Countdown's Over Let the Saddness and Fear Begin

Why is it that when we are counting down to the date our soldiers are deployed that it is so short and happens so fast, yet once our soldiers do leave the count down until they come home to us is so long? We had an idea when he'd be leaving but didn't know for sure until it was less than two weeks away. Now we have over 400 days until he comes home for good. What can I do with 400 days? 400 nights of sleeping alone. 400 dinners without my husband to wash the dishes afterwards and fill up my Pepsi enjoy them with me. 400 nights of tucking in sad little boys. 400 days of fearing the unmentionable.

Kirke called me from the airport. He said that when they were checking in the lady at United Airlines was trying to charge them for their over weight luggage. Kirke had to step in and explain to the lady that the Army is paying for it because it's all Army gear and they paid a ton for the damn tickets. The lady said "Yeah with the tax payers money!"

Can you believe the nerve of this lady? Here you have four young soldiers, Kirke was by far the oldest at 29, leaving behind wives and children to go fight for her damn freedom and she has the gall to complain about the burden placed on the American public to ship their protective gear to Iraq with them!! She also kept making them move their very heavy bags out of the way so she could wait on first class customers. Wouldn't you think those customers would say "no thank you ma'am please finish up with these brave men first". It's obvious where they're going when they have all of that military luggage and had their orders out.

I did what any irrational, crazy heartbroken soldiers wife good citizen would do. I called United Airlines and asked to speak to a supervisor and filed a complaint. I also intend to send an email to the St Louis airport about the way that their staff is treating American Soldiers and to ensure it won't be happening when the next group leaves.

I was very disappointed in our country today until at 5pm when the post played Retreat and lowered the flag. My kids are very good at stopping and saluting or putting their hand over their heart. However, this isn't typical of all military children. It seems we forget to share some things with our children in the craziness of our lives. But today when my kids stopped to pay respect to our nations flag, some kids down the street who are often out and running wild stopped too. They put thier hands over their little hearts and stood motionless until the music stopped.

That was a moment to be proud of for all of us. Our children learn things from us, they see what we do and try to emulate that. Other children also see what our children do and when you see another child emulate a behavior that you're so proud of in your own child it's a sense of pride like no other.



This is Kirke and the boys hanging up the Service Flag. This flag is displayed when you have a loved one is a part of the Armed Services during a time of war. The soldier doesn't have to be deployed but we keep ours in the deployment box and the three of them hang it before he leaves and take it down when he returns.