Stuart's Departure

[ceebeegee]

Got this email from Stuart:

I'll see many of you soon, I'm off to Iraq for a bit. Keep in touch, love to everyone.

Stu

I'm trying so hard to keep it together. Please, please, please stay safe, little brother, dear little baby brother.

Prayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingprayingpraying...

Comments

A proper salute, from one soldier to another

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

I've been there and back. As have hundreds of thousands of my brothers and sisters in arms. It's not an easy tour. It's dangerous. But it has to be done, and there's honor in the doing. My prayers go out to your brother. He'll be ok. And you should be proud to have a soldier in the family.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

And heaven forbid our friends read this, but, Jesus I wish I had a sister or someone who cared so much for me back in '91 when I was over there. You brought tears to my eyes with this post. That's happened maybe three times before in my life (my grandfather raised me to be a consummate stoic)*

Stuart will be fine, and home next summer with plenty of interesting stories. And you'll have to introduce me. I'm always eager to meet and salute a fellow veteran.

*(The Miracle on Ice, 1980; the Romanian Olympic Team entering the Coliseum in Los Angeles, 1984-- the only Communist country to attend the 1984 Summer Olympics -- and who got a bigger ovation than the US team -- deservedly; and the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989. It takes a lot for me to tear up...)

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

I really love him. He's a great brother--intelligent, sensitive, hilarious (my older brother, Stuart and I all share the same sense of humor), determined. Whenever he and my middle brother (who's also in the Navy) gone away (to training, to college abroad), I've always sent them care packages and lots of letters. He's just great all around. I've always been very big sisterly to him (we're 7.5 years apart), and we're the two siblings who look the most alike (blond hair and the exact same shade of blue eyes, similar smiles). We look like our dad, who also rides motorcycles and was a Navy pilot.

We've talked about how interesting it'll be, aside from the danger. Believe it or not, if all this weren't happening, I'd love to visit Iraq. The home of antiguity, the land of Babylon. That's some seriously old shit--I'd get an historical head rush just being there. He said that the Navy sponsors day trips to places like Baylon, for moral, although I question how much they'll be doing that now, since it seems from yesterday's news that perhaps they'll be bumping operations up a notch.

If he comesto NYC, I'd love to introduce you. I'm sure you'd have a lot to talk about.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

It's hard for me to relate, being an only child of a single-parent family. I've never had much in the way of family bonds.

If he does come to NYC, you should introduce him to me and also to my friend Doug, who was in the Navy (the battleship Iowa in the Gulf War). Would make for very interesting conversation over some pints.

I love the fact that you use the proper indefinite article with "historical." And I concur about Iraq being an interesting tour. If your brother and his fellow soldiers accomplish their mission, Iraq may well be an excellent tourist destination in a few years.

[ginmar.livejournal.com]

I'll be going too soon, so you want me to look him up? Email me.

He'll be fine, though. And if he shows up in desert camo in any airport in the US, he's liable to get a standing ovation.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

gin, I emailed you.