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I was just wondering if anyone on this site has friends or family in Iraq. As fate world have it my good friend of over 10 years was shiped out from Hawaii today and I am having a little bit of troubble dealing with it. He is a strong person but I am not and I know he will be fine but you can never help but wonder. I plan to write every week and while he was in boot camp I sent copys of song lyrics to him. Does anyone have any suggestions of Jimmy's songs to to send to him. Perhaps sometihing that will make him laugh. Hewever anything would be great. So here is looking to the future and better days are in the cards I feel.

pirateunder40 wrote:I was just wondering if anyone on this site has friends or family in Iraq. As fate world have it my good friend of over 10 years was shiped out from Hawaii today and I am having a little bit of troubble dealing with it. He is a strong person but I am not and I know he will be fine but you can never help but wonder. I plan to write every week and while he was in boot camp I sent copys of song lyrics to him. Does anyone have any suggestions of Jimmy's songs to to send to him. Perhaps sometihing that will make him laugh. Hewever anything would be great. So here is looking to the future and better days are in the cards I feel.

send him Far Side of the World and It's My Job!

There are several folks here with friends or family in Iraq. And at least a handful who might get to visit that garden spot themselves.....

PHAW's and Happy Shark's keet is in Iraq. I know there are at least a few others, but they're escaping me at the moment.....

Realize that your buddy is well trained, well equipped, and well led, and it's probably easier for him to be there doing his job than it is for you and the rest of his friends and family to be here waiting and wondering how it's going.

Parrotheads are the BEST at sending out prayers and good wishes to our gals and gals deployed to the FSOTW!

My recommendation .... anything Buffett will be good company for him.

I got word this past week that my daughter should be shipping out to Iraq by years end. .... I sure don't want that but I will always support our troops ... whether I agree with the war or not.

PU40 - my heart goes out to you....just know that he has been trained well to carry out his mission.

Like SGH said - our keet is in Iraq - has been since April and will be there a minimum of 8 more months possible more.

My advice? Find things to keep you busy. You're awesome to send letters and "stuff" frequently - they love it. If you can, find a group of kids willing to draw pictures, write letters, etc.....they (the kids AND the soldiers) really get a kick out of it. I know lots of websites for family and friends of deployed ~ let me know if you're interested.

Hang in there!

semitruths wrote:My recommendation .... anything Buffett will be good company for him.

I got word this past week that my daughter should be shipping out to Iraq by years end. .... I sure don't want that but I will always support our troops ... whether I agree with the war or not.

Oh........

what branch and MOS is she?

I have a friend in Iraq, and my husband's uncle found out he will be shipping out in Oct. It is scary, but like others here have said, they are doing what they have trained to do.

Send your friend LOTS of mail--packages, cards, anything--he'll love it!

MUCH phin power to your friend and to you......and to everyone else serving in Iraq!!

CU - Phin Power out to your friend and hubby's Uncle as well!!

PHAW Webmistress wrote:

semitruths wrote:My recommendation .... anything Buffett will be good company for him.

I got word this past week that my daughter should be shipping out to Iraq by years end. .... I sure don't want that but I will always support our troops ... whether I agree with the war or not.

Oh........

what branch and MOS is she?

Army National Guard ... and QuarterMaster. But as we have been made to realize, any solder with any MOS is still a *soldier* first. If they don't require the MOS that someone has then they can, and will, be a 'foot soldier'. I feel for anyone who has someone special to them placed in a situation like Iraq. I wish the best turnout for all involved. Including the innocents that are living in that country, the children who only know what they are told to believe.

My nephew is on his second tour in Iraq and his brother is currently in Afghanistan.......

you hope and pray and count on their training to pull them through....

my brother has been over a couple of times and will be shipped back out by the end of the year. Also his wife was over there early last year and they were both gone when their only daughter had her first birthday. The best is to just try to stay in contact and let them know that people back home support them for what they are doing and for what they are giving up.

i would be crushed if anything every happened to my brother over there, but at the same time i don't think i could be any more proud of him for what he has done.

send them all a little Love and Luck

Our deployed troops definitely need our love and phin power (as do their families )

My SF cousin got back from Iraq at the end of March. My husband and I went to visit him at Fort Bragg when he had leave in April and took him and his wife to their FIRST Buffett show in Charlotte. They were very appreciative and had a great time!

Like PHAW said, keep busy and don't let yourself get glued to news programs like MSNBC, CNN, etc. Hang in there!

My best friend's husband got back in March, and 2 of my boyfriend's best friends just got back last month. The level of ugliness seems to depend on where they are and the MOS. My friend's husband actually liked it, it reminded him more of home (OK) than Colorado, but he wasn't in a combat position for very long, if at all. He was pretty bored though. However, my boyfriend's friends actually were in combat, and I know one of them was pretty torn up that he actually killed people.

My only suggestion is not to worry- it doesn't help them or you at all. I'm not saying don't think of them or pray for them, but what happens will happen whether you obsess over it or not.

I would volunteer to send stuff too, but my poor boyfriend's been overseas since February (he's in the Nat'l Guard in Bosnia) and I still haven't mailed him anything (we do email or talk every day though, and he told me that they have plenty of baked goods and usually stuff was stale by the time it got there anyway).

This weekend was kind of bittersweet. While it was a time of great happiness for my wife and I the youngest son got married one of the wedding party, a long time friend of my son and our family since they were both kids is shipping out today for Iraq.
He is a Marine. Had actually been out of active duty for 7 months when he got the call to come back. Went out to California for some updated training, then home for a leave before he reports back to go to Iraq.
Since I served in the Army from 68 to 70 and spent some time in Vietnam driving a tank and then a tank commander I have a lot of reservations about what is going on over there.
However, my support and prayers as I know all of yours are with the guys and woman who are serving as well as their families.
I did have a long talk with Wally this past Saturday and tried to answer his questions to the best of my ability but it just does not sit well seeing him and others going.
My thoughts and prayers are with all of those over there in Iraq and with their loved ones. Boy the more things change and time passes the more it is the same.
Steve Seiler

Boy the more things change and time passes the more it is the same.

Steve - I agree 100%

I came across this today and felt the need to share
********************************************
Dateline Baghdad
By Thomas Foreman October 06, 2004
Escape as easy as nearest song, movie

The need to wind down and just chill out after a long day prompts gratuitous amounts of Jimmy Buffett.

here's the link to the rest of the article
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD= ... =461&rfi=9

my cousins husband is with a medical unit over there, he comes home in february.i have friends that work for the air national guard and the 82nd airborne. you just pray every day that thwey are ok

I just do not know what to think as I watch the TV in the morning, Iraq a rough assignment for our men and women who are serving there. I guess from my experiences back in the late 60's when I went across the ocean to Vietnam, I just had to go once.
While I did not make the full tour of duty 12 months for the Army, I realize fully from reading the various posts that our troops are going back two and three times.
That my friends is rough. You go through a learning curve, a fast learning curve and you kind of grow used to life in a combat zone if in fact that is really possible.
I just really have a place in my heart for the troops and the families and loved ones they leave behind. I was at the VA Hospital here in Indianapolis to have my foot examined and there was a guy there younger than most of us sitting there in the ortho clinic waiting room.
He had lost his hand in Iraq, RPG did the damage to his humvee.
In any event we had a nice visit and he is getting along fine still getting sharpnel coming out, small pieces now and he will for years.
In any event sitting there I talked to him about how a Mr. Jimmy Buffett song kind of put things in perspective for me and perhaps others will learn from it to.
The song, from the FLORIDAYS CD, Nobody Speaks to the Captain No More. Kind of starts out like Yankee Doodle Dandy then goes into the tail of someone past his prime.
The song, at least for me talks about war and the cost of war. The song really hits home in the last verses when he sings about the death of the individual the song is about.
In any event Mr. Buffett seems in his verse to talk about a lot of things that soldier's think about as they remember their service in a time of war.
But the hardest verse for me to still listen to is the one where Mr. Buffett sings, "The jungle beasts, they were heard to wail as the saxophone still played the scale for a man they never knew who looked like me and you long ago."
Yes, our troops go with my prayers for their safe return, but for so many people the war in Iraq is something distant, far away and sadly, even as I sit here at work typing this, many of us just do not know they men and women who are going, their hopes and dreams and feelings. I remember, yes I remember.
I will always support the individuals who wear any uniform in our armed forces as they carry out the orders that are given to them. God it seems so simple yet it is so very, very complicated.
Let us all keep those in harms way in our thoughts.
Steve Seiler, Indianapolis, Indiana 07 October 2004.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Steve

lets not forget Commander SGH who has already paid her dues on her FSOTW tour....

AlbatrossFlyer wrote:lets not forget Commander SGH who has already paid her dues on her FSOTW tour....

Never!! Memory is bittersweet 'cuz that's how we all "met" her!!!