Good morning, everyone.
This is Brig, Steve’s wife. In
case you haven’t heard, Steve and I will be traveling across the United States
to sell and promote his two books, “The Night Eagles Soared” and “Burnt Yellow
and Red”. The majority of our stops will
be at military bases; however, there are a couple of events that are not, and
all of them will be posted on his website https://sites.google.com/site/thenighteaglessoared/. I hope if you're in the area, you will come out and see us. We are starting out in the Southeast and
making our way west. West coast or
bust! What better way to see these great, beautiful United States than to drive and camp along the way! Our two dogs, Kyle and Charlie, love car
rides! This will be a good one for them.
Until October, Steve is flying solo and he started off the
Nationwide Tour yesterday at Fort Stewart – home to the 3rd Infantry
Division and 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
Brigade Combat teams, just to name a few, along with many tenant units. Some of our country’s finest!! On Steve’s last visit to Fort Stewart he told
me about the Warrior Transition Unit that is there. Some of the wounded soldiers came up to his
table and he had the privilege of speaking with them. When a soldier is wounded on the battlefield,
he is whisked out of theater and medivaced to the rear, usually Germany and
then onto stateside. Fort Stewart is one
of the locations they come to.
Although necessary, they are now ‘alone’ and separated from their tight
knit unit, buddies, and commanders. As
Steve said, “They just wanted some old, fat Sergeant to listen to them and tell
them it would be okay”. Don’t get me
wrong, Steve is empathetic, but by no
means a ‘coddler’. On many an occasion
he has gone into Sergeant mode and not allowed me to slide down that slippery
slope of self-pity, but instead made me pull myself up by my socks and ‘buck
up’. I am grateful and I’m sure he did
the same for these young troops. Me, as
a Blue Star mother, the soldiers would have reminded me of my own son and I
would have just wanted to hold and baby them.
But that would do them no good.
As Steve has pointed out, they are SOLDIERS. It is good to listen to them, but they are
strong and capable and just need to be reminded of that.
I spoke with Steve on the phone last night and he said that the
Special Forces Recruiter had brought his kids to his table. Apparently, the “recruits” were full of
energy, busily touched and inspected everything on the table, and then just as
quick, they were gone. He said they were
going to make some fine SF soldiers! =)
I haven’t gotten to see the campground at Fort Stewart yet,
but Steve said that it is quite nice and beautiful.
I can just
picture Steve and what he was doing after work last night – a white cotton
t-shirt, shorts, a couple of beers in the lawn chair, and relaxing by the lake. Ahhh, life is good.
I hope you’ll continue to read the posts of our travels and
look at the photos of the locations and people we meet along the way. God bless our troops and our great country!
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