It has been a long time since I have posted my thoughts and I apologize to all that read my ranting. As many of you know from experience in one form or another, waiting on your soldier to come home on R&R can be a bit stressful. You are always asking the lord to let your soldier go one more day without injury so that he will in fact "make it home" and each day turns into another and then another until the night before he returns home to you. You lay in bed wide awake wondering just who your soldier will he be on return. It was only 6 months before that he was a Paratrooper serving in Italy and still for the most part a very unexperienced young man. Now,he has served in combat, been shot at and seen friends and fellow soldiers fall. You run all the different possibilities around in your head while you toss and turn trying to fall asleep. You start wondering if you have all the different foods he always enjoyed. Before you know it, its sunup and your feet hit the floor. You put fresh sheets on his bed making sure it is the way he left things. You check the flights to see if they are on time and make calls to all his friends and family to advise them that the plane will be arriving early. After cross checking your check list at least 100 times it is time to meet your soldier. I arrive at the airport and friends and family start gathering into a small group. We hold a banner that reads "welcome home soldier", you may ask why be so generic? Because we are not sure if there are other soldiers that will be returning on our soldiers flight and if so, then we want to send our sentiments to them as well. I know my son would understand this so its all good.
And then at first we see Army boots and ask ourselves is that him? Then the ACU digital pattern is clear and then in a distance you see a maroon beret that he has worked so hard to be able to wear. Is it him I ask myself and all of a sudden it is clear my soldier has returned home. I look at the others that are with me and I turn to my daughter to confirm it's him and she is all smiles. We let him approach us as we know that he is a bit jumpy from the crowds. We embrace and silently I thank the Lord for answering my prayers.
The first thing he wants to do is hit the mall to buy some cloths as he only came with the cloths on his back. I can't help noticing all the ladies that steal looks at him. Yep, my son has returned and we are so excited. We grab a bite to eat at a nearby cafe and have a couple of beers. When we get home and unpack his back pack he wants to go out and unwind. I take him to a local sports bar just down the street so we don't have to drive. We enter the place and it's packed but everything goes silent as everyone one is a aware that an American fighting man has just entered as he is in uniform. He turns to me and says "watch this" as he finds a place at the bar for the two of us. We order our preferred brand of beer and the good looking bartender smiles at my son and thanks him. Alex says to me that its on him. When he reaches into his pocket the bartender says not to worry that it's on the house because of his service to our country. Alex smiles back and says "my pleasure maim" and drinks his beer without taking his eyes off of her and she smiles. Alex looks over at me and says that we will not be spending a dime on drinks all night and I believe him. Sure enough every one in the bar buys drinks for us all night. Alex tells me that this bar was a good choice. At the end of the night Alex has both bartenders phone numbers and we call t a night at around 1 am.
I get to take Alex and his sister to Las Vegas where we make a killing at the casino. My daughter is able to pay off her credit card dept with her winnings and Alex makes a a lot more than when he walked in, me, I pay for the trip, hotel, meals and my pocket still has a lot more in it than when I arrived. The biggest payoff, I get to see my son have a great time.
R&R goes by so fast.It's not long before we must say our farewells. Yep, tears flow freely and we all hate to see him return to a land that I am not so sure appreciates our soldiers sacrifices. It's hard to let him go. He had just watched Night line the night before and found out a close friend he had lost while home and so many others. He is eager to return to his band of brothers and rejoin the fight.
I now find myself worrying about him all over again, waiting for that next phone call or letter. I check the FRG site at least a half dozen times a day hoping to hear some news or perhaps a picture in the in the download section.
Thanks for reading and I promise to post more.
A Bluestardad and I want to keep it that way
Larry Arnone
San Francisco
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