Florida was AWESOME! Beautifully sunny days, time on the beach playing in the ocean, seeing a NASA shuttle prepped for launch, scuba diving at Epcot, it was a GREAT time. Thursday night among all the fun, gave me a VERY sobbering reminder of why we do what we do, I'm getting choked up just thinking about it again. We ate on the Epcot property at the Nine Dragons Restaurant, but our reservation was an hour away from the close of the park. Needless to say, we were still inside when the nightly fireworks display started to go off. I was at the end of the table next to our "newlyweds" as I dubbed them. Unfortunately, he's also not too long back from the War, as were all of our Soldiers there. The Soldiers we took are all wounded veterans from the Iraq war. Anyway, the fireworks upset him and gave him flashbacks so bad, he had to get up from the table. I waited a few seconds before alerting the chaplain...after that one by one all of my warriors left the table but two. As I looked down the table during the grand finale' One Soldier had his spouse's arm around him and he was still shuttering at every boom. It tore me up. After the fireworks I looked down to my 2 remaining warriors and their spouses...they were communicating through it and it was nice to see the women so actively involved in helping the men they love through such a trying experience, needless to say, we left after that. I heard later one of the men asking their wife how they left the table; as soon as he stood, he felt literally back in the war and had thought he'd low-crawled out of the dining room to the bathroom where all the men stood together. His wife reassured him that he had walked out. The mind games in these warrior's minds are very real...our jobs here in the rear are more important than I had ever imagined. These guys, gals, and their spouses need someone to come home to who will help them piece it all back together all the while allowing in the new pieces of change that the war brings to peoples lives, especially after such long deployments...please keep these Soldier's in your prayers, along with those who are waiting in the rear for them to come home. I'm here and willing to help, keep me in your prayers as well too please, CH Munson and I have one more retreat this upcoming week Monday-Thursday at Washington D.C. and Arlington National Cemetary...I know there will be more sobering moments during this time as well! Please enjoy the pictures from Orlando, I have more pictures, but for the sake of my Soldiers and their wives I have left out the other photos. There is a picture in front of the shuttle with me and two men, Those are two of my Chaplains...on the right of me (the taller of the two) is CH Conner, he and I were in Korea together; on the left of me is CH Munson, an amazing man of God who every day is there working one on one with all of our Iraqi war wounded warriors at Eisenhower Army Medical Center.
ACE IS THE PLACE, even in Florida!!
We got to see Shuttle Atlantis prepped for launch! We got to get in as close as the family members do!!! This was a special VIP tour we were surprised with once we got down to Patrick Air Force Base!! We had VIP seats for the launch too, but, it conflicted with our scuba diving/Epcot plans so we declined the tickets for the launch, and thank goodness, it was postponed both Thursday and Friday, maybe it'll launch today?!
We went scubba diving in The Living Seas Aquarium! I got to swim with Sting Rays, Sharks, All kinds and sizes of fish, and even TURTLES!!!
A beautiful day at Epcot!!
We stayed on Patrick Air Force Base...it was walking distance from the ocean...here's a few beach shots day & night!!
