It is Done!

I woke this morning to my cell phone vibrating and making a racket that means someone has text me.  It's 0630 and my day off.  I look, it's Jacob!  This early in the morning it call only be bad news.  I put on my glasses and take about 30 seconds for my eyes to focus and read the words, "Binn Laden is dead"  It takes me another minute or so to get my bearings and read again. "Binn Laden is dead".  I text back WTF?  Jacob then tells me that Navy Seals got him in Pakistan.  During the coarse of the next 20 minutes of back and forth texting a flood of emotions go through me and my son, still the warrior he was trained to be.   He says he feels it is complete now.  I say maybe, just maybe he and his buddies can put the horrible memory of war in a box in their mind and put it on the shelf.  I pray to God that they can.  For them, Binn Laden may be dead but the memories of war will last forever.  Hopefully just not as frequently nor as strong.

God Bless America and all our great warriors.

Pops

Dozing on a Sunday Afternoon

The first thought might be, so,  I do that too.  Sounds like a good idea.  No NASCAR race, by the way, Kyle Busch won Saturday night for the first ever Tri-fecta in NASCAR history.  You know how you are dozing and you hear something but can't quite make it out or wake up.  That's what happened to me yesterday.  I heard something and couldn't make it out and couldn't seem to wake up.  I continued to struggle, hmmm a vehicle, ....a motorcycle......no a truck.  Open eyes, barely......shadow walking by window. More awake.  Shadow stops and appears to be looking in to the house.  Weapon,  burglary on a Sunday afternoon.  Shadow approaches the door and stops.  Damn, no weapon,  Shadow trys the door knob, thank heavens I locked the door.  I peak out.....hmmm, M/W, slender build, black T-shirt turning around as if looking to see if someone is watching.  Blood pressure and heart rate rapid and still know weapon.  OFFENSE IS THE BEST DEFENSE!  I grab the door knob, jerk open the door and.......................................................

JACOB IS STANDING THERE.  

Excuse my use of the military phrase, WTF!  are you doing home! Was my first words to him. 


Well hi dad, as he steps into the freshly decorated and painted living room,  I really like it!  Those are his first words.  My warrior is home!  Home on leave until he goes back to Fort Bragg on Sept. 23, to complete processing and be discharged.  Life is good.


Another more informative post to follow after I get over the shock.  I guess I should explain, he missed his home Friday because of  de-briefings and our best guess work was for maybe Wednesday.  Thanks to his 1st Sargent, who sign papers for him on  a Sunday morning.  


Pops

Words of Wisdom

Stolen from my good friend and fellow blogger Mighty Mom over at Texas Siren.blogspot.com.

'If the enemy is in range, so are you.'
- Infantry Journal-  




All is well with my young warrior and a homecoming is planned for him sometime in August.  Although his ETS is in August he will be burning some save leave time.  To say the least Pops is very very happy.


God Bless all and pray for our brave warriors in far away places.


Pops

Memorial Day

I was watching FOX news this morning.  They had a Historian on, I don't remember his name.  He said a couple things that I felt are worth repeating.

1.  Gettysburg was the 1st National Cemetery and it was made that way by President Lincoln.

2.  Read the Gettysburg address, clik here. It took President Lincoln 2 minutes to read it. Clik on the link, it's worth the 2 minutes and more. It was on point then, it's on point for today.

3.  It's not about family barbecues, It's about the fallen Warriors who for the past 200+ years have given their lives for us.

Thank you 

Corporal Guy Ross Courtright, US ARMY,  World War I, The Argonne Forest, Germany

Sgt, Guy Ross Courtright Jr.  US ARMY,  World War II, Burma 

Specialist, Jacob Ross Courtright, US ARMY Baghdad. Iraq, 

This is my special list, what's yours?

It's not about barbecues.


Pops

We Must Never Forget

We must never forget.  How many times have we said that or heard those words.  How many times have we heard those words and really listened and believed in those words.  We, that's you and me folks, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers.  We that's us.  Never,  pretty self explanatory, a long, long, long time. Forget, it will always, always be there!  It must always be there, for if it is not, everything thousands and thousands of our brave young warriors, men and women of all our wars will have died in vain.
We must never forget.

Pictured here is my second grandson, Luke, son of our daughter Sarah and nephew of our son Jacob.  Luke is pointing to the 82nd Airborne Division patch that we donated to the Blue Star Mothers of Fairfield County. This hand made quilt was made with donations of all the veterans that have served from Fairfield County since World War I. It was nearly a year in the making. A patch of the unit of each one of these brave veterans was stitched  to this quilt by some loving caring woman.  It was donated to the Mayor of Lancaster, Ohio, our county seat Tuesday evening. It will hang in our county courthouse as a memorial to all those who have served in our Armed Forces.

Luke went with me to observe the presentation complete with the singing of the National Anthem, prayers, the reading of the Roll of Honor of those veterans, the playing of Amazing Grace by a lone bagpiper, a 21 gun salute and taps.  There wasn't a dry eye in the church, including mine. Luke is so proud of his uncle Jacob.  Although he is only seven he has been forced to learn about people who go away and never come back.  When Uncle Jacob's name was read as an Iraqi War Veteran Luke gave the thumbs up sign and just smiled. 

It made me feel good my young grandson went with me for this occasion. It will make me feel better if he, nor his young brother or sisters or cousins have to do what his uncle has done. It will also give me great pride should he serve his country in as  honorable manner as grandfather did, as his great grandfather did, as his great great grandfather did and yes, as his uncle Jacob did.

Memorial Day is not far off and to me it is imperative "We must never forget"

Honor Duty Faith

Pops

Words of Wisdom?

Received this text from my Paratrooper yesterday morning.

The US ARMY  and going to college are a lot alike.  Both places make you sit through 3 hours of bullsh__ for 15 minutes of useful information!

This may explain why he dropped out of college after a year! 

Pops

He's Baaacccckkkkk!

Received text at 0428 hours:   "I'm back"

Thank you Lord!

God Bless all our soldiers!

Pops

WOW! Has it Been That Long

I can't believe it's been that long since I posted.  There has been so much going on at my house.  Jacob's sister is pregnant.  This is number  five and will complete our basketball team.  WalMart has kept me busy working crazy schedules and I have been baby sitting the boys while mom takes the girls to ballet. But, enough about me and a little about my Paratrooper.

I got a text message on Saturday saying he would be coming home from Haiti on Tuesday.  A day I had to work of course so I couldn't go down.  No message until late Tuesday night saying maybe within 24 hours.  All day Wednesday until late last night with a be at Pope around 2300 hours Thursday night.  Now if you remember we went through this getting him and his unit out of the country and to Haiti.  I think it took about 10 days.  My reply to his latest text was.  Text me when the wheels are up on the plane, then I'll believe it!  REPLY: Copy.  A soldier of few words.

Of course I went down a couple weeks ago in anticipation of his eventual return and stocked the refrigerator with Monster drinks and the freezer with Hungry Man meals and a large box of Cinnamon Crunch.  Had to put something in there to sweeten his disposition.  Did his laundry and cleaned up the bath.  I figured he would enjoy a decent shower when he got home.  That's about the extent of my housekeeping chores for him.  I got enough of my own.

I would like to introduce you all to a newly discovered blog reported by fellow blogger Mighty Mom over at My Wonderful Life.  The new site is run by the mother of a Marine and can be read at Are We There Yet?  May I suggest you go over there and read he latest post.  If you are a military parent I am sure you have walked this path. 

God Bless Our Troops

Pops

I Met A Hero Today

I met a Hero today, more to come.  'Nuff said,


Edited Thursday, February 25,2010
Edited Thursday, May 13, 2010

Until this post is completed, which it taking longer than I thought got to this web site for some awesome photos of what our troops are doing in Haiti.  Clik Here

Pops

500 Miles for 30 Degrees

The nice thing about being semi-retired is you can come and go pretty much as you please.  At least as the schedule you are working or not working dictates.  This week my schedule was to work Saturday. Tuesday (4 hours) and Friday.  One of the good things the world's largest retailer does is give part-time employees vacation time.  Prorated of course.  Well ol' Pops has some left over from last year and with 10+ inches of snow on the ground and free room and board AND  30 degrees difference in temperature I headed south.  This post is coming from Fayville!  My home away from home.  Yes, I know my Warrior is not here but. I did not come to see him.  I came to UN-THAW!  I know it gets colder and  snow gets deeper where some of my blogging friends are  but, folks I was so sick of snow and single digit temperatures it was come south or do drugs.  I choose the later first but the local sheriff  said NO!  So here I am.

Having explained why I am  here I have something else to report on.  Usually I hate to use the word hate.  It just seems obscene to me.  There's a lot of things I strongly dislike but only a couple I really hate to say I hate.
These two things are:

Ohio in the winter time and driving the West Virginia Turnpike.  I really love to hate those two things.  I have had a life changing experience though so to speak.  I no longer hate the West Virginia Turnpike as much as I did.  The WVT  is about 90 miles of up and down and up and down and round and round that you would ever want to drive. IMHO.  Airborne Momma  and I would count the minutes we were on that road and tried several ways to avoid it.  Most turned out to be so much longer  finally we just gave up and sucked it up. We drove it on our honeymoon to Myrtle Beach and drove it to Fayville and beyond every time we went south.

Why the sudden change you ask.  Mountains, cold weather and melting snow.  Put this together and you have icicles.  Not just icicles but huge ice falls. Yes, this old guy has a little soft spot in his heart for the beauty created by Mother Nature, aka God.  I left Ohio early Sunday morning to avoid traffic and reached the WVT  a little past daybreak.  Folks let me tell you for most of that 90+ miles of driving up and down and around and around the pageantry put on by the combination of the cold weather, mountains and melting snow was honestly indescribable. Miles and miles of crystallized melting snow with the sun shining on it provided an array of color and brilliance known to only a few travelers this past Sunday morning.

As I was driving on this nearly deserted  highway and taking in this awe of power in these mighty mountains my mind wander.  What force pushed these un-measurable tons of rock up at 45 degree angles.  The layers of different soils so easily discernible  as I drove.  This indicated at some time in the life cycle of these mountains they were most likely covered by water.  Now they pushed skyward nearly 4000 feet above the current ocean level.  What force caused these stones to crack and let the melting snow trickle down and slowly again become frozen.  Frozen to create this spectacle that I was now privileged to see.  As the brilliant glow of the sun reflected on this show  I drove and took this in. I was moved to stop and take some pictures.  I had time and  traffic was light.  Then two thoughts went through my mind.  Which ones would I take and which ones of these beautiful sites would I leave out.  How could I a lowly man choose which was to be preserved in a photo and which was left to melt slowly away unrecorded.  I would have to photo nearly 90 miles of mountains and it would take longer than this wonderful marvel would last. 

No photos I or anyone could take, nor no camera could copy the majesty of what only the Big Guy created.  I was privileged to see it and it will remain a beauty in my memories forever.

Yes, I know this is a military blog but we have a soft side too.  Besides this blog is  Mark 1:11.

God Bless our military at home and abroad.

Pops