Bill Moyers post today got me thinking about something I've never really talked about.
I moved from DC back to Southern Illinois, where I grew up, not long after 9/11 and our invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq. Although I grew up in this area, it had been more than 15 years since I'd lived here. Didn't know many folks. I'd often go to this nice coffee shop not far from a large Air Force base to read and eat their wonderful homemade cheese cake.
Now this is a base that is more "Command Center" focused (four major ones). Not a lot of folks that would ever be sent to war. Heck we don't even have a fighter wing stationed here.
But we have maybe the most stunning ability in a time of war!
In something like 24-48 hours, if a "flash" call came in from the Pentagon we could have an entire mobile hospital loaded on the C-130s and off to anywhere in the world. We also have a number of planes based here, and if you live near a large base with a hospital you've seen them, huge all white 747s with no markings on them of any kind (not even a US flag). Just a huge red cross on the tail.
What I call "hospital planes." Literally flying hospitals. These are how, and there are many not stationed near me, we get the critically inquired from a war zone to say Germany. And from Germany to Walter Reed.
That is the background, the point of the title of this Diary below the fold.
I had noticed this women, about my age, mid-30s in the coffee shop multiple days in a row. Sitting by herself like I was.
I struck up a conversation....
Her name was Michele. She was from Atlanta, where she was a nurse. She was in the Reserves. She was in the Reserves for one reason only, to pay for college and nursing school. Michele was here undergoing training to go to Afghanistan to work as a medic.
We had a lot in common. Both of us knew nobody in the area. Both of us were confused about living in a large metro area for years and now more of a rural area. We both liked coffee and books.
Most of her training seemed pretty straightforward, as she told it.
I wouldn't say she was happy to be here, staying in the motel they put her up in, but she was dealing with it. Then one day, and honestly we were not close or dating, she broke down.
She was undergoing weapons training in the week before her deployment. This is where she said to me:
I am a nurse, not a soldier.
I tried to be positive, but I didn't really know what to say. I mean Michele was being sent off to war. It only hit her at the end. She left with an agreement to stay in contact. I only got two further messages from her. No clue what happened to her. My gut is it wasn't pleasant.
War fucking sucks!!!!!!!!!