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Admin
Posts: 2297
Location: Renton, WA | Subject: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Well, as they say, here she is now.... (Grandpapa Tim Spoon can fill in the details)
 (BrianaNowAndThen.jpg)
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 BrianaNowAndThen.jpg (52KB - 653 downloads)
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Master and Commander
Posts: 2191
Location: Port Ludlow, WA (the Olympic Penninsula) | Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Holy crapola Don, thanks for reminding us how damn old we're getting! "Seems like only yesterday - - - " |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
WOW, time sure does fly.
Thanks Don |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
| Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Thanks for posting the pictures Don.
Briana is quite the gal and we are very proud of her. She was one of those drifting youth with no particular direction. College was a thought but gave way to fun and games for a couple of years after high school. One day she came by and said that she had joined the Air Force. When I asked her why the AF she said, "The Army and Marines are getting shot at and you guys will not let me ride on the boats, so why not?". I couldn't argue with that logic. Plus she said she will earn about $47,000 to use for school when, and if, she gets out. She did talk about doing 20 but I told her she should save that decision for a few years. She did enlist for 6 which she said will get her her school and a quicker advancement to E-3 and beyond. Smart kid. She is going into the intelligence field as a Visual Image Interperter, I think. She did have to attain a Top Secret clearance.
She graduated boot camp on Jan 23. She said boot camp was tough the first week, getting used to revilee, but then she sort of enjoyed it. She said she has come to hate the bugle call in the morning. Said she lerned how to lay on the floor under her bed to stretch the sheet tight with both hands and while doing that how to catch a few seconds of sleep.
I think her Great-great-great-great-great-grand Uncle Charlie Goodnight would be proud, I know I am.
Cora, we have passed the flag.
T.Spoon, DBF |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Ahhh, Tim. Just had to play "Charlie and the boys" once you brought that up. Good song.
Does Briana ever play that song about her gggggg uncle? Not may people have songs about their family. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2561
Location: Rapid City, SD | Subject: You're right, Tim.
I have had very little time shared with Cam since he has been home on leave. As you know, he graduated from Boot Camp on January 9th. He had 10 days leave, plus 14 days working as a Reruiter's Assistant in our local Marine Recruiting Station. He is either finished with that, or his last day will be tomorrow, Monday, February 2nd. Then he leaves for a month's Infantry Training. Then, I believe that he told me, he will have six (or eight) weeks of his MOS school.
I did see him for a couple hours on Thursday. He's also talking about making a career of the Marines. Like you, I told him not to be hasty. His enlistment is for four years, with an additional two years in the Reserves.
His younger brother will graduate from high school in four years, so I made the comment that they could go to college and graduate together. He replied, "It's not going to happen." Hopefully, he will have enough of the military before the four years are over, and will change his mind.
There was a wonderful article written by a widowed mother in the December issue of Reader's Digest. Her son enlisted in the Marines in a delayed entry program just as Cam did. I want to quote a little from it. I'm going to paraphrase and substitute "grandmother" for "mother." And will use my grandson's name instead of her son's.
"I can recall the way the porch boards felt under my bare feet and the way the summer light shone through the poplar trees and fell across the yard as my boy got in the car with Sergeant Sangster ("Rhymes with gangster, ma'am.") to be taken away. "Join the club," a billion parents whispered from across the world and across the centuries, all those who have watched their boys go off to be soldiers.
"To put in mildly, I was against the idea when Cam first floated it. 'There's a war on!' I squawked. 'A war I don't approve of. Why would I allow you to join the Marines.?'
"My father (also a Marine) signed up right after graduating from Yale University and served in combat in Korea, earning a Purple Heart when a grenade exploded in his foxhole. I was proud of my dad, wasn't I? And Cam's own father had been a state trooper, a good man who served and died in uniform.
"And Grandma," said Cam, "other kids are going to Iraq and Afghanistan. Why should they go and not me?"
The next is in italics, but I can't do italics on the BBS. "Because you are my grandchild. I don't want you to be hurt."
"Death topped the list of my fears for Cam. Widowed young, I no longer found death a remote or implausible threat. Intellectually, I might understand that the statistical chances of his, or any Marine's, survival, even in Iraq were good. But they weren't quite good enough for my grandchild.
"We attended an informational meeting for the parents of would-be Marines that was offered by our local recruiting office. Our kids did their best to stand at attention. They gasped through perhaps a dozen push-ups while an impeccable, steel-spined, bona fide Parris Island drill instructor barked orders. It was the quality of the drill instructor's voice that struck me. Each word had a palpable impact, a thud beneath my sternum. How long in the presence of that voice before the sweetness in my grandson's soul is drummed out of him?
"Cam is a very special boy," I told the drill instructor as the informational meeting broke up. To his credit, the drill instructor did not laugh at me. He smiled pleasantly.
"He'll be a good Marine," he said.
"Much later, after Cam had come through boot camp unscathed and was at home on leave before being shipped out to Okinawa. I was able to make that conversation with the drill instructor into a story. At the local knitting store, I told it to my friend Ellen, who owns the place. Some other customers stopped fingering skeins of angora to listen too. Cam was with me, skinny and fit but otherwise apparently normal. With admirable discipline, he had been waiting for me to finish paying for my yarn before he'd start complaining that he was starving for the lunch I'd promised.
"Now I had an audience, though, and I had to ham it up: I was the drill instructor standing stiffly in a parody of military machismo, rolling my eyes. I was the grandmother, my hair twined into knots between my fingers as I said in a neurotic squeak, 'Sir, my grandson is a very special boy!'
"The women laughed, with appreciation and understanding. They were mothers and grandmothers. They knew what I meant. Italics: (I love him, and I don't want him to get hurt.) I looked over at Cam. He was laughing too, with affection and with that unfathomable understanding of his. How could I have ever imagined that his awareness, the way he responds to suffering, was anything but strength?
"Sir ..." I squeaked.
And as if he could reach back into that moment and give comfort, Cam laid his large hand-a man's hand-gently on my shoulder."
Now, this is Cora talking: Cam's hands are not large. I think he weights 122 pounds. The woman who wrote this knew my feelings perfectly because they were her feelings also. My emotions are mixed. I am so proud of him. And I'm so scared for him.
Cora
Edited by Corabelle 2009-02-01 4:28 PM
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
Location: Belleview, Fl | Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Cora,
Okinowa is a great place for him to start his MARINE CORPS career from, he will be fine and the men and women whom train him are the best in the business and have seen combat and know what it takes to survive and they will be teaching him the in's and out's of MARINE's life..
Be well Cam, you got a LOT of folks prayin for ya here that you have a very long and distinguished carrer in the Marine Corps  |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2561
Location: Rapid City, SD | Subject: Darrin-
I may have confused you. Cam's not going to Okinawa. That was in the story in the Reader's Digest. I was just substituting Cam's name for the boy in the story and 'Grandmother' for the 'Mother' who wrote the story, so that I didn't infringe on the author's life by revealing more than she wanted. Well, maybe she wouldn't have minded, but it would kinda have been plaugerism. (Maybe, still is.)
No, Cam's leaving on Tuesday to do a shortened version of Infantry Training (his friends already went back after a ten-day leave, but they have three month's of Infantry Training). Then, he will go somewhere on the east coast for his MOS school. After that, he will probably be assigned a permanent base somewhere in the U.S., and then, instead of being deployed overseas, President Obama will have ended both wars (Iraq AND Afghanistan), and Cam will come home. Isn't that the way it's going to work, boys?
I don't want him to have a long career in the military. I hope he's smart enough to get out after he does his four years. AsTim says, he told his granddaugher not to be hasty about deciding to make it a career.
However, since I'm 79 years old, and both my full sister and brother died at the age of 81, perhaps it's a moot issue for me anyway. The few times he will be able to come home in the next couple years will restrict the short while that I'll be able to see him while I'm still resding on this earth. My mother called it, "Being finished with this world."
Cora
Edited by Corabelle 2009-02-02 9:37 PM
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
Location: Belleview, Fl | Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Miss Cora,
I have to apologize for that, I had forgotten that it was a story about another Marine that was going to Okinawa and not Cam...
My grandmother waited until after I got out of the Navy (active duty submarines) before she passed and there isn't a day that I don't miss her and to this day I KNOW that she is PROUD of me for everything that I have accomplished in my life and I think that the only thing that she would miss is getting to see my son PJ whom looks just like me and acts just like me.
With over 18 years in the military now I can smile and laugh and remember the hard days (and when those are hard today) the love that my FAMILY have given me when I was truly down and they helped me get through the roughest of days. When I deployed the first time (Desert Storm) they were there making sure that I had everything that I needed and was as happy as could be and when I went to Iraq they were again there for me SUPPORTING me and giving me everything that my soldiers and I could need or want and when I returned home they held me and told me that it was alright and that they were still there no matter what..
Rehab came after my last tour oversea's and they were still there when my ex-wife and I seperated and they helped me fight for custody of my son which I still have to this day and they supported me for my divorce and helped me when they could..
Last year I had to have surgery on my right shoulder because it is worn out and once again they were here to take care of me and make sure that I would be alright and that my son would be take care of... They have been the rock that held me together, no matter how bad I have had it they have been there no matter what and without them I don't know what I would be doing today.
Cora,
Tim Spoon will agree that all we can do is support our young ones no matter how hard it is.. They give their all so that we may be safe at night, those in the military are following in the foot steps of Elmer and of Warshot and countless others whom have passed, making sure that we keep the thing that we hold so near and dear to our hearts... FREEDOM
God bless Cam and Briana who have answered our nations call to take up arms and keep us ALL safe, they have hero's whom they learned from and they remember how much we have given so that we are able to be called AMERICAN'S..
My hero to this day is my father whom served in Newfoundland aboard Super Connies chasing the one thing that has become soo much of my life... Submarines... My hero isn't my grandfathers whom served in WWII nor friends whom served in Korea or Viet Nam, my father served when it wasn't popular to be on active duty and when the "bear" was a true enemy. HE has NEVER backed down from a fight to include one from me and he IS my rock that has kept me sane and able to stay on Active duty today.
Thank you Tim and Cora and other parents and Grandparents whom have given their all to make sure that the kids who serve today have morals and dignety and they have learned from our past mistakes, most of you whom have kids in the military will never know how much PRIDE that they have putting the uniform on because of what you have taught them and I salute you all. |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 602
Location: Visalia, Ca. | Subject: RE: Darrin-
Corabelle - 2009-02-01 4:06 PM
I don't want him to have a long career in the military. I hope he's smart enough to get out after he does his four years. As Tim says, he told his granddaugher not to be hasty about deciding to make it a career.
However, since I'm 79 years old, and both my full sister and brother died at the age of 81, perhaps it's a moot issue for me anyway. The few times he will be able to come home in the next couple years will restrict the short while that I'll be able to see him while I'm still residing on this earth. My mother called it, "Being finished with this world."
Cora
Cora, please don't be so pessimistic.
While the Bible tells us that, from the moment of our birth our days upon this earth are numbered, only He knows that number. You may live longer than your siblings, long enough to see your wishes fulfilled, and then some. Or you might be gone from us tomorrow. We can project, based on our family lifespans, our agegroup, or other datapoints, but we cannot know for certain.
Live your life. Laugh, love, care, cry, enjoy.
Live every day, until the Lord tells you you've had enough fun and it's time to go home.
And if some or all of your wishes come true, so much the better.
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a present. Enjoy!
Donald, aka "The Infernal Optimist"
I went to sea in ships that sank on purpose.
OF COURSE I'm an optimist.
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2561
Location: Rapid City, SD | Subject: Of course you're right, Donald -
I'm just really feeling blue that Cam is leaving so soon (although he did have 14 days more than a couple of his pals because of the recruiter's assistance), and I hardly saw him at all while he was here. I figured that might happen, which is one reason that I went to San Diego for his graduation.
- and - "he's my grandchild and I don't want him to get hurt." The last in italics.
I need to get back working on the book. Between Christmas, Cam's graduation, and my 'hanging loose' to be available to him if he should have a few spare hours, and the anticipation of dealing with Income Tax, also some computer problems that hampered working with my friend in Minnesota who is helping me put pictures and letters in the proper pages, I haven't really wanted to deal with it. Oh yes, and the cardiac situation. I read once that for every day one spends in the hospital, it takes a week to catch up. I spent four days in December there, plus traveling when I didn't really feel up to it, so 'catch up' is catching up with me. I'm tired - it's late - and Gracie is telling me it's bedtime.
Oh, yes - I forgot. Cardiac Rehab three days a week, plus other medical appointments has given me no time to catch up. Did you know that Medicare decrees that when one is admitted to the hospital for "observation status," that the patient has to pay for their own meds? The last two days that I was hospitalized it was for observation, so I get to pay $451.71 for medications that I can purchase from my drug store for $10.26. Of course, most of you fellows have access to VA services and medications, so that may not ever be a problem for you.
I have a busy life - and - a dull one.
Cora
Edited by Corabelle 2009-02-01 10:08 PM
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Old Salt
Posts: 438
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL | Subject: RE: Remember Briana from the Bash?
Cora, I don’t post here much and I am not responding to your post to give you a hard time. You seem like a fine person and a caring grandmother. Your politics are obvious and you certainly are entitled to your viewpoint. However, I would like to say that any president can end a war but it takes a special kind of resolve to win one. I think your grandson is looking to serve under that second kind of leader.
Secondly, you might want to look at your statement that you hope he is smart enough to get out of the marines after four years. You might want to consider what you are inadvertently saying about those who choose a military career.
This country is blessed to have Cam’s and Briana’s to pick up the torch.
Best of luck to you and Cam and thank him for his service.
Chris
Edited by 610ET 2009-02-02 8:17 AM
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 602
Location: Visalia, Ca. | Subject: RE: Of course you're right, Donald -
Corabelle - 2009-02-01 8:04 PM
I'm just really feeling blue that Cam is leaving so soon (although he did have 14 days more than a couple of his pals because of the recruiter's assistance), and I hardly saw him at all while he was here. I figured that might happen, which is one reason that I went to San Diego for his graduation.
- and - "he's my grandchild and I don't want him to get hurt." The last in italics.
That's understandable. It's the dead of winter, you don't feel all that well yet, and he's home but not home. And all too soon, he will go back for school, and then maybe off to war, so you want to spend every moment with him, make every moment count. I'd probably feel the same way.
I played the RA game after boot camp, too, and my recruiter was my next-door neighbor. Spent so much time visiting the local high schools with him, there wasn't much time for my family during the day. But since my brother and sisters were still in school, we had evenings for family. (I wasn't the party animal ---yet)
Hang in there. Spring is coming. Take it one day at a time. One foot in front of the other, lean forward, and let gravity move you along. And if the wind is blowing in your face, spread your coattails for lift.
Is it deep enough yet? 
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Remember Briana from the Bash?
