A little update, and a little commentary...

So I go to the Radiology department at Langley AFB hospital yesterday, for yet another ultrasound. Still a girl, and still just one, much to Paul's chagrin. He'll get over it. Anyways,
my amniotic fluid(the cushion for the baby) is still low. So, I'm wondering what they are going to do with me now. This ought to be interesting.

Alright, my commentary. Being a servicemember, you're bound to get the occassional comment from folks(regardless, I might add, or whether or not you have spent any time in the war zone, OR whether or not the person commenting to you has a snowball's chance in hell of knowing what they are talking about) about The War. And I am sure that everyone is intelligent enough to realize that there are as many opinions on the topic as there are people commenting on it. Now, officially speaking, the members of the armed forces in the U.S. are not allowed to represent their own opinions as that of the military entity. But, I would like to educate the passersby to my blog, a little about the military, from a first-hand perspective, and a little insight into the minds of those of us who serve our country by wearing the uniform.

I come from a LONG, long line of military servicemembers. My grandfather served in the Army, in the calvary, when his primary mode of transport( a horse, yes, a living, breathing animal) was issued to him by the Army. My uncle parachuted into France at D-Day, and lived with his legs permanently blackened from being shot in the air on the way to the ground(that's illegal nowadays, but wasn't then). My dad was drafted during the Korean war and was stationed in Germany, and ran a grocery store that was on a train, for the Army. My oldest brother was drafted during Vietnam, and based on his looks(yes this is done in the military), was made an Intel guy. He was a Psychological Ops guy, meaning that he went in and collected intel in places that he blended in well with. For him, his area of the world was Central and South America. Anyone recall Panama in the 80's??? Yea.....my brother can't tell me what he did, or specifically where he was, but I know he was there, as he took his weapon with him, and let's just say that a 'visit' to Cancun doesn't include taking along uniforms and an M-16A2. My other older brother went into the Navy during Vietnam, and was a Corpsman(medical tech in the civvy world). I have 2 cousins in the military, plus me......so prick me, I bleed Army Green. So I joined up, and went into the Air Force.

I have been in the military, on active duty, for a little over 5 years. I have served in Iraq, at Balad AB/Camp Anaconda, something like 50 miles(depending on who's driving) from Baghdad. I was the first woman to go there and armor the trucks that go on the convoys. I've been shot at by people I never saw or met, simply because I was an American servicemember. I lived in fear of hearing the impacts of the mortars hitting the ground, and feeling the ground under my feet shake like an earthquake when those same mortars got close to where I was. I've sat in the bunkers outside the shop I worked, and talked with the guys I worked with about what meal I wanted to eat when I got home, and we'd describe it, too....in detail. What we wanted to drink, the things that we take for granted and complain about while home, those things are a source of comfort to those being shot at. Like mowing the grass, or pruning my rose bushes. It allows the mind to rest for a bit from the stress of hiding from the things that go bump in the night. I've woken up disoriented, as my mind would dream of home, and wake to the reality I wasn't there, and it becomes disorienting. I've been asked, by Scout, my 10 year old son, if I had to shoot anyone while I was in Iraq. I have a medal and the shellshock to prove I am a war veteran.

The American media, let me say, is terribly biased and terribly political. They report what they want people to believe, not what is happening. And most of the American people follow what they report, believe what they are told to believe, like cattle. It's no wonder that the public hates the war, believes that there's no good coming out of Iraq, etc, ad nauseum. So much for being able to think for one's self. Like animals led to the slaughter, the American media leads people to believe what they want them to believe, without the thought ever crossing their minds that the report might be biased, or not researched, etc. It's gospel truth cause it's on TV, right? Tommy Lee Jones was sooooo right when he talked about the difference between 'people' and 'a person' in the movie 'Men In Black'. I'll let you look it up and see what I am talking about. Talk to a servicemember, they can tell you what good is coming out of Iraq, you'll never hear it out of the American media.

My mother tells me on regular basis that we have no business sending 'our boys' into the Middle East. She neglects to recall her oldest daughter was there. But such is my mother. I've seen comments to servicemembers asking why we don't, for lack of a better way of putting it, negotiate our way our of going over there, why we go anyways, since 'we all know it's an illegal war'. Let me explain this a little bit. 2 May 2001, I put my right hand in the air, and took an oath that I would follow the orders of the President of the United States(regardless of my own opinion or what party he was from), and the officer and non-commissioned officers appointed over me. Meaning, that until my contract was up, or I was kicked out or killed, I would go where I was told, and do what I was told to do while I was there. nowhere, NO WHERE in there was there a clause for 'if I agree with the order' or 'if it's the right thing to do'. Let me make one thing very crystal clear......the elected officials, aka the politicians in the United States make the policy for the country. That is their job. The military is merely an enforcer/defender of that policy. THE MILITARY DOESN'T MAKE POLICY - IT'S NOT OUR JOB. So, 1 May of 2005, when I was handed orders sending me to Iraq, I had my opinions. And yes, I voiced them. But I went anyways. Why? Because it was an order. The military isn't consulted in whether or not we want to go to war. It's our job to fight the wars, that's why we are the military and there's no more draft. We volunteer for this job. We willingly sign up, wear the uniform, and go places others don't want to go. We don't have to like it, we just have to do it. The military falls under a whole additional code of laws and regulations, called the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And violation of that code brings punishment ranging ffom extra duty and loss of pay to imprisonment, and in certain instances, death. Things like not paying your bills are punishable under that code, and you can be kicked out for that. In combat, we fall under the Laws of Armed Conflict, which dictate what we can bomb, who we can kill, and in what circumstances. For instance, your local church....in itself, according to the Laws Of Armed Conflict, can't be bombed, as it's not a military target. But, if folks use that church to store bombs and such, then game on....it's also policy that we don't represent our opinions as the opinions of the military. So that ought to tell you why we don't negotiate our way out, blah, blah, blah.....

My bottom lines for this are simple.....for one, know what the hell you are talking about before you start questioning servicemembers about why we do things like go to war. Research, know what you are talking about. Don't take everything on TV as gospel. It's not. Don't hate the military for following our orders. We do it so you don't have to. Think of it like that. Don't protest my fellow servicemembers who died. For one thing, they don't notice you, they are dead. For another, show some freaking respect for the dead. Protest the war to those who decide to send the military, not to the military itself, people are wasting their breath and time thinking that the military is going to change whether or not we get sent. Efforts are totally misdirected.

As one last little bit on this, let me say this......if someone breaks into your house, holds you and your loved ones at gunpoint, and you have a gun as well, are you going to negotiate your family loved ones out of harm's way? Not me, hell no. That person will die, and by my hands. I will defend my family as I havedefended my country, for we should love both the same way.