In My Own Words

This young man was one of our adopted Warriors from Ft. Campbell. His e-mail ID was “nobodybelievesme,” so I always addressed him as “Sergeant Nobody.”  He re-deployed home sometime late last fall, and I hadn’t heard anything out of him since he came home. Yesterday evening I came in to shut down my computer, and lo and behold, he popped up on Yahoo IM. He apologized for not keeping in touch, which I immediately told him not to worryabout.  The vast majority of our guys and gals are never heard from again once they get home; heck, some don’t even keep in touch when they’re in the sandbox ~ they’ve got more important things to do than spend what little down time they have writing to complete strangers.

SGT Cummings, aka "Sgt. Nobody"

He said he’s gotten settled back into a normal routine with his wife and kids, and they’d like to meet us in person. That would be neat.  They’ve got 3 young’uns if I remember correctly, but I couldn’t begin to tell you their ages. We should have them over for supper one night, I think.  He’ll be deploying to Iraq again this winter – Lord, I hope he meant Iraq when he said “I’ll be going over again this winter.”  Afghanistan is a hell of a place to be right now… Either way, we’ll add him back to the Support Rolodex when he goes; another one for the “worry list.”

Also heard from our Bronze Star Medal winner, 1st Sgt. Winning. He’ll be going back to Iraq – his third tour there – in March. And our Warrior, SPC Atkinson – she is going back over in February. She’s divorced, with a little boy in first grade. She’ll be leaving him with a friend who has a son about the same age. That’s got to be a hard thing to do, leaving the little ones behind. Lately she’s been working with children who have lost a parent in the war; she said it’s something she wants to do, helping them deal with their loss. She also said she hopes somebody would do the same for her son if anything happens to her…God, what a thought. It has to always be lurking in the back of one’s mind, though, going to a war zone.