It's deployment time again here. The time when I find out just how weak or strong I am. The time when I question all I believe in. Last night was another one of those times. An EOD group from Ft. Carson spent Tuesday night here. They were hooking up with another EOD group from Ft. Stewart to all fly to Iraq together. Usually on deployments we don't get to spend much one on one time with soldiers. It's very hectic and they are in and out in less than two hours. We really don't get to talk and socialize much. But because the group from Ft. Carson had already done all the "official" stuff, like briefings etc. they were free to roam around and do whatever. This gave us four hours to talk to them. In this four hours one soldier and I became what I hope to be life long friends. He is the assistant to the Chaplain and it was his first deployment. I think his nerves had the best of him because for those four hours he was my shadow. Wherever I went he went..whatever I did he did. Including helping me hand out care packages.He told me about his dog..even showed me the tattoo of his dog on his arm. I enjoyed talking to him so much we exchanged email addresses. He used my cell phone to call his wife one last time before going. Then the dreaded time came for him to line up for a final briefing...I felt bad because he was so busy talking to me that his 1st Sgt. had to yell at him to get in line. For the first time ever I had a soldier going off to war hug me..in fact he hugged me twice and ran off and got in the back of the line. I looked down at my wrist and saw the FREEDOM band I had on. I called him back over and said," Hey hold onto this for me." I put the wristband on him and took a step back. I saw tears welling up into his eyes and he just looked at me. I said" Oh no...don't you even..you're gonna make me cry..go before you get into trouble." And with that he walked over to the line and got in the back. Then into the "sterile" area they went.
The Ft. Stewart group came out first and got on a bus to take them to the plane on the other side of the tarmac. Then the Ft. Carson group came out and lined up at the door. I had warned him ahead of time that we clap and cheer when they come out..so when I saw him I said, " See! I told ya!" All he could do was beam..a grin ear to ear on his face. It took a few minutes to start loading the bus. When his time came to go thru the door outside I saw him turn around and stand on his tip toes and wave once more. I didn't see him again after that. Once loaded on the bus everyone goes outside and waves goodbye to them..usually they are going to meet their families. But not this time. This is the first time I have not seen them get on the plane. I had to wave goodbye from a sidewalk. I just hope he saw me there.
