2010 the start of a new year. My second New Years from home. 2009 had its ups and downs. For Robyn, she had her surgery and has lost over 120 pounds. She is doing so good. I know she has seen a big change in her life. She will reach her target weight in 2010 and should be able to maintain it.
Randi graduated as a paramedic, she has her own truck now and is doing great, very happy. RaDonna graduated nursing school and is working in the ED at Flagler. She is doing a great job. Rachel is taking classes trying to decide what she wants to be when she grows up.
They have done a great job without me these past almost 2 years. I know they all have sacrificed in my absence. I am not the only one sacrificing, the entire family does.
I will be home soon. Thankful that we only lost one Soldier during these past two years. I know MAJ Pryor will be remembered every Christmas by all those in Mosul Christmas 2009. I have been very fortunate, had a warm dry bed, hot meals, warm showers, and A/C in the summer and heat in the winter. There are still FOBs in Iraq were there is no running water. Have been able to communicate with my family almost at will by either email, freedom phone, SpaWare phones or Skype, with internet in my CHU at each COB. The highest time of 2009 was when Robyn go her surgery and made it through without any complications and my 18 day R&R at home.
There have been times that I get frustrated with the internet or phones, then have to kick myself and remember, this is not that bad for being in a combat zone. For the most part, I have handled being away from family pretty well. Whenever I sit and think about home and family, it is hard and tearful. My daily calls with Robyn are a life saver. I have not kept track of the days we have not talked, they have been few and far between. Usually due to “River City”, at Al Asad, when a Soldier from there was killed they would turn off the internet and phones until the family was notified, called River City, and other times when the internet would be down. The two biggest times I was down was the loss of MAJ Pryor and when I did not get picked up for LTC.
2010 will be a good year, I will be home, back with my family, friends, and work. There will be some adjustments at home for both Robyn and me, we have both been independent for 2 years and will have to get use to being right there together again. I don’t look for that to be much trouble. I will have about 50 days leave when I get home, should give me time to settle in before going back to work. I have changed some, maybe more than I think. You cannot do and see the things I have seen and not be changed. It would have been devastating had I not had the experiences with the Rescue Squad, EMS and the emergency Department.
I am happy, proud, humble and honored to have had the chance to serve my country and fellow Soldiers. Barring any major war, this should be my last deployment. But I want to be clear, the real heroes are the Soldiers and Marines that go outside the wire each day and brave the IEDs, homicide bombers and other dangers. This war is not clear cut like fighting the Germans or Japanese. This enemy does not wear a uniform and is hard to identify. No matter what anyone says, our military has done an outstanding job defending our country! And let no one say any different. We continue to have the greatest military in the world. All give some, some give all!!
Pray for our country, pray for our troops
Randy
P.S. Can’t wait to get home!!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
255 VERY FORTUNATE PEOPLE
There are about 255 or so very fortunate people today, since the Muslim Terrorist’s detonator malfunctioned and only burned instead of blowing up and airliner from Amsterdam. And being over the Northeastern part of the US which is highly populated, had the airliner gone down, may have killed and injured many more on the ground.
Of course our Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed the system worked, and then backtracked the next day stating it did not. She used the Democratic theme of 2009, blamed it on Bush policies, haven’t they had almost a year to make changes? She also stated there is no sign of a wide spread plot. No, only from countries in the Middle East and Europe!
New security measures are being placed to try to make it harder to assemble and use a bomb in the last hour of an international flight. So they will do it before the last hour of the flight. They have a few of the full body x-ray machines, and the whole body sniffers, not enough for all airports. We may be required to travel in bathing suits to cut down on hiding explosives :)
Christmas and Easter are the two most attended days of the year in churches. Many people who do not regularly attend church do for these two holidays. It is reported our president and his family, vacationing in Hawaii, did not attend any church services Christmas Eve or Christmas day.
Chuck Norris reports today in his weekly article President Obama visited a school last week talking to students about Christmas. Read his article which can be found at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=120227 , read the transcript of the president and his encounter with the young children. You can also watch the video. Read it and make up your own mind.
Couple facts I would like to point out, read the above article. Earlier this year he stated the US is not a Christian Nation. He did state the failed airliner bombing Christmas day was a terrorist attack, has he said anything like that about the Ft. Hood shooter?
2010 will be a very interesting year. We have to battle the flawed healthcare bill, cap and trade, get the congress to create jobs without throwing our tax dollars at it, and above all stop the crazy spending of billions if not trillions of dollars we do not have! By the way, one of the sweetheart deals being reported in the healthcare bill, big payments to Blue Cross &Blue Shield of Michigan who just happens to cover all the union auto workers present, past and retired.
Yes we need healthcare reform, just not the trillion dollar mess that is proposed. We need to be nice to our planet, just not at the extreme levels and taxing the White House and Democrats are proposing, it is reported we are already halfway to meeting the KATO guidelines on the environment without any regulation. We need job creation, but in the private sector, since the first of the year the only jobs created have been in the government, we do not need more government! We need to decrease government, balance the federal budget and quite trying to be the nanny of everyone! Our constitution states; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It does not guarantee us happiness and success. We are not guaranteed free healthcare, free housing, free food, and free I-phones.
The churches use to take care of charity and did a fine job, the government has taken that over since the creation of entitlements over years and do not do a good job of it.
Pray for our country
Pray for our troops
What do you think
Randy
Of course our Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed the system worked, and then backtracked the next day stating it did not. She used the Democratic theme of 2009, blamed it on Bush policies, haven’t they had almost a year to make changes? She also stated there is no sign of a wide spread plot. No, only from countries in the Middle East and Europe!
New security measures are being placed to try to make it harder to assemble and use a bomb in the last hour of an international flight. So they will do it before the last hour of the flight. They have a few of the full body x-ray machines, and the whole body sniffers, not enough for all airports. We may be required to travel in bathing suits to cut down on hiding explosives :)
Christmas and Easter are the two most attended days of the year in churches. Many people who do not regularly attend church do for these two holidays. It is reported our president and his family, vacationing in Hawaii, did not attend any church services Christmas Eve or Christmas day.
Chuck Norris reports today in his weekly article President Obama visited a school last week talking to students about Christmas. Read his article which can be found at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=120227 , read the transcript of the president and his encounter with the young children. You can also watch the video. Read it and make up your own mind.
Couple facts I would like to point out, read the above article. Earlier this year he stated the US is not a Christian Nation. He did state the failed airliner bombing Christmas day was a terrorist attack, has he said anything like that about the Ft. Hood shooter?
2010 will be a very interesting year. We have to battle the flawed healthcare bill, cap and trade, get the congress to create jobs without throwing our tax dollars at it, and above all stop the crazy spending of billions if not trillions of dollars we do not have! By the way, one of the sweetheart deals being reported in the healthcare bill, big payments to Blue Cross &Blue Shield of Michigan who just happens to cover all the union auto workers present, past and retired.
Yes we need healthcare reform, just not the trillion dollar mess that is proposed. We need to be nice to our planet, just not at the extreme levels and taxing the White House and Democrats are proposing, it is reported we are already halfway to meeting the KATO guidelines on the environment without any regulation. We need job creation, but in the private sector, since the first of the year the only jobs created have been in the government, we do not need more government! We need to decrease government, balance the federal budget and quite trying to be the nanny of everyone! Our constitution states; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It does not guarantee us happiness and success. We are not guaranteed free healthcare, free housing, free food, and free I-phones.
The churches use to take care of charity and did a fine job, the government has taken that over since the creation of entitlements over years and do not do a good job of it.
Pray for our country
Pray for our troops
What do you think
Randy
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