Leave it up to the military to hold things up for some of us
military families waiting for troops to come home for
Christmas.
As you might have guessed, everything didn’t go as planned. My
excitement to have my son home for Christmas overwhelmed my ability
to be patient and had no bearing on the military’s schedule or
manner of doing things.
Leave it up to the military to hold things up for some of us military families waiting for troops to come home for Christmas.
As you might have guessed, everything didn’t go as planned. My excitement to have my son home for Christmas overwhelmed my ability to be patient and had no bearing on the military’s schedule or manner of doing things.
If there is anything I’ve learned, Murphy’s Law and the military’s way of doing things have similar consequences. It was like everything in the cosmos was holding me back from my destination.
I missed my exit and drove further south than I should have. In Utah, there was a 200-mile detour! And then there was that little detour I made in Aspen and the nut on the road who thought his car was a snowmobile, careening out of control in front of me and two other cars.
This is only half the story.
The last e-mail communication I received from my son was the Sunday before last confirming he would be heading to the airfield for a flight out of Iraq – that was my cue to leave, but that message was sent hours before Saddam Hussein’s capture.
And just when I was getting use to hearing from my son – all outside e-mail communications were suspended. But I didn’t know that until I was already on the road.
It was great news to hear the dictator of terror was captured – it gave me food for thought on my journey to Fort Carson. What I didn’t know was Specialist E-4 Ryan King never made it to the airport.
It wasn’t until the following Thursday when I received a call from my son that I learned he had just landed in Kuwait!
“At least you are out of Iraq,” I said.
My son was no longer wearing a flak jacket and carrying a weapon.
Ryan then shared his three hour ride to the airport in which he was caught in traffic five minutes from where troops with the 4th ID had caught Hussein.
“I thought, Christ, this is not where I want to be,” he said.
In hindsight I should have seen this coming.
It was in Utah while checking my e-mail that I began wondering if I should turn back home. But determined to see my son with my own eyes, I continued on when I should have listened to my inner voice.
A few months ago one of my reader’s questioned me about my feelings and dreams of Iraq.
“If you get these kind of feelings,” she asked, “do you think they will catch Saddam Hussein?”
“Oh yeah,” I replied. “Our guys will get him.”
Then she asked, “Where do you think he’s hiding?”
“In a farmhouse outside Tikrit,” I replied.
Saddam Hussein wasn’t exactly “in a farmhouse,” but a hole in the ground will do. It is that inner voice I failed to listen to and now it is Monday morning in Denver, Colo. A week has gone by and I’m still waiting.
In the military, the rule is “hurry up and wait.” Some soldiers, I discovered, have been waiting in Kuwait since Dec. 2 for a flight home.
Now I find out Ryan might not make it back in time for Christmas. I wait one more day and then I must leave, disappointed, but relieved to know he is out of Iraq. It will be a long road home without him.
Well hell, that’s the military for you. The term is well known as a military SNAFU; Situation Normal: All F___ Up (not Fouled up), which really means anything can happen, anything can go wrong and it will.
But the fact a terrorizing dictator is no longer at large is worth the disappointment of missing another Christmas with my son because I know as a family we will have many more Christmas’ to share.
To our troops around the world I say, “Thank you – God bless you and Merry Christmas.”
