A Note from Lieutenant K

I just wanted to thank readers for all the recent comments.

I personally receive and witness incredible support from family, friends, and people I've never met.  It's pretty amazing, and let me just assure you that regardless of the hints of sarcasm or cynicism or dark humor you may find laced throughout my writings, I am utterly thankful of all the support and do not resent the fact that I have chosen to leave my family for a year and half. It was my choice, and I am not complaining. I'm simply writing about some of the emotions involved in the process, which is one of the reasons I started this blog at all.

I have recently learned that some of my writing will be included in a new Simon and Schuster book that is coming out in 2006, which showcases military blogs.

They want me to submit some of my favorites, and I'd like to ask for some help. I write these entries, and then I let them fade into memory, because I'm always thinking of something else, working on fiction, writing in my journal. They are all fun to write, but I am a little too preoccupied to go back and look at them much. Perhaps when this deployment is over I'll read them all at my leisure. Please let me know if there are entries that you wouold like to see published or you think have some merit. I told the guy that I can pick a few, but that really the best are yet to come.

Finally, I have been able to experience some of the memories I've written about, tasted some of that nostalgia. I am currently in New Orleans on Emergency Leave. My mother is terminally ill, and my family called Red Cross to get me home to see her. So, like a fish out of water, I was pulled out of Iraq and within 36 hours found myself amidst American society again. 

I bought a beer in Ireland, and a Caramel Frappuccino in the Atlanta airport.

New Orleans was ravaged. Most of the economy is still reeling, most of the stores closed, and the lights are off. Also, my mother's medical situation is not an uplifting one, but a challenging one, a significant emotional event, you might say.

I haven't seen my children yet, as they are on the other side of the continent. But I will.

I will continue blogging as soon as I can, and most certainly when I return to Iraq in November. Thank you for the support, and thank you very much for reading.

God Bless,

Lieutenant K

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