''Twas the night before deployment and all through our home there was movement and >br>chatter through each room I did roam.
The seabags were packed, stacked near the doorway with care. Because 2400 end of
liberty, soon would be here.
Little Jimmy was up, he would not go to bed. In a diaper, my black shoes, my cap pulled over
his head, He tromped through the house and he smiled with glee, When I said, "Yep,
you're a sailor, a sailor like me".
I'll be gone at least six months, six months or more, by then he'll have another height
"notch" mark on the door.
Then there's Tommy asleep, you know he's turned ten, he said he wished I didn't have to
leave him again. This morning I chuckled when I pulled him out of the rack, he said heh'd been dreaming of a Big Mac Attack!
I made sure I got to his soccer game yesterday, for you see, the rest of the season
I'll be away.
There's my wife, this last week she's started to cry and pine, its not easy to leave her and
the children behind.
There's Linda who is seventeen, her prom's drawing near, My princess in formal, wish I
could be here. Her boyfriend will arive in his formal coat tail, time goes so fast, will she
soon wear a white veil?
Linda's friend was just over and I heard her say, "how can you stand it when
your father's away?"
"Its hard I miss him, whenever he's gone, but to beg him to stay would be terribly wrong,
Its his job, its his duty, his career don't you see, its for country, our family and you, he
keeps us all free. And you've heard of terrorists who al lthink they're right, to threaten and scare people and shoot many on sight. There's not many jobs as important you hear, the
Navy's our life, a family career."
And I heard my children yell as we pulled out from the pier,
"We'll miss you, we love ya, Daddy, we'll wait for you here!"