Paula, I saw the tribute on your daughter's myspace the other day and cried. He looked like such a sweet person.

Paula, I don't usually make it this far down on the forum, but I wanted you to know you have my deepest sympathy. My eyes are welling up with tears for all your family since I just watched the tribute video too. I can't even begin to imagine how hard this would be for a young widow and for all of your close-knit family.

I also honor him for his military service. Whether people agree with this war or not, I think we all recognize his sacrifice and service to the country.

Thanks again for everyone's support. We are pulling together as a family and coping as best as possible. We are not leaving Natalie alone for a minute. The services won't be for atleast 2 weeks as that is how long it takes for them to send him home.

quote:

Originally posted by Gidget:
Paula, I saw the tribute on your daughter's myspace the other day and cried. He looked like such a sweet person.

Natalie made that tribute shortly after he was deployed and I cried when I watched it, and that was before this happened. At the end when they are showing the soldiers line up in formation, that was when she saw him last, right before they took him away. It was in the first week of December in Colorado Springs. She moved back home to be here with family and friends while he would be gone for 15 months.

quote:

Originally posted by Paula:
Thanks again for everyone's support. We are pulling together as a family and coping as best as possible. We are not leaving Natalie alone for a minute. The services won't be for atleast 2 weeks as that is how long it takes for them to send him home.

That'll be a long 2 weeks. :/
Dont forget that were all here praying for Natalie and your family. He seemed like a great guy.

We found out today that we won't have to wait that long. He will be returned here on Tuesday, Feb. 5th and his services will be on Saturday, Feb. 9th.

In 2005 he recieved a Christmas card from a lady who randomly wrote to the troops and he wrote back to her and they continued to write each other since then and she sent him packages in the mail. He also gave her names of sodiers that didn't get much mail, or none at all, and she would have people write to them as well. She never met him in person but she knew him well from their correspondance. She made this blog site about him that is very touching..

http://gazingattheflag.blogspot.com/2008/02/sgt-james-c...-my-friend-walk.html

Paula, thanks for sharing that. What a wonderful lady who wrote that blog... The fact that he felt good about what he was doing will comfort many I'm sure.

He seemed like a one in a million man, how lucky you are to have known him. Your niece must be one special girl.

I feel like I know him after reading those blogs about him. Thank you for sharing that and giving those of us without military members in our family a glimpse into the life and love of an Army man. He really seemed like a great guy and his love from Natalie so special. She was a luck girl to have had that. I am devastated for her. Kinda makes all my personal pain and suffering seem shallow. The sacrifice that those men and women make on a daily basis is tremendous.

I'm so sorry it took this long to get to this thread. Even now I am still in shock from this sad news. To make matters worse in fact, I have had word on even more losses from units of people I know. One especially of a Sgt. who's wife I had met and hung out with a couple of times through the FRG (Family Readiness Group). I hope the unit her husband was assigned to has a great one. The wives of the FRG can be incredibly helpful in times like these.

I just wish I could get the links that you are posting to work but I will continue to keep you and your family in my payers Paula.

Sorry to hear of your losses as well Kat. Things are really bad over there and I'm afraid it's going to continue and so many more will be lost. I wish we could just get them all home.

Several years ago a friend of mine lost her husband who was in the Navy in a car accident while he was on leave. She said that the TAPS program was very helpful and she is now a volunteer with them and helps with mentoring people who suffered the loss of someone in the armed forces. She is offering help to my niece and so is her own grievance officer assigned to her. I am impressed with the amount of support they offer to those left behind.

I was also impressed with the love and support we all received the other day when we had a private gathering at the base to greet his plane coming in with him. They had a reception for us as we waited for the plane and the rest might be too hard to write about or to read so I will just say that they lined the streets of the base as we all drove by leavng the base and there were uniformed men and women, some holding flags and the others saluting lined up on all the streets we drove on. Our governor ordered flags at all state buildings to fly at half-staff in his honor tomorrow.

Kat, Im very sorry to hear this, too.

Thanks guys.

The military is like its own little community. Even though the pay is next to nothing for the sacrifices expected of service members and their families, you'll always have this great feeling of pride. I think no matter what job title I have from here I will always consider my time in service my greatest accomplishment.

I am glad for your niece that she is taking advantage of the support systems the Army has to offer. There are several. I am also glad that your nephew and your family had the “hero’s welcome home.” While I can’t imagine it makes any of this easier, I do think it helps show how much each individual solider is appreciated and that they will never be forgotten.

Once again....EVERYTHING!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Gidget:
Once again....EVERYTHING!!!!!

OH no! Sorry to hear that.

Ugg. Yeah so time to refresh this thread... *sigh*
My parents are being rediculous right about now. They reem me out nearly every other day because "Im on the phone too much" or "I dont spend enough time with them" and stuff. Its like geez! Im sorry Im not 7 years old anymore! And now I have a bf and they HATE him and hes done NOTHING for them to think that way. Its JUST cause his brothers and really bad and his family life sucks, they think hes the same way. Well, hes not. Its not like the kids freakn courting me. We are JUST dating. And Im good friends with like a group of 3 or 4 of his friends (they were all my one cousins friends... which is how I met them) and my parents like automatically think theyre all gunna rape me or something. No lie. And they think Ive changed or something and I wanna be like 'No, Im just being a tenage girl.' I could be SO much worse and the people I hang out with do NOTHING bad. Ahhhh!

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OK. Im done. Sorry.

Ahh Sara I totally understand where you're coming from. My parents did this to me during my whole 10th grade year. Everywhere I went I had to be driven by a parent bc they didn't trust my friend's driving me places. So, I didn't argue and I followed all of their rules. Even as much as I hated them. They gained my trust and now I don't have a curfew as long as they know where I am.
They're just probably upset you're growing up and are never home. So just don't flip out on them and be calm. Don't argue, it just makes it worse. Eventually it will all get better. :]

Awe, so sorry Sara. It's growing pains, that's all. They see you growing up and are just concerned for you and are being good parents. But I know it's annoying. What I would suggest about the boy, is see if you can have him over for dinner and let them get to know him. Then hopefully they will see the same things in him that you do. You may have already done that, but just a suggestion. And it doesn't have to be dinner, it could be lunch or just hanging out to watch a movie with the fam. I bet the more they get to know him the more they will trust him.