Soldier... father...

[fdt]

It's a thread directed to those who serve/served and are fathers... How it is like?

No teenage theory specialists allowed!!! Get out now!!!

[Obergefreiter]

I posted this on another forum Monday. I was not a father when I was in the military, but this is fills yours subject. I wrote it with a little flag waving to fit the crowd, but you get the point. Details of where and when have been left on for a reason.

The greatest combat unit the U.S. ever fielded.

I just spent the last 24 hours drinking myself stupid with a friend on leave from Iraq.

He relayed many interesting facts about the ****-hole, but one story he told me about a fire fight that you never heard about was very interesting. (This was after the Jagermeister wore off BTW)

It is the story of how the Iraqi terrorist lost a fight to the best American unit ever fielded.

The story starts in the very recent past with my very good friend in a convoy of 50 soldiers heading across open desert towards a larger airfield.

Out of nowhere, the lead truck was hit by from an Ak. The driver had a bullet hit right above him, it deflected down into his forhead and out his jaw. (he lost an eye but is otherwise fine). The driver was able to get the truck stopped safely before hitting the explosives that were thrown in the road in front of him. The assistant driver was hit on the front "rim" of his helmet and knocked out. He was pulled to safety by one of the soldiers in the back of the truck.

These 50 soldiers then grabbed weapons, took up defensive positions and fought off attack after attack.

Having radioed for help many times, a Kiowa scout showed up, and after 3 hours of fighting, Apaches broke up the party.

My friend was protecting the radio throughout the engagement and overheard one of the helo pilots yell to the other pilots (something to the effect of)"holly ****, there must be 300 of them down there!"

For 3 hours this unit, out numbered 6-1 held off the enemy with only 4 wounded.

Now, I told you this was the best unit ever fielded. You must know that very few of these men even knew eachother. Had never fought with eachother and only learnd a few of the others names in the short time preceding this incident.
How was this unit the best unit ever? It was comprised totaly of men going on two week leave. All of these men had one thing in common. They all had children born since they left for the sand box and were going home on priority leave to see them for the first time.

As my friend said. "No army in the world could have over run us that day. We all had a reason to get out of there."

I thought this was a good story, and thought it should be shared.

BTW, he & his daughter are doing just fine. Now he will have a good story to tell her about comming home and how much it means.

[AirZone]

nice story :D

[Abolith]

don't get between a parent and their children.......

[Tane Angle]

It's life. I haven't really know any other life, so I can't really compare. It's tough sometimes. One misses them, naturally. The digital telecommunications age has been nice with carrying pictures and video and voices across the oceans.

Fate might very well be present in at least some things. Because of my work, I never met my son, who would be 21 this year. But also because of work, one of my greatest friends ever met his wife, a Lebanese Druze woman. Both were shunned by their families for marrying the other, and both died before their most of their families could apologize. Thus, my wife and I have raised them as our own. We never would have met such great friends had it not been for work. The couple would have never met were it not for work. They would not have died, were it not for work. And we would not have had the second chance at parenting that we have today were it not for work. Fate is...well I don't know what it is, but it's something.

I would just as soon have my friends be alive and well today, raising their triplets. But they are not, so it is my duty and my honor to raise them as well as their parents would have. Their parents would have been amazing at raising children, so I must try very hard. I love them, they're amazing. Our daughter as well. Our son would have been too.

I've taken my family back to Lebanon twice, once with the triplets and once before they were born. It was mainly to give my daughter a sense of where I was when I wasn't with her as she grew up, and to give the triplets a sense of half their heritage. Though not all of their family wanted to meet the triplets, the ones who did, as well as other old friends, were most welcoming.

My daughter met her fiancee through me and my work. Him and I work together, but we are extremely careful to make sure that there are no conflicts of interests or unsure priorities involving our relationship as son-in-law/father-in-law and as two workers here. Sometimes that means putting us on the same job purposefully, and sometimes it means making sure we're on different jobs or even in different countries. He already was working for us before he knew my daughter existed, so it's not like we hired him because of that. I know it's particularly tough on my daughter having the both of us overseas.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she knows that her fiancee knows things about her father that she probably never will. I don't know what that's like, and she knows not to ask too many questions on certain things, but I hope it never becomes a problem.

So...yeah...it's tough sometimes. But worth it.

Oh yeah:
don't get between a parent and their children.......That's good advice.

Have a good one, and just some thoughts...

[farmgirl]

Tane... you made me tear up with this one. You write beautifully, and you make excellent points.

It seems to me that the main point you were trying to make was that we have to take the good with the bad. I have to remind myself of that quite often. There are things that happen in our lives that hurt us tremendously, but would we give up the wonderful things that often accompany those terrible things?

I often tell my kids that life isn't fair. It seems like an oversimplified thing to say, but it's absolutely true. I guess all we can do is keep doing what we're doing, and take care of the ones that we love and those who love us.

As for getting between a parent and child. I only speak for myself, but I would die for my children without a second thought, and I would kill for them as well. I pity the person who threatens my children.

[mattnwnc03]

thats awesome.im a father now but back in 91 i wasnt.i know now i could go through a company of t-72 s to see my little girl. :D