Remembering September 11th

This morning I woke up and the first thing that I did was lower my flag outside to half mast.  17 years ago today I, along with so many Americans and the world, watched in horror as terrorists attacked our country.  I watched a tribute for 9/11 done to the song "The Sound of Silence" performed by Disturbed.  I already love this song, done with this tribute I balled my eyes out.  I then posted on my facebook business page and my personal profile a thank you tribute of my own and texted a friend and thanked him for being a veteran. 

This thought strikes me.  My kids will read and learn about September 11th in their history books.  But they won't understand the impact of watching the two planes hit the towers or watching each tower collapse, even on live TV.  I remember watching in fear that my ex-husband would be mobilized in Marnie Corps Reserve unit that night.  We all know that catastrophic loss the occurred that day and the war that ensued.  Everyone knew someone who was "over there" every more so I think everyone knew someone who didn't come home.

I also relate this to many other events in history though.  Generations before us saw these events and watched in horror, maybe not on live tv, but had the same feelings of fear, anger, and determination to fight back.  These are things that we now read in our history and do not get the emotional connection, although I think now I do.  Events that our ancestors may have been involved in that we learn about as we go about our research in this crazy hobby of ours.

Hug your families and honor those who came before us and made the ultimate sacrifice.  Thank you to all our Firefighters, Emergency Medical Personel, and Police Officers who protect our homes, health, and lives.  Thank you to our Veterans that protect our country and our freedoms. 

Happy Hunting

What happened to Lieutenant Colonel Commandant Anthony Gale

Lieutenant Colonel Commadant Anthony Gale was the 4th Commandant of the United States Marie Corps.  The following link was sent to me by my husband and an interesting genealogy article from Leatherneck magazine.

http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/mystery-lieutenant-colonel-commandant-anthony-gale

I found it to be very interesting reading about a hisotrical figure lost in time.  Perhaps someday genealogists will reveal the answers to the questions provided in the article.

What do you think?

Happy Hunting!

Army Wife

Recently my husband went back into the military, specifically the Army National Guard and he is currently going through his Officer Candidate School (OCS).  In June he was gone a week, home 4 days then gone for 2 weeks.  For his 2 weeks he was in Minnesota.  Part of their training is they are not allowed to have and contact home except for letters.  Of course, I waited every night hoping to get a phone call.  Now I know two weeks isn't a long time in the scheme of things, espcially when his Marine unit was deployed for 7 months to africa in 2003 and we would go for weeks without talking on the phone.

Two things occured to me during his 2 weeks away that I have reflected on at length.  First of all, in this day and age of technology with things like our email, cell phones laptops, facebook, etc we (as a society) are in constant contact with each other.  It is very stressful not knowing what is going on in the day-to-day, but ultimately it gave us something to talk about when he got home.  Many times I find myself alling home telling my husband about my day even before I get home.  I wonder at times, if all this technology for communication is really cutting out our true communication with each other.

The second thing that occured to me is this: my mother, both my grandmothers, part of my great grandmothers (and so on) were military wives.  Both my grandpas were in the Army during World War II.  My parternal grandpa spend time in the pacific theater.  The only communication they has was letter writing.  It never occured to me until my husband was gone, is that this is what the women in my family before me must have gone through, but at much longer time intervals when their husbands, brothers, fathers, and uncles were away at war.  Their hopes for even a few words in a letter must have been very great as mine was for a phone call, an email, a text message...something. 

I talk mainly about the Army here because that is the branch of service my family just happens to be in, but this could very easily be the Navy, Marines (which my husband was in before the National Guard), Air Force or Coast Guard.  I'm sure no matter the branch of service, the experience was the same.

Happy Hunting.