Compadres

Compadres
It’s good to have friends who are still in uniform. I am lucky enough to know a few folks here at FLW either from my old Army days or through my parents. While I haven’t been the best getting in touch with either of them since I arrived here almost a two weeks ago, I did get to see Jen and her family, mainly because she was the commander of the officer advance course company Chris and I are getting classes from. Now Jen is a hoot, and she was a blast when she was a young LT in my prior unit. I hear of her exploits through Kristine most now and it appears that she has done pretty well with the Army. Her husband is in the military too and a commander in another company. They have a beautiful son and they are the typical proud parents who were put through some non-typical medical complications with their boy. It’s all good now because he is doing fine and is busy being a typical 1+ year old. The military has done a good job of taking care of the medical bills and flexible schedule needed for a child with special needs. Gripe all you want about the Army, but you have to give them props for keeping this military family out of the poor house due to outlandish medical bills. Jen and her husband are what we commonly refer to is “lifers” since they are almost at their halfway mark towards retirement. They are going to stay in, get some advanced civil schooling, and go teach at West Point over the next 5 years. I know that they can treat us IRR folks a little substandard at times, but it’s good to hear a positive story every once in a while about the military taking care of it’s own. Besides, Jen is one of the “good guys” and she deserves a break from the years of BS that most officers have to go through to get to where she is at today.

I did call my parent’s friends who are also stationed here. He is an Engineer as well and has spent multiple months away from his family due to multiple tours overseas. I know him as Ron and I hope to link up with him before I depart. On the phone with him, he called me “sir”. I had to laugh at that one. :)