In My Own Words

Sebastian Junger wrote a book titled “War,” which is basically a journal of time he spent in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley with a platoon of American Soldiers. He and Tim Hetherington made a documentary film titled “Restrepo,” which is the name of the combat outpost the Soldiers that Mr. Junger was embedded with built and named in honor of their medic, Juan “Doc” Restrepo, who was killed in action in July 2007. This is NOT a Hollywood film, with the “characters” played by famous (or infamous) actors – it is a true documentary, actual film footage of the men of Battle Company, filmed as life happened for these Warriors.

Restrepo, being an independent film, is out on limited release. It happens to be in Clarksville, TN at the Governer’s Square 10 theater for a limited run. I bought the book and read it while I was waiting for the movie to be released, and I am glad I did. The book has a bit more detail about certain events than the movie – nothing “big,” necessarily. For example, in the movie there is mention made of an incident involving a cow, but what happened with the cow isn’t explained. The local resident who owned the cow came to the outpost and insisted on being paid for the loss of his cow.  The book explains that there was a cow that got tangled in the concertina wire around OP Restrepo, which the Soldiers of Battle Company then killed, cooked and ate. I won’t tell any more of the story; everybody needs to read the book for themselves, and see the film first chance they get. It’s an awesome film and gives great insight into the lives of our Warriors and what they deal with over there. God bless ‘em all and bring ‘em home safely!!

I’ve gotten to chat with three of our Warriors these past couple of days, and got a nice e-mail from another of them. I had asked him to let me know what he and his guys would like to get, and he attached a spreadsheet listing each Soldier’s wants/needs. Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! When I can talk our troops into being specific, I can spend my money to better effect by making sure they are getting stuff they actually want and can use, instead of just taking a shot in the dark and hoping for the best. And now I know who’s getting the 6-lb bag of gummy bears I bought last time we went to Sam’s…LOL!

While we were picking up a few groceries after the movie this afternoon, Jack bought a couple of boxes of those Fruit Chiller Tubes that you put in the freezer to make a yummy frozen treat. Kroger only had two flavors, Grape and Strawberry, so we picked one of each. Those and some freezer pops will be on their way to one of our Warriors soon. I’m hoping to get two boxes put together tomorrow after church so I can get them mailed off Monday. Then I’ll be “out of business” again until payday on the 25th. I do have a bread order, but it’s only $10 worth, and that won’t cover postage for one box.

I got a message from Jennifer’s cousin today; he’s an EOD tech in Afghanistan. I needed to verify his address before I sent him anything, and he was letting me know where to send. First thing I need to do is send a card with an Angel card enclosed; I don’t remember if I ever gave Jennifer one to give to him before he deployed this time. I know I meant to, and I’m sure I thought about it, but that doesn’t mean I actually followed through. Sometimes I can be a bit scatter-brained. LOL! Go figure…Must be the company I keep…

Well, it’s way past my bedtime, and I’m sleepy, so I’m going to get up from here and hit the hay. Y’all take care; thanks for reading my ramblings once again. Hugs {{{{{Family & Friends}}}}}