We honor you.....

Dear Marine, Solider, Airman and Sailor,

I would like to take this moment to thank you.  I know it's not much and I realize that many of you will never

see this post but I'd like to thank you anyway.   Active duty, reservist, retired or veteran I'm speaking to you.

Once every year America, the country that you serve, chooses to remember you and that day is tomorrow.  I

could tell you that I think about you and appreciate you everyday, but the truth is I like most people take you

for granted.  I do pause today, at this moment to tell you how much I appreciate you and what you do for our

country.  I would call it a job but having served in the Marines calling it a job is a disservice to you.  Please

allow me to express my gratitude to you.

I appreciate that you leave your families behind sometimes for years without seeing them.  I can only imagine

what it must be like to hear that you are a father knowing that your child may take their first step before you

ever hold them.  I can appreciate what it's like to come back from deployment and find that your girlfriend or

boyfriend has moved on to someone else.  I know what it's like to be so lonely for home that you hide so your

buddies don't see your tears.   I can appreciate that mail call is the highlight of your day and a letter from

home will be read so much that eventually it falls apart from being folded and unfolded to be read and shared

with your  buddies.  I know what it's like to be on edge for weeks at a time, to be hungry, tired, dirty and that

a toilet is considered a luxury.  I know what it's like to not see anything and I mean anything but ocean for

weeks at a time and there is no bar, buffet or shuffleboard games on the ship on which you serve.

There are things though that I have no idea how to appreciate about you.  I don't know how to mourn the loss

of one of my buddies.  I cannot imagine coming back without my arm or my leg having to learn how to button

my shirt or walk again.  I cannot imagine how your wife, mother, father, sisters, brothers and friends mourn

when you give the ultimate sacrifice for your country.  How when your flag is folded and handed to your

family somehow they are suppose to understand that you not only gave your life for you country but you did it

for your buddies that count on you everyday.

I could go on and list a thousand reasons why I am writing this letter to you today.  I look back over this letter

and realize that no matter what I say it is inadequate to express how I, no how we feel about you and your

service to our country.  We are honored, blessed and humbled by you and what you do everyday so that

we may work, live and play mostly without a second thought to our safety and freedom.  God bless you

and your family.  We officially honor you tomorrow but you deserve more than our gratitude.

Lest we forget,

A forever grateful American

My home's in Alabama

I grew up in Alabama.  I have told people that in the last several years when asked where I am

from and the looks I get or the comments are less than gracious.  I was even told by someone that I was

officially "white trash"  and they meant it.  I have literally been around the world by ship and by plane.  I've

been in Somalia, Africa, Egypt, the Middle East, Italy, Spain, etc...   I've lived in Jackson, Mississippi,

Atlanta, Georgia and I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee.  I live here because it's where work brought me.

I love Nashville, don't get me wrong, it is a great city and I think I'll probably be here the rest of my life but as

the song says "My home's in Alabama"

I was 20 years of age and had just finished Infantry Training School at Camp Geiger, North Carolina.  I was

given orders to Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine.  The morning I graduated I got in my S-10 truck and

drove straight through.  It's 19 hours from North Carolina to Brunswick and that's a lot of road to travel

when you are by yourself.  I can't tell you it was a great drive.  Honestly I can't tell you much about the drive.

What I can tell you is that knowing that I might never see my home, my folks, my friend or Alabama weighed

heavy on my mind;  like the air right before a tornado touches down and changes your life in an instant.  Only

I had 19 hours to think about it.  I did what most people do I suppose I turned on the radio.  In those days

before satellite radio and iPods you had to change stations ever 50 or so miles as you ran out of reception,

waiting till the words were so interrupted with static so that you could no longer sing along or understand the

song.  There was no "seek" button on the radios then, you had to slowly turned the knob till you came upon a

station that was clear.  I listened to gospel, country, rock and almost any station you could imagine.  There

were no "talk" radio or "sports" radio then, just music which is maybe the way it ought to be again, but I

digress.  I was around 17 hours into my drive when I saw the sign that announced the Maine State line.  My

radio was just issuing loud crackles of static and I began to move the dial to find a station hopeful it would lift

my spirits.  The sign had pushed me into a deeper funk, realizing that I was only hours from my life changing

knowing it would never be the same.  Finally, a station cameover the air clearly.  The announcer told me it

was a country station and and a song began to play.

Oh I'll speak my Southern English just as natural as I please

I'm in the heart of Dixie, Dixie's in the heart of me

And someday when I make it, when love finds a way

Somewhere high on Lookout Mountain I'll just smile with pride and say,

that my

Home's in Alabama, 

No matter where I lay my head

My home's in Alabama, 

Southern born and southern bred.

I'd like to tell you I was manly, but the honest truth is I cried like I was 14 year old girl who just had her heart 

broken by her first love.  No cell phone to call home, nobody to share my grief, just me, the radio and 4 men 

who grew up, lived and then sang a song about our life.  I don't know if I'll ever move back to Alabama.

I don't really know what tomorrow will bring or where I'll be six months from now.  What I do know is that 

ever time that song plays if you look closely you might just see a tear in my eye and a smile on my face.