My semi-adopted son leaves for Iraq on Friday

He has been fortunate enough to have spent most of his time at Ft. Knox and Ft. Lewis. His four years are up at the end of the year, but they are extending him another year. His job was to make "the big gun go boom" in his tank, but lately he said they've been in some experimental POS without much armor.

He was my oldest son's best friend beginning in junior high, right about the time his mother died from cancer. He used to stay with us for long periods when his father, a drunken ex-cop who pays more attention to his non-profit organization (yah, right) for rehabilitating his stinking wolves than his kids, would kick him out or he was looking for a safe place. My wife and I became his parents. He stayed with us until he left for the Army at age 21, something we tried our best to talk him out of, at least enlisting in the Army. I think he wanted to prove to his father that he could complete something. Why did it have to be this?

He spends his off time in Anacortes, WA on the edge of the San Juan Islands. That's where his mother's family and his sister live. I rode my bike up there a couple of years ago and it was absolutely beautiful. He recently got married and they now have a baby boy who's barely a month old. He has hs daddy's pointy nose. I hope and pray that his daddy is able to come back to him, whole. My friend Jerry wasn't that fortunate. He was drafted and died in Viet Nam at the tender age of 19. He left an 18 year old widow and a baby boy he never got to see.

If anything happens to him, my sweet wife will be devastated. She'll mourn just like it was her own child. I will , too. But I honestly don't know how I will react to those I know who support this war and the incompetents ruining our once great land. It will likely be the end of some very long friendships. Personally, I won't give a shit.

Hurry home, BBB. We love you.

... with your DU family - which, by the way, is beautifully written and truly conveys your love for this young man.

Thoughts and prayers go with you and yours - may you all be together again, safe and sound, in the not-too-distant future.

Peace.

return unharmed.

sons/daughters or grandsons/granddaughters to go to Iraq?

If every case they say "NO" to which I reply, "Then why in the Hell do you want someone else's sons/daughters or grandsons/granddaughters going to Iraq?"

That always ends the discussion and either makes them become neutral on the War in Iraq or in a few cases become quiet anti-war supporters.

I hope the young man returns home safe and sound.