 |
| He's nuts. I love him. |
____________________________
My brother and best friend, John, is serving America in the Army National Guard Reserve. In July, John began his full-time pre-deployment training and will continue training at various forts until he is sent to Afghanistan in September.
 |
| Bear, my nephew |
On this page, I will give updates on John as I receive them, and remind you all to pray continually for his safety and morale. You can also pray for me and the rest of our family during this time. Right now we are enjoying having him at Fort Jackson and dreading his departure.
Update: January 11, 2012
John keeps in touch with some irregularity; for security reasons, we don't ask or know much about his location or activities, but we do know that he is safe. He even managed to keep up with most of the Gamecocks history-making 2011 season, which was one of the minor things he was concerned about.
John is MP, so he mainly acts as a guard. We know little else about what he does, but we do know that he makes us proud.
In other news, his son apparently knows to go tap the computer and say, "Daddy"--so he still remembers John, has made the connection that "Daddy" is in the computer. Amazing for a 1 year old.
Update: October 15, 2011
John is now currently at Fort Bliss; he left a month ago today on September 15, 2011. Saying goodbye was tough, but our family is proud of him. He has been in touch with us during his time at the Fort via phone, text, Skype, and Facebook--everything seems fairly low-key.
I wrote an article about John and my thoughts on September 11th, the event that would later lead to his deployment that was published in the Sunday edition of the Post and Courier on September 18th, 2011. Read if you would like some insight into my brain; I wrote it immediately after returning home from his farewell ceremony.
 |
| John and Barrett. |
 |
| Saying goodbye. |
 |
| This one appeared in the Post and Courier. More to come...... |
