My Son, the Soldier

I'm very proud of my son, the soldier. It brings tears to my eyes: wherever we went with Allen in uniform, people were stopping and thanking him for serving our country. Although I'm sure most Americans would rather us not be at war, I'm grateful for the many citizens who appreciate what our men and women in the armed forces are doing for the world. I'm especially grateful that they are taking the time to thank those in uniform for their service.

Allen explained that Psyops and Civil Affairs (the part of the Army he's serving with) are the ones who go into an area, learn of the needs of the local civilian population (such as the need for new schools, hospitals, electrical generation stations, telephone systems, etc.), and then arrange for aid to be applied for those purposes, thus trying to win the civilian population to the idea that we aren't really the bad guys. Allen starts his paratrooper training shortly. He's sure enjoyed driving the humvee's up and down cliffs, over the river and through the woods. I guess that jumping out of an airplane beats the pants off bungee jumping at the fairgrounds.

Bry and Louisa

Here are Bryan and Louisa. Louisa was a captain at Gulfstream Air Lines, and flew quite a bit with Bryan on their Caribbean routes. She now is a captain with Miami Airlines. The day before we took these pictures at the Jacksonville Zoo, she had flown from Miami to Guatamala, to San Antonio, to Atlanta, to Jacksonville.

Family Pics

Here's a few familiy pics from Columbus, Georgia. We sure missed Cat-kim, but we understand that her part of Alaska is difficult to get into and out of this time of year.

Boot Camp Graduation

I guess since Dubbie and DJ posted pics of the Fort Benning graduation ceremony, I might as well put up a few, too.



(He's in the exact center of the photo below...)


After the actual graduation ceremony, we hung around a bit and DJ and the Bry got to sit in one of the Bradley fighting vehicles. These things are amazing collections of technology.