It's 4 a.m. and I'm on the laptop visiting half way around the world with Casey.. It's 15 here, I have a sore throat and we have the day off today for snow,, sleet and ice really.. In Baghdad it's 60 or so degrees and 2 in the afternoon. He's waiting for a security mission that he normally goes on to call.. Playing on the internet to make plans for R and R time. His time for coming home was to be in July but now it seems that things are changing. So we chat about other possible times. It's not like the Army is going to give you what you want anyway. So the change in plans is just that... A change..We hope that he can ask for March, when we have spring break here, no work for me and the college is closed too so Derek and I won't have classes and Casey's Uncle and Aunt will be home as well, since they both work for the college. We are lucky that with this son's deployment he has internet so that we can chat more. We get calls, all be it early in the morning, about every 2 weeks. To hear his voice is so great, then to webcam more often and see him is wonderful, too. We hear his voice on Webcam too but it's a different computer scratchy sound, the phone is better. It's generally like he's just across town. Isn't it amazing that we even get to do these things.
And then in a second he's off.. the call comes and his group is off to do their job.. the Instant message is over.. the conservation is done, he types, "I have to go" in one screen, and then "I love you, bye" in the next window.. someone on the other side of the world has called him to work. It's what he signed up for, helping others, protecting our country, serving his time in the Army to do what he believes is helping us and others. He's gone for now. I type back fast and hit enter, "I love you too, bye". One second we were chatting about a different date for R and R. looking at beach houses on the web, dreaming of the time we can see him. Where we will go and then done~ Plans change, things move along.
Just like life here, but different, we plan to have work and school and then the weather changes our plans.. A snow day today. We thought it would be on Monday, but the weather system that the weather men had planned for, didn't come until later on Monday. So we have the day off (Tuesday) since the roads are slick and it's dangerous to be out. Changing plans that most of us enjoy since we work at a school. Others, like Don will stay home and do some things for work from the home computer and then go in later when the sun is up and the streets cleared. Others have closed their business to keep workers home and safe. But the Army marches on. No sleet and freezing rain in Iraq, today. There are the occasional sand storms and those do shut things down right away. But generally things go along each day. Change is often, comes with out warning, and must be taken and dealt with right away.
The permanent change has come to the soldiers of the 82nd, they have lost two members of their group since they have been in Iraq. It's the last thing a mother of a soldier wants to hear. NO call and NO strange vehicles coming to my house I think, but then who really knows. I talk to Casey about it a bit, (on IM last week) he knows the second soldier that was killed. He heard the IED explode and on the radio the chatter of the seriousness. I ask no more...
I can only imagine how he feels knowing what has happened, what this change means. I look up the names, ages and ranks of the soliders on the net. To make it real in my mind, I suppose, and to put some personal sense to the whole situation. Yes, they are real. So many times I hear the names and see the numbers of those that have given the ultimate, but did NOT KNOW them. Most, I have never known, this one time, Casey did know. No snow day, or no change of vacation plans will really make a difference. But this loss, this ultimate change will really make a difference, to us and many others who loved these two soldiers.
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