Leaving soon for Iraq

LMTC · May 3, 2006

( You need to get down here sooner )
Sorry, not going to happen. You can leave one in the fridge for me though.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Do send pics....and info. I know from my associate that there is a story....a very big story...not being brought to us by mainstream media. God bless you, and your family during your absence.

Henro · May 5, 2006

Brent,

Best of luck. Keep your head down. Do your best to come home safely and in one piece.

Being from the 60s my first though always is "at least they wern't drafted!" Frankly, this may not make any sense at all; perhaps it does for guys from my era...

Please be as careful as you can...you surely know all your TBN friends wish you the best.

wroughtn_harv · May 5, 2006

Good luck over there. Trust your instincts and if something seems out of the ordinary, it is.

If it works like it did many years ago the first couple of months you'll be nervous as a cat with two tails at a square dance. Then you'll start feeling pretty well bullet proof. The last couple of months will be the hardest.

Post as many pictures as you can and never forget that we all love details.

You're one of us and that means a part of each one of us is going over there with you. Mostly the skeered nervous part. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In about thirty years you'll get a call like I got a couple of weeks ago. Fifteen year old grandson wanting to do an interview for a report. Had some of the darnedest questions but the conversation was good for both of us.

Do a blog and give us the address so we can be there too. Who knows, one of us old guys might have an answer you'll need, about tractors of course. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Tractors4u · May 5, 2006

( Trust your instincts and if something seems out of the ordinary, it is. )

We did part of our train up a month ago. We did convoy ops training in what to look for in the case of IEDs. What you just said Harv was repeated over and over by the instructors. All of which had already been over there.

wroughtn_harv · May 6, 2006

I feel I'm not the only one that's touched by your going to Iraq. For a lot of us your upcoming tour of duty brings back some emotions and memories that we all deal with our own way.

So when those moments come, and they will, where you wonder if anyone knows or cares, we do.

Depend upon your training and your buds, that'll get you back. And we'll all feel better.

Tractors4u · May 7, 2006

Thanks for your comments Harv. It is like I told Bob Skurka, I have only met in person 1 one person from this forum, but I feel like many of you are a god friends and I want to thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.

wroughtn_harv · May 7, 2006

I look at the internet as another neighborhood in my life. I have different circles that I move in real life based upon common interests. The internet has added another.

My wife and myself are just as glad to see some of our TBN members as we are to see old neighbors or co-workers. I'm sure you can see that in our conversations with them here. So your feelings about your TBN family of friends isn't unusual. I like to think it's tractor power. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

One of the benefits of friendship is you get to contribute to another persons life. Few things make you feel better about yourself than helping a friend.

I want you to keep that in mind when you get over there and it seems a little tough. Allow us, your friends, to get that feel good sensation by helping out in any little way we can.

Let's say you're having a physically and emotionally taxing day and you don't want to worry wife and parents about it. You've got literally hundreds of TBN members who would feel blessed if you PM'd them and allowed them to pick up a little of the load.

So instead of thinking you have to carry the whole thing because it's what men do consider how good you felt when you helped someone out. Allow us to have that feeling you found so gratifying.

And we've been there and done that. Not this war or at this time. But some things are a constant when it comes to men and women off to war. One of the things that surprised me was how the men of the Eighteenth Field Artillery from WWII welcomed me into their group. I finally figured out that even though we were veterans of different wars and generations we still shared the same emotional and physical hardships.

It's like the difference between discussing marital difficulty with a single friend versus one of your friends who has been married for a long time. Even though you are married to different people you still have a lot of the same situations.

People who haven't experienced war have the same handicaps at comprehending it as people who have never been married getting what being married is all about.

For the unmarried or non-veteran it's all about the excitment and mechanics of it all. The spouse or veteran understand that it's all the other stuff that defines the situation.

You might get home and have a little trouble adjusting something to do with the war and life back here. What might surprise you is talking about it with an old veteran of WWII might be the best thing ever. Think of it like discussing a marriage with someone whose been married fifty years versus someone who's been married two years.

Sorry for getting so long winded on this issue. But it is one close to my heart.