A reason to celebrate ...

I think I mentioned a few articles ago that Pam and I went to a party for an old Sergeant Major of mine who had just returned from his third tour in this war. I received a Christmas card from him and his wife, Pat, along with an article from their home town newspaper. The article pointed out that this is the first time since 2003 that Wink and his whole family has been together for the holidays. He has 3 sons, all of whom were or are in the Army, and 2 of whom are currently serving. Anyway, I got to thinking how Wink's and my paths have been intertwined over the past 20 some years and I found some pictures that kind of highlight some of it.

In my command days with the 447th MP CO (CS), Wink was one of the platoon sergeants and would have been my First Sergeant when we went to the first Gulf War. We would have been a kick-ass team, but fate stepped in and things changed. I took the 447th off to Germany while I had to give him up to be the First Sergeant of another unit who was particularly weak on good leadership. Kind of like balancing the talent, or spreading the wealth. There was a lot of that going on in the Reserves just before that war. Interestingly enough, however, he and I ran in to each other at 2330 hours in the snack bar at the flight ops. building at McGuire AFB, just as he and his unit were ready to take off for Kuwait and I and mine were leaving for Germany. What a coincidence. What were the chances?

Well, we got back from our respective Theaters and went back to Reserve life and trained some more, hoping we would never need any of this again. We worked hard but when it was time to celebrate holidays, we would do our best to show the families what it was that we did all those weekends and annual training weeks wherever. This picture shows Wink setting up a display in the G-3 section at our headquarters for a family day.

And then along came 9/11 and everything changed again. Again Fate stepped in and shuffled the cards we were to be dealt. Because of a heart attack two days before the unit mobilized for a deployment to Cuba, I missed that trip with him. However, early in the following year, I was cleared for duty and went to Iraq while assigned to Third Army. When everyone finally got back, we did what Soldiers have done for centuries following a deployment -- we partied. This picture was at Wink's house.

Interestingly enough, we both took on new assignments after that tour. He again went to Iraq as part of a small detachment and I went to the Pentagon. Mine was one of those "assigned to with additional duty elsewhere" tours. Anyway, as Fate would have it we again ran into each other late one night in 2006 in a camp in Iraq. We had a couple of soldiers who were sitting in a nearby break area take our picture. They were amazed when we told them how many times the Sergeant Major's and my paths had crossed in wars. Kinda like something from some book.

I finished that 18-month tour and then retired from the Army. Wink came back home, transferred to the Brigade HQ expecting a break only to be deployed once again. There wouldn't be any more late night meetings in some far away land, but it wouldn't be the last time a bunch of old soldiers would get together. Here is a picture from that most recent gathering this past November.
Just in case you were wondering, from left to right, there's quite a bit of experience in this picture: Me(Ret.) - 39 years, CSM(Ret.) Dave - 44 years, SGM Wink(still serving) - 30+ years, 1SG (Ret.) Bob - 42 years. My math says that's at least 155 years worth of service.

I hope you won't take issue with me if I take a small liberty with Shakespeare's quote, but I feel it best sums up the picture above. Those who have been there will understand:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that "serves" with me shall be my brother.

Hooah