In May 2007 my son's fiance and soon to be wife deployed to Iraq for one year. That event has changed our lives in ways I never would have guessed or imagined. Assigned to the 56th Military Police Company, Sadie's job for the next 12 months was to ride atop a humvee and man a 50 caliber machine gun searching for insurgents near Speicher, Iraq. She was 20 years old. The early part of her deployment her e-mails to me went like this, "Everything is going good, they want to train me to be a sniper because I am such a good shot. I've earned a lot of respect from the guys because of that. I hope everyone is doing good. Tell Melonie and Dean I said Hi. I miss you guys.
Love, Sadie."
Love, Sadie."
When she was in Kuwait before leaving to Speicher she wrote, " I feel good about what we are doing and it makes an impact on the world and what my company does while we are there has a big impact on what will be in the future for Iraq. I am not able to tell anyone about our mission there yet, but when I can I will."
I thought she was the bravest young woman I had ever known. She sent me a photograph of the silhousette of a jetliner sitting out on the tarmac at dawn. Also silhouetted was a line of soldiers headed for the plane. She titled the picture, "Leaving the US." That really struck me hard. Those soldiers were leaving the safety of their country, their families and their lives and were headed into a war zone. They were headed to the other side of the world, away from everything they knew and everything that was familiar to them.
Shortly after arriving in Speicher Sadie wrote to me, "We have started going on missions, and they make me very nervous. I am up in the turret singing to myself to try to stay calm. It is a lot different than what I expected. The streets are very busy, some have hundreds of people outside. There are crowds of people that you go by and they all stop and stare. There are always people on rooftops and hanging out windows, they are everywhere. The people in cars drive like maniacs and I have came extremely close to firing at them. All the traffic pulls over on the side of the road and they don't come near the convoy, but every once in a while there is someone trying to push to see how close they can get. They can tell that we are a new unit here and they are testing us. "
Not too long after Sadie left for Iraq my son Ryan came over to the house one night and told Dean and I he was joining the Army. I was so much in shock I immediately began to cry and could not stop. Ryan had just turned 27 years old. He left for basic training on Father's Day, June 2007. Ryan finished Basic Training in Aug. of that year and moved on to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland for his mechanics training. He came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas that year, all the while Sadie was in Iraq. In February, 2008, Ryan completed Airborne Training at Fort Benning, Georgia and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He came home on Leave that month and so did Sadie. They became engaged and planned a July wedding once Sadie was home for good. She planned her wedding from her laptop in Iraq. After they were married Ryan and Sadie set up "home" in Fayetteville, North Carolina until Ryan deployed in Dec. 2008 for 12 months. He has just completed his 6th month. He is half way done. He is scheduled to come home on Leave July 3, 2009.
