My Husband Is A Veteran?Oh well, I’m proud of him anyway!
...any had been given notice that they are being deployed to Iraq. My fork dropped in my plate. At first I thought I had just had a little too much during cocktail hour, until I heard all the girlfriends’ and wives’ forks beside of me drop, too. My husband had been told days before, but the guys had all decided not tell any of the women until after the ball, so that everyone could have a good time. When I left to go to the bathroom, it was already packed full of women, just blubbering, passing tissue, and wiping mascara that had found its way down from their eyes to their chins. I was mad at my husband for not telling me before, but that soon became the least of my worries. “How long will you be gone?” “Where will you be?” “How will we talk?” “Is there any way that you can stay?” I would joke with my husband and tell him that I was going to break his legs so that he couldn’t go. He had to explain to me that, even though he didn’t want to go, he did want to go. I was kind of jealous of the Marines. They were taking my husband away, and worst of all, the daddy of our baby boy. I could not understand what it was that made my husband willing to go away from our family. The day he left was the saddest day of my life. I stood at the window of a big bus crying. My husband would look over at me to blow a kiss and flash a quick smile, but when he would turn to look ahead, I could see tears running down his face. I admired his strength and courage, but I just wished that he would run of the bus and tell me how badly that he wanted to stay home. I couldn’t help but to wonder how it must have been years ago with the men leaving the women to go to war, and it made those corny romance novels seem so much more sad and real. That moment made me begin to admire the men and women before me who made it through wars and the ones who sacrificed their lives to secure the freedoms that we now enjoy and take for granted. While in Iraq, my husband saw things that no one should see. I know some of what happened, nights he wondered if he would be making it back home. I know that sometimes he didn’t call because he was afraid he couldn’t hold up or didn’t want to li...