Speed Post for the Troops

Hey Friends. Many of you know that I was in the army from '96 to '99. Why? Yeah, that's the right question. Long and short of it is that I was/am one of those crazy adrenaline-junkie types, and the 82nd Airborne Division is the world-class example of hard-core adrenaline mainlining freaks. Naturally, I had to be a member. After three years and thirty-some jumps, I decided to hang up my boots and bruises and pursue something a little more grandiose. Like being NOT in the army anymore. I have a thing about authority, but that's another story.

The reason I mention this is because I finally achieved a life-long goal this week and have officially, through Createspace, brought copies of my novels into physical reality. This is momentous, but not because I'm low on reading material. (That was some pretty good snarkasm, am I right?) Really, it's a bigger deal to me because I had them made for my partner, a former Marine, who always wanted to see them in print. And the timing coincided with another event that's equally as important. Task Force Tigershark: a troop-morale-boosting enterprise being organized by a friend in Connecticut. He and The Battle Standard game shop in Manchester are doing a massive care-package collection to send to a group of soldiers in Afghanistan who've recently suffered heavy, heavy casualties. One of the big things these soldiers could use is a mental escape, no matter how light and temporary, from their incredibly cringe-worthy days. So copies of the first print run of my trilogy will be sent to them in hopes it can ease some of the burden of their damn daily drudge.

As many, maybe most, of you have, I've had a number of friends do tours of duty in our country's recent non-holiday international excursions, also known as Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Thanks to politics, some have done more than one. While I was fortunate enough to be a civilian again before either of these operations, and was thus never deployed, the experiences many of my friends have shared of them, and their aftereffects, have left an everlasting impression on me. It is a small thing to send these soldiers books and sundries, yet the truth of it is, being stuck in a hostile foreign country sucks, and any little bit of home or show of appreciation from those of us who get to relax to a hot shower and a soft bed at night goes a long feckin' way. It's pretty easy to box up some Handi Wipes and Clif bars and ship them overseas. I definitely encourage everyone to take a couple hours this weekend and show the troops some love. And if you're an author, let me point out that those stuck on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, well, they're a pretty captive audience. Just sayin'.

A few organizations that can assist in creating and sending care packages:

Operation GratitudeSoldiers' AngelsMilitary Family VoicesMilitary.com

For the Ones We Lean On

We all have that one friend. You know the one I'm talking about. The one that's known us almost forever, the one we've been through the thickest and the thinnest of all things with. That OLD friend who laughed at us when we knocked ourself unconscious in jump school and will NEVER let us live it down (I was merely dazed, dammit!). The friend who knows our most embarrassing secrets, but who will never out us, no matter how much it pains them not to. That friend who, when they wrecked our truck (step one: engage parking brake, step two: put vehicle in neutral, step three: only THEN should you exit), not only paid to have it fixed, but bought us an expensive bottle of single-malt to help drown the disappointment. That friend that knows the perfect gift for an airborne soldier is a flask with our jump wings and nickname engraved on it (Tigger? Really? Just because I sing a lot of Winnie the Pooh songs...). That friend that sends us an amazing "just married" package full of soju and other sundries all the way from Korea in celebration of our wedding (not sure if soju should be considered a gift, actually). The one who never forgets our birthday, mostly to make us feel guilty for always forgetting theirs. The one who readily trusts us and tosses us their car keys when we volunteer to be the designated driver during yet another raucously debauched evening at Ft. Benning--despite the fact that driving a sedan full of drunken grunts around all night is no one's idea of a good time--and who we know wouldn't hesitate to do the same for us. The one we feel utterly comfortable cavorting around the woods with in nothing but our skivvies during a backpacking trip after an Oregon deluge has soaked everything we own into sodden piles of muck. The one who has no problem running headlong into the black ocean in the middle of the night with us to escape the sadistic and deranged North Carolinian sand fleas. The one who "gets" our fetish for Aussie accents and swears he'd get the numbers of all the Aussie SF gents his company links up with in Afghanistan for us if we were still single, and we know he really would. The one who, while visiting his three girlfriends in Moscow, still manages to find the time to pick us up a bottle of the best Russian Standard we'll ever drink. That one who could win awards for the way he swings to the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. That friend who taught us that the quickest and most effective remedy for a hangover is five mile tempo run. The one who has already served a tour in Iraq and whose whole family is no stranger to service and combat; who's brother worked at the Pentagon; whose father was a Special Forces soldier in Laos during the Vietnam War; whose mother experienced first hand the trials and deprivations of Vietnam's occupation by first the French then by Communist forces; yet he still volunteers to make the hard choice and step up for yet another combat tour in the name of his values and country. The friend that insists on helping us clean up the destruction of our house after a full night of partying despite the fact that we both have quadruple vision and have to lean on each other just to stay upright.And that's the friend I'm talking about today, peeps. The one I've leaned on for over fifteen years, and who, during the last eleven years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, this whole country has. This post is in honor of my friend Al Dupre, his unit, Alpha Company, 1st of the 285th ARB, Arizona National Guard, who shipped out today for a nine month tour of Afghanistan, and all those who have served and are currently serving in one of the five US military branches. We all have loved ones and friends who've served in the two wars of Iraq and Afghanistan and, no matter what our opinions of these wars, we owe it to these courageous people for being willing to literally put themselves in front of bullets to keep us safe. In celebration of this year's Fourth of July holiday, I encourage everyone to send kind and supportive messages to your loved ones and friends serving our country, and remember that it is in no small manner thanks to their bravery, courage, and integrity that we are the nation we are.PS: Apologies for the somberness of this post. Next time, I promise to write something funny. Funny in the way 40 Year Old Virgin would be if David Fincher or Christopher Nolan had directed it. You've been warned.

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All content copyright unless otherwise specified © 2008-2013 by Tammy Salyer, writer. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use short quotes provided proper attribution is given.

What Do You Want to Know?

As mentioned in my last post, I'll be interviewing a handful of soldiers and civilian contractors who've been working in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know there are a ton of things I'm interested in learning about, but what about you all? If you have any questions you'd like to ask our men in women in uniform (military or not), send them in. I can't guarantee they'll be answered, but I'll certainly send them to my "sources" (wow, I'm like a war reporter or something). I'm leaving it up to them to answer what they wish, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Let's Ask the Experts

If, like me, you've lived the last nine years (or more) wondering what the fuck is going on in the world, you may be interested in some of the posts I'll have over the next few weeks.I'm an idea person, an armchair philosopher if you will, and I spend way too much time pondering why people do the things they do, or, even more importantly, why they don't do things that seem so obviously in need of doing. For instance, why didn't we as a nation stand up against the Supreme Court ruling that put Bush in office for a second term? What is it in human nature that makes us stop defending ourselves from wrongs that are too unconscionable to even be believed?There could be any number of reasons for human behavior, but I think one of the main factors that drive us is our lack of information. We, as a species, are daunted by what we don't know. Many of us are afraid to take a side because it could be the wrong side.So what's to be done? Just get more information. Seems simple, right? But having information isn't enough. We have to know where it's coming from, if it's reliable, what pool of facts this information is based on. For us to trust the information we're getting, we have to ask the experts.Who are the experts? There are two kinds: people who study the facts, and people who live them. What I mean is, you can ask an academic, say a sociologist, to explain what feminism means, or what it's like to grow up female in any given region of the world. You'll probably get a great answer too, something that seems logical and well thought out and perhaps based on research. But wouldn't the person who could really give you the facts on this subject be a feminist or a woman?Alright, I'm being long-winded. Here's what this post is really about. Like the rest of you, I've been confused, saddened, horrified, uncertain and lost in regards to the world's actions since 911. I want to think that the steps we've taken as a nation towards Iraq and Afghanistan have been for the better, but CNN, NBC, Fox, HuffPo, NYTimes, etc. haven't been telling me a story that I'm willing to believe. If I pick any one of them I'll either get a resounding "YES!" or a resounding "NO! And furthermore..." I'm all for black and white, it does simplify things, but I'm way too much of an unrepentant cynic to buy into any either/or stance. That type of argument leaves out too many factors to be anything but gasbag rhetoric.So who then? Who are the people living the facts, coping with the impacts our policies towards Iraq and Afghanistan are having, not just for us, but for the people living in those countries? Obviously, the people living there. But the other people who really know WTF is going on are the people we send: the soldiers and civilians who go there to stabilize, bring peace, quell resistance, build nations, offer healthcare and security, and yeah, to stop the bad guys from doing their bad guy shit.Which is, finally, the point of this post. Over the next few weeks, I'll be interviewing a number of American soldiers and contractors who've served time in Iraq and Afghanistan. They've all volunteered to share what they know, to shed some light on the real situation, and help the rest of us sitting at home getting slapped in the face with more skewed media images and stories serving someone else's political agenda to know what they know, to see what they've seen, and to witness what our consent as a nation to support the policies of our government is doing for, or against, this world.