big fat reminder

I haven't seen Doc in ACUs since he finished out processing from McLewis, that was late July.  He did need a pair of boots for a training mission a few weeks ago but other than that nothing.  He wears black shorts and a gray t-shirt to work with sneakers.  He can even wear black socks.  He has pretty long hair as well.  He goes to work anytime between 4:30-6:00AM depending on if he has drop zone coverage or not and where the drop zone is.  He's usually home around noon unless he is running a training class (he's the training NCO).  There are some nights when he has drop zone coverage but not many.  He's not deployable right now.  So while yes, he's in the army he's not really in the army. 

This is a total 180 from where we were.  He would be deployed right now.  The schedule there was steady, deploy for X months home for Y months, while you're home you spend 90% of your time at work training for the next deployment or TDY for more specialized training, we're talking 15 hour days for months on end.  Had he not been injured this would be his 5th deployment in 4 years.  But he did so he took this job and here we are.

It is easy to forget that he's still a soldier but when you get news that one of his friends was killed in action it really hits home.  That's exactly what happened last night.  It sucks, there are no other words.  As has been the case with this and the last deployment (he missed it due to his injury even though we were still in WA) I get the news and read him the names.  I'm horrible with names so I never know if it's someone that he's talked about or I've even met.  Last night I read a name and he turned white.  He was just shocked, he even came over to look at the picture a few times just to be sure.  Right away he started talking about the young girls that his buddy would have moved the world for. 

Then he must of gotten too emotional for his liking so he shut down.  This is what he does and I hate it.  His friend was from San Diego so hopefully Doc will be able to make it there for the funeral, but who knows.

As before, I am not posting the soldier's name but I am sure if you keep up with the fallen it wont be hard to find out.  Another young kid was lost in the incident, only 20 as well as a member of the NC Guard. A member of Doc's old unit was severely injured and many others received minor wounds.  Please keep them all in your thoughts. 

This has been one hell of a deployment for the boys, I am just praying that the bad news stops - soon.