Update # @#%$#@!

For those of you following the incredible non-Haiti deployment of my young warrior this update.  As of 5 minutes ago he was sitting home texting Pops.  It seems we both have the same sense or lack of sense.  We are both watching Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs. He is currently washing windows on a 408 tall office building. I would never do it but the Paratrooper, well if the $$$ are right just about anything is possible.  After all he jumps out of perfectly good airplanes!  

Go to this web site for some photos of the Black Falcons.  The ones in Haiti.

http://www.dvidshub.net/index.php?script=images/images_gallery.php&action=viewimage&fid=245407

Will keep you posted.

Pops

Still Waiting

The title says it all!

For those of you who are checking on the progress of my Warrior he, along with many others of his unit are still stuck in Fayville.  He reports he was close on Sunday actually beginning to be loaded on the plane then canceled. Something about too many airplanes and too small of an airport. Have I missed something about being AIRBORNE!  Don't they jump out of planes for a living?  For those of us who have been involved with the military throughout our life we know the way it works.  We don't understand it, we just know how it works (or doesn't).

God Bless America and ALL  our great Service members!!!

Ho Hum

For my friends and fellow bloggers who follow the comings and goings of this blogs top subject Specialist Jacob well,  Ho Hum.  I just received a msg. from him that approximately 50% of his unit is BOG.  Oops, sorry civilians, that's Boots on the Ground.  That means half of his unit is actually in Haiti and the other half is at Fort Bragg.  Now that makes a lot of sense.  Then again we are dealing with the government. You see it is actually the government who set this mess up, not the ARMY.  The question becomes, WHO?  Who made the decision not to send the 82nd into Haiti first.  Allow me this moment of copy and paste.

ITEM 1

The mission of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment is to deploy worldwide on short notice, execute a parachute assault, conduct combat operations, and accomplish the nation's objectives.

This little tidbit of information was copied directly from the 2nd Brigades website.  Doesn't is sound as if these guy and gals could drop into a cow pasture and set up house.  It does to me.  The questions I have are 1. WHY the hell weren't they and 2. what freaking moron in this administration did set this up?

ITEM 2

By Jim Michaels - USA Today
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 12:57:41 EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — This is not war, this overwhelming humanitarian effort. But after eight years of dealing with counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lessons learned there — getting into the communities to understand the people’s needs — apply here to the job of distributing food and water and providing medical help.

“Those skills are transferable,” said Army Col. Chris Gibson, commander of the brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division that is getting established here.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines have learned to seek out local leaders and learn gritty details about sewage, electricity and water. They’re doing the same thing here, but no one is shooting at them.

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti and I know yours does too.  I just feel if the politicians would let those trained do the job they were trained for, perhaps, just perhaps things would have and be running a little smoother.

Thank you for allowing my rant.  Oh yes, I will keep you posted if Jacob's status changes.

Pops

Humm! No news IS good news?

I always believed no news is good news.  Such is the life of a military parent.  As I write this I am beginning to believe my old standby saying is failing me.  I last got a text message from my Warrior about 2200 hours last night. It was short and sweet.  Something like, at Battery, sleeping in truck, will keep you posted.  I sent a short one back saying I would be up and text or call if things changed.  I have a feeling something happened in the middle of the night and he didn't want to wake the "old man" up.

The good news, at least for the people of Haiti is FOX News is reporting the 82nd AIRBORNE is dropping food and supplies into Haiti. Although I didn't see any of the 82nd famous Red Berets' in the film. I would go out on a limb here and PREsume Paratroopers are also being dropped in to distribute the items and protect the population.  Please note I said PREsume.  

What is really bad is I asked Jacob about this last week.  The mission of the 82nd is"rapid deployment"  Find a cow pasture, drop a perimeter force and drop the grub and supplies.  Gee Whiz, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out, I did.

As all military parents I sit and wait, ...and wait,.... and wait.  I've done it before in a much more hostile situation so I can do it again.  Damn it!  Why couldn't that kid have been a accountant!

Please don't forget our soldiers in the Global War on Terror and still fighting in volatile combat zones.

Pops

And Waiting, and waiting, and........

As I sit here on Sunday night waiting to hear not if, but when my Warrior will leave for Haiti memories of a different departure come haunting back.  January 2007.  Deployment to a much more serious place with a different mission. Then we had just enough notice to leave home and get to Fort Bragg for about a 18 hour goodbye.  Now, I have plenty of time to get to Fort Bragg but no firm departure.  This deployment is serious however, thank G-d, hopefully more humanitarian and not as dangerous.  Having said that anytime an American Warrior hooks up so to speak he/she takes on the role of person in charge.  That in and of itself can and is often times dangerous.

While waiting, I scanned my email and received this from the President of Gretchen's Chapter of Blue Star Mothers.  Yes, they still keep me in the loop and for that I am grateful.  That being said I am posting this as with many, many of us we have sons and daughters leaving sometime for Haiti but we must never forget our American Warriors still in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This my friends is what it is all about.

 The average age of the military man is 19 years. He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country. He never really cared much for work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's, but he has never collected unemployment either.

   
    He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student,pursued some form of sport
    activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left, or swears to be waiting when he returns from half a world away. He listens to rock and roll or hip-hop or rap or jazz or swing and a 155mm howitzer.

    He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk. He has trouble spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him,
    but he can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less time in the dark. He can recite to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either one effectively if he must.

    He digs foxholes and latrines and can apply first aid like a professional.

    He can march until he is told to stop,or stop until he is told to march.

    He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity. He is self-sufficient.

    He has two sets of fatigues: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry.

    He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts.

    If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food. He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of battle when you run low.

    He has learned to use his hands like weapons and weapons like they were his hands.

    He can save your life - or take it, because that is his job.

        He will often do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay, and still find ironic humor in it all.

    He has seen more suffering and death than he should have in his short lifetime.

    He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and is unashamed.
   
    He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away ' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. In an odd twist, day in and day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful.

    Just as did his Father, Grandfather, and Great-grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom. Beardless or not, he is not a boy. He is the American Fighting Man that has kept this country free for over 200 years.
   
    He has asked nothing in return, except our friendship and understanding.
    Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.

    And now we even have women over there in danger, doing their part in this tradition of going to War when our nation calls us to do so.

God Bless Them All!

Pops

Wait and See

WOW!  I can't believe it was the 18th of December when I last posted.  With Jacob being home from about then until the 3rd of January.......well that pretty much sums it up.  He is/was safely back home at Fort Bragg until yesterday.  Actually he is still safe at home at Fort Bragg however, it appears he may be moving out shortly. His unit is part of the Global Response Force and he is expecting to be moving out sometime in the immediate future

You would have to be living under a rock not to know about the horrible earthquake in Haiti this week. It appears thousands may have been killed and homeless.  Too be continued: 01/14/10 @ 2220 hours.

Continuing, 01/15/10  0854hours

I waited up most of the night on a phone call that never came.  I am currently waiting on a text msg, phone call or confirmed report that my Black Falcon is heading to Haiti.  I have been searching all my web sites for confirmation that his unit is in the air, on the ground, in place or what ever.  My only clear source is that FOX news has just done a bit with Geraldo Rivera who is with a Col. Chris Gibson of the 82nd.  Col. Gibson states they are just waiting on the airport to clear in Haiti so he can get his soldiers on the way.  I guess if Geraldo Rivera says they are going that is the Gospel.  

Well as of this moment I wait.  And wait.  And wait.  It is the military way.  It was 40 years ago and still is today.  Some things never change.

Pops