Moving to Oahu has it's benefits. After Troy's SIX deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and one to Djibouti I thought "I have HAD it with deployments!" I love our country! I love our soldiers! Don't get me wrong, but after 6 deployments over there we, as a family, were s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d! When Hawaii came up I was mad-crazy about getting here. No deployments! Barely a TDY! The kids love having their dad around! Every night he comes kayaking up to the backyard after work... Weekends he is there! What a change from before when each month he was gone at least 2 weeks on average! THe kids would go berserk for the first week, then mellow out into a schedule about the 2nd week then Dad'd show up again and back to berserk till things settled down... In time for him to leave again. It was tough to say the least.
Military kids grow up so much differently than other kids. They sacrifice a lot and probably understand and realize to what extent only when they grow up.
Living in Hawaii has given our kids another chance at normal. It is a blessing that I am so thankful for.
Let me tell you something funny...
The other morning, it was early, Troy was recalling a dream he had that night. He described it as being in Afghanistan, up in the mountains. He was in pursuit of two taliban soldiers. Troy was running up after them as they were in position to shoot Troy and the others he was with. When he had a good enough shot when he was within range to shoot he fired his M-4 and only WATER came out! His M-4 was a water-pistol! He motioned to one of his other guys that taliban were on the ridge and that guy fired off his handgun and killed a couple. When Troy shot again, his M-4 shot a full stream of water "pretty far".... He woke up.
So, basically, Hawaii has been good to Troy. He has played around enough here in paradise to prove that his dreams are now fodder for strange PTSD dreams with squirt-guns. I am happy for this.
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