Today I said good-bye to a friend of mine that is being deployed to Iraq. It's strange to realize that it was ten years ago today that I was faced with my deployment to Haiti. I had been thinking about this friend of mine and his impending deployment in the last few weeks. I decided I wanted to be able to give him something that I had received when I was in the army that he could take with him. I thought about the awards and the coins and I realized that none of those really had much meaning for me. Fortunately I was in my car when I was thinking about this and I saw my infantry cord hanging from my rearview mirror.
The infantry cord is a light blue cord that is worn on the right shoulder of dress uniforms. It is only given to soldiers after completing infantry training. So you'll never see a person walking around with a blue cord on their uniform just because they were assigned to a unit that wears the blue cord.
The day before my basic training graduation we had a day where parents were allowed to come visit which was ended with a cord ceremony. For this cord ceremony you were allowed to either have one of your parents or a drill sergeant put the cord on your uniform as you stood in formation. I chose to have my mom put my infantry cord on. This may have been the proudest moment of my life.
I drifted through high school doing as little as I needed to get by. Fortunately for me I was smart enough to not need to study or really do much work at all to pass. Basic Training was just the opposite for me. I had to work at it. My attitude was totally different. I actually spent more time studying for tests in basic than I did in all of high school.
The graduation ceremony was a formality. The true award for my accomplishments was that blue cord. Being able to have my mom put it on me while my dad looked on was just awesome.
After 9/11 I decided to hang my cord from my rearview mirror to express my willingness to defend my country. So I saw it hanging there and I decided that this is the item I would give my friend. I told him I wanted him to take it with him and bring it back to me and that when I notice it missing from my car I'll think of him.
5 comments:
Superb sentiment. Really, really nice. My Cuz came back from Iraq in November. I hope the same goes for your friend.
:)
::sniffles:: that's a heartwarming story. May God be with your friend.
::sniffles:: is right! You couldn't have picked a more perfect gift.
You know, he doesn't actually leave until Friday, but I've already noticed the missing cord and thought of him a couple of times. The hardest thing is going to be getting past my lazy nature to send him letters or care packages occasionally while he's gone.
That was a really nice thought Jay. I'm sure it meant a lot to him.
Post a Comment