Wednesday Hero — Helping Haiti

Airmen from the Kentucky National Guard’s 123rd Contingency Response Group help to offload wounded Haitian refugees and medics from Puerto Rico National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters at the air hub Jan. 25, 2010, in Barahona, Dominican Republic.

Photo Courtesy U.S Air Force Taken By Tech. Sgt. Dennis Flora

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Reality Check

It is still somewhat early this morning.  I was up much earlier than I like today.  It is still dark, of course.  The children are all in bed and my house is understandably very quiet.  I took my husband to the airport this morning.  He is off to San Antonio, where we lived before moving to Alaska, for some pre-deployment training.

He will be able to stop in and spend a day with his brother and family and enjoy some good TexMex at Taco Cabana.  I think Taco Cabana is one of the few things I miss about Texas.  He will probably pick up a cherry lime aid from Sonic too!

He will then spend a week out in the field eating MREs and doing whatever they do out there for training.  He will only be gone a week so that is not too bad.  But as I drove away from the airport this morning I came face to face with a reality check.    We have known for a while that he was set to deploy.  As the time gets closer and closer it seems less and less likely that he will be pulled from this one.  I have been preparing for him to go but somehow actually sending him off for training shook me a little.  This is really going to happen. The time is quickly approaching when we will be living  this and not just thinking about living it.

There have been several deployments that he has been tasked for and then pulled from.  We have been through one short deployment before though and it was to a safe place.  This will be by far our longest separation and our first to the front lines in the war zone.

My concern is not for us here at home.  I know I will have a task ahead of me.  The older children can at least understand what is going on.  The younger ones will be more of a challenge.  In fact, one just came upstairs crying because he has already left.  I am more concerned, however, for my hubby and his safety.

I am so thankful for a God who is sovereign.  As our family moves forward, I ask that you keep us in prayer.  Pray for hubby and his safety, pray for our children who will be missing their daddy, and pray for me that I would trust in the Lord all the more.

Reality checks are good, not always fun, but good.  Thank you Lord that you are the one who decrees all things.  Thank you Lord Jesus for being my Savior, my Rock, my Strength, and my Refuge.

Hug From A Stranger

As you may have noticed I haven’t posted in several days.  It has been a bit of a tough week for me.  I was having one of those weeks where my strong, hold it together personality started to unravel.  Sometimes things need to be dealt with without simply trying to cover it with a smile.  Anticipation can be a wonderful thing if what you are anticipating is a welcome thing.  Anticipation can also be a terrible thing that turns into dread.  The latter is what I was dealing with this past week.

My hubby has been tasked to deploy several times and it has been pulled.  He has a new tasking now that looks as if it will definitely  happen.  The thing is that each time it gets changed the deployment becomes less palatable.  He is set to deploy in late spring and will begin all of the required trainings in preparation after the first of the new year.

With all of the trainings and other things involved he will be gone about a total of 7 months or a little more this coming year.  He will miss the entire summer, leaving with snow on the ground and returning to snow on the ground.  He will miss the bear hunt and caribou hunt we had planned.  He will miss the big fishing trip.  He will miss our summer jaunts around this great land.  He will also miss the Iditarod, Furrondy, Ice Festivals, and visiting company.  What breaks my heart is that he will miss our 20th anniversary. (We had always been planning on having a wedding to renew vows –since we eloped years ago)  I will also be missing my 20 year high school reunion because I am not willing to be that far away and leave the children here alone.

But you know, even though this is all sad and something I really do not want to do, it is ok.  That is part of the military life.  We sacrifice for the freedoms we still have.  This is not what is really bothering me.

As time gets closer we hear more and more details.  This past week some of those details have unnerved me.  We have found out the location. ( well, as exact as we are allowed to know in that region)  With my hubby being a chaplain he is not authorized to carry a weapon.  He is dependent on others for his protection. People in the office are not very tactful or sensitive when it comes to talking about it with me around.

This deployment is such that it has me very concerned about whether or not my hubby will return.  I find that I am asking myself such questions as, “Is this going to be our last Christmas?”  You may think this is the case with every deployment.  It is not.  We have been in this situation before and I have never even felt the need to contemplate this.

I find it very hard to share this because I often have the burden of people thinking I need to just put up a strong front and let everything roll off my back like water on a duck.  I may be a strong person but that doesn’t mean that I do not struggle.  I just often struggle without others really knowing about it or I end up receiving lectures from others rather than them really being willing to be a comfort to me.

Before anyone decides to slap me with scripture let me assure you I am doing the same thing to myself.  I was sharing with a lady at my daughters’ ballet class the other day.  I was sharing and telling her that I am so thankful that the Lord is our strong tower.  That even though hubby cannot carry a weapon and is going to one of the most dangerous places, I know it is the Lord who is his protector.  I know that the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear and I know that worrying does not change a thing.  I have confidence in my Lord.  This does not mean that emotions always fall in line the way I want them to.

This sweet lady with tears in her eyes gave me a big hug and said she would be praying for our family.  I barely know this woman.  Her hug though meant so much especially then.    It made me think—–how many others are there in this world that need a hug from a stranger–how many people just need to know that someone cares?

Once again, in ministering to me through this other Christian lady the Lord revealed to me the need to minister to others.

Lord, calm my fears.  Protect my family.  Help me to focus on you, rest in you, rely and depend upon you.  Let me see the needs of others and offer the needed hug of a stranger to another.  Amen

Also Check out this posting I saw today. Connecting Through Power of a Hug.

Wednesday Hero

Sgt. Michael Egan
36 years old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
104th Cavalry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard
September 19, 2005

News of Egan’s death came to Pennsauken shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, Krista Egan, Sgt. Egan’s sister-in-law, said. His mother, Irene, was on the telephone when an Army sergeant walked up to the door. “My mother-in-law was talking on the telephone to Mike’s wife, Maria, when he came. Maria had just got the news. The Army sergeant told my mother-in-law it was his first time notifying a family.”

Sgt. Egan served in the Marine Corps for eight years, was a civilian for a year, then joined the National Guard. As a Marine, he had been previously served in Afghanistan.

“He was well-liked by everyone,” Patrick Egan, Sgt. Egan’s brother, said.

Sgt. Michael Egan was killed when an IED detonated near his vehicle while on patrol in Ramadi. Also killed in the attack were Spc. William Evans, 22, of Hallstead, PA, Spc. William Fernandez, 37, of Reading, PA and Lt. Mark Dooley of the Vermont National Guard.

Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com & You Can Read Much More About Sgt. Michael Egan Here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Never Forget 2009

Wednesday Hero

This Week’s Hero Was Suggested By Deb

SSgt. Darrell “Shifty” Power
86 years old from Dickerson County, Virginia
E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
June 17, 2009

The world lost one of it’s true heroes a couple of weeks ago. Darrell “Shifty” Powers passed away on June 17 of cancer. “Shifty” was part of the famed E Co/2/506 of the 101st Airborne Division. Easy Company. The Band Of Brothers.

“I loved everything about my daddy,” said Margo Johnson, daughter of SSgt. Powers. “He never bragged about what he did in the war. And for a lot of years, he never even talked much about what he did – unless someone asked him about it. But he truly was a hero to me. Just like he’d been to the people who know him as a soldier in a [mini-series].”

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.