Just a Few Moments of Your Time To Really Thank a Servicemember for Their Service

https://www.facebook.com/events/573649859386620/permalink/573677702717169/ 

I will be voting for Cassaundra! You should too! Come on now... what an easy way to honor the military and their families! Commit to this! Share the link! Blow it out of the water! Just a few moments of your time can put something substantial behind the phrase, "thank you for your service!"

Do You Hear What I Hear?

As I have written before, I have a friend named Gary who was a Marine, and whose only daughter desired to follow in her father's footsteps, and joined the Marine Corp.  During her time of service, she met with a terrible and tragic event, she was beaten and raped.  That wasn't the destroying blow, the destroying blow came when neither her command, NCIS, the Navy, or the DoD responded to the wrongs done her, and reacted so as to arrest, convict, and punish those responsible, and those who covered up the crimes.  She was thrown out of the Marines, and told basically to go home and shut up.  Just a few weeks later she took her own life.

Her father grieves everyday over this loss, and the injustices done to his only daughter; the upcoming holiday season is going to be very difficult for he and his wife.  He posted on facebook the wretchedness of his heart, and how he hears his beloved daughter screaming from her grave for justice.  Since I first heard the story of her short life, and saw pictures of her, I have heard Carri's voice too...  I have written poetry in her honor, blog posts telling her story and honoring her, but by far the action that I have been called to in her name that was the loudest constraints of her voice to me, was only sweet whispers calling me to love, to give, and to listen and understand.  I wrote the following to Gary, and I have a picture for him to cherish.  The following is the post I wrote to Gary after reading his post of anguish and pain.

"You know, her voice is being heard Gary. I heard it so plainly. There is a woman living in my home now, along with her 17 year old autistic daughter. She is a veteran, and a victim of MST who has struggled for years, and found herself homeless in Houston. Because of the story of your daughter, when I came to know of this situation, God used the voice of your daughter to speak to my heart of my own responsibility toward this woman and her child. That is the story and the true meaning of Christmas. We celebrate a woman bringing a child into the world. A child who was to pour Himself out a living sacrifice to the whole world,and whose life here on earth was the very message of God's great love to each of us. There was no room for a woman and her child at the Inn so many centuries ago, but because of the story of your daughter, there was room at our house for this woman and her child. Her daughter sat with us in church today, and enjoyed so much the story of Christmas, the music, and the love expressed to her, expressed to her because of the what the life of your daughter has spoken to my heart. Carrie doesn't scream loudly for justice to me, she whispers quietly for love and understanding... I hear her all the time."

Gary, here is the picture I have for you.  This is Alisha, sitting by our Christmas tree, she is very excited for Christmas to come, she loves Christmas.  If it were not for Carrie's whispers in my ear, she would be homeless this Christmas, living in a shelter in downtown Houston.  I am wrapping presents for her, and putting them under the tree, but one I haven't gotten yet.  In one of the many places she has lived over the past several years, she lost a stuffed bear from the "Build a Bear" toy store.  It was a kitten dressed in pink, and when Pickle, as she is affectionately called by her mom, whose name is also Alisha, saw the Build a Bears I was wrapping for my grand-children, she kept picking them up.  She kept asking me who they were for, and telling me repeatedly she had a Build a Bear kitten, but she lost it, and she had loved it so much.  She told me she still, "misses that bear so much".  

Alisha still believes in Santa Claus, her development is delayed in some ways, and she is such an innocent and guileless person.  She asked me if Santa knew where our house was as she watched the cartoon special the other night of Rudolph  the Red-nosed Reindeer.   I told certainly he did, she then asked if we would leave the door unlocked for him, I told her, "oh no, he will just have to come down the chimney."  She hadn't noticed our fireplace yet, as she has only lived here a short while... her face lit up, her eyes sparkled, and she said "that is wonderful, now I know Santa can get that little bear here I want!"  

I have a question for you Gary and Jiliene.  What is Carri whispering to you about that bear and Alisha... I hear you can not only buy pink clothes for a kitten Build a Bear, but you can also buy a Marine uniform for one...  I have told her if Santa brings her a Build a Bear I am certain  she should name it Carri, Alisha loved that name...  All you need to do is tell Santa that bear should go to Alisha, in care of Debra LeCompte,  3296 South FM331 Rd, Sealy, Texas, 77474.  Merry Christmas Carri, you too Gary and Jilene. 

 

The Plan is Prayer on Labor Day

I had a discussion on Facebook just now with someone in the military whose judgment I trust.  It is a holiday here in the States, but I would remind you, around the world the War on Terror rages on. This is the conversation I had. Read the word of a weary warrior, a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a patriot... be assured, he and thousands and thousands like him are on the job.  Make time in your own life to honor and support them every day.  YOU owe them a great deal.

I have a cold fear rising up my spine, a fear that the American people do not have the will and fortitude to finish what we are about to start...
Excuse me, what our government is about to start... I wonder, will they accuse Obama of just greasing the wheels of the economy and feeding the military industrial machine? 

Buzzy Sørensen: Actually, it's a very good plan & people will be alot safer all over the world when this is finished. Has to be done.

Thank you Buzzy, I needed your assurance on that. Funny how I trust implicitly the word of someone I have never met in person, over my own government. The knowledge that people, some very, very, good people, are going to get hurt... I am a mother... war hurts me to my core. I guess that is why freedom will never be free... Please be careful, your mother would want you to, your wife has probably given up on the idea of it ever happening... but God gave you a mind and an intellect... and she wants you to as well. God implanted a generous instinct for self preservation in you, use it in generous amounts just now. I just want to leave the internet, (the puppy chewed through the T.V. cable, so no news from there until Thursday,) and go outside and garden for the next dozen or so years. Were it not for men and women like you I would, but for your sake, and for your band of brothers and sisters, I cannot.   As it is, every day I will go to that huge fallen oak in the woods, and the little platform I built for the deer hunters, and get on my knees and pray.
 
Men and women from countries all over the world are standing shoulder to shoulder working to preserve our liberties, and the lives of innocent people everywhere.  PLEASE, take a generous part of your day to pray for them.

Caption:  Had to wait an hour to fill up with diesel at €1.69 EUR/L [gas station food is the suc]. Roads clogged with tanks moving north. "Welcome brother, have a nice day".
 

Significant Living Requires This

This blog post  was created for sharing with members of the military as a way of expressing personal gratitude to those serving in the United States military.  All of the following art projects were
made by students at the Vogelweh 
Elementary School, in Vogelweh, 
Germany.  Their parents are 
stationed in Germany, serving with
one of the branches of the U.S. 
Military.  These children realize what patriotism is, and they too have sacrificed for our nation.  May God bless each one of them during this Holiday season, and bring them a wonderful New Year! 

This time of the year is so special to me, because every day I live in the true meaning and grace of Christmas.  Christmas celebrates the greatest gift ever given in Creation.  It is a time of year to formally, and with reverence, acknowledge that God so loved the world, and you and me, that he "willingly," in great sacrifice and love, gave his Only Begotten Son, that anyone who would "willingly" receive His gift and sacrifice might live their eternal existence in His presence and love, as His adopted son or daughter.  In this world humanity has struggled so long to bring it's own failures into subjection, and despite the best efforts of the most devoted among us, we remain flawed.  Still God dwells in the hearts and lives of those who have received His precious gift, directing their lives and giving peace, mercy, and grace, for all that is of this life.  We face the same challenges as the rest of the world, we get sick, lose jobs, suffer losses of all kinds, but God stands protecting us from being overcome and defeated by the evil of this world.  Nothing can separate us from His gift of love and eternal life, no matter what we must face in this life.  He has won the war by His sacrifice, and we must only endure the battles and skirmishes as faithful Warriors, until we are called home.

 

Jesus Christ was born from the linage of David of Old Testament fame.  You will remember him first as a brave young man who fought and defeated the giant Philistine, Goliath.  Goliath came out into the open on a battle field each day and challenged any man of the Hebrew army to meet him in battle, as he insulted God and His chosen people.  He was a brute of a man, huge and powerfully strong.  Anyone hearing his challenge could easily see how unlikely defeating him would be.  There had been no takers among the Soldiers David had brought food from home to that day.  David urged all of the men to meet the challenge, and take this man out who insulted God, but when none of the grown men would go, he "willingly" went out to the meet the enemy in a contest to the death.  He killed the giant with the weapons of a boy, and thereafter, he was known as a man "after God's own heart."  God loves, in a special way, those men and women with uncommon courage and the "willingness" to stand for Him,  for their countrymen, and to fight to the death all those who come to attack and conquer those who belong to the Lord.  God loves, "with His own heart" the man or woman possessed of that special quality of "willingness" to sacrifice themselves for others.  It mirrors the very heart of God.  There were some extraordinary  teachers last Friday, who were welcomed home by God as they too demonstrated in their last breaths in this world their own "willingness."

Our country will always have need of protectors, despite that some are so foolish and narcissistic that they believe that with the right direction from them, mankind's bent to destruction and violence will be cured.  My stepson took a school field trip his senior year in high school where a scientist who was a presenter told Brian's class that science had identified the chromosomes that cause a person to have the "tendency to steal."  The man stated that eventually a baby could be genetically engineered to be perfect.  I shudder at the thought of  there being those who are pursuing this science.  For the time being, there are still the un-engineered who wake up each day determined to conquer our country, and take away the God ordained liberties we are privileged to know as United States citizens.  During this Christmas Season so many of those in our military will not be home sharing the blessings of family.  They will be separated from all that they love, some of them in extremely dire circumstances, and standing in the gap, protecting this nation.   I wrote and published the following blog post some time back, but I am re-posting this blog because of how the service of those in our military is associated with the gift of God, a life laid down in sacrifice for each of us.  As Jesus "willingly" gave His life, so many of our countrymen have given theirs.  

If you know the family member of a fallen hero, please pass this tribute and acknowledgement on to them,  for "no greater love hath any man than to lay down his life for a friend."  There is one step up from that, and God Himself knows well what it is.  It is watching a son or daughter, mother or father, husband or wife, brother or sister,  give their life for others.  Oh what anguish and pain lies in that sacrifice.  We are the ones for whom these lives have been laid down for.  Those who have made the sacrifice will not be present for the Christmas celebrations of their families, in fact, those celebrations will never be the same for the families of the fallen, always, there will be an empty chair at their celebration tables.  

Then there are the families everywhere whose loved one will be in a war zone on Christmas, mine included.  If you have never had this experience, though I love words, they fail me when I try to explain what the experience is like.  The prevailing thought for me on these days is always, how does the son or daughter of a Soldier, especially the younger of them, deal with the absence of a parent on these occasions?  It is almost unbearable for me, I can't even imagine what it is for the little ones. 

There are also those who have sustained wounds in the battle, some are visible, and some are not.  They too have put it all on the line for you and I.  Many of these heroes can no longer serve, their lives having been altered forever.  The families of those who serve sacrifice everyday as well, and it can be lonely doing so in a country where many people live their daily lives oblivious to the fact that our military are daily encountering our common enemy in battle.  War is an ugly and difficult undertaking, but unavoidable when our enemies make overt aggression against us on our homeland soil, murdering innocent citizens without mercy.  Their agenda has not changed, and if allowed, they will strike again.  What follows are words that Soldiers I have shared them with have found supportive of the very difficult job they must do.  If you know a Soldier, or love a Soldier, take just the few moments it will take to share these words with them.  I believe the response you receive in return will indicate the same appreciation that brings me deep satisfaction in sharing.  Expressing my gratitude with more than just the phrase, "thank you for your service," but instead with deeply felt expressions, seems especially important at this time of the year, so once again, words from my heart for those who serve, and for their families. 

I had an exchange with one of the Warriors I have come to know by way of facebook.  Always these men and women absolutely slay my mind with their deeds and the stand they make.  As you will see, these simple words of recognition of the obvious were appreciated, which underscores for me how important it is that we never miss the opportunity to acknowledge the obvious to each service person we encounter.  The job they do takes so much, and gives little in measurable personal gain.  Their reward,  for them, lies within their souls, and is self sustaining, requiring nothing from the rest of the world.  The acknowledgment from each of us of who they are, what they do, and why they do it,  is more necessary for us to be able to sleep at night than for them to.  What follows is a spell checked version of what I wrote, then the validation that for at least one Warrior, it was words of encouragement, and has paved the way for my fulfilling my own obligations.  Trust me, this Warrior took his first breath "willing," and would go on without a word of backing from anyone, I am the wife of such a man.  I have had the privilege of knowing so many Warriors, and their families, and I am one rich person because of it.  What a blessing I consider it to have encouraged one of them.  So if you know a Soldier, a Warrior from any branch, and you would value the overwhelming sense of humility and a pride that comes from fulfilling your own sacred duty to these heroes, there is a chance that in your passing these words on to them, you can have that feeling.  Here are my words, and then his, which are always expressed with a sense of humor, and for him that must be a tremendously powerful protective device in the war zone where he daily stands "willing."

There are some people who are born with a capacity to lay it all on the line that surpasses bravery.  Any day of the week I can risk my life for one of my grand-children or children, my husband, parents, etc...  There are people who, as their primary occupation, will risk their lives for perfect strangers, people of countries other than their own, and even a wounded enemy,  and not just in one moment of a short lived disaster or accident such as a house fire or car wreck, but they will wake up every day... "willing."  Deliberately they stand between threat and danger, and me and mine, and for the rest of the world as well. On an ongoing basis, and they think of it as "just doing my job," they are "willing." 


Their families are affected by their willingness, but in both positive and negative ways, and because of what their family members witness in the lives of "the willing," they are enriched in ways that only those closest to "the willing" can be.  Their family members share their everyday lives with a living, breathing, genuine hero, and that impacts a person, and it empowers and inspires their loved ones. Because they are willing to do what the majority of people would never commit to, we all have the freedom to achieve the destiny we would select for ourselves... and inch by inch... the rest of the world is being affected by their stand as well.

Daily there is criticism from the uninformed, the miss-informed, and the run of the mill idiots, it just rolls off their backs, and when the aforementioned get themselves in a jam... or the enemy is wounded .... in need of care... being who they are... they are rescued and protected just as wholeheartedly as family.

There cannot be too many words of praise, there cannot be too frequent a mention of their deeds, there cannot be too much made of their loss from this world when one of them willingly makes that ultimate sacrifice. We will be utterly lost if we fail in this obligation, if we fail to be faithful to our own scared duty toward these men and women, and their families. For as we celebrate their lives and their willingness, and openly grieve at their separation from this world, we ensure that more men and women with the same heart will answer the call to be "willing."  There is no currency or budget line item that can purchase a willing heart, and the service of the man or woman who possesses it.  It can only be given.

Buzzy Sørensen
Debra, thank you again. Don't think I've ever seen that so well put of why we do what we do....I was gonna just be my usual smartass & say I do it cause chicks dig the uniform but this really hit home personally & it's one of those passages... that gets printed out, stuffed im my front vest pocket, maybe make a few copies for some buds that need encouragement some days & reread when I need to remind myself why we subject ourselves to the evil that would do us harm....you really need to publish this for everyone to see & ponder. Thanks.
Buzzy
30 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
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Debra LeCompte Actually the chicks do dig the uniform... without a doubt...
4 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
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Debra LeCompte I pray for you, and that bunch you run with every day...
3 minutes ago · Like

Paying the Price

This is absolutely some of the finest words. My friend Nancy Johnson posted them on facebook. It applies to every situation in life... marriage, starting a business, winning a war, fighting against injustice, learning to play an instrument, overcoming a physical disability, building a complex series of decks to make a handicap ramp .... what a powerful communication!

 

 

 

 

"Paying the Price," means doing what is required as long as you have to do it until the price is paid. Very few people are really willing to pay the price because their expectations are too high and their habits are average. This is the main reason that a large percent of the population tip toes quietly through life and arrives at their grave safely, dying with their music inside them. For you not to be this statistic you have to develop stellar habits, skills, and a mindset that keeps you productive and solution oriented. This requires the kind of discipline that average people seldom develop. Courage is a quality that never goes out of fashion and there will always be a market for it. -Jeffrey Combs

News for the Families of the Fallen, Whether They Are Children, or Soldiers

 

 

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Don't Let the Sun Go Down

The following link is to another piece by Jacey Eckhart who writes for Spouse Buzz on Military.com.  As usual, she came up with such insightful information, and called attention to something that can help all of us at times in our lives.  As I read the article on anger, it occurred to me that not only spouses go through this emotion, but often I have observed the children of military families go through difficulties concerning dealing with the anger that can come to their lives concerning a parent's service.

 http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2012/11/angry-milspouses.html

One of my favorite authors I often quote wrote a book on the emotion, of what I would call righteous anger, and how it affects individuals and societies.  
For not only does anger affect those in the military and ordinary people everywhere, it is raging in the Middle East.  The most famous of the quotes of John Steinbeck's book, The Grapes of Wrath, written about the Great Depression which hit the United States during the 1930s and produced great anger, followed by despair, is: 

"...and in the eyes of the people there is the failure: and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath.  In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." 


I think this is the best, most relevant, and insightful thing Jacey has ever written, because of how it ties not only to an individual's response to the world around her, but to the state of the world in general.  I think most of her pieces are exceptional, but none so touch the epicenter of problems in our world as this one does.  I think that anger like this so silences  us sometimes as Jacey refers to, because we are afraid of sliding into it ourselves, or afraid that whatever she or he is angry at is legitimate, and that it can happen to us too.  I have been to that tumultuous anger place, over both personal and global matters, and it is located right next door to utter despair.  We have to be careful never to give it free rein, or terrible, terrible things can happen, such as the Soldier who stole out of the base in Afghanistan and murdered innocent people.

I am one of those people who believes that when we suffer loss of any kind, whether it is due to illness, an unfaithful spouse, the death of a child, or any other of life's great pitfalls, that we go through the five stages of grief taught by most of the therapists of our day.  I think we should be allowed them, but that the very certain danger is that getting stuck in any one of those stages can rob us of our lives, and literally so concerning the stage of anger. 

I think we who are military spouses have to have tools, skills we have developed for just such times in our little tool boxes.  After all, we have learned a great deal about such strategies from the same military our husbands serve in.  That is what FRG is SUPPOSED to be all about, preparation for deployment,  that doesn't mean just getting the Power of Attorney in place.  The situation one is facing of course doesn't always have to do with deployments, it can just as easily be related to any injustice or loss we encounter in our lives.  Injustices, and noting the failures of society around us can also cause such anger.  I think the single greatest contributing factor to anger is found in the loss of control of a situation.  Of course many times it is anger itself that leads to loss of control.  I think of the woman who was a military serviceperson herself, and married a Soldier who then spent years in the intelligence side of the military.  One day something inside of her led her to taking a gun and shooting both of her teenage children dead.  I am certain she loved them dearly, and that anger with free reign in her life, led to her utter despair.

I use to think to myself when I would tell my mother some "horrible injustice" that someone had done to me, how dumb she was when she said, "Debra, that is indeed so sad and I am sorry it happened to you, but be careful not to love it, to stroke it, to feed it, and to name it George."  (That quote she got from an old Buggs Bunny cartoon.)  Look around you for someone in worse shape than you, with more burden than yours, and reach out to them and pretty soon, you will forget your own troubles.  Never would she allow me to find in her attention that would feed and give reason to parking in my anger, grief, or pain.  My mother is a wise woman.  Every time I would find myself giving into her urging, even though I really didn't want to.  Without exception that concept of hers worked every, single, time.
 

That is not to say that the disappointments and losses of  our own lives, even the little things are not of importance, that is just one of the tools my mother was talking about for lifting us from the quagmire that anger can become.  Probably the best advice of all about anger is "Do not allow the sun to go down on your anger," which is from the Bible.  It supports my own finding about anger in my life, and Jacey's too.  Tomorrow I wish to explore more the phenomenon of anger in societies, especially those of the Middle Eastern cultures.  This is such an important subject for all of mankind.  Thank you Jacey for expertly bringing to the surface a subject tied to so much in our personal lives and our world.

Marines Raising the Flag at the American Embassy Egypt

No Words Needed

 

More TBI and PTSD Info You May Not Know. This is Such Cool Technology!

Sometimes the road home is long and difficult.

It finally occurred to me what resource to call about the helmet technology that I keep hearing rumors about, and that I know should be in place to help prevent at least some cases of TBI, (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD, (Post Traumatic Brain Disorder) among our troops.  There is so much emphasis on PTSD being primarily a mental illness, but as I look at the latest research, that isn't what I find.  On the battlefield, and in theater in general, explosions are a constant given.  Even at the American Embassy in Baghdad where Randy is now, there are always rocket attacks, which produce the air waves of pressure that can shake the human brain enough to produce small concussions, and when those concussions occur repeatedly, the injuries become cumulative, and the condition of Postconcussive Syndrome can develop.  (see my previous blog, Things You May Not Know About PTSD.)

Psychological therapy is an important part of  treating PTSD, but that cannot detract from the growing evidence  that it can be the result of  these many small explosions, and all the other size explosions encountered by our military personnel, which produce TBI, which in turn can contribute to PTSD.  

There is more and more research every day on therapies that can help those suffering from these medical conditions as a result of their service to our country in the military.  The military has begun in earnest its program to train leadership, all those serving, and their families in the recognition of the signs and symptoms of these two diseases.  It is now of utmost importance that we begin to look at the prevention of these devastating injuries of war, and by the way, when we are passing out the purple hearts, how is the loss of a limb due to an IED encounter any different from the disruption of the normal function of the brain, which may be, and for many is, permanent?  Just because there is no screaming, or no blood, does not mean the injury isn't real, and life altering.  When a man or woman is serving their country, and they sustain any kind of injury, if it is the visible kind, or the invisible kind,  if one kind of injury  merits a purple heart, so does the other.  Another aspect of TBI and PTSD is that the onset of symptoms of these injuries can sometimes be delayed.

We came to live in Austin County, Texas in 2007 because Randy took a job with BAE Systems.  While Randy worked at BAE, he had the privilege and honor of being the Program Manager for the second generation MRAP vehicle, the Caiman.  His last boss at BAE was Chris Chambers, and suddenly it occurred to me last week who to call about what technology has been developed in the area of prevention.  Last Friday I called and left a message for Chris, and he was out of the office.  This morning he called and was able to give me precisely the information that I was looking for. 

The first step to preventing PTSD and TBI, is to determine at what point encounters with the explosions of war reach a threshold where normal brain function is affected in any way.  It seems the technology has already been developed by BAE Systems in the form of a small sensor that mounts inside a helmet.   It measures several aspects of the impact sustained by a Soldier due to explosions or other impacts sustained in combat which cause head trauma.  I can see the application as being of significance in sports equipment as well.  

Now I realize, I may be the last person on planet earth to be acquiring knowledge of this technology, because the Army has already purchased some of these sensors for helmets.  However, I can't tell if enough have been bought, according to the figures listed at the web site, to cover every Soldier in theater being equipped with one.   I'm sure that cost is a consideration in the amount of these units purchased by the Army, but they did just redesign their uniforms, so I would think that there is room for this type of spending in the budget.  I am certain that anyone suffering from PTSD or TBI today would have given anything to have worn such a sensor, which could have alerted command when they reached the limits of a safe threshold.  However, I am not certain that enough data has been collected to identify what constitutes a "safe threshold."   At any rate, go to BAE's website and view the latest technical equipment advances to prevent our military from sustaining injuries that are costly to the individual, and to the nation.

Thanks to Chris Chambers out at the Sealy BAE Systems plant for directing me to this information.  The sensor is called HEADS which stands for Headborne Energy Analysis and Diagnostic System.  I hope you will share this information with those who need it most.

 http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_020045/heads-headborne-energy-analysis-and-diagnostic-system?_afrLoop=251851175952000

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