David called today to say he is scheduled to leave Kuwait on Oct. 1 and arrive Oct. 2.
In just about 48 hours, he'll be on his way home.
We won't see him until Friday, at his request. That's hard to deal with, but at least he'll be on U.S. soil, doing ordinary things -- driving his car, looking for apartment, drinking beer at his favorite bar. I'll only have to worry about the usual things parents worry about 23-year-olds get into instead of IEDs, mortars, snipers and overturned Strykers.
Home! Soon!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Waiting for transport
David called Saturday, which was my birthday, and we had a long, lovely chat. He is ready to leave, but must wait until he is scheduled for a flight out of Kuwait. His liftoff date still looks like the first week in October, but it's possible that he could get three hours notice to get on a plane and be out of there. He said he might not even have time to call to let us know.
He sent me a gorgeous fall bouquet as a "stand-in" present until he gets home. The colors are red-and-gold leaves and roses, sunset-colored larkspur and a pink plant that vaguely looks like a Venus flytrap but isn't. Sadly, I don't have a digital camera here in La-La Land, or I'd post a photo.
So his Iraq adventure is nearly over, save for the flight home.
I am glad he came through it unscathed if not untouched. I want to hear the stories he's willing to tell me. I suspect he won't tell us everything, either to protect us or to protect his image to us.
By arriving in June, he missed much of the searing fighting his unit faced in May, and cost them 10 young men. I hope his men accepted him, given his status as the latecomer, it seems that they did.
We watched the new Ken Burns film about World War II last night. It is unusally frank about the torture and killing on all sides -- German, Japanese and American -- as well as bravery with stories from veterans. I think David would like to see it.
No war makes saints of any man or woman, I think.
He sent me a gorgeous fall bouquet as a "stand-in" present until he gets home. The colors are red-and-gold leaves and roses, sunset-colored larkspur and a pink plant that vaguely looks like a Venus flytrap but isn't. Sadly, I don't have a digital camera here in La-La Land, or I'd post a photo.
So his Iraq adventure is nearly over, save for the flight home.
I am glad he came through it unscathed if not untouched. I want to hear the stories he's willing to tell me. I suspect he won't tell us everything, either to protect us or to protect his image to us.
By arriving in June, he missed much of the searing fighting his unit faced in May, and cost them 10 young men. I hope his men accepted him, given his status as the latecomer, it seems that they did.
We watched the new Ken Burns film about World War II last night. It is unusally frank about the torture and killing on all sides -- German, Japanese and American -- as well as bravery with stories from veterans. I think David would like to see it.
No war makes saints of any man or woman, I think.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Waiting game
David is nearly done in Kuwait, according to his phone call today. He has about another day's worth of paperwork to (re)do to army specifications, and then wait.
He could be on a plane in four days, or another three weeks. It's the Army schedule and it waits for no man or woman - - only for its paperwork.
We talked about the big gala greetings in the gym that are elaborately if sometimes not quite exactly planned. I know some of his men arrived at McCord AFB near Ft. Lewis, Wash. on Sept. 13 and then were bused to Lewis to waiting families. Except -- their plane arrived earlier than expected (the planners are not told the arrival time until the plane is well into the air) and not everybody made it on time. Craig and I see this flurry of confusion second-hand through a series of apologetic e-mails that come from the Family Relations Group (FRG in another one of the endless acronyms.)
David would prefer we not meet him for a tearful welcome in the gym, but wait until the weekend after he gets back. He's told us several times there's hours of more paperwork and equipment check-in after a long, long flight, and if he's not checking himself in, then he will be supervising some of the check-in for his men. So, there's not much chance of the big-hugs-and-walk-off-into-the-sunset scenario.
I understand the logic, and I even understand that he will want to decompress, find a place to live, unpack, shower, find his car and his belongings (not necessarily in that order), but part of me wants to see as soon as he steps into that gym at Lewis.
But don't worry, David. We'll be good, and wait till you're ready for us.
Just expect to be crushed by a hug -- and yes, I will cry.
He could be on a plane in four days, or another three weeks. It's the Army schedule and it waits for no man or woman - - only for its paperwork.
We talked about the big gala greetings in the gym that are elaborately if sometimes not quite exactly planned. I know some of his men arrived at McCord AFB near Ft. Lewis, Wash. on Sept. 13 and then were bused to Lewis to waiting families. Except -- their plane arrived earlier than expected (the planners are not told the arrival time until the plane is well into the air) and not everybody made it on time. Craig and I see this flurry of confusion second-hand through a series of apologetic e-mails that come from the Family Relations Group (FRG in another one of the endless acronyms.)
David would prefer we not meet him for a tearful welcome in the gym, but wait until the weekend after he gets back. He's told us several times there's hours of more paperwork and equipment check-in after a long, long flight, and if he's not checking himself in, then he will be supervising some of the check-in for his men. So, there's not much chance of the big-hugs-and-walk-off-into-the-sunset scenario.
I understand the logic, and I even understand that he will want to decompress, find a place to live, unpack, shower, find his car and his belongings (not necessarily in that order), but part of me wants to see as soon as he steps into that gym at Lewis.
But don't worry, David. We'll be good, and wait till you're ready for us.
Just expect to be crushed by a hug -- and yes, I will cry.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
David's cartoon fame
In his last blog, David commented that he couldn't view a Web site called "indietits" because the Army had deemed it "tasteless." He also e-mailed his comment to the cartoonist-blogger, who incorporated the comment into his Sept. 12 panel.
I suspect"tits" was part a keyword program that the Army uses to censure its Internet use, but you'll see the "tits" are not what they seem.
The cartoon humor is not my taste, but since David can't see it on his, he can visit my blog.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
David is in Kuwait
I got whiny a couple of days ago, no doubt because I'm feeling the splendid isolation of my beach resort caregiving. So after several days of carrying my cell phone everywhere, I e-mailed
David told him to call me when he had a chance.
He e-mailed back that he was on his way to Kuwait but would call when he got there -- which he did two hours after getting off the C-130.
He's still 3-4 weeks from home, but as he's recorded in his blog (http://fightnicelychildren.blogspot.com/) it's much safer if not as well equipped in some ways.
I was relieved to hear his voice. I really didn't think anything had happened because I knew he was on the FOB near Baghdad out of any combat operations and there hadn't been news of FOB attacks, but still it made me uneasy.
I think now of the generations of mothers going back to ancient Greeks who didn't hear from their sons for 10 years or more, or never heard from them again or knew what happened to them at all. I can only imagine a knot of anxiety that stayed in their chests for all the time their sons (and daughters) were gone, and for some, that knot turned into a lump that never went away.
David told him to call me when he had a chance.
He e-mailed back that he was on his way to Kuwait but would call when he got there -- which he did two hours after getting off the C-130.
He's still 3-4 weeks from home, but as he's recorded in his blog (http://fightnicelychildren.blogspot.com/) it's much safer if not as well equipped in some ways.
I was relieved to hear his voice. I really didn't think anything had happened because I knew he was on the FOB near Baghdad out of any combat operations and there hadn't been news of FOB attacks, but still it made me uneasy.
I think now of the generations of mothers going back to ancient Greeks who didn't hear from their sons for 10 years or more, or never heard from them again or knew what happened to them at all. I can only imagine a knot of anxiety that stayed in their chests for all the time their sons (and daughters) were gone, and for some, that knot turned into a lump that never went away.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Long time, no blog
OK, so it's been two weeks since I blogged. I can only tell my half-dozen readers that the move from New York to Southern California took up most of the first week, and the rest of the time I was mostly without Internet access.
I've never felt so cut off.
David called a few times, but I missed a call of his a few days ago because my phone was downstairs at my mother's house while I was upstairs, snoring away. Now I carry it everywhere, so I have no excuse to miss it. I even prop it up in the bathroom while I shower so I don't miss a call.
So David, try again!
Meanwhile, he has had more access to the Internet and has been blogging away.
I'll try to catch up on his comments.
How is it that this highly liberal son of mine -- and I take the credit/blame for indoctrinating him at an early age -- is surviving in the Army? I think I've already shed my Vietnam War-era expectations of a right-wing, "Dr. Strangelove" Army, but still I worry for his career (if not his political soul) when he criticizes administration policy in his blog.
Is he correct? Of course he is! But what I still fear is that the upper echelons of the military leadership -- and certainly the political leadership -- aren't listening and are actively hostile to his point of view. Maybe I'm just less courageous than he is, or more cynical.
The entry "On Living With the Enemy" told me how fragile the relationships with the Iraqis are and will be with the Americans, something we haven't really discussed on the phone. After re-reading it, I could very well understand the paranoia, but I also wondered if the same fantasy played out on the other side in the man lighting the cigarette or another man apparently listening idly across the room. The trust is fragile, as it should be, and David's brigade is leaving after a long 15-month assignment, but that's a short amount of time to build a relationship, and now they will start over again.
Tip O'Neill was right: All politics is local, and this war is all about politics.
That leads me to the photo of David and other soldiers leading a blindfolded Iraqi in Baqubah that I posted on this site earlier.
I have to say that photo disturbed me. It reminded me of the way Iranians blindfolded Americans during the 1980 hostage crisis and Somalians captured American soldiers in the 1990s.
I asked him about it during a phone conversation. He didn't know what happened to this man. He was turned over to Iraqi Police for questioning, and after that, it's hard to find out.
He did recall, he said, another prisoner, a 16-year-old who was captured. Under questioning, David said the boy broke down crying and confessed working with insurgents.
In my mind, I saw this young boy, very afraid, and perhaps with reason. He is a child led on by propaganda, religion and/or fear of letting down his family (or perhaps the only way he could get food and supplies for his family was to ally himself with a specific group of insurgents). Now he is caught, he has been taught that the Americans will do evil things to him, and he will not be able to go home. What happens to kids like that in this war?
And I wondered about the man in the blindfold: Was he Shia turned over to Sunni, or vice versa? Was he released a few hours later, or still sitting in prison?
I know it's not David's job to find out, and he had plenty of responsiblities for his own men, so I don't hold him responsible for one moment caught on film. But in this grayest of wars, where there are constantly shifting alliances, I wonder where he ended up.
A sad footnote to this photo: AP photographer Talal Mohammed, who took the photo, was kidnapped from a Baghdad bus stop in mid-August and has not been found.
As for the young soldiers discussing the "Muslim Anti-Christ," it is both laughable and scary. Laughable for their ignorance and scary to think that properly (if evilly) organized, such men could be another SS Army or Rwanda troops against innocent Muslims. The tribal instincts of human beings (us vs. the others) keep us alive on one hand and yet lead us to slaughter each other.
In his Aug. 24 entry, he rhapsodizes about Camp Taji looking vaguely like the Central Valley in California and Route 66 in Arizona -- except for the insurgents hitting the PX with mortars. (Maybe not so different from gang-banger drive-bys in the Central Valley.) I detected a bit of homesickness there; a good sign perhaps that he can let down his guard enough to feel it.
And no, David, I'm not worried or upset that you rode above Baghdad in a helicopter, though I suppose my mother instincts should have flared in fear. I guess my journalist instincts overrode this one. If I had the opportunity, I would have jumped at the chance, with or without orders.
And playing Tetris with a forklift does sound like fun.
I've never felt so cut off.
David called a few times, but I missed a call of his a few days ago because my phone was downstairs at my mother's house while I was upstairs, snoring away. Now I carry it everywhere, so I have no excuse to miss it. I even prop it up in the bathroom while I shower so I don't miss a call.
So David, try again!
Meanwhile, he has had more access to the Internet and has been blogging away.
I'll try to catch up on his comments.
How is it that this highly liberal son of mine -- and I take the credit/blame for indoctrinating him at an early age -- is surviving in the Army? I think I've already shed my Vietnam War-era expectations of a right-wing, "Dr. Strangelove" Army, but still I worry for his career (if not his political soul) when he criticizes administration policy in his blog.
Is he correct? Of course he is! But what I still fear is that the upper echelons of the military leadership -- and certainly the political leadership -- aren't listening and are actively hostile to his point of view. Maybe I'm just less courageous than he is, or more cynical.
The entry "On Living With the Enemy" told me how fragile the relationships with the Iraqis are and will be with the Americans, something we haven't really discussed on the phone. After re-reading it, I could very well understand the paranoia, but I also wondered if the same fantasy played out on the other side in the man lighting the cigarette or another man apparently listening idly across the room. The trust is fragile, as it should be, and David's brigade is leaving after a long 15-month assignment, but that's a short amount of time to build a relationship, and now they will start over again.
Tip O'Neill was right: All politics is local, and this war is all about politics.
That leads me to the photo of David and other soldiers leading a blindfolded Iraqi in Baqubah that I posted on this site earlier.
I have to say that photo disturbed me. It reminded me of the way Iranians blindfolded Americans during the 1980 hostage crisis and Somalians captured American soldiers in the 1990s.
I asked him about it during a phone conversation. He didn't know what happened to this man. He was turned over to Iraqi Police for questioning, and after that, it's hard to find out.
He did recall, he said, another prisoner, a 16-year-old who was captured. Under questioning, David said the boy broke down crying and confessed working with insurgents.
In my mind, I saw this young boy, very afraid, and perhaps with reason. He is a child led on by propaganda, religion and/or fear of letting down his family (or perhaps the only way he could get food and supplies for his family was to ally himself with a specific group of insurgents). Now he is caught, he has been taught that the Americans will do evil things to him, and he will not be able to go home. What happens to kids like that in this war?
And I wondered about the man in the blindfold: Was he Shia turned over to Sunni, or vice versa? Was he released a few hours later, or still sitting in prison?
I know it's not David's job to find out, and he had plenty of responsiblities for his own men, so I don't hold him responsible for one moment caught on film. But in this grayest of wars, where there are constantly shifting alliances, I wonder where he ended up.
A sad footnote to this photo: AP photographer Talal Mohammed, who took the photo, was kidnapped from a Baghdad bus stop in mid-August and has not been found.
As for the young soldiers discussing the "Muslim Anti-Christ," it is both laughable and scary. Laughable for their ignorance and scary to think that properly (if evilly) organized, such men could be another SS Army or Rwanda troops against innocent Muslims. The tribal instincts of human beings (us vs. the others) keep us alive on one hand and yet lead us to slaughter each other.
In his Aug. 24 entry, he rhapsodizes about Camp Taji looking vaguely like the Central Valley in California and Route 66 in Arizona -- except for the insurgents hitting the PX with mortars. (Maybe not so different from gang-banger drive-bys in the Central Valley.) I detected a bit of homesickness there; a good sign perhaps that he can let down his guard enough to feel it.
And no, David, I'm not worried or upset that you rode above Baghdad in a helicopter, though I suppose my mother instincts should have flared in fear. I guess my journalist instincts overrode this one. If I had the opportunity, I would have jumped at the chance, with or without orders.
And playing Tetris with a forklift does sound like fun.
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