An FST At Work (Forward Surgical Team)

Okay, I think I can share this because quite honestly, it looks like every other ER Photo stateside. That's right...down to the chair on the left and the cubbies on the wall. But we all know there are big differences. The FST's take care of not only soldiers, but locals and insurgents as well. They do so with great professionalism and pride.

So here it is:
"A patient has been brought in. The staff works to ascertain what needs to be done. The surgeons stand by to let the team do their job. After surgery and stabilization, the patient will often be at a larger medical center out of the region within 2 - 3 days."

During this time, there's constant communication between the team and transport. The Hubs writes:
"The team is very, very skilled. We don't even have to talk when injured come in. It is quiet and calm because everyone knows just what to do without instruction, reminders or discussion. And it goes very fast. My job is mostly to tell the soldiers about their next few days and to make sure they get enough pain medication. And, of course, operate."

Also, the team has received many packages from supporters. From someone who has kicked around (and been kicked) for many years in this dysfunctional behemoth called the private healthcare system, your show of gratitude is much appreciated, and comes at a time when those who are serving need it the most. You are helping to boost the moral of not only those who serve, but are providing essentials for the local Afghans.

Monday Shout Outs: Thanks to Hope, who for a very long time was America's 1st Sgt's official handler and tamer. I can't say enough good things about her, and how she pulled together people from all walks of life to help give to the troops. Hope is on hiatus now, and we wish her many spa days! Also want to give a shout out to TankerBabe who flew to Atlanta just to spend a few hours with a friend and soldier in the Hartsfield before he deployed. (Being that I spend several hours there each year, I do hope you went to Paschal's!).
There are many others who have sent things, written me notes, or have said a friendly word in person. Thank you all.

Book & Blog Review: Solid Ground Amid Shifting Sands

This article was first published on Blogcritics and the LA Times Pressmen.

Anyone who has gone through middle age knows that one can either get out of the ego's way and proceed with change, or cling to a crumbling shore. One must be fearless, by which I don't mean standing on the street and challenging cars, but letting go of what you think you know in order to find happiness. Often we have to approach the very things we find intolerable, even repulsive. And always the hope is to re-find our natural sense of good will to carry with us and spread.

I've been on a spiritual path since changing gears, and more specifically since my husband was deployed as a surgeon to Afghanistan. He's in harm's way, and yet despite this very real threat, I'm experiencing firsthand the importance of letting go of both fear and the urge to control. I pause, send my prayers and thoughts, and then get on with building my life. Life is good.

Lately, I've returned to reading the late Fr. Thomas Merton's journals. Best known for his books New Seeds of Contemplation and The Seven Storey Mountain, Merton was a Trappist Monk, poet, artist and social activist who wrote prolifically about the human experience over a 30-year period. Because this is a blog and not an academic discourse on Merton, if I were to describe him, it would be this: he was a complex and curious man, engaged with life because of its tortuous path. The fifth journal, published after his unfortunate death in 1968, is Dancing In the Water Of Life. It resonates the most with me, with its talk of the duality of living with solitude and chaos.

There's a lot here to give perspective about the world today.

September 11, 1965 – It is said that the war in Kasmir is due in part to some mechanisms of the CIA. This is a very strange outfit from what I hear, and in some ways typical of what is ill about America. It appears to be monumentally stupid in the first place! What this country has to suffer from fools in the government. But since it is the most powerful country in the world, the whole world is endangered by the folly of these idiots.

And this, after an ex-seminarian burnt himself alive in front of the UN building:

"November 11, 1965 – I cannot understand the shape of things in the Peace Movement or the shape of things at all in this country. What is happening? Is everybody nuts?"

Merton grappled with events during the shifting politics of the '60's, whether it was the world at large, the Vatican, or the hermitage where he lived. The reader will find reassurance in seeing firsthand that even Merton had a hard time making sense of the era's events.

On the blog Curmudgeon: An Unlikely Army Chaplain, Fr. Tim shares his experiences in the US Army. In an entry called "I love my job," he talks of the freedom he finds in being able to help others during his deployments to Iraq, and soon Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro.

Fr. Tim describes himself as crusty and irascible, and indeed he often writes about things that annoy him. He's a Jesuit, a Catholic Priest, a former Stanford Professor in molecular neurobiology, and is now serving as a chaplain in the US Army.

He writes:

"I'm constantly amazed by the burdens that human beings shoulder, often in silence and solitariness. These men and women are no different."

Fr. Tim tells his readers of detaching himself with love from the soldiers he's counseled, knowing that God holds them even closer, and having to get out of their way so that their own spiritual experience may proceed. A good signal to the reader as well.

On my desk, there's a pile of cards. Each is printed with a different evocative word. I try to pick one at night before I go to bed. They can help set the focus for the next day. The other night, I chose "Gratitude." I was glad, because it's apropos. A few days ago, I was publishing a new iPhoto book about our summer. I think for most, our journey is difficult for others to understand, with the exception of some very close friends. So I summed it up simply by saying this:

"We have chosen to live with gratitude. Once you do this, life is easy."

Scary

More than likely the guy who committed these hideous acts was bipolar prior to enlisting. It's probably an incomplete diagnosis. Too bad he didn't get on medication when he was in his teens. Now he's also got PTSD. I can't believe no one ever suspected something was terribly wrong with him when he was younger --pre Army days. An adolescent with bi polar or borderline personality disorder is difficult to overlook. I'm glad this guy is behind bars.
Ex-Ranger Uses Skills For Crime

Meals You Missed

Just thought I'd show The Hubs. We baked a cake in the new oven.

And we made our usual Sunday Fried Chicken.

We hear you're being fed okay.

But when you're not here, dinner seems less an event.
On the other hand, Louie and Panda are getting their share.

Politics At The Trashcan

This article was originally published on Blogcritics.org with comments...which caused quite a stir!

"Sorry I have not written much lately. We have had a hard couple days. We are running full tilt. And always we have lots of kids in the clinic. We are tired. But we are well."

Earlier in the day, I received this email from The Hubs. As a surgeon's wife for over twenty years in one of the busiest metropolitan areas in the US, I could only imagine what had ripped through the trauma center in a combat zone. Hence, I was in no mood for a round of Trash Can Politics.

"How is your husband?"

The person asking caught me as I was taking the trash cans to the curb. I've assiduously avoided her, since every inquiry about The Hubs is followed by a cutting opinion about the war in Afghanistan. She is, like many in this suburb, tucked away from the untidiness of life. Here in the land of the car, there are few amputee veterans trying to catch buses, nor in plain view are mothers raising four children while their spouses are at war. This community is voluntarily cut off from the untidiness of the larger world, mired in static rhetoric and conventional wisdom. This town is rose bushes and palm trees.

Turns out she's watched Charlie Wilson's War, her launching point at the Trash Can Summit on a hot summer day. She continued, her range extending to Blackwater, as I walked across the street to move an ailing neighbor's cans to the curb as well. Nothing was going to deter her from expressing her disgust, not my own reading and research into culture, my correspondence with people on the ground, my daily review of milblogs, or my camping out in the library where such books are kept.

"And why are we doing this? For what? Are you going to change their culture?" she asked.

Such a broad question cannot be answered. Especially, while walking barefoot on the black asphalt and hauling cans to the street. But it didn't matter. She didn't really want an answer. People like her never do.

Like many, her stance is that it's hopeless. We should pull out. And it's said with no further thought, other than likening a pull out to something like deciding to leave Barbados. Just pack the bags up, call a cab, and get on the next plane out.

As in:

"Sorry people of Afghanistan, sorry we messed up your villages, and sorry ladies ... sorry we gave you a glimpse of education. Sorry, no more soccer games. The Taliban will take over the stadium in Kabul to mutilate and murder again. We have to go now. Because we as Americans don't deal with hopelessness very well. We were mistaken. Sorry for the bother. Our roses are awaiting."

Oh, spare me the knee jerk reactions. Spare the soldiers who have their asses on the line, spare the Afghans who are working with us and risking their lives. Spare the women who went to vote for the very first time. Don't even insinuate that everyone in countries around the world who has died fighting this scourge of oppression did so for nothing. Unless you want to stare into the abyss of hell, don't ever approach a milspouse and tell him or her that what their loved ones are doing is crap. Spare us your pontificating and inference of your higher moral ground. Watching Charlie Wilson's War doesn't give you the fiber to call the shots.

I pushed out the last trash can, and told her that eight years ago, both houses of Congress went along with this thing. Only one congresswoman from the San Fransisco Bay Area thought to question it, and was roundly dismissed. Imagine that! Only one out of hundreds thought to raise her hand.

That wasn't a vote, it was herd of lemmings jumping off a cliff. But whether or not we agree or disagree, the reality is we are there. Unless we start listening to the guys with boots on the ground, purely partisan responses stall us, make us behave like Bambi-in-headlights. The only solutions lie beyond partisan politics, and beyond the mindsets clung to by the right or the left.

We are there. And no one knows that better than military families.

It was an unpleasant exchange. But in her mind, perhaps her own war was won by sniping at me. Now, she can get back to her roses until she feels the urge to do it all over again.

A Writer's Journey: The Milblog Terrain

From Cartoon Stock

I've been cruising the MilSpouse boards and blogs. I think were it not for blogs, it'd be a much lonelier world for those of us who don't live near a base, and who are new to Planet Military.

I love milblogs. They offer a personal link and insight gained from boots-on-the-ground.

On Milspouse blogs, many write poignantly about missing their other half. Others exist to help spouses find crucial information on how the military system works --or doesn't. There are mama bloggers with young children -- important for those raising the kids alone. There are also partisan bloggers who write along party lines.

Every writer has an audience for whom they write.* I see the reader of The Kitchen Dispatch as curious. Maybe they're not even military and frankly --that's the reader I think needs the most to be reached by people within the military. Those like me, who knows just tendrils about the military, the middle east, the Taliban, the political machinations, or the pulse of the American vox populi when it comes to war. As I learn, I want to share ideas with my readers. I look at them as learning buddies (and man, I wish more would start commenting).

I hope this blog can be the fertile ground between child rearing and violating OPSEC rules. I might ponder the Middle East, talk about how news is reported or bemoan policies I find to be errant. I might even take you into my kitchen and misidentify vegetables, proving to everyone that I'm no Julia Child. I could show you pictures of boxes I send to Afghanistan, and also photos of my cat. I like to review books, and I'm hoping that when an agent has one, they'll send me an ARC, where I can do the same for a good one that I and my writing group did for Patricia Wood who wrote the critically acclaimed novel, Lottery.

Let's just say that over 20 years of writing has given me the wisdom to know that whatever I write about, it's because it's something I care deeply about. After all, anything written about that I don't care about would simply be typing and not interesting at all.

*When I started my first blog, "Get Lost With Easy-Writer" my audience was primarily the newspaper industry insiders. Later, I branched into Fashion Journalism, covering the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. My audience was the fashion industry. The Writerly Pause, a group blog I started for a literary fiction group of writers, had as its audience other writers. On all of my blogs, the common chord is that it's a literary approach to looking at things --seeking out the small details that make up the sum of the whole, and always trying to find some deeper meaning.

Operation Purple: Camp Yellow Ribbon

First, they put up a wall of photos, honoring their parent who is or has been deployed.
Then they got busy and had a rollicking time!
Daughter just got back from one week of canoeing,
archery, rock climbing, singing camp songs,
and surfing at a camp for military kids.
Thank you for giving our daughter and many others the best week of their summer.
This camp was made possible by:

National Military Family Association,
Corporation for National & Community Service,
Feeding America,
First Book,
USO
In addition:
The camps are free to all participants,
thanks to support
from The Sierra Club and The Sierra Club Foundation.
Noah with camp staffer Savannah of Outdoor Outreach
And thank you to the staffs at YMCA Camp
and Outdoor Outreach in San Diego
and most especially former Marine and now Camp Director Noah Jones

In 2009, Operation Purple hosted

nearly 90 weeks of camp held in 62 locations in 37 states and territories.

To find out more about Operation Purple Camps go to the NMFA Site.

Below: kids singing, and The Tower

The Kitchen Dispatch Kitchen: Courtesy Of Combat Pay

It dawned on me after emailing with Laoch and also with Laughing Wolf, that there wasn't much kitchen in the Kitchen Dispatch. Our kitchen is 8'x12'. It's the original kitchen from when it was built in 1938. It's not very big by today's standards. There's no island, not a lot of counter space, but one person can work very efficiently in it. Besides, who am I to complain when I read that entire families in Afghanistan live in caves?

Anyway, though two can work in it, there's always one obstacle: the cat. Panda often sits in the middle and never tucks his tail (this is one of his genetic flaws --inability to learn how to tuck. We've tried to teach him to no avail).

Sometimes he's joined by our dog Louie. So cooking requires a bit of a dance, stepping over, or even moving the animal blocking access to one of the drawers. It was worse when we had a 70 pound Labrador who would do the same thing.

The new fridge and range

Some people wonder what a military family spends its combat pay on. It's not much, but some of it went to buying a new fridge and range because the other ones hadn't worked very well for years. I don't have a fancy kitchen, but it serves us well --even with animals sprawled in the middle.

I've noticed in some homes with big fancy kitchens, the people don't know how to knock out a roux, a beurre blanc, a meringue or make mac and cheese with basic ingredients. Tonight, my son learned how to make Fettucine Alfredo from scratch. I took him through it step by step, and he was pleased with the results. In other words, while a gourmet kitchen would be so cool, unless the person using it can cook, they might as well just buy a microwave and serve ding ding food. So what I'm saying is that although my kitchen is small, and though I could used more counter space ....we do okay.

So this is the kitchen from where The Kitchen Dispatch is written. Next up, we'll be putting in new counters, a hood and a floor. It's a lot of work, but the kitchen really needs it. After all, we have to PCS next year, and it's going to be rented out!

Hundreds Of Women In The Kunar province

...showed up to conference about the elections on Thursday.
Their struggles will be long and hard.

Sending good vibes, peace and prayers for peaceful elections in Afghanistan.

May everyone be safe.

Dull Reportage on Karzai, Unintentionally funny VOA Propaganda and Julia Child

Really, if you want to know the precise moment the LA Times went to hell, it was when Otis Chandler left to go race cars full time. It has never been the same since then, and it shows in the poor reportage. Right now, they might as well change the name of the paper to something eponymous, like "Zell Hell" or at least something that sounds catchy such as "Asleep At The Wheel."

First, there's the healthcare debacle, which warranted 5 articles written by me for my day-2-day blog, and then cross posted on the LA Times Pressmen site. I thought that was enough. But no. One of the idiot columnists the LA Times wrote this article in Sunday's edition which just blew me over. So I'll be returning to that issue sometime soon.

Another thing is their reporting on the Afghan elections. Okay, first off --I'm glad they're putting them on page one, with some of the other issues around it. After all, this is the same LA Times that has been running Michael Jackson stories for the past month. But what irks me is today's headline which was that Karzai was the front runner. This is a surprise? This is the story ...of all the stories they chose? This isn't like watching the Bush/Gore Florida Musical Chairs Competition, nor was it the McCain "Who Is She?" Campaign Implosion. Anyone following the events on milblogs knows that not even James Carville's hottest Louisiana pepper zingers is going to help Ashraf Ghani unseat Karzai. So this being the case ...I wonder why the LA Times didn't focus on why Ghani decided to run, who is paying for Carville's services, who is paying Ghani to run, or follow Carville around Kabul --because there's one of those unbelievable stories of these elections.

Onto other institutions to pick on. I got a good laugh on VOA report on "tourism in Afghanistan" and the opening of the first national park. I know, Tony Wheeler can do it. But one look at his former company Lonely Planet, and even the most experienced travelers on the Afghanistan branch are advising people not to go right now. So the VOA's timing is way off, their propaganda comes off looking slightly out of touch. FYI, my friends and I have decided not to build a 5-Star Hotel in Bamiyan.

Anyway, I was trying to get away from politics and being pissed off in general, so I picked up a copy of Julia Child's "My Life In France," when I came across this salient point written by Ms. Child during the heat of the McCarthy era and has some punch today:

"In the blood-heat of pursuing the enemy, many people are forgetting what we are fighting for. We are fighting for our hard-won liberty and freedom; for our Constitution and the due processes of our laws: and for the right to differ in ideas, religion and politics. I am convinced in your zeal to fight against our enemies, you too, have forgotten what you are fighting for."

Yeah, I think that's become a problem. Or maybe what Ms. Child's wrote about is too abstract for this war. I thought we were there to kick some butt, make inroads by providing services and hope, and then come home and help secure our own borders (especially given that there's a nasty drug war just south of us). I dunno. All I see over here is a nation moving Afghanistan off its collective radar, the longer we're over there.

One thing fer sure... read her book. But don't do it at night because you'll get horribly hungry.
And on that note, I'll leave by telling you that yes, The Hubs got all the packages. This week, I'll also be filling a void on this blog, by showing you my kitchen.

Best Quote from Comments

"....the thought of the taliban drinking Peets coffee and munching on Oreos is not a nice vision unless they realise that cookies can be a good thing and to make a good cookie you need to read and to do that you need a school..."

-Angry Parsnip, in response to hearing the items sent to the troops might have been in the mail convoy attacked and destroyed by the Taliban

More on Women, Girls and Education

I'm taking a break from writing this weekend, and am leaving you with these two articles. Touching on a post I wrote about the future of women in Afghanistan a few weeks ago, Greg Mortenson had this to share in his email to supporters:

Girls at Torghu Balla, Pakistan Photo from Central Asia Institute
Swat, Pakistan - What was once a paradise for tourism and peace is now a wasteland of destruction. The violence in Swat has led to a humanitarian disaster: the largest displacement of population in Pakistan since the refugee crisis at its independence in 1947.
In Swat about 240 (mostly girls' schools) have been destroyed. CAI receives hundreds of emails and calls asking about the fighting in Swat and its impact on CAI schools. We are relieved to report that no CAI schools or projects have been affected. This is because of our schools' location as well as CAI's community-based philosophy, which creates a sense of ownership from the outset to protect their school. Only one CAI school has ever been threatened. In 2007, our school in Lalander village, in the Char Asiab valley of Afghanistan was attacked and held by the Taliban for two days. The local militia leader ousted the Taliban, and killed two of them. Now it is protected by ten Askari guards. The Taliban's incentive for attacking the school was a $3,000 bonus from a local mullah, who was given a harsh sentence by the district judge.

To read more go here: Central Asia Institute
AND....
In addition, the LA Times wrote a very compelling article that came with a slide show, you can view it here, at "Yearning To Soar.". (containes some photos that are a bit graphic of burn victims)
I also think we could learn a lot by what CAI has done since 1995 in regards to this 9-5 practice we've got going on. To read more about that, go over to Free Range International.

Photos Tell Different Stories

The Hubs took this photo beyond the wire of a shepherd kid and his donkey.

I love donkeys. I always wanted one. They're very cool little animals, and no doubt this donkey is highly valued.

So I was thinking oh, how cute this all was and how nice it is that he saw a kid and his donkey.

But then I read the caption he's written:

"Boy leading donkey away from firing range. The kids are very aggressive and run onto the range to collect the spent brass shells. They then take them to town where they sell them and they are used to make IEDs. Very Afghan. We have to be very careful to chase the kids and animals away first."

Use of Pictures: Enjoy The Goats

Unclassified Goats munching a shrubbery beyond the wire
I've been a blogger for a very long time. I've always held steadfast to two rules:
1. No photos of my kids.
2. No photos of my husband.
And that was before we landed on planet military.

Readers will notice that there are no photos of The Hubs, his colleagues, the FST in action, the FOB, nor any of the Afghans.

The final word came from The Hubs himself:

"Afghans who can be in any way identified with us are at great risk of being killed by the Taliban. They rule by murder and intimidation. Especially north of us where we get a lot of folks. So we can't even give them their medical records, notes, (to take with them) or anything that could connect them with us. "

There's also info on how they dispense meds, but I can't even divulge that. Going back to when I managed his clinic, everything was private. So it doesn't bother me to keep things mum, but I do realize on other Milblogs, they have pictures. But each circumstance is different.

What an FST does is ten times more dramatic and dangerous than anything seen on the TV shows "House" and "ER." The wounds are bigger, the stakes are higher, the uncertainty lingers around them like a pair of stale socks. Sounds like a real photo op, right?

Specialist Tripod: Kills mice with one paw.

Maybe not. A few weeks ago, the team got into a huge altercation with an embedded journalist who wanted to take photos of some of the trauma sent in. They said, "absolutely not."

Can you imagine if you found a photo of your loved one being stabilized or operated on after going through an IED attack? And can you imagine the problems one seemingly kind photo of a good doctor giving care to one of the local children might wreak on their family?

Obviously, the journalist hadn't, and so after being rebuffed he left in a huff without the pictures of the "heroic doctor teams" that would have garnered him a tight sum in a major newspaper. Fortunately, the team was having none of it, and they're to be commended. It shows a lot of consideration and caring.
So I give readers of this blog photos of Afghan dogs and cats, and pictures of the boxes we send over. I share information that's not going to compromise him and the team, nor any of the locals to whom they provide care.
If the military wants to take those photos and publish them they can. But I won't.

By the way, I did offer to adopt Tripod. But it would cost The Int'l Humane Society 4k to get him here. I do worry about her after the troops pull out someday.

Louie. Incredibly spoiled. Would not do well in Afghanistan.

Packages On Hold

Package from a faithful supporter
As a matter of safety and prudence, I've decided to hold all packages meant for the troops until after the Afghan elections. A mail convoy bound for The Hub's FOB was attacked. Either the mail was destroyed or pillaged. I'm very sorry for those hurt in the incident, as well as their families and friends who must be going through a horrific ordeal. I'm also very sorry for the soldiers who have been waiting for mail, and also for the friends, families and supporters who went to great efforts to gather up tokens to lighten up their day. I know that many supporters are on fixed incomes, others have recently lost jobs. Their efforts mean a lot to everyone.

On a lighter note, I can share this with you:

"A couple days ago we got an urgent call from the "Secret-Squirrels" about a sick patient. We ran there and found him lying in the back of an up-armored truck looking very bad.

He was all matted with mud and blood and he couldn't even stand on all four feet. He was some kind of Afghan version of a Golden Retriever. After looking up the veterinary medication doses we brought a bunch of stuff out to the truck. Under anesthesia we found a deep infection and drained it.

The next morning he was out chasing Afghans, nipping at their fluttery trouser-legs."

Praise be to search engines.
Hey.... picture please? After all, if I can't post pictures of you or the team, gimme photos of the animals!!!!

Sigh....CAKE

Yeah, I baked this cake.

Today is a good day for cake.
So I'll bake one!
I just wish he were here to enjoy it.
So I'll call the neighbors,
Yes, today is a good day for cake.

Good news: I heard from Dana Gioia, former National Endowment of the Arts Chairman who coordinated the project which resulted in the book Operation Homecoming, edited by Andrew Carroll. If you don't know, getting a letter from Dana Gioia is like hearing from Robert Frost. He's one of the Mister Bigs in the poetry world --that other zone I inhabit. Go over to his website and you'll see what I mean. He writes the stuff that makes grown men cry.

Anyway, It's always a thrill to get a nice letter from someone whose book I've reviewed. He was most appreciative for the thumbs up. I hope projects like this continue. Everyone needs a creative outlet in which to express themselves.

If I were to recommend one book to a family member, friend, or just someone who wants to know more about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this would be it. The process involved thousands of people both here and abroad. A combination of soldiers and family members partook in one of the many writing workshops offered in person and audiobook.

If you haven't read my review, please go here: Kitchen Dispatch Book Review: Operation Homecoming.
As always,
Peace, love and cake!

Get Lost With Easy-Writer: Kurt Vonnegut, Cake, Kindness, Dogs & Big Guns

"We all feel a bit better after "Bubba," our local SEAL took me, and others to practice shooting."
Read the rest at...
Get Lost With Easy-Writer

Relaxation: Keeping Technology At Bay

Yoga and walking, followed by swimming are my favorite ways to exercise.

I also think gardening is a great way to get beyond oneself, and any other hobby that shifts a person into a different mode --especially in this day and age when the internet seems to have a greater hold on us than it should. As my yoga teacher has said, "Don't get used by technology. Use it, but don't let it use you. A good example of this is a person who won't put the Blackberry down --even when visiting friends. They can't concentrate on who they are with at the moment, and are hostage to what someone far away is posting, commenting on, or conveying. Technology controls them. In other words, their life is way out of balance.

It's a struggle for me, too. As someone who is compelled to write --words are my arsenal, the lure of the computer is always present. But... yoga, gardening, walking, being with friends are as vital as putting the words together. They're the basis of ideas, the stones that make up the path of writing.

Fortunately, I'm so technologically challenged, I've never figured out how to hook all those things to my phone!
So here's a bit of music that I've found great for transitioning to other things.

The World Needs Violet

And her protective force field.

He Got The Boxes: An Appreciation

The Hubs Has Sent A Note:

"We appreciate the boxes. I have been behind, but I will send thank you notes. I will also send you photos of the contents. I know the senders are great people and I do thank them for their efforts. The finger puppets are really good.
Also, the little stuffed animals are great because the soldiers can carry a handful around in their pocket all the time. The Special Forces guys are already marching through the hills with little stuffed animals in their pockets.

I gave the monkey and the panda to a girl of about 8 who had an amputation twelve days ago. She smiled for the first time since her surgery. (My note: A horrible injury. She's in our prayers).

I gave half of the writing and drawing supplies to the local clinic across the road with instructions to give them to the kids as they come through."

Those little stuffed animals were from IKEA and they were .45 cents a piece. (When I was buying them, I wished they were .25). We only bought 20. Now I wish I had 100.
I also sent him some pillow cases, since they didn't have any. I gave him the kids' old ones that they never use anymore.Pongo, Hello Kitty, and Power Puff Girls...

By the way, I did something really stupid. You see those "grow capsules?" I sent those. I shouldn't have. Fortunately, my husband knows better than to hand those out. They're not to take. You put those in water and they grow a sponge shaped animal. But what I didn't realize was that someone in the stone age might see the words "grow capsule" and take them. Like, wash them down. But they'd kill a person once they dissolved. So he'll use them as props to engage the kids. Don't send those!

Also, thanks to Hope. She's such a shopping bunny. Gotta love her. Even if she won't partake of that red velvet cake! There are also others who have sent things and don't want to be publicly acknowledged. We are grateful for all those who have taken the time to shop and post. We also thank them for their thoughts and prayers. Karma is on your side!

I'm writing a lot about health care these days over on my day-2-day blog, Easy-Writer

Dogs & Fancy Shopping: New Photos From Downrange

click to bigify photos
Afghan Puppy --one of many. Dogs aren't vetted over there as the poverty is absolutely crushing. Troops often adopt the animals --they're a great stress reliever. This one looks like a sweetie.

Can't show you pictures of any kids or personnel for obvious reasons.
But here's a photo of the FST's newest Puppy.


Now, here's where you go for some fancy shopping. See? There's a WalMart, a Gucchi Store and a Target! I wonder if their version of WalMart has a greeter, or folks doddering in the aisle trying to decide between one cheap thing or the other. Hey, but look.... all the parking you want! No SUV's to barrel you over.... well, maybe there's a Humvee or two...
This is what he writes:
"everything you need as long as it is a rug, bootleg DVDs or cigarettes." -The Hubs

Military Book Review: Operation Homecoming

This was written for & published on Blog Critics.org. To order the book, go over to my Amazon picks on the sidebar.

A soldier writes home to his mother:

"Dear Ma,

They call them HERO missions. They are the worst kind.

It's the body bag in the back, that makes the trip rough."

Think of this as a book that belongs to all of us. It was born out of our collective psyche, as Americans who are witness to an event that is shaping our generation and those after.

Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Homefront in the Words of Soldiers and Their Families, is an anthology of stories about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Written by soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines, as well as family members, Operation Homefront chronicles first hand experiences in the form of essays, short stories and poetry.

The story of how this project came together is worth telling, for this was a broad reaching and collective effort. Operation Homecoming was the culmination of a several years long project thought of and funded by the National Endowment of The Arts. According to Dana Gioia, a poet and the former head of the NEA, the project is the result that started in a tavern full of poets, some of whom had had experience either as military family members, or as parents and even veterans themselves. This is not a surprising. Poets chronicle contemporary life, whether in meter or free verse, they aptly put emotions about life events into words.

The result of this tavern talk was an NEA sponsored series of writing workshops for military members and their families at bases with an august group of writers and poets leading them. It was a group of writers from all genres, from Tom Clancy to Judith Ortiz. Some soldiers were still deployed, others had rotated out, and many were recovering from life changing injuries. Similarly, the spouses and parents also wrote about how their lives had changed. This was the chance for those who serve to put down in whatever form they wanted, their war time experience. The response was overwhelming, a watershed of faxes, email, sat phones calls from Baghdad and Kabul from soldiers and families wanting to take the workshops. In all, there were fifty workshops at twenty five bases, in five countries. Over 6,000 troops and spouses took them, and another 25,000 received workshops via audiobooks. It's no understatement to say that Operation Homecoming was Chairman Gioia's greatest project during his tenure as NEA chairman.

Poet Dana Gioia

There were over 2,000 submissions for the book. The selection committee included writers, historians, journalists and editors, who gamely whittled down the final pieces for this book. Editor Andrew Carroll is to be commended for letting the tone and styles of the various writers stay as is, not an easy task to do when faced with so many pieces. What made it in is a full story of these wars, the impact, and an accounting of a nation that is still undergoing a transition from unaware, to staggering under the newfound pressure.

A mother who lost her son writes:

"The Days have become different. Sorrow is a tiny tile in the mosaic, which doesn't lesson the sadness, and flashes of grief still come."

In a poem, a soldier reflects on a cat:

"She came to me skittish, wild.

The way you're meant to be,

surrounded by cruelty.

I did not blame her.

I would do the same."

A soldier recounts the despicable:

"And then there was the matter of rapes. An old man stopped a patrol of ANA and compained about Zia Auden's men who were touching the schoolboys, who were always crying when they passed his house. He'd even seen Audin's soldiers taking the boys into their barracks."

This collection represents the experience, not the political divisions that mire discussion about these wars. From those who feel privileged to have the opportunity to bring change, to the frustrations trying to comprehend the culture, as well as difficulties navigating the military way.

Often, it's not the big book written by the telegenic personality who tells the best story of war. It's not the journalist embedded with the troops, nor the General with the big publisher's advance. It's the stories from strangers and family members with the nuanced details that become a part of us, those voices waiting to be heard. We get to read history being written by those on the ground with no other motive than to tell their relate their experience. This book defines the best and worst of who we are as Americans. Easily, Operation Homecoming is a war literature classic.