Military Danger

I love being a military wife. The Army has provided a little extra money this past year with Joe being unemployed. Granted, National Guardsmen do not make enough for their one weekend a month, two weekends a year, to put a dent in any serious bills, but these folks do not do it for the money. They do it for their personal beliefs and love of country.

When I loaned my husband to the Army I had one stipulation. They are to return him in the same condition in which I loaned him out. The Army has let me down.

I never really worried about his safety, until the bus my husband's unit was on flipped in transit from training. My boss is the one that actually saw the news broadcast and called me in to confirm if they were referring to my husbands unit. (Click here for the story) All of a sudden the danger associated with being active duty hit me square in the heart. Now I have all these thoughts going through my head.

NOTE: This is where Jenna gets the Drama Queen from.

After the initial accident, I could not get ANYONE on the phone. The one person on the base that did answer the phone told me, of the soldiers that were transported to Shands Gainesville, where traumas were sent, my husband was not one of them. Sigh of relief. He's not seriously hurt. However, I still had no location on my husband. Then my thoughts turned to where he was. I switched from worried wife to Personnel Locator Extraordinaire. In this department, I'm borderline stalker.

Sidebar notation. I love the internet and it's immediate availability of information. I received every single bit of information I needed to locate my husband from the news media. Those glorious little nuggets of nosey fact finders have just earned a special place in my heart. I love breaking news alerts.

I phoned several hospitals, excluding Shands Gainesville. After all, I was told he was not there. I called all the numbers I had for his soldier buddies. As if they weren't doing anything else but waiting on my call. Then the little voice in my head said...."Call Gainesville". After ignoring that voice for a while and resolving it would not go away. I called. BINGO....I located my husband. He was in Gainesville, in the trauma unit. Super Powers activate.

I had the girls picked up from day care, babysitter arranged, dinner covered and was at the hospital at the speed of light. That reminds me, I need to wash my cape. Anyway, my arrival at the hospital was a relief. I knew where he was, just not how he was. As long as I knew his longitude and latitude I felt better.

His injuries were serious. His weapon banged him in the head hard enough to render him unconscious. His right side took a hard hit. He has badly bruised ribs and various pains. So they kept him over night for observation. Of course thoughts of the several celebrities that have passed away crept into my brain. After getting his blood sugars back to normal and an MRI, he was released the next day. Only one soldier is left in the hospital, out of the 25+ that were transported to the various medical facilities. I pray he will be 100% when he gets out.

We haven't completed training yet. One week to go. The entire group is on light duty but is expected to complete training on schedule. I didn't tell the girls that Daddy was hurt and I don't intend to. They have come to terms with his absence and being "at the Army". I do not want them associating military with injury. After everything, taking off my locator hat, my jaunt back from Gainesville, his discharge from the hospital, and his return to the base, where he was safe and sound, I cried. I cried because I was relieved the injuries sustained by my husband and the other soldiers were not life threatening. I cried because there was still a soldier in the hospital. I cried because had this been fatal, how would I handle this? What would I tell the children? I've not made any accommodations for a military related death.

Now I cry because we are only through the training and the jump over the pond is coming up. He is going to be in a foreign land, with foreign people, doing foreign things. I am scared. I met my husband later in life and have two beautiful girls by him. I am not ready for this part of my life to be over so soon. The girls have only been on Earth long enough to know him, but not understand how wonderful a husband, father, and soldier he really is.