Yellow Ribbon

I spent a long (in every sense of the word) weekend in Billings for my 1st Pre-Deployment Yellow Ribbon Workshop.  Much of it made me feel like livestock being prodded around and moved from pen to pen without much rhyme or reason.  Some of the breakout sessions I was disappointed in, some I was surprised by.  All in all I gathered much more information than I realized I wanted needed to know.

I won't say much about the topics I actually was interested in, and cared about. As they pertained to more specific details of the Deployment. Like dates and what a possible typical day for the Hubby will be like.  Thank you OPSEC for making me paranoid.

I also spent the weekend listening to acronyms, and though I held back, I did  feel compelled to yell out random letters from the alphabet and see how they like to be left out on code talk. But alas, my random letters would probably mean something and it would defeat the purpose.  So I did what I always do when I am with the Hubby and other soldiers....lean in and say "What does fill in the blank mean?"  After I have done this about 3 times per sentence for a couple minutes, they start to get the hint and talk in English...for a little while.

One of the best things about the weekend is that one of the Hubby's best friends was there. He is deploying with a different unit, but missed his Yellow Ribbon due to training and had to make it up.  I really wish they were going together, I would feel much better knowing they had each others back.  Wives's don't get to have their way with everything though, and I was happy they got to hang out. It had been too long.  In the Hubby and my early dating days this particular buddy was described by my future husband as "attached to his hip"....lol.

To be completely honest I actually think I owe my marriage to him.  If he hadn't approved of me, I don't know how things would have ended up.  He saw my ring before I did, and had dates worked out better, he would have been the best man in our wedding.  So naturally I spent some of my free time quizzing him down about what he likes, because he is on my care package mailing list also.

Another cool thing to come from the Yellow Ribbon dealio.  All the children that were there and attended the provided daycare made a big flag with their handprints.

A Big, Big flag!  With white handprints for the stars and the red stripes made by assorted sized handprints.  The kids walked it in (sans the napping toddlers and babies) and presented it to the Captain with a request for him to take it overseas, and to bring it back when the deployment is over. He promised to display it with pride and they folded it up all official like. It was one of the moments that actually got to me.  I had quite a few walls up trying to block out emotion throughout the weekend.

I wish I had my camera and could have gotten a picture, it really was an awesome flag.

I wish I would have brought my camera along period, and gotten pictures of anything.