We Were Soldiers

So I haven't been to school since Monday and don't planning on going tomorrow either. Not only did an acrtic storm hit North Texas like a sledge hammer, but then I wound up getting sick, along with my fiance. We're not happy at all. In fact, I took a pill a second ago that should keep me from throwing up but it doesn't seem to be working. So here I am, writing a blog to keep my mind off of it. Will anyone ever read these? Doubt it, haha. I'm not that interesting.

I am watching one of the saddest movies ever made. We Were Soldiers, starring Mel Gibson.

I dated a few guys in the military when I was younger, one of them even went over seas a few times. I worried nonstop, couldn't watch the news. It's awful. I knew then I wasn't cut out to be the wife of someone that had been in the military. I watch military movies through tears, most of the time. I just couldn't have handled feeling what those women felt..
The worst scenes were, for me as a woman who is deeply in love, the scenes where the taxi drivers would take the telegrams to the families of the men who died in the war. My Dad told me stories about men he knew who fought in Vietnam. He said they were always different. Dad tried going into the military, but they wouldn't let him because he was colorblind. He wanted to join before he got drafted. But he graduated in 73', and that was the year they stopped drafting I think. I could never tell if Dad was disappointed that he didn't get to go, or relieved.

My Dad's father was in World War 2. He was in the Navy and in the battle of Okinawa. Dad said that he never talked about the war, even though he was technically a hero. See, he jumped on top of his C.O and to protect him from a blast, taking a lot of shrapmel. The shrapmel eventually moved into his intestines as the years went by, and he had to have surgery. He got gangreen and died. My Dad was 11.

War is a reality my Dad never thought I would have to deal with, till September 11th happened. I came home from school that day and my Granny, Mom, and Dad were all there. I was suprised Dad came home from work and that Granny was there...I was a few months shy of 13 when it happened, and I wasn't quite undertanding what that moment meant for our country. My Dad said that it meant war.

Three years later I found myself sitting up all night worrying about two people I cared about who were over there. One was someone I was in a relationship with, and the other was a guy I'd known since I  as 6 years old and considered a brother. My brother Steven. Everytime Steven called home my parent would talk to him and then I would. He was in communications so we talked a lot when he was in Iraq. We lost touch during one of his tours. I found out after he made it home that he'd been in Afghanistan. He came home, got out of the Marines, but he's never been the brother that left me. Everything about him is different. He watched friends die, and I couldn't imagine that at the time. Since then, I've had a friend murdered, but not in war. It's different. It's a lot different. I hope I never ever have to know.

Freedom doesn't come free. We should honor those who fight for our rights. They made a choice to do this. They signed up for the honor to serve their country. It isn't like it was with Vietnam, where they were drafted and didn't have a choice. But it's a shame what we did to those boys when they came home. A man that taught me history in high school, Coach Jones, was in .Vietnam and he said that when he came home (after taking a bullet as big as my freakin arm in the gut) was spit on. He should have been considered a hero, because even though he was shot he still flew the hellicopter he was piloting. But he wasn't because people didn't like the war. Well, I don't like the war we got into in Iraq, but guess what? Who gives a gosh diddly dang if I don't like it? Those soliders are fighting and dying over there because they feel like they have a reason to, and that's all that matters to me. They deserved to be respected, honored, and thanked. I would glady smack someone right in the face if I ever saw them spitting on a soldier.

On a side note to my incredible rant, Ewan McGregor is in the movie I'm watching now (Black Hawk Down) and I think he would have made an excellent Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter movies. I like the actor they have as him, but not for that part. Just like I don't like Gary Oldman as Sirius Black. Hugh Jackman should have been Sirius.

Alrighty, that's enough for tonight. I'm exhausted. Maybe next time I'll write about my crazy obsession with Harry Potter, or just write about more movies in general. Or maybe write about my friend Shelley. Or my Dad. Who knows?

Good night all, and drive safely in these insane arctic temperatures.

Alison