Just an FYI.
About 3/4 through that montage is a shot of a man in full combat uniform sitting on the ground holding a little child.
That man is CPT John Vining. John is a fellow co-worker with me at Madigan Army Medical Center, an Intensive Care Unit Nurse like I am. We both deployed with the 47th Combat Support Hospital in March of 2003 (I am a Captain as well) in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and later Iraqi Freedom. John was pulled later on and sent into Iraq to support the mission there. I stayed behind in Kuwait with the main force. He came back about two weeks ago from Iraq and later Kuwait. I have been back for a while, I was luckier than John.
I enjoyed this montage. It reminds people of a couple of things. First every deployed soldier leaves something behind. The hardest thing about deploying was leaving my son. This is the second time I have gone overseas since Danny was born. The first was when he was three, the last he was six. When you are gone they don't stop growing and that time you lose you don't get back. Leaving puts a stress on your family and some families don't survive it.
Secondly, there is always the risk of the ultimate sacrifice. I was there during the ground war portion of the campaign and although I was relatively safe compared to the Marines and soldiers fighting in Iraq we still were at risk from missile attack and terrorist strikes. Luckily nothing happened to us, unlike in 91 when that barracks was hit.
Keep these guys in your prayers, no matter what you think politically. Keep the Iraqi people in your prayers as well. I did when I was there and do now. Whether you think that GWB did this for the Iraqi people or not isn't important, I went over there for that reason and most soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen over there now are there for that reason.
