Sweetheart called me while he was still at the range. Our conversation was punctuated by the bang-bang-bang of machine gun fire.
On the very scary plane ride home, I pretty much decided that MeuAmor, the Army, and I are not going to work out. He's been angry about my deployment since I told him about it, and it hasn't gotten any better. I cancelled my trip to Brazil, and now I'm breaking it off with the Brazilian boyfriend. Go figure, eh?
In not so many words, he told me that it was him or the Army. Amor, I love you, I'm crazy about you, but don't make ultimatums involving the Army. You will always lose. He says that he said it in anger. It doesn't matter. It stung then and it hurts now.
Everyone else has not exactly been okay with it, but at least no one has been angry. At least not like he has been.
I went to the club last week in tears. Instructor Playa talked to me. Fifi talked to me. Chica talked to me. And Sweetheart spent the night talking to me, dancing with me, and making sure that I was alright.
Such a contrast.
They asked for volunteers, so I volunteered. I deployed and spent a year in the sandbox. I came home. The Army decided I was too broken to serve any longer and gave me temporary medical retirement. I'm a civilian again and married right back in. My husband is gearing to deploy. In the meantime, I have a strange love-hate relationship with the Army. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't.
About Me
- Techno
- I'm a contradiction all by myself. Soldier and student. Stargazer and computer geek. Boots and music. Paper pusher and globetrotter. It all works out in the end.
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A bit of history...
There was a call for volunteers to deploy in Spring of 2006. I volunteered, was selected, passed the screening process, and was sent to reclassification training to go from being a bandsman to a human resource specialist. After graduation, I was home for roughly a month. I met the rest of my new unit right before we were sent to mobilization training. Once validated, we were sent overseas in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
I left university, quit my job, dumped my foreign boyfriend, and said a few very painful goodbyes. But I don't regret it one bit.
In early August, I was MEDEVAC'd out of the desert. My unit was just a few weeks away from going home. Now my only job is to get better. The irony is that they returned to their homes before I did.The Army has offered me disability and temporary retirement pay. I'm taking it. Bye bye combat boots.
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