved ones of deployed folks are welcome here! and since the news is more and more calling Libya the "3rd" war zone, those folks should drop by as well.
May 30, 2011
Debby
May 30, 2011
hotflashes
May 30, 2011
vettespace
May 30, 2011
Paymaster
I think this could have been written by my father. I know he would agree.
From the Veteran's Press Memorial Day 2011 Issue. Author unknown
Memorial Day is their day, isn't it? It is supposed to be the day a grateful nation pauses to quietly thank the more than one million men and women who have died in military service to their country since the Revolutionary War.
Or is it the day the beach resorts kick into high gear for the summer season, the day the strand is covered by fish-belly white people basting themselves with coconut oil, the day the off season rates end and the weekend you can't get in a seaside seafood restaurant with anything less than a one hour wait.
Or is it one of the biggest shopping center sales days of the year, a day when hunting for a parking space is the prime sport for the holiday stay at homers.
Or is it the weekend when more people will kill themselves on the highways than any other weekend and Highway Patrol Troopers will work overtime picking up the pieces.
I think the men and women who died for us would understand what we do with their day. I hope they would, because if they wouldn't, if they would have insisted that it be a somber respectful day of remembrance, then we have blown it and dishonored their sacrifice.
I knew quite a number of those who died, and the guys I knew would have understood.
They liked a sunny beach and a cold beer and a hot babe in a bikini, too. They would have enjoyed packing the kids, the inflatable rafts, the coolers and the suntan lotion in the car and heading for the lake. They would have enjoyed staying at home and cutting the grass and getting together with some friends and cooking some steaks on the grill, too.
But they didn't get the chance. They blew up in the Marine Barracks in Beirut, and died in the oily waters of the Persian Gulf. They lost their life to a sniper in Afghanistan or an IED in Iraq. They caught theirs at an airstrip in Grenada in the little war everyone laughed at. They bought the farm in the I Drang Valley, and on Heartbreak Ridge, Phu Bai and Hue. They froze at the Chosin Reservoir and were shot at the Pusan Perimeter. They drowned in the surf at Omaha Beach or fell in the fetid jungle on Guadalcanal. They died in the ice and snow of the Bulge. Others are still entombed in the Pacific Ocean aboard their ships and in the waters of Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Arizona. They were at Somme and San Juan Hill and at Gettysburg and at Cerio Gordo and at Valley Forge.
They couldn't be here with us this weekend, but I think they would understand that we don't spend the day in tears and heart wrenching memorials. They wouldn't want that. Grief is not why they died.
They died so we could go fishing. They died so a father could hold his laughing little girl over the waves. They died so another father could toss a baseball to his sonin the backyard. They died so a buddy could drink a cold beer on his day off. They died so a family could hop in the car and go shopping and maybe stop for ice cream on the way home.
They won't mind that we have chosen their day to have or first big outdoor party of the year. But they wouldn't mind either, if we took just a second and thought about them. Some will think of them formally, of course. Wreaths will be laid in small, sparsely attended ceremonies in military cemeteries and at monuments at state capitols and in town squares. Flags will fly over graves, patriotic words will be spoken and a few people will probably feel a little anger that more people didn't show up. They'll think that no one else remembered.
But we do remember. We remember Smitty and Dave and Chico and the guys who died. We will remember the deal we made. If I buy it, we said, drink a beer for me. I'll do it for you guys. I'll drink that beer for you, today, and I'll sit on that beach for you, and I'll check out the girls for you, and, just briefly, I'll think of you. I won't let your memory spoil the trip but you will be on that sunny beach with me today. I will not mourn your death this Memorial Day, my friend. Rather, I'll celebrate the life you gave me.
This BUD's for you, Brother.
__,_._,___
May 30, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 30, 2011
Much Trouble
May 30, 2011
Much Trouble
May 30, 2011
Marcy ~ Corpsman Mom
P-bear's mom, not sure which...? Here is link to a very touching video entitled"The True Meaning of Memorial Day" set to Amazing Grace sung by Leann Rimes - along with a major tissue alert, naturally...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK0T4pVHP28&feature=youtu.be
May 30, 2011
Much Trouble
May 30, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 30, 2011
TexasDocMom
Welcome, Doc's mom....we're that group no one wants to join but we're here and we welcome you. Which cartoon? the one at the top of this page, with the moms? I found that on the facebook page of a Marine unit. You're welcome to grab it if you want to use it.
We do watch out for OPSEC regs when it comes to sharing places, dates and names, just to remind you. But find someone here most anytime, you are not alone...we'll scream, cry, laugh and rant....whatever it takes to get through the day and night.
May 30, 2011
Much Trouble
Patrice...You must be bursting with happiness!!! I bet you can't stop grinning. It is hard to believe the day finally arrived, isn't it? (But for heaven's sake, don't leave us. We need you to help the new moms through their deployment!)
Doc's Proud Mom...If you want the cartoon at the top of the page, I snagged the larger version, just let me know and I will try to post it here.
May 31, 2011
TexasDocMom
May 31, 2011
hotflashes
Vettespace, thank you. It is good to know that it might get there in a shorter time span. I had heard it could be as long as a month! What beautiful words paymaster!
The airport photos were awesome and I hope we all get to experience that real soon. Hopefully the time will pass quickly and they will all get home safe.
May 31, 2011
vettespace
May 31, 2011