Pride.

  Now that I am well into the final week before Pete leaves it is safe to say that my thoughts and feelings are all over the place.  As you know by my last post, fear has dominated much of my emotions however the past 24 hours I am surprised to say that the emotion that has been most prevalent is pride.  Wednesday night we had three people over for dinner, all of whom are getting deployed-one as early as today and the other two on Sunday, yes, Easter Sunday.  Two of the boys we had over are single officers, one of which graduated from West Point.  The other person is a doctor getting deployed with the 24th ID from Ft. Lewis outside of Seattle.  He is getting deployed on Friday and left his wife and child back home so he is here in Alaska alone and does not have anyone to give him a hug and say goodbye to.  We had a wonderful night of food and wine and I must admit that listening to everyone talk, it made me feel so proud to have them over and feed them a final 'home cooked meal' before they leave.  They are such  well educated, well spoken, caring individuals and this is the Army that not a lot of people know about.  Most people assume that everyone is rough, tough, and only care about firing weapons however I am proud to say that there is also a large group of military men and women who see this as a job to truly do some good for others.  As we said goodnight to everyone and I gave them the momma bear hug telling them to be safe and that we will do this again in one year, it made me realize that they are just like Pete and they are able to do so much good for both the soldiers deploying and the people in Afghanistan.
    The next morning Pete and I went to the one and only pre-deployment briefing which was held at a church on base.  The pews were packed with soldiers and wives and I couldn't help but look around and realize that a lot of the people preparing to leave are just kids.  Truly 18, 19, and 20 year old kids who are about to leave their families for a year because the military is the best and only option that they have.  They have been trained to do specific tasks and they are fully prepared for this deployment.  They looked strong, healthy, capable and my pride in our country has never been stronger.  And then I think about Pete:  he is responsible for keeping these young men (I say men because he is deploying with an infantry where women are not allowed) healthy over the next year, keeping them alive if something happens during missions, and helping the people Afghanistan receive basic health care.  Pride does not even begin to explain what I feel for Pete.  He is intelligent, strong, capable, and I truly can't imagine anyone more perfect for this job.  So while it is easy to let the fear take over right now I am doing my best to focus on the pride I feel for Pete, the gentleman we had over for dinner, and all the men that I sat next to during the pre-deployment briefing.