Woooo Freedom! Thank you Veterans!

What is it like to see your husband for the first time in 7 months?

For me, the weeks and days leading up to the big day, Homecoming, were filled with what can be best described as a roller coaster of emotions (oh wait... that was the entire 7 months he was gone, lol).  One minute, I would be jumping up and down excited, the next... it was really just another day.  I kept myself busy/ distracted most of the time because I knew if I focused only on Homecoming Day, it would NEVER get here.  Assuming you were as enthusiastic about Christmas and Santa as I was as a kid, go back to that inner 6 year old on Christmas Eve and multiply by a million = best description of pre-Homecoming feelings I can come up with.

How I Kept Myself Distracted:

Friday, October 8

Happy Surprise Birthday Honey G.!!!

Saturday, October 9

Semper Fi 5K with Chandler

Benefiting Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund

Chandler 40/158 Females (28:06)

Me 71/158 Females (31:37)

My first 5K and NO training = not bad if I do say so myself

Sunday, October 10

Apple and Pumpkin Picking at Baugher's in MD

  

Friday, October 15

Engagement Party for Kim and JD!!!

Congratulations and Much Love!

Sunday, October 17

Flight to CA!!!

Thanks to Brittney for letting me hold down her couch in Newport Beach for a few days.
Great food, amazing company and a good distraction from the countdown.

Distraction to include: BOBCAT encounter on my run.  Thank goodness Mrs. Bobcat was more interested in the bunny rabbits running around than this girl.

Tuesday, October 18

Road trip from Newport Beach to Twentynine Palms!  Woo hooo!

I took the trip slowly and stopped in Palm Springs on my way.

Once arriving in 29 I kept myself busy treating myself to dinner and making Welcome Home signage =). 

(Future Note to Self: Shower curtain liner is much easier to paint than a sheet although I must say, I surpassed my ar-tist skills.)

Wednesday, October 20

HOMECOMING

I tired to make the day as normal as possible.  I treated myself to a nice long breakfast, a run and some gym time.  Being the only girl in a gym on a Marine Corps Base = priceless.  I hung the Welcome Home signs I made (key to not letting the wind ruin your signage - put the zip ties not only on the corners, but also in various inside portions of the sheet/shower curtain liner as well).  I even managed to squeeze in an appointment at the DEERS office to update my military id with my new name in the hour I had to kill before the buses rolled in.

The local radio station was tracking the buses journey from March Air Force Base to Twentynine Palms encouraging folks to line the roads and Welcome Home 3/7!

A military homecoming is an overwhelmingly happy/awesome experience to be a part of; I am privileged to have been a part of several.  Definitely should be on every America's bucket list.  Even if you don't have a direct connection to a Marine/ Soldier - GO.  Watching a Marine meet his new baby boy/girl for the first time is indescribable... I get choked up just writing about it.

Several of 3/7s wounded Marines (even a few that had been wounded a few short weeks before) were there to Welcome Home their brothers as well.  AWESOME.

Since it rained the two days prior (who knew it rained in the dessert), our Homecoming was in a gym.  It wasn't until I parked my car and started walking inside that I finally let the excitement really set in and boy did it!  Once the buses were through Main Gate, the Marines were taken to the armory to check in their weapons (I only know this because luckily, I was texting with Parks the whole time). 

It's when the trucks of gear show up and start being unloaded that the reality that they are home sets in even more and the suspense mounts!

Knowing Mr. Parks all too well, I knew he would be the last one off the bus (no way would he allow himself to go inside before his Marines).  I sent him a text telling him that I would be standing towards the back of the crowd welcome line (think Tiger Walk set up minus the barricades for you AU fans) near the moon bounce.  Since it was just me (all of our friends were on later flights), I was my own cameraman/ videographer and decided that video would be the best chance for me to capture the moment.

Suddenly, the cheering, crying and jumping up and down began and one by one, the precious faces of those who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice began walking through the door. 

One by one Marines walked through the crowd to their families.  Hug after hug after hug - embraces of, "I am never letting you go again" all around me, but still no Parks.  I made a sign and wore heels in an effort to make my shorty self visible in the crowd.  Noting my sign and clearly my anxious face, Marines started assuring me, "ma'am Lt. Parks is coming."  My eyes were filled to the brim and my heart was racing as I anxiously stood on my tippy toes trying to catch the first glimpse.  All of a sudden I saw our friend Lt. Brewster standing at the doorway point towards me.  I dropped my camera* and ran... so much for getting that first footage of Parks.  I got footage of everyone else though - hahaha.

It's funny - as soon as he was back, it felt like he never left.

*No cameras were damaged in the making of this Welcome Home moment.  Thank goodness for camera wristlets.

WELCOME HOME 3/7!!!

WELCOME HOME LTs!!!

Abuzeid

Dzierzak
Fontanetta

Kilcullen

Madden

Schick

Wopschall

The LTs on this poster are all living/ storing their stuff in the same house.
I didn't leave anyone off =)

Lucky Lima, Welcome Home!

Welcome Home 3/7 Lima Co...

TODAY!!!

Oh Happy Day!

A week ago today a strange number called my cell phone =).  

Even after 6 weeks, I knew right away who's voice I was hearing on the other end!  I finally got a phone call from Chris (I had gotten a few short e-mails from him for the first time in 5 weeks, the week before)!  You would think a crazy intense wave of emotion would have come over me and it did... eventually.  Part of our conversation went a little something like this:

Chris (laughing/ surprised tone of voice): Why aren't you crying?

Me (who in situations like this would usually be balling crying): I am not really sure... I think I am in shock right now.  I mean, I have not heard your voice in almost six and half weeks.... talking to you right now is surreal... I can cry if you want me to?  Hahahaha.

Chris: Hahahaha, no no no, you don't have to cry.  (He doesn't like when I cry, even if it's happy tears.)

Talking Talking Talking

Me: Sooooo, is it going to be another 6 weeks before I hear your voice again?

Chris: I will hopefully be home by then.*

OH HAPPY DAY!

*We still do not have an exact homecoming date.  Mid to end of October is the projected time frame, but as I learned early on with the Marine Corps, things such as flight dates can change often... and they usually do.  Hopefully we will have an exact date soon, but regardless, homecoming will be here before we know it!!!

I am happy to report that we had a nice long 15 minute conversation via sat (satellite) phone before it cut out.  He was able to call me back and we chatted for at least another 10 minutes =).*  

*Not the norm apparently; I have heard horror stories of sat phones dropping calls every 2 minutes or so.

I am thankful for my 25 minutes that was only interrupted once =).

Chris sounded great; sounded a little tired, but in good spirits as always!

Yay America!!!

Iron Bowl 2006
Auburn 22 Bama 15

PS: I did cry my happy tears... several times since last Tuesday =)

American Bad Ass and Auburn Grad

I had the privilege of hanging out with Daniel several times when he was in DC recovering.  

He said he would get back to his fellow soldiers.

He did.

War Eagle.

Wounded in Iraq, double-amputee returns to war

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100925/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_amputee_soldier

Sat Sep 25, 6:13 pm ET

ASHOQEH, Afghanistan – When a bomb exploded under Dan Luckett's Army Humvee in Iraq two years ago — blowing off one of his legs and part of his foot — the first thing he thought was: "That's it. You're done. No more Army for you."

But two years later, the 27-year-old Norcross, Georgia, native is back on duty — a double-amputee fighting on the front lines of America's Afghan surge in one of the most dangerous parts of this volatile country.

Luckett's remarkable recovery can be attributed in part to dogged self-determination. But technological advances have been crucial: Artificial limbs today are so effective, some war-wounded like Luckett are not only able to do intensive sports like snow skiing, they can return to active duty as fully operational soldiers. The Pentagon says 41 American amputee veterans are now serving in combat zones worldwide.

Luckett was a young platoon leader on his first tour in Iraq when an explosively formed penetrator — a bomb that hurls an armor-piercing lump of molten copper — ripped through his vehicle on a Baghdad street on Mother's Day 2008.

His Humvee cabin instantly filled with heavy gray smoke and the smell of burning diesel and molten metal. Luckett felt an excruciating pain and a "liquid" — his blood — pouring out of his legs. He looked down and saw a shocking sight: his own left foot sheared off above the ankle and his right boot a bloody mangle of flesh and dust.

Still conscious, he took deep breaths and made a deliberate effort to calm down.

A voice rang out over the radio — his squad leader checking in.

"1-6, is everybody all right?" the soldier asked, referring to Luckett's call-sign.

"Negative," Luckett responded. "My feet are gone."

He was evacuated by helicopter to a Baghdad emergency room, flown to Germany, and six days after the blast, he was back in the U.S.

As his plane touched down at Andrew's Air Force Base, he made a determined decision. He was going to rejoin the 101st Airborne Division any way he could.

For the first month at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Luckett was bound to a wheelchair. He hated the dependence that came with it. He hated the way people changed their voice when they spoke to him — soft and sympathetic.

He wondered: how long is THIS going to last? Will I be dependent on others for the rest of my life?

At night, he dreamed of walking on two legs.

When he woke, only the stump of his left leg was there, painfully tender and swollen.

His family wanted to know, is this going to be the same Dan?

He assured them he was.

Luckett was fortunate in one sense. His wounds had been caused not by shrapnel, but the projectile itself, which made a relatively clean cut. That meant no complications — no joint or nerve damage or bone fractures.

His right foot was sheered across his metatarsals, the five long bones before the toes. Doctors fitted it with a removable carbon fiber plate that runs under the foot and fills the space where toes should be with hardened foam.

His left leg was a far bigger challenge.

In early July, Luckett strapped into a harness, leaned on a set of parallel bars, and tried out his first prosthetic leg.

It felt awkward, but he was able to balance and walk.

The next day, Luckett tried the leg on crutches — and tried to walk out the door.

"They were like, 'You gotta' give the leg back,'" Luckett said of his therapists. After a brief argument, they grudgingly gave in. "They said, 'If you're gonna be that hard-headed about it, do it smart, don't wear it all the time.'"

By February 2009, he had progressed so far, he could run a mile in eight minutes.

He rejoined his unit at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and told his battalion commander he wanted to return to duty "only if I could be an asset, not a liability," he recalled.

Months later, he passed a physical fitness test to attain the Expert Infantryman's Badge. It required running 12 miles (19 kilometers) in under three hours with a 35-pound (16-kilogram) backpack. It was a crucial moment, Luckett said, "because I knew if I can get this badge, then there's nothing they can say that I'm not capable of doing."

The Army agreed, and promoted him to captain.

In May, he deployed to Afghanistan.

On his first patrol, wearing 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of gear and body armor, Luckett slipped and fell down. But when he looked around, everybody else was falling, too.

The region around his outpost at Ashoqeh, just west of the provincial capital of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, is surrounded by irrigation trenches and 4-foot (1.2-meter) high mud walls that grapes grow over. Troops must traverse the treacherous terrain to avoid bombs on footpaths.

Capt. Brant Auge, Luckett's 30-year-old company commander, said Luckett was as capable as every soldier in his company, and treated no different.

"He's a soldier who just happens to be missing a leg," said Auge, who is from Ocean Springs, Mississippi. "He tries to play it down as much as possible, he doesn't like to bring a lot of attention to it."

On one of those early patrols, Luckett took to a knee and his pants leg rode up a little bit, revealing the prosthetic limb to a shocked group of Afghan soldiers nearby, Auge said. One gave him the nickname, the "One-legged Warrior of Ashoqeh."

Beside his cramped bunk-bed, the 185-pound (84-kilogram), 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) Luckett keeps prosthetic legs for different tasks, each with a carbon fiber socket that attaches to his thigh.

One is fitted with a tennis shoe for running, another a boot. One, made of aluminum so it won't rust, has a waterproof black Croc for showering. The most important leg though, he saves for patrols. It is made with a high-tech axle that allows him to move smoothly over uneven terrain. His squad leader painted its toenails purple.

Luckett's prothesis is often a source of good humor — most often generated by Luckett himself.

Some joke of his advantage of having little to lose if he steps on a mine. "That's always a big one," he said, "but the reality is, you don't want to step on an IED (bomb) because you enjoy living and you want stay living. The fear is no different than any other soldier."

Before heading to Afghanistan, Auge said Luckett had an as yet untried "master plan" to upset the insurgents.

Troops would have Luckett step on a mine and blow his fake leg off. He'd then look up at the trigger man while whipping a replacement leg over his shoulder and slipping it on.

"Then he would flip them off," Auge said, "and keep on walking."

___

Associated Press Writer Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

Looking Good Solider

Hot Off the Presses!

Still have not heard from Chris, but word on the street is he is doing well!

Thank you Gunny Lacy for your great work keeping the fb page updated and for snapping this pic. =)!

War Eagle