We Heart Our Soldiers

AAUSS

I have been asked some questions about the program I go through to adopt soldiers so I thought I would take a minute on here and tell you about it!

It is officially called Adopt A US Soldier--if you look that up you should find it. I was first introduced to it by a friend who was in Afghanistan. She asked if I would consider adopting a soldier over the holidays because so many did not have family or were not getting mail. I said yes and that is how the boys and I ended up with our SSG in the SF, who we had until April when he was finally sent home. We liked it so much that we adopted more! And now I have 4 soldiers!

Basically you sign up to adopt and it takes about 3 days initially to be assigned a soldier. Their information--rank, name, address, email address and any comments--will appear in your profile after the 3 days are up and you have yourself a soldier! Each soldier is given between 4 to 6 supporters just in case 3 or more stop writing for whatever reason. I must stress that this site does NOT guarantee that your soldier will write back. I have 1 silent soldier that I have not heard a peep from since I first adopted him--and I write him 2 letters a week plus the care packages I send. So if you are easily discouraged or are doing this to be in constant contact with a soldier I have to tell you that it is probably not for you! However, I have gotten fairly lucky. I have had 5 soldiers altogether and only 1 has been silent.

My idea of support is to write letters, emails, and to send down care packages. You are not obligated to send care packages but I like to spoil my soldiers. I especially like it once we have developed a rapport and I know just what exactly they would like the most--and then surprise! It shows up in Iraq or Afghanistan! The only problem I have had is that I want to ask so many questions and most of the time they can't answer. Especially my SSG in the SF! That was so hard! At first he would say 'I can't answer that' and then once he got to know me better he would just ignore the question.

I have gotten to know 3 of my soldiers pretty well. Our SSG in the SF is home now but we are keeping in touch still. He has disappeared for training purposes but I hope to hear from him soon. 2 of my soldiers still deployed in Iraq keep in very close contact. We talk almost everyday, and sometimes more than once a day. They are great guys. My SSG (P) has a family back home and it is fun to hear about them and see pictures. My SMSgt in the Air Force is my silent soldier and I just hope that my long rambling letters don't annoy him too much and that the care packages make him smile. Now my new CPL and I have exchanged emails too and I sent down his first care package to Afghanistan.

The program will contact you once in a while to adopt another soldier but only when they have an influx of new soldiers looking to be adopted. They are never pushy and they never make you feel guilty. If anything, they are a tremendous support and it is awesome to visit the forum on the site and talk to other adopters. I have gotten tons of answers and tips through there. I even found recipes! I am sending my soldiers a cake in a jar today--I am excited to get that going to them. If you do not feel that you can adopt a second or third or 4th soldier, then don't! It wouldn't be fair to them or you. So no pressure when you do get an email asking if you would like another one.

Ok, now I have to address another big downside, other than perhaps not hearing from your soldier ever. Worry! I worry about my guys. I can't help it--I get too attached, especially when we talk more than once a day. My SSG in the SF disappeared for the entire month of February and I think I got an ulcer. I worry about my guys pretty much all the time but I do not let them know that. They do not need to hear it from me. I am just there to write about things light and to take their mind off whatever they are going through. That being said, I do not avoid the topic if they bring it up with me. They are pretty stoic guys for the most part--when they do mention any dangers they do it in a straightforward way. Now that I have gotten to know some of them more they let me in a bit more and tell me what they really think.

I have found some very good people through this program. My soldiers are all sweethearts and I am so proud to be supporting them. I feel that just saying I support the troops isn't enough--I need to DO something myself, other than donate money to some organization. This is the most hands-on thing I can do and it lets me see some of the people I am helping. Not only see but get to know. They have pretty much become family by this point!

And One More Door Closes

I am officially through with Precision Prosthetics & Orthotics. I first started in 07 and minus summers have been there ever since. And while I love the people I work with--they are truly lovely--I have never been more excited to close one door in my life.

On Friday we had my goodbye lunch, which due to an overload of patients meant that we pretty much ate in shifts and only overlapped by about 10 or 15 minutes. Oh well. We went to Wonderful House, which has the BEST chicken fried rice you will ever eat. However, do not get too attached because I plan on marrying it. If I ever decide to settle down and commit, that is. Who knows.

Anyway, I have more news. I was asked to adopt another soldier--and because I truly feel down to my bones that this program is a good one and because I feel that I have the time and energy to devote to yet another--I said yes. And now I have a CPL, in the Army, in Taskforce Spartan at FOB Ramrod in Afghanistan. Yep, I have my first soldier from Afghanistan and that means I will worry twice as much. Anyway, I emailed him and got my first response! I have his first care package all ready to send out--although it was hard to choose because he is fairly remote. Not so remote that he doesn't have internet access, obviously, but I don't know how often he gets to use it. And no one I knew could tell me about FOB Ramrod. So we shall see.

And that makes 4 in my family of Soldiers!

So now I will be cleaning, organizing, and packing in the coming week to get ready to head back to PA and my 6th summer at Bryn Mawr. Soooooo excited to be there and to be able to have 4 Soldiers to share it with--it really isn't fair because they are like a hostage throughout this! They will be forced to listen to all my camp stories. And because I am making the move to Senior Camp I am sure they will listen to all my fears and frustrations too. I feel a little bad about that--not enough not to write though!

On a happy note, it very much looks like my boys will be coming with me to Montana so I won't have to say goodbye just yet.

Freaking Terrorists!

I know that everyone is thinking that...so I don't feel bad for titling my blog this way! As my friend Dan says, if you don't want jumper cables on your jumblies then stop blowing up civilians! Ok, so that had to do with the conversation we had about waterboarding and other torture means. This was in response to an article about whether we had received information on bin Laden's whereabouts through torture, but really the same applies. If you don't want to be called a freaking terrorist stop bombing people! But I digress.

The real point of this blog is to express my concern about what is happening to our ladies and gents in uniform in Iraq--and probably Afghanistan, too, actually, but I don't know for sure. Due to the adoption of my Soldiers I know much much more about what is going on over in Iraq than I previously did. And for reasons of OPSEC I will not post names or locations.

I was always hearing from my SSG in the SF that they were getting hit by IDF--indirect fire for those of you not in the military lingo know. That included me until I adopted my Soldiers. Anyway, he would say that he would be sleeping and bam--they would get mortars dropped on them. He would be so casual about telling me this too--just drop it into conversation. I was appalled! I mean, I know that they aren't vacationing over there but I didn't think that while they were on Base there would be any issues--not now that it is supposed to be better in Iraq. I knew that once he left on missions there was danger but not while he was back at the FOB--Forward Operating Base.

My SPC told me that they have been getting mortared a lot lately. He is at a different location than my SSG in the SF but it apparently happens everywhere. Anyway, what really bothered me this time was hearing that during a Toto concert--yes, that band that sings that Africa song!--they were hit and they had to pull the show early. It is bad enough that they have to randomly bomb our troops but to do it during Toto! Come on!

But seriously. It makes me angry and it makes me sad and it really makes me worry for my Soldiers--and yes, all our troops, but when you personally know someone it makes it harder. And the bad thing is that they are just randomly sending mortars over in the hopes of hitting something critical and injuring or killing our Soldiers. And so I say, freaking terrorists! Get another hobby!