AS I SEE IT...

Some People...

The phone rang. I answered. A man's voice was saying something, but I can only describe his manner of speaking as "mush mouth". Three times I had to ask him to repeat himself.

The first time he spoke I understood that he said he was verifying phone numbers. Upon repeating himself the second time, I understood him to say he was with the Rear Detachment. The third time was not charming. This young man said he had been told to verify family contact numbers, so that when our soldiers come home we can go meet them. Huh?

I lost it a little.

"When is my son coming home?" I asked, while checking the caller ID to see where this call originated from.

"Oh, we don't know when their coming home. We are just verifying phone numbers."

"Is MY SON HURT?"

"Oh no, we're just verifying phone numbers."

The caller ID showed the call was sure enough coming from Fort Benning, GA. The breath left my lungs. "ARE YOU SURE MY SON IS NOT HURT?"

I hung up and called my husband at work, gave him the number on the caller ID, and told him I feared that this was some kind of way to checking to see if anyone was home before they dispatched some kind of notification crew. At first I had trouble convincing my husband that the conversation I had just had went the way I said it did. It's not that my husband did not want to believe me; it’s just that he spent 32 years in the military, and in all his years of experience in the military this just seemed odd.

About 20 minutes later my husband called me back. Yes, the guy was a mush mouth, and he could not believe that a military phone was being answered in this manner. My husband, Rick, is a retired Chief Warrant Officer, and I think the young man that called me, and answered the phone when my husband called back, will now and forever more speak more clearly, and choose his words more carefully in the future. God knows at least I hope so.

I do realize how young the majority of our soldiers are. They are frighteningly young. Their youth may serve them well in combat, but dealing with long worried parents is a whole other situation. These young men, mere boys, if you ask me, are doing the absolute best they can do. God help them.

My son, Jon-Ray, who is in Iraq called yesterday. There is no greater justification to have a cell phone. I told him the story of the call from the Rear Detachment. He laughed, and said, "Maw, that's what they do."

I'm a News junkie.
Anyone reading this has to understand that when I say, "No NEWS is GOOD NEWS" that is a major contradiction.

I only want my son calling me, not some inexperienced, mush mouth kid assigned to the Rear Detachment with orders to verify phone numbers. Gawd!!!

I want my son to call me everyday. I don't care how irrational that WANT is... that is what I want. Since he can't call me everyday, it is like my life is on hold between phone calls. I'm living with extreme dread. Yes, I pray, a lot and often. No mother should have to pray the prayers I'm praying. We, the mothers of soldiers need to make war much more difficult for our elected officials to have as a choice for dealing with INTERNATIONAL problems (most international problems are of their own making anyway).

Enough said on that...

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When my son called Saturday, I was in Books-A-Million. If I had to choose between a land line phone in my house of a cell phone - I'd choose cell phone. Anyway, do ya'll want to know where the employees of the Books-A-Million had the book Character Is Destiny? Are you sure you want to know?

The book Character Is Destiny is located in the children's section of my Books-A-Million. Yep. I'm usually really distracted when I go to the book store. So many books! Anyway, I am beginning to believe that the people who work at my particular Books-A-Million don't actually read - they just have a job. God, forgive me. Senator John McCain’s book is so obviously NOT a children’s book, although I certainly think parents could share it some of its content with their children. I know I emailed Jon some excerpts, ever before I bought the book.

Isn’t the Internet just grand?

Ya’ll that have grown up having the Internet all your lives can’t possibly appreciate it the way us old guys can, and do. My own limited technical savvy only adds to my awe and wonder of such a marvelous device.

I could expound for days and days on my opinions about the Internet, but I won’t, not today. Today, I just offer my thanks to God that my son is alive and well.

Sincerely.