A Brother Abroad

“Senator, they are fighting and, as I mentioned, dying for their country in substantial numbers. Their losses, again, are some three times our losses of late. And I might add that the sons of Iraq losses are between two and a half and three times our losses in addition to that. So they’re very much fighting and they are very much dying for their country.”

-- Gen. Petraeus to Sen. Kennedy, who suggested that Iraqi forces are deserting their units and not willing to fight on their own.

This is Day 51.

Also, to file this one under the "what the ...?", Sen. Kennedy will be awarded an honory knighthood by Britain. I wonder how the Kopechnes feel about that one?

A Brother Abroad

I have actually had someone say to me, very recently, that they don't understand how anyone could leave their family for such a long time, how they could never do something like that to their family, etc.

I could have told them that they should give thanks every day that so many people do not share that persepctive.

That being close to your family has nothing to do with geography.

That being in someone's life is more than physically being in it.

Instead, I bit my tongue.

I know so many families that live but miles apart and go days and weeks without speaking. Is that closeness?


This is Day 50.

A Brother Abroad

I asked my brother what he would consider to be the best part of this day. He said:


Talking to kids on the webcam....young servicemen and women don't know this but 15-20 years ago I would go on deployment and it could be almost a week between phone calls or letters. When the ship pulled in that was it, mail call and stand in line to get access to the AT&T phones. Of course that is a double edge sword, servicemen will now expect this level of service all the time. That will not be the norm. But I like it.

This is Day 47.

A Brother Abroad

A college professor, an avowed Atheist, was teaching his class.

He shocked several of his students when he flatly stated he was going to prove there was no God.

Addressing the ceiling he shouted: "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you 15 minutes!"

The lecture room fell silent. You could have heard a pin fall.

Ten minutes went by. Again he taunted God, saying, "Here I am, God. I'm still waiting."

His count-down got down to the last couple of minutes when a Marine - just released from active duty and newly registered in the class - walked up to the professor, hit him full force in the face, and sent him tumbling from his lofty platform.

The professor was out cold! At first, the students were shocked and babbled in confusion. The young Marine took a seat in the front row and sat silent.
The class fell silent...waiting.

Eventually, the professor came to, shaken he looked at the young Marine in the front row. When the professor regained his senses and could speak he asked: "What's the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

"God was busy. He sent the Marines."

This is Day 46.

A Brother Abroad

My brother already got his care package in what seems to be record time.

He wrote:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Just what I needed, sandstorms keep rolling in and I can’t get the taste of dirt out of my mouth. This will help. Tell Olivia I love the heart and I miss her.

Love,

Paul

This is Day 45.

A Brother Abroad

I have never been a fan of bumper stickers, but I get while other people are. Much like wearing a political button or snarky tee shirt, I think there is something in each of us that wants to be heard, that wants to cut out an identity among a sea of cars on the Schuykill or the Beltway. The very nature of a blog is in keeping with this sentiment: we want to be heard, feel like we count, even feel recognition.

My husband came home from his horribly long commute the other night with news of a bumper sticker he happened to pass on the Atlantic City Expressway. The man driving the car with the sticker appeared to be in his seventies, maintained a tightly kept buzz cut, and never took his eyes off the road. His bumper sticker read:

"No longer lean, no longer mean, but still a Marine."

This is Day 4.

A Brother Abroad

When my brothers were in high school a little movie entitled Top Gun came out and forever changed the ambitions of millions of young men.

My brothers were among those afflicted with the need for speed.

My mother, more than a little aware of the fact that her sons would want to follow in their father's footsteps, was now confronted with the reality that they might opt for the skies instead of the water.

So, wanting to deter their military endeavors, my mother did what any mother would: she took Paul, the eldest, to see Platoon in hopes of scaring the bejesus out of him.

It didn't work: this is Day 3.