Remembering

If you remember my post from 9/11 you'll recall that I wrote about remembering where I was when I found out what happened. I likened the situation to the way our parent's remember where they were when JFK was shot, and our grandparent's when Pearl Harbor was attacked. These are moments that shook the foundation of our nation. As a group we can all recall where we were, how we felt and the aftermath of the tragedy.

I also think that as individuals we all have personal moments like those I mentioned above. For me, it was October 2, 2004. I was a Junior in college, watching a football game at a bar when I saw that I had a missed call from my mom. I remember thinking that it was weird that she would be calling me on a Saturday morning because she knew that I'd be watching the game/drinking/not able to talk. I think deep down I knew something was wrong. I remember telling my friend that I needed to call her back because I knew something was wrong.

I stepped outside the bar to call her and as soon as I heard her voice my gut feeling was confirmed. She didn't even have to say it for me to know that something terrible had happened. When she spoke the words my heart started beating faster. I denied it. Immediately, I said, no.

"Beth, Jack was killed in Iraq."

No. No. No.

Jack was a friend from the neighborhood that I grew up with. We worked together. We hung out. We were friends. We grew up together.

He was the funniest kid I've ever met. He enlisted in the Army after high school. He had deployed to Iraq with the 1 CAV out of Ft. Hood, TX. He was shot and killed while working at a highway checkpoint outside Baghdad, Iraq. He was 21 years old. He was a lot of things to a lot of people, brother, son, nephew, friend.

It has been 6 years, and he is not forgotten. We will always remember you, Jack.

"Life is short, play hard!"

-SGT Jack T. Hennessey, USA
KIA 1 OCT 2004, Baghdad, Iraq

Moving Update

We're officially on our way to our new duty station. We finished up with the movers yesterday and turned in our house keys and garage door openers this morning. After that we hit the road! We're done with the first leg of our drive and settled into our hotel.

We ended up staying the night in a hotel last night since we had no furniture at our house. It was kind of sentimental because it was the same hotel we stayed in a year ago when we first got to Washington. Last year we got in on 4th of July and we spent the night watching the fireworks and drinking beer on the roof! This year I have a 3 month old baby and fell into bed, exhausted! LOL Oh, how the times have changed.

AJ has been pretty good so far considering the fact that her schedule it totally off. She really only cried the last hour of the drive today, which for an 8 hour day is not bad. The scenery was beautiful, so I enjoyed the drive as well.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a little more eventful. We don't have as far to drive so we should be a bit more relaxed than we were today. We were really just trying to get as far out of town as we could today. I will make sure to do a full account of the trip (hopefully with lots of pictures) once we get settled in at our new house.