My son, the soldier

This is me with my soldier. He's training for deployment to Afghanistan. He'll be heading there at the end of September. It's a 15-month deployment (that's the norm now, up from what used to be the maximum - 12 months). However, he's joining a unit that's already over there, so he'll be there only a year.

The normal rotation, as it currently stands, would bring him back to Italy for three months, then send him back to Afghanistan for another 15 months. The "surge" strategy failed to take into account the limited number of enlisted in this volunteer army. As a result, deployments are longer and troops are being forced to return for multiple hazardous assignments. It's time to stop the madness.

My son enlisted less than a year after the September 11th incident. He was a senior in high school. Yes, I was concerned, but the conflict in Afghanistan seemed oddly reminiscent of our conflict in the gulf war, where resistance was minimal and the loss of American lives extremely limited. I remember telling my son to stay out of helicopters. It seemed that, more than attacks from the enemy, helicopter accidents were taking the lives of American soldiers. I thought that he'd be safe if he could just stay out of those whirly-birds.

But then we expanded our efforts into Iraq. At that point, everything changed. We were no longer fighting against a country who backed the terrorist attack which leveled those national landmarks in New York City and robbed hundreds of innocent civilians of their lives. We're fighting a battle we should never have started and, like the bully on the playground, are refusing to admit that our attack was in error. We found no weapons of mass destruction. We jumped into a centuries-old civil war and now we don't seem to know how to extricate ourselves from the turmoil. While we try to determine a strategy, we sacrifice the lives of boys like my son. Boys who, motivated by the sales pitch of their military recruiters, signed away years of their lives for their country. Not all of them were prompted to sign up based on patriotism, although it's popular to think that. Many were just kids who didn't have any specific direction or didn't want to go straight from high school into college. Many were tempted by the salary the recruiter promised or by the benefits and promise of adventure. Now, they find themselves being put into situations where their lives are at risk.

I haven't seen my son since Christmas. His birthday was August 22. The best I could do was wake up at 2AM to call him (8AM his time) to wish him a happy birthday. I couldn't hug him or cook him his favorite meal. It's the first birthday in 22 years that he has not been home. If all goes well and he remains safe in Afghanistan, I hope to see him in August of 2008 - maybe for his 23rd birthday.

Paul, I was not offended by your post on this subject. I share your opinion. It's just very hard for me because the subject hits me on such a personal level. He's my first child. No matter what, there is always something special about the first one. I rarely get to see him - even more rarely now that he's overseas. Even when he's not in Afghanistan, his new home base is in Italy, a $900 round-trip flight. It's a little different than visiting home from Georgia or Oklahoma. And I try not to think about what could happen to him over the next year. It's just too terrifying.

At least he's not in Iraq, where the casualties are far greater. But he's in danger and I can't do anything to protect him. There is no worse situation for a mother to be placed in than to be helpless to protect her child.

PS: GOOD NEWS! I heard from Born Fool, who is having computer problems. (Sounds familiar!) He's okay.

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS!! My son called today to say it looks like he will be assigned to another unit which will NOT deploy. He will stay in Italy, repairing computers and electronic equipment, just like he was doing in Oklahoma. You can't even imagine the relief! I'm going to set my clock to call him at 2AM again (8AM his time) because I got this news as a voice mail message and I'd really like to TALK to him!