My Son‟s Tour in Afghanistan, a Fathers Thoughts and Feelings.

My son’s tour in Afghanistan, a fathers thoughts and feelings.

By D R Hann

PDH Publishing

My Copyrights and Notices

Copyright © 2009 by D.R. Hann

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author D.R. Hann

Introduction

I did not want to even write this journal; then again, I found it necessary to write.

I had thoughts of never publishing this journal, these are my private thoughts and feelings. I am still not sure whether I have done the right thing.

My only hope is that if it can help just one person, then maybe it was the right thing to do.

Remember these are my thoughts and opinions and how I look at the world.

I could be right and I could be wrong.

Thoughts and opinions are like ass holes, everyone has one.

What I have written down maybe not be exactly right, but at the time, this is what I thought and felt.

This is the story of my son’s fifteen month tour in Afghanistan.

I have interwoven war news of the day at the time of my journal’s entry.

To all those who are serving in Afghanistan, Iraq or in our armed services, may God Bless you all.

Being a Vietnam Vet, you never tell your family or friends everything that may have happened.

Maybe those of us who have served in combat are just trying to protect them.

It was an emotional roller coaster ride for

my wife, Holly, Dan’s wife and myself.

This did bring back memories of Nam, both good and bad.

I know it was hell for Dan and those who served and are presently serving.

To the soldiers, a prayer for you; When I die I’ll go to heaven ‘cause I spent my time in hell.

A saying; Yea tho I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil, ‘cause I’m the meanest SOB in the valley!

I started my journal in January 2008, before Dan left for Afghanistan, and ended it in January 2009, when Dan returned home.

I would like to thank my wife Phyllis. Without her hard and diligent work, this book would not have been possible.

Thank you Phyllis.

I would also like to thank Google news.

My Books may be found at Amazon and Smashwords

All soldiers go to heaven.

Young happy men go off to war, changed men return.

Chapter 1

January and February 2008I knew this day was coming

January 20th

We get a call from our son Dan and his new bride, Holly. They have been married for less than five months. Dan calls to say that Holly and he will be coming for a visit soon but he does not know the exact dates. He thinks it will be sometime around the 10th of February.

Dan says his unit, the 101st Airborne Division, has received a deployment date of March 10th to Afghanistan.

Great, my wife, Phyllis, will love that date, it’s our anniversary.

Leave it up to the Army to screw things up. That’s one thing I know, how the Army can screw things up.

I was in the Army from 1966 to 1969, and did tours in Berlin, Germany and Soc Trang, Can Thoe, Vietnam.

We knew it was coming but there was never a firm date, so it was never that important. Now it is the most important date.

Now I really don’t give a shit about anything else, and you know what? I really don’t

The most important thing is that Dan and Holly are coming for a visit.

I told Phyllis, I know what Jack Palance meant in the movie City Slickers when he held up the one finger..it defiantly means that.. There can only be one thing in your life that is really important and everything else means shit.

February 3rd

Dan calls and says they are coming down on the 10th.

I ask Dan if he has heard anything on O.C.S, which he had finally been able to apply to. He should be accepted, as Dan has a four year degree in criminal justice.

We had previously told him to go in as an officer but his buddy, who is a recruiter, talked him into joining as a enlisted man (With friends like that, who needs enemies).

As of today, he has not heard anything regarding his application.

Dan said they should be flying in on the 10th.

Being a dad, I try to talk Dan into driving the fifteen hours from Fort Campbell, Kentucky to Fort Myers, Florida, to save money. Dan says

maybe he would if he had two weeks, but he doesn’t.

You know what? Dan is right. Maybe the student is becoming the teacher.

Dan says they will be coming in at midnight but says he will try to get an earlier flight.

I told Dan I don’t care what time they land, I’ll be there.

I hang up and tell Phyllis the news and she replies, Well, what do you have planned? I said we would wing it but before Holly and Dan land, I have things to do. (I am a planner. I plan everything, step by step. I have to have things very organized.)

Phyllis says I probably can’t take a shit without planning it.

February 9th

Dan calls again and tells us that Holly and he are coming in at 11:50 am. Great, I reply, and tell him that mom and I will be there to pick them up. I then hand the phone to Phyllis and it’s all Mom Talk, you know, what your mom says to you when you talk to her on the phone.

When Phyllis says goodbye, she turns to me and says, Well, what do you have planned?

I reply, "Monday, we will try to see the Manatees. (It is very hot this year, so the Manatees won’t come up the river) Tuesday, it will be a day to themselves and Wednesday, a movie. Thursday, my brother is in town at his home in Venice and he and his wife, Phyllis, want to see Dan and Holly. Friday, this is a no no, the dog track. Why? It is a cruel sport but Holly has never seen Greyhounds run. Then we will go to Pizza Hut. Saturday, we will take them to the airport. Their flight is at 3pm so we should have them at the airport by 1pm and then we can be depressed the rest of the day. No! I don’t think so, we are going to clean out the garage and stay busy.

Phyllis says, Must we? I reply, "Look, we have gotten rid of a lot of crap that we did not

need or do not use any more. The garage is the last place we have to clean out then we will be done. (All together we have taken about five car loads of stuff to Goodwill. That saying is right, Less is more).

February 10th

Today is the day. Phyllis and I get up at 8 am. What a great feeling it is, like Christmas, your birthday and the time Dan was born. Banana Head, well that’s what his head looked like when he first came out, but then I guess all babies do. That is what I sometimes would call him when he was little.

Now it’s Monkey Boy. One night he must have had a nightmare and he called out, sounding like a monkey calling out. I told him the next morning that he sounded just like a monkey so from then on I’d call him Monkey Boy.

Phyllis and I get to the airport at 11:55 am and we go to where the passengers disembark. We look at the incoming flights and Phyllis says Oh look, their flight has landed.

No Dan, no Holly? I tell Phyllis, Let’s go down to where they would pick up their luggage. So down the stairs we go.

No Dan, no Holly! Then I suggest, Maybe we came down to the luggage too soon. So like two kids we head up the stairs again. There’s Dan, Phyllis says. I reply, Quick, let’s hide." But Dan has already seen us.

While Phyllis hugs him, I throw a salute. Then Holly appears and it’s that typical family reunion that you see in airports all the time.

February 11th

No manatees! One of the guides says that the Gulf water temp is 80, so the Manatees won’t come up the river. I don’t care that I did not see any, but I do care that Dan and Holly did not get to see any.

Lying in bed, Phyllis says she doesn’t know what she will do if something happens to our Dan. She says that life would not be worth living.

I reply, What about me? I say that I have asked God to send Dan a guardian angel to guide and protect.

February 12th

I have noticed that whenever we talk about Dan going to Afghanistan Holly looks like she starts to fill up, so I tell my wife that we should not talk or ask Dan questions about his deployment. I know Holly really loves Dan a lot; she has a tattoo on her wrist with Dan’s name and when those two are together it’s kissie, huggie time. You can tell that they both care for each other a great deal.

No one can feel what a wife goes through when her husband is being deployed, and for fifteen months. It is what mom and dad feel, but ten times worse.

That night Dan and Holly tell us that Holly is trying to get Pregnant. I think it’s wonderful!

Phyllis thinks there are too many negatives at this point in time. I tell Phyllis it’s their lives and I think it is wonderful, as I know her parents will.

February 14th

Happy Valentine’s Day! My brother and sister in-law stopped by and we all went to lunch. Then we went to the Norman Love Chocolate store, which was voted as the best chocolate in the world.

Later Dan and I go up to Walmart because I have to pick up a switch for my electric palm tree.

Since we are alone, we finally get a chance to talk. Dan tells me that he really is not looking forward to going, but if he goes, he wants to go for at least thirty days, because if you are deployed for thirty days or longer, you receive a combat patch. If he receives his orders for O.C.S. before thirty days are up, he will request to stay for thirty days. I know what his thinking is; going to O.C.S with his time in the Army, which is almost two years, and a combat patch, says, no FNG here (fucking new guy).

February 15th

Today we will see the dogs run.

Maybe not! No, Holly checked on their flight and when she changed their flight’s arrival time, it also changed their departing flight to 3 pm today and it is now 11am. Oh no, holy shit! They’re leaving in one and a half hours, no, no, no!

Because it is my birthday on the 18th and they have purchased a Diary Queen cake for me, it’s time to sing happy birthday. Outwardly, I am happy but inwardly this sucks big time.

It’s time to take Dan and Holly to the airport. Dan says it is better this way, leave sudden and there are no time for tears. Wait, we must do something before you