2009/2010
What a year. The newsletter really did catch me off guard this year. I can’t believe it is time to write once again. All in all, 2010 finds our family doing well and in good health, which we are grateful for. We do wish that we could live closer to everyone and be able to get to a reunion once in a while.
Since last year:
Addyson—has grown up way too fast. We can’t believe that she is already TWO years old. She may be only two, but she still is the boss around the house. I swore I would never spoil my children, but I think I tend to a little anyways. She enjoys watching Disney’s “Cars” Movie and watches it to ad nauseam. She is an independent soul and always has to do everything herself, no matter how grown up the thing might be. She loves to sing, run, play at the park, help her mom and get into trouble. Her greatest accomplishments are singing the abc’s and spelling her name. We love her and she definitely has her dad wrapped around her little finger.
Alisa—has been the hero of the year in our family. She has gone through a great deal with the moves and the deployment. She may disagree, but I think she has gone through it all with a great deal of grace and poise. She has, through it all, really managed to provide a stable and positive environment for Addy and for us all. I am grateful every day that I lucked out to be her husband. I think she is ready to get to our next duty station and hopefully settle down for a couple years, at least.
For me, I finally was able to get my deployment to Iraq—even though it was cut a little short. It got the proverbial monkey off my back and I can move on, in my own mind, at least. I really don’t know how to fit in the whole story in one news letter, so I will give a simple outline, and then if anyone cares to hear more about it, hopefully we can chat around the camp fire at this year’s reunion. For me, this was the fifth try to get to Iraq. For the past couple of years I have been training to be an advisor/trainer to the Iraqi Border Forces. I was really looking forward to be a part of a small 10 man team, patterned around a Special Forces team, which would be sent out to the edge of the world and train an indigenous force that spoke a different language. The training was intense and more akin to what I thought I would be doing as a Marine--a lot of shoot-move-communicate, along with cultural and language training. By the time I finally made it to Iraq, so much had changed with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the Coalition Forces and Iraq, that, while danger was still present, it was much less of “war” and much more of a nation building experience. Also, rather than getting sent to the wide open desert along the Iraqi/Syrian border, I was given my own team of young, inexperienced Marines, none of who were trained as advisors and was also given the charge to train two District’s worth of Police in the center of the Al An bar province. Working in populated cities was where the stress came, but in all honesty, I never truly feared for my life or safety. We trained hard and worked hard to build a good relationship with the Police and local population which in turn, gave us a reasonable amount of confidence that we would be okay. The whole deployment only lasted about four months, but I saw a lot in that short amount of time that really makes me grateful for the wonderful country which we live in.
Now that I am back, I am looking forward to moving on in my career as a Marine. We are going to be headed to one of the most desolate places in the United States (29 Palms, CA), but are glad to be staying in the West and actually a little closer to family. I will be working at the Marine Corps Communications/Electronic School and hopefully learning a little myself.
We really look forward to being up at Grey’s River for the reunion this year and for most of you to meet and get to know Alisa and Addyson.
Until then,
Barry, Alisa and Addyson.
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