Posted on 05/10/2002 1:14:21 AM PDT by Snow Bunny
((((( hug ))))
Thank you soooo much for being here and your wonderful post.
(( hug )))
Good to see you on this beautiful day.Thanks again so much.
Staff Sgt. Chad Lewis Duty: Maintain links with forces of different nations Age: 22 Hometown: Grants Pass Occupation: Full-time Oregon National Guard Family status: Single
Chad Lewis likes being a soldier so much that he decided to be a full-time guardsman with the 186th. If you're full time with the National Guard, you draw active-duty pay and can live near home. In the regular Army, you go where they send you. "I'm pretty excited about this," he said. "This is what I'm supposed to do."
Lewis, who was raised in Cave Junction, keeps up on the news like everybody else. "Yes, it worries me," he said of the tension in the Middle East. "But I consider it an honor to be able to go on this important a mission.
"In a bigger sense, I'm glad this battalion was chosen to go. This is a good change for me right now, and I'm happy to be part of it."
Spc. Semi Bird Duty: Reconnaissance scout and rifleman Age: 41 Hometown: Richland, Wash. Civilian occupation: Chief executive officer of his investment counseling firm Family status: Married, no children
Semi (SEM-ee) Bird had absolutely no trouble stepping away from his investment firm in Richland to go to isolated, and possibly hostile, duty in the Middle East.
He has 241 reasons. Those are the 241 Marines who died in a suicide bombing in Lebanon in 1983.
Bird was a Marine at the time and had left Lebanon just before the disaster. "Every day that I'm in uniform," he said, "I think of those Marines. Every day. I'm not at all nervous. I'm proud to be going back to the Middle East and represent our country."
There's more. Back then, Bird remembers, Americans were at best indifferent to what was going on in the Middle East.
"We did a lot of missions over there," he said, "that nobody read about and nobody cared about. Now we seem to have a lot of that support we didn't have then. And I want to be on a mission where people know about it and care about it -- and support it."
Military Spouse Appreciation Day and you are a military spouse . I want to thank you GG!!!! It is a special person to be a military spouse and we all thank you sooo much for your serving in such a special way for our country.
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I am so glad when we get to see you. God bless you GG and your dear family.
I don't have a canteen list, so I replied to the header that Snow Bunny had addressed. If any could be so kind, could you FReepmail me the list for future posts?
I do want to give my heartfelt thanks to all the Military Spouses out there. All of you give 100% 24/7 in what is far rougher than the Serviceperson does (Yep! thats right).
Mrsgwmoore (Who will become the nose art on my 182, I hope, since she is somewhat reluctant to be portrayed as a Vargas Girl (BEG) I figure that I can convince her that a DollZ representation would not be so bad, and I can still use "Isabella Anne" in some decent script underneath), served valiantly, considering we were married in June of 1969, and was instantly introduced to military life, suddenly, not to mention my absence while on deployment to WESTPAC and Vietnam 6 months later. She certainly was "above and beyond". This June, we celebrate #33, so she did put up with me for that long, ;-) (Takes some doing).
Again, thanks to all the spouses, of both genders, who put up with the separation, regulations, privation, and the usual bizarre incomprehensible behavior of the "Mil-Spec Person" (ROTFL Thanks, AFVetGal for the list of said behaviors)..
Thanks for Keeping the Faith for Freedom !
Today, I will omit my usual closing rant ;-)
Greg
Thanks for these two profiles.
Salute to the two of you.
And thank you for yours, Tonk. I must say that your service was much greater than mine, since I never did serve in a war zone (almost went to Iran in 1980, but Reagan nipped that in the bud at his inaguration!). I was never shot at in anger, but only by accident. It is indeed true how "friendly fire isn't"... !
Stay safe,
Joe B.
(The Mrs even puts up with my aircraft driving (I think she is thoroughly happy that I have to wait to get my medical back, though), and the "Officer's Lady" status with the CAP (hey, its a lot more egalitarian than that now, but I rub it in every once in a while), as it is just too good to pass up......
Greg
Ditto to what you said.
I was not a military wife, but I was a military daughter. My mom was a career Navy wife, moving from duty station to duty station for 20 years. It's not an easy life but, as you and your wife know, the military is a family and they support and take care of their own. I know that my mother would not have changed a minute of the 20 years "she" put into the Navy ...... isn't that right, Grammy Bear? :-)
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