Thursday, July 28, 2011

Day 36: No fear

Today was both good and bad. I woke up this morning to a text from my husband's email account asking me to please wake up and get on Yahoo. So, I did and we IM'd each other for a while. It was a good conversation, longer than the phone calls we have had. After that, I started my day with the kids. We had a good day of hanging out around the house. We played a few games of Farkle, where my oldest whooped me big time! We also played some Just Dance 2 and Band Hero on the Wii. After dinner we went for a nice walk (after it was cool enough) and when we came home the kids were wore out enough to go to bed.... haha my secret plan worked.

After my conversation with Ian this morning, I was on Facebook and saw some disturbing news (for some reason, I always catch the news on Facebook first). Apparently, a soldier from Fort Campbell, KY went AWOL on July 4th before he was supposed to deploy, is being court-marshalled for having child pornography on his government laptop, oh, and he wanted to attack Fort Hood. Seriously, he was reported to authorites by an employee at a gun shop in town when he was asking a lot of questions about a component of pipe bombs and purchased a large quantity of ammunition. That led to an investigation being opened and, ultimately, his arrest. He had many weapons and bomb-making materials with him and has been reported as saying that he was going to attack Fort Hood. This is not an easy thing for this post. Less than two years ago, a Major in the Army went on a shooting rampage and killed 13 people. His trial is still in the making. Events like the one today and the one two years ago, make deployed soldiers just that more nervous about the safety of their families back home.

Luckily, like I said, he was stopped. The chief of police said that had he not been arrested yesterday, the press conference held today would have been more grave than it was. Still, I know the military isn't perfect. I know that not everyone in the military has the right heart about their job. The hard part is when another soldier, a brother in arms, tries to take out some of his fellow soldiers. I know that not everyone sees it as I do, but I see the military as a huge family. We watch out for each other, we take care of each other. This was not what soldiers should have to fear, they should not have to fear one of their own. So, a lot of the day I was checking back on my computer for updates. Even though he was caught, I couldn't help but worry. The thought came in my head that when Ian heard this, he would be concerned. So I did what I always do, I have the most information possible for when I talk to him again.

Bottom line is, this was an act of terrorism that was stopped in time. Acts of terrorism are meant to put fear in the hearts of the common person. I decided that I would not be afraid. I would continue to live my life and not hide out. This is not to say that I am not vigilant and careful, but that I won't stop living because some nut job wanted to come and hurt people in my area. I hope that the soldiers down range (this goes for you too, Ian, my love) know that their spouses back home are doing everything within their power to keep themselves safe and that the law enforcement are doing everything they can as well. We cannot stop living our lives because of fear. That gives the would-be terrorist power over us. Just like our soldier spouses, we cannot allow that. So, I went for a walk today. I did not stay indoors. Tomorrow, I will go about my daily errands and live life, but I will do it safely. I will keep faith in God to keep my family and me safe. I will live.

One day to mark off the calendar. One day closer to our temporary reunion (R&R) and one day closer to him being home permanently. 

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