An update from the front

Hope you had a relaxing Labor Day. I did! My extended family has been having a Labor Day BBQ together in Southern California for about 21 years with very few skipped years. Joshua and I enjoyed the pool, great company and delicious food at my cousin's home in North San Diego County. But Jon did not have the day off. He sent this information a couple days ago.

"Sheryl was forwarded a couple news article from one of my unit's Key Volunteers (Sheryl can tell you more about Key Volunteers than I can). Penned by Robert Burns and Jonathan Steele in two separate articles, the following paragraph is representative of the success that deployed service members and civilians have achieved in GWOT...

"Fewer Marines needed...
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marine commandant said Wednesday that forces can be reduced, as the military moves to hand over control of the region. Conway said Marines told him, "There aren't a whole heck of a lot of bad guys there left to fight." Driving through once-dangerous cities, he said, "Our vehicles seemed to go largely unnoticed as there was much construction and rebuilding taking place." Toward the end of 2006, the Arabs who were leading the insurgency decided to join hands with U.S. forces to jointly fight the extremists, and violence levels plunged. The father of a family who drove through said: "It is safe. I had no fear about bringing my wife and children."

To say things have changed dramatically since I first deployed here in early 2006 would be the epitome of understatement. It will doubtless take decades for the full nature of the changes that have been wrought, with impact across the globe, due to the vision and initial guidance of our politicians, the determined and adapting leadership of our military, and the steadfast and brilliant execution by all those "in the field"--some in uniform and some not, but all warriors, none the less--for the greater good.

Semper Fi,
Jon G."

Address change

When Jon returned to his base, his move was delayed a bit. However, it looks like plans are moving forward. As you may remember, he wasn't sure what would happen with his mail. Below is the result of his meeting with the postal service. We'll see if it works. This will be the address for letters and packages. For Motomail go ahead and use the same old address (you won't find 'AAAB' as an option in the address book) and we'll see if they forward it or not. As a side note, Cory, he did get your card, and had a good chuckle. Thanks!

"Following coordination with various authorities, I've been informed that my mail should be good to go -- the following address is supposed to work, albeit with possible delays:

I MEF G2 (AAAB)
Unit 42540
FPO AP 96426-2540

Just a reminder, now is NOT the season for chocolate or anything that melts. It is always the season for ground coffee (Freedom Press grind is preferred). Thanks for your continued prayers and support!!!

Semper Fi,
Jon G."

Moving In Day

Today my cousin Kimberly, her husband Nate and their 9 month old daughter Natalie arrived after a long week of traveling from Minnesota to La Jolla, California. We had about 2 dozen family members there preparing their home for them, unloading their truck and welcoming them to the neighborhood. Nate is in a Masters program at University of California in San Diego (UCSD) and they have married student housing. Their upstairs apartment is a reasonable size with a great view of grass and gardens from their porch. They are about 15 minutes from Kimberly's brother Ethan who lives in San Diego. Others in our "clan" are 30, 45, 60 minutes and more away, so it was wonderful to gather together to help them get settled into their new home. We'll all be seeing each other again on Monday for our traditional family BBQ at another cousin's home.

Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Sheryl

Address update from the Jarhed

Just got this from Jon. As soon as I have his new address, I'll post it on the blog then everyone can flood him with mail in honor of Veteran's Day on November 11 or the Marine Corps birthday on November 10.

"Things are going well, I'm plugged back into work, but mightily refreshed after my two weeks R&R (the vacation made a huge difference, and projects that were overwhelming me when I left appear almost trivial now -- though I'm sure there is a diminishing law of returns on my new energy level). I will be working at a different base in the near future, it is a very secure and established work environment, but I've been informed I will be unable to receive mail there until after 1 November. I would ask that you refrain from mailing me anything until after that date -- once a piece of mail gets thrown in the "undeliverable" stack, who knows whether it will ever get to me, and in the meantime it will doubtless clutter up someone's work space. Thanks.

I know there is a constant desire to know how things are going over here, and what the indicators might be that we are achieving success. I experienced an event today which was to me about the strongest indicator that I could have imagined that our mission here is close to accomplished--random periodic urinalysis tests have been implemented for service members here, and mandatory urinalysis tests are required upon return from R&R. This is about as clear a signal as you could wish for heralding the cessation of combat operations (kind of like the number of late night pizza orders at the Pentagon signaled the kick-of of Operation Desert Storm).

Thanks for your prayers and support, and I'll keep you posted."

Interesting Travel Conditions

Jon has arrived safely back at his home base and is still expecting to move to a new base shortly. He sent this description of the second to last leg of his trip back.

"The flight in was typical, the C-130 stretched cloth rack seats were as uncomfortable as usual, but this time around, I had my poncho/bleacher seat combo on hand as a seat cushion, so it was bearable (I had it on the way out, as well, which is how my buns survived the four hour convoy on bench seats in the back of a seven ton). Interesting this trip was the air turbulence, which had us jinking around quite a lot, and at the end, we were in a pretty steep turn when we hit some turbulence which seemed to put us into an even steeper turn, I think that's the most G's I've ever experienced in an aircraft. For what seemed like about ten to fifteen seconds, I could not lean forward, my back was pressed back into the seat (my back was facing the starboard side of the aircraft) by the G's. One guy (fortunately at the other end of the aircraft) threw up (the turbulence was at the end of the trip), but the smell never reached me (and the upchuck never made it rolling up and down the floor as far as my pack). As is typical in these flights, I was fervently praying that I would not be the one to get sick, and that God would bring us safely in. It's actually been a long time since they lost a C-130, but statistics don't provide much comfort when YOU are the one on the aircraft. It's pretty hazy here, but we may get out of here tonight back to home base, but we don't know yet. I just got out of breakfast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, a large biscuit, cup of coffee, and a large glass of mango juice. Not bad for being back in a combat zone."

Shortly after posting the paragraphs above, I got another short message from Jon with a current update.

"Got up this morning and did my stretching and exercises, and then went for a three mile run. It hurt a little, but I took it easy, and there are some stiff parts now, about an hour and a half after the run, but hopefully nothing that I can't overcome. It is a real blessing to have had that extra day in Kuwait to catch up on sleep, and to already feel "acclimatized" to the time zone on my first day back at work. Speaking of acclimatized, it is a little hotter here than when I left, about three to five degrees a day hotter, but that's a small enough gap to assimilate. It was about 80, I'm guessing, when I was running this morning at 0545, which I can handle. I had a Motomail from Joe waiting for me, that was very encouraging that he thought to do that, send a Motomail to be here when I got here... I also got a Motomail from Lina, sent before she left for her trip to Canada to play piano at a friend's wedding (a friend she met at Sakeji)."

Thank you for your prayers and notes to Jon. Please remember that he is moving shortly, so please hold all mail (Motomail included) until I send his new address.

This is Joshua's last week before school starts so we are going to have some play dates with friends and do a few fun things before the school routine begins.

Sheryl

Delayed in Kuwait

I received two short e-mails from Jon this morning. He is delayed in Kuwait for now and not sure when he'll restart his journey back to work. He wrote, "Waiting around with nothing to do is further demoralizing to folks already demoralized by having to come back after only 15 days R&R..."

All for now.

Sheryl

Jon is safely to the next step of his jouney back

Jon called this morning to let us know that he arrived safely in Kuwait around 2000 today. He is looking forward to a good night's sleep before muster in the morning when he'll find out when they head to the next step of their destination. He was encouraged by a group of girl scouts who served goodies and greeted all of the Marines who were in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport preparing to head "back to work" yesterday. He said that all along this return journey many people shook their hands and thanked them for their service.

Thanks for your continued prayers for his safety as he heads back.

Sheryl

Out with the Old and In with the New

The title for this blog was not my idea but suggested by my husband to report on his departure and the arrival of the newest member of our family. Yep, we have acquired our first guinea pig. Joshua has begged for a dog or a cat and finally a guinea pig for years. In our small mobile home where animals must be kept in doors, Jon and I did not feel comfortable with either a dog or a cat, but gave in on a guinea pig. With all of our traveling this summer, we put off getting the little creature until the end of the summer when we didn't have any more traveling scheduled. So yesterday we took a trip to Pet Smart and invested in "Bristles" (named for the stiff hair on his head). Animal and humans are all doing well so far in our co-habitation.

So that was "In with the New" and here is the "Out with the Old" part of the story. This morning we were up and out of the house a little after 0500. We had checked Jon in and had his boarding pass last night so we didn't need to get to the airport too early. As it turned out, since he was traveling in uniform, the Orange County airport TSA officials had him go through the "Employee" security gate so he didn't have to wait in line at all. Of course a pilot and a couple flight attendants had to wait for him to get his boots off since he still had the same screening to go through. But he got through security by 6:00 and headed to his gate where his flight was to depart at 6:45.

There were some tears but I was so tired, I drove home in a fog and went back to bed and was able to sleep for 2 hours. Joshua couldn't sleep and so played with his Legos until I woke up. Then we headed to the beach with good friends from school. We were there about 5 hours and expect to sleep well tonight. It was a gorgeous day and Joshua and I both enjoyed time in the waves. Jon was able to call from the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport before he caught his connecting flight. He hadn't slept on the first leg of his flight due to a bit too much caffeine. Hopefully he will sleep well on other portions of his travel. He isn't sure how long it will be before he can call again.

When he arrives back at the base where he was before, he will only be there a short time before moving to a new base. Once I get his address at the new base, I will post it on the blog, but in the mean time, please do not send him any letters, packages or motomails.

Thank you for your prayers and encouraging e-mails. We are glad to be counting down the final 6 months of our family's separation, but it is not easy. And of course we still have an unsure future when Jon returns next year. We really appreciate your continued prayers.

Sheryl

A very happy birthday

Jon had a great birthday celebration on Sunday. He saw and was able to talk to many people at church and was introduced during the service, which was thoughtful of Pastor Jim. When we got home, he was able to talk on the phone with everyone in his family. We had a small birthday dinner for him with our friends Brad, Jilinda and their kids. It was perfect weather so we enjoyed our porch and a delicious meal, if I do say so myself.

Monday we were running errands at Camp Pendleton and around town before taking Joshua to his first AYSO soccer practice. Fortunately Jon got to meet the coach and the boys Joshua will be playing with. Looks like it will be a fun season for Joshua with a great coach and new friends on his team.

Sheryl

Happy Birthday, Jon

Today my wonderful husband celebrates his birthday. I thought you might enjoy seeing what he looked like many, many, many years ago. I think this was the one time he managed to pin his twin brother Matt.



The second picture was taken last year in a shared brotherly moment while they enjoyed something on TV.

Happy Birthday to both Jon and Matt.

Sheryl

Jon's Perspective

I asked Jon to write a little something about his experience of this R&R. Here it is along with some pictures from our evening at the Wild Animal Park on Wednesday. We came home late last night after spending a few hours on the USS Midway and then then the evening at the San Diego Zoo.

Well, my R&R is now over half over, and I'm having a very relaxing time with Sheryl and Joshua. They have been (so far) tolerant of my need to claw my way out of exhaustion and burn out--I've been getting more than ten hours of sleep a night that I've been back, and feeling more and more human every day. However, knowing that the nature of my job will be more physical when I get back, and also knowing that summer time temperatures will be peaking (115 to 120 F by 1500 each day), my tendency is to continue to take it easy, which I think is a little frustrating for them...

My experiences while deployed tend to be catalogued as monochromatic, and my activities and conduct--though always in the context of the pressure cooker of a combat zone--are generally predictable. Consequently, the fundamental activities of life require no decision making: where to eat; when to get up; what to do with leisure time (there is none); laundry, essential purchases, banking (disbursing office), shopping (PX), and other weekly/periodic chores; what to wear...

However, upon arrival here with my family, my experiences are characterized by variety to the extreme, and every activity involves choice and decision. So, for those out there thinking that R&R must naturally be a blissful and relaxing experience (and many of us in the military actually have that expectation), it is actually more stressful than the experience of a staff officer in a combat zone due to the exponential increase in the number of choices requiring decisions (and these decisions must be made quickly, as we are not a culture that values delayed gratification and validates patience and contemplation).

Add to this, of course, the difficulty of picking up where relationships were "left off" six months ago, and further dynamic pressure is bountifully applied to the stress sandwich (OK, I admit there are a lot of mixed metaphors here). However, despite all this, and due to your prayers and support and God's grace, we are enjoying each other and having a positive experiencee. As you can tell from Sheryl's blog entries, we are doing things as a family that we have found to be enjoyable activity in the past, and we are building on those memories with new experience.

I am doing my best to spend as little time on email, etc., as possible, so would appreciate your patience with a lessened amount of communication with you all--I'm trying to put Joshua and Sheryl first. However, please know that I value and treasure your support, your prayers, and am NOT consciously neglecting you--just very consciously focusing on Sheryl, Joshua, and my own needs (perhaps a little selfish, I hope you understand).

Semper Fi, Jarhedjon

Balboa Park

Tuesday we spent the morning in San Diego's Balboa Park. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a few museums, a picnic in the park and then Joshua was loaned a piece of cardboard for a thrilling slide down a grassy hill. In the late afternoon we drove to Escondido where my brother and sister-in-law watched Joshua for an overnight. Jon and I enjoyed dinner at Macaroni Grill (thanks to our friends Jeff and Shirley who introduced us to this great restaurant many years ago). We'll be picking Joshua up this afternoon and then heading to the Wild Animal Park for the evening. Having a great time. Sheryl for J & J

Sea World

I do not often find myself in debt to an international corporation that produces alcohol, but yesterday our family enjoyed nearly 12 hours of fun in the sun thanks to Anheuser-Busch. There "Here's to the Heros" program allows active duty military and up to three dependents to spend one day per year at one of their parks for FREE. That was a savings of over $150 for us. We did give back a bit by paying for parking and a few goodies while we were there, but we are very grateful for the free passes to one of Joshua's favorite parks.

We saw half a dozen shows, got soaked by the dolphins, were thrilled by the orcas, awed by the Cirque de la Mer performers, saw all manner of sea life, touched rays and sea stars and just enjoyed being together as a family.

Sheryl for J & J

Enjoying the beach

I am sitting in the Navy Lodge at North Island Navy Base on Coronado Island in San Diego. It is a beautiful place here in Southern California and we are grateful to enjoy it as a family during our 2 weeks of R&R. We have a little kitchenette in our room so are able to fix some of our own meals. We look forward to enjoying many tourist activities here in San Diego.



We arrived Saturday evening after spending the day at the San Onofre beach up near San Clemente celebrating my brother Steve and sister-in-law Sandi's 40th birthdays. My parents got to the beach early and found the last cabana that was not reserved for the morning. Jon got to meet Sean Portacio for the first time. Joshua and his cousins Evan and Emma dug a huge hole and spent hours in the water. We all enjoyed being together as a family including my cousin Ethan who battled traffic to drive up from San Diego to join us.



I have found a wireless connection here at the lodge, so hope to keep you posted on our week of activities via the blog.

Sheryl

John Wayne Airport Tour

Yesterday we joined school friends for a tour of John Wayne Airport in Orange County. One of our friend's aunt works PR for the airport and so arranged the tour. For these well-traveled kids, there wasn't too much new, but they loved climbing in the sheriff's car which helps the officers keep the traffic moving and the "bad guys" under control at the airport.

After the tour there was a birthday bowling party for one of the boys and our friends took Joshua and gave Jon and I a couple hours to have lunch together. We enjoyed lunch at Waters, a restaurant we used to visit often for anniversaries. It was great to sit and talk for two hours over a delicious lunch. Then we picked up Joshua and headed to Newport Beach to hang out at Fashion Island -- a cool outdoor mall that we enjoy visiting but where we don't do much shopping. Well, we did leave a lot of cash at the Barnes & Noble. :)

Sheryl

Lots of Fun

This morning Jon and Joshua enjoyed one of their traditions from when Jon is at home and had breakfast at Ruby's (a 50s style diner). They shared the decadent cinnamon roll french toast, eggs, bacon and milk shakes. Yep, that's the kind of meal my son gets when he goes out with his father. :)

I used the time to attend the women's Bible study at our church where a friend was sharing her story. It was a great morning for all of us.

This afternoon we started a Monopoly game that will probably last for a couple days. Joshua and I were off to a great start, having won the "Free Parking" jack pot. Jon was so cash poor that Joshua gave him charity to keep him in the game.

This evening we enjoyed the movie "Kung Fu Panda."

More fun planned for tomorrow.

Sheryl

Having Fun

Fortunately Jon was able to get a fair bit of sleep during his three days of traveling home, so he hit the ground running. Monday afternoon we made up our own Frisbee Golf course in a park near our house and walked about a quarter of a mile one way and then back. When we got home we enjoyed some time in the pool before heading out for dinner. We all slept well last night.

Today Joshua and I already had tickets to Summer Sounds at the Hollywood Bowl, a kids program with crafts and a concert. Joshua's friend Dalton and his brothers, sisters and mom, Mandy, were going to be there, so Jon joined us and fortunately Mandy had an extra ticket for the concert. We enjoyed a tail-gate picnic lunch in the beautifully shady parking lot after the concert and then headed to the La Brea Tar Pits, which were only about 6 miles away. Did you know that La Brea means 'the tar' in Spanish, so I just said, that we went to 'the the tar tar pits' -- a common mistake for us Anglos. :) Joshua enjoyed showing Jon around the museum and tar pits, since we were just there a couple weeks ago. It is amazing to see how many thousands of fossils they have found in all the pits.

Afterwards we decided to head for the Spaghetti Factory in Newport Beach, which was on our way home. Jon and I used to eat there a lot when we lived in Tustin and hadn't been in ages. We arrived right at opening and so got in without a wait, enjoyed a delicious meal for one of the best prices in town and then drove to Balboa where we took the short (5 minutes) ferry to the Balboa Island and then the bridge back to Pacific Coast Highway and a beautiful drive home.

At the moment Jon is teaching Joshua how to carve using the new Swiss Army knife he got him yesterday. They are starting with bars of soap, so it will be interesting to see what they create.

Yes, we are doing a lot, but it is so fun to be together as a family and a number of the things we are doing this week were planned months ago when I didn't think Jon would be home yet.

Thanks for the many e-mails of welcome.

Sheryl for the Jarhed and Joshua

He's Home

Almost home

For those of you who haven't heard, Jon's return for his 2 weeks of R&R was moved up by a week. Last week I discovered that he might be arriving Tuesday evening the 5th instead of Sunday the 10th. This weekend I received e-mails indicating that he might arrive today (Monday). His final e-mail yesterday morning indicated that he would arrive in Dallas around 8:00 am Central Time and probably wouldn't get into Orange County till around 2:00 pm our time. Joshua and I were up at with my family at my uncle's ranch this weekend (4 hours drive away) for a memorial service for my uncle Bob Weaver and we were thinking of staying until this morning, but decided we'd head home last night and be here, just in case...

Sure enough, Jon called at 6:30 this morning to let me know that they had gotten him on an earlier flight and he'll be arriving at 9:50 this morning at Orange County. I'm so glad we came home last night and will be at the airport to greet him. Thank you all for your prayers for his safe return.

We'll be home most of this week, heading to San Diego next week. We'll get to celebrate Jon's birthday on the 17th and then he'll be heading back for the final 6 months of his deployment.

All for now.

Sheryl