Fabulous Army Life

I am always so proud and usually a little emotional on Veteran's Day.  I am continuously amazed by the courage and sacrifice displayed by our Nation's heroes and Veteran's Day gives me a special day to reflect on just that.  Each generation of Americans has grown its own heroes and each battle, war, and conflict has produced unbelievable tales of heroism and bravery. My generation is no different.  In our 17+ years in the Army, I have met some of the most selfless heroes of our time.  Our Soldiers are strong, disciplined, smart warriors that have kept our nation safe and our people protected through some of the most turbulent times in recent years. On this Veteran's Day, I was greeted with some of the most wonderful news I could have hoped for.  Our battalion, who has served in Iraq for the past six months, has crossed the border into Kuwait!  They will be returning six months earlier than originally expected and getting safely into Kuwait is step one o...

I’d like to think that being an Army spouse has enhanced my views on holidays like Memorial Day. It’s one thing to honor an unknown group of heroes, and quite another to remember someone a little closer to home. Seeing the wife of a fallen Soldier in a local restaurant, watching kids whose Dad will never come home playing at the park, passing a unit headquarters with photos of their fallen comrades … common sights around the community where I live … it definitely brings this holiday home, and makes me more cognizant of those I did know as well as the numbers of unknown heroes that I didn’t. I remember another patriotic holiday, the first I had ever spent off of United States soil. My husband and I were in South Korea and had travelled to Osan to see an American 4th of July rodeo and fireworks. I had been looking forward to it and hadn’t really thought much about the fact that we were in a foreign country that day; but when our national anthem began to play, all of the sudden, I fou...