A mile in their moccasins

I have a dear friend who is serving a four-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.  He wasn't chosen to go.  His number didn't come up.  As a part-time reservist teaching Undergraduate Pilot Training, he never would have been selected to go.  He volunteered.

After serving more than two decades as an F-4 WSO, an F-16 pilot, and a T-37/T6 instructor pilot, Providence had kept him from seeing combat.  When the fires heated up, he was in training or his unit wasn't deploying.  When it came time for his unit to deploy, he had transfered.

He bleeds red, white and blue.  He loves our nation in ways that Hollywood will never understand.  He goes out of his way to introduce his kids to veterans, men and women who have served their nation in the blast furnace of battle.  Seeing men and women deploy and redeploy and redeploy again knowing full well that those same men and women face a multitude of redeployments in their future, he asked if he could take a tour in Afghanistan to perhaps give one soul a respite and to do what he has always ached to do, serve his nation from within the crucible.  His family, his bride and five children, supported him wholly.

I got an e-mail from Jeff this morning detailing life on the other side of the planet.  He then began to reflect on the service of our men and women in uniform that he has witnessed first hand.  Here is what he wrote:

As I ponder our mission here, I have continually been drawn to the sacrifice that is being made by our servicemen and women. I am only here for a mere four months, and though it seems like forever (especially for my family), it is a relatively short time compared to many of our Army soldiers and Marines. Most of them are over here for at least a year in much worse conditions than me, and they are tired and worn out.  

The pace of deployment operations since 9/11 is taking its toll on the lives of our brothers and sisters in arms. A guy I work with is a Marine major who will be going home this month after serving here for six months. He will be back here in September. In fact, when he comes back this Fall, it will be his fourth six-month deployment in three years (2 in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan). I have also heard several stories of soldiers here that are deployed for a year and their wives have left them. This generation is often focused on obtaining happiness and there are many spouses who are not happy with their spouse being deployed over and over again; as a result, they are leaving them. I am blessed to have a wife and family who supports me wholeheartedly and I cannot imagine the heartache of serving long deployments over here knowing that it may result in the death of your marriage.

I know that most of you are already extremely supportive of our military, so I fully appreciate the fact that I am “preaching to the choir.” But whenever you see a military person in the airport please take the time to shake their hand and thank them for their sacrifice because you may have no idea the incredible gravity of their situation or what this deployment may cost them personally. Our military is stretched to the limit and the long, sustained conflicts in this region are clearly taking their toll on military personnel and their families... This deployment has opened my eyes to the sacrifices made by so many of my comrades far more than ever.

Wow.