When Tony Comes Marching Home Again

Holy crap, I'm busy! One piece of news, though: I'll probably be in Virginia on in mid-February. It looks like it's going to be a mid-week meeting so, while I'll probably request a crash pad from Keith, I probably won't get to squeeze a weekend out of it.

On the weekend of the 17th/18th, Jude's son, Tony, is due to come home on leave from Baghdad to see his scheduled-to-have-been-born-by-then son, Isaiah -- my 5th grandchild. Top that, mofos! He only gets to be home for two weeks, then it's back to the trenches (ha ha).

For them's who don't know, Tony is a Captain in the army, commanding about 200 troops trained in chemical attack response and security. Since the WMD finds have been a bit thin, they're over there running a prison just outside of Baghdad and training the Iraqi police. We are very proud of him, and worried about him. Jude and I try not to watch too much CNN, but I must admit to being addicted to news, and I suspect Jude watches alone, too. Here's the family (so far):

Billie, Tony, Kailey, and Sebastian (Sammy).











Billie got trapped in Portland during the ice storm a couple of weeks ago and spent a delightful evening at our house. I took a snapshot.



Last time I talked with Tony, he said the Iraqis he's working with are some very impressive guys. They really care, and they're really dedicated. Most of them have to sleep at the prison and only go home occassionally, and when they do they have to be snuck in and out to avoid exposing their families to violence. He said many of them speak English, and some even went to school in the US. One guy was actually taken prisoner by the US in the first Gulf War, was released, and went on to get his degree in Seattle, then joined the US army, and is now one of Tony's troops. It was Christmas eve day in Iraq (they're 11 hours ahead of Oregon time) when I last got to talk with him. He had organized a Christmas day 5K run for anybody who wanted to (not the prisoners).

OK, the end -- back to work.