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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...1/04/AR2010110407505.html?sid=ST2010110407698
This article is thought provoking on a number of different issues - in addition to really making you wonder how much of a benefit constant contact really is. Of greater to interest to me- it gives you a real appreciation for what a family is sacrificing when their soldier deploys.
One of the most thought provoking Army Birthday speeches I ever heard was in Schofield Barracks HI about 15 years ago - given by an old retired Army Chief of Staff by the name of Fred Weyand. Usually those events were kind of chest pounding "hooah- ain't we great" kind of affairs. But Gen Weyand talked about seeing the wives at a Bde Chg of Command and then talked about caring for his wife who was suffering with Alzheimers. He commented on how people would praise him for keeping her at home and taking care of her under really difficult conditions. His response was a litany of all of the time that he had spent in 3 wars in a combat zone, while his wife was at home raising their kids and not knowing whether he was alive or dead and she just hadn't been notified yet. "Compared to that he said- it doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice to care for her when she needed him to do so- and that after all in the final analysis, caring for those whom we love is the reason why we serve". My summary doesn't do Gen Weyand's speech justice, but it was a real testament to love as well as to the sacrifices that the families of soldiers have to make.
This article is thought provoking on a number of different issues - in addition to really making you wonder how much of a benefit constant contact really is. Of greater to interest to me- it gives you a real appreciation for what a family is sacrificing when their soldier deploys.
One of the most thought provoking Army Birthday speeches I ever heard was in Schofield Barracks HI about 15 years ago - given by an old retired Army Chief of Staff by the name of Fred Weyand. Usually those events were kind of chest pounding "hooah- ain't we great" kind of affairs. But Gen Weyand talked about seeing the wives at a Bde Chg of Command and then talked about caring for his wife who was suffering with Alzheimers. He commented on how people would praise him for keeping her at home and taking care of her under really difficult conditions. His response was a litany of all of the time that he had spent in 3 wars in a combat zone, while his wife was at home raising their kids and not knowing whether he was alive or dead and she just hadn't been notified yet. "Compared to that he said- it doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice to care for her when she needed him to do so- and that after all in the final analysis, caring for those whom we love is the reason why we serve". My summary doesn't do Gen Weyand's speech justice, but it was a real testament to love as well as to the sacrifices that the families of soldiers have to make.