3rd ACR

[Officer of Engineers]

I made a horrible mistake with my life when I was young. I should've opened a bait shop in Texas.

MSgt, get off your self pity! Look around you. Hell, you've got kids who so worshiped you that once you've mentioned begals, they've stopped bringing in donuts.

DID YOU EVER STEER THEM WRONG?

You want to see good? YOU'RE IN CALIFORNIA! OPEN YOUR EYES. KIDS ARE OPENING DOORS FOR YOU JUST TO BE PILOTE!

You want to see something beyond destruction? Goto a shopping centre and smile to a little girl.

You want to know we're winning in in Afghanistan? How many fathers are sending their little girls to school? We're winning ... and we are winning big! Fathers are so proud that their little girls are going to school.

That is worth all the lives we've spent, fathers being brave enough to risk their little girls ... just because we are willing to risk our soldiers to protect them.

That is proud!

[lemontree]

Bluesman,

Please accept my belated congratulations on your son's decoration. Wish you and your family well.

[Bluesman]

Well, Capt Bluesman has been back for over a week, and I just realized that I have not posted that fact here yet.

She's fine...AND...we have our next assignment: we're headed back to Misawa, Japan in May. Yeah, I know: shocked the hell out of us, too.

We were there '92-'95, and enjoyed it immensely. Even the earthquake that nearly dropped our house on us. Liked the base, liked the job. This time through, I don't know what I'll be doing yet. Something with a security clearance, no doubt, until they find out what a horrible risk they're taking becomes clear.

Speaking of doing things for the Air Force overseas: you American taxpayers out there got one fantastic good deal with my wife for the past six months. She's so dam' good she ought to be fattening. So dedicated she ought to be the leader of a religious order. So skilled she ought to teach classes about teaching classes about all the stuff she can do. (And so sexy, you could cover her in sackcloth and put her in the front row of a church choir and she'd STILL be run out of town on a rail.) She saved lives at the risk of her own, and she kept up the spirits of those around her when anybody would have been forgiven for letting despair beat them down. She led and she was an example. She taught, and was a mentor. You OWE her, unless you've already paid your own bill.

She's home, and so is my son. My flesh and blood is clear of the Land of Blood and Guts, and I think I'm going to go into a new line of work, something that doesn't make me drive home wondering if any of my shortcomings inadvertently hurt somebody, and drive in the next day wondering if today is The Day I'm going to miss that vital detail that has dire and permanent consequences. I no longer have literal skin in this horrible game, and I'm moving on.

'Conflict Resolution Facilitator', perhaps. I won't ask any of you liars for references, though.