Our regular readers might recall a small announcement I made back in March about a dear friend of mine. After many years of not being in contact with her, I discovered she was serving overseas in Iraq. I sent her an e-mail to wish her luck in her assignment, but was happily surprised when she informed me that she was already back in the states safe and sound.
Over the past six months, she and I kept in regular contact with each other. Two weeks ago she sent me an e-mail indicating that she would be in my area for training and wanted to get together for a mini reunion with other friends of ours from our college days. On Friday night, we spent the evening catching up on old times and her time in Iraq. While I won’t share many of the details about her assignment, I can say that she was operating in Northern Iraq. There was a steady stream of mortars and explosions in the distance, but few attacks were close to her area of operation that required her to seek shelter.
It might sound strange, especially since we have been friends our entire adult life, but I was honored and humbled to be able to spend time with her learning about her experiences overseas. Like with all others that answer the call to serve our country, she is a rare breed and deserves to be honored with all of our vets. One of the topics she and I discussed during our road trip to visit with another of our friends was how the maturity of our country has changed since Vietnam; where our returning vets are praised and not rejected by our society on their return.
With that, I would like to say thank you once again to my friend and to all of our brave men and women, both in uniform and civilian, that is serving our nation throughout the world. You do us proud!
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