US Military: TNG

Well, I'm back from Grandma Jones' funeral, and let me tell you, it is one long drive from North Carolina to Central Illinois and back again. However, I did have my niece Ibuprofen Jones with me. She's in the US Navy, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, base hospital - she's a Corpsman.

Camp Lejeune
What is a Navy Corpsman?

Now, ol' Wiggy's got three younger sisters, and we don't see that much of each other these days. We sort of spread out over the country, with one sister in Omaha, another in West Des Moines, and yet another in Denver. Ibby is my youngest sister's oldest daughter, and she's 20. Hard to believe, she was just pooping on me when I changed her diaper - that was what, ten or eleven months ago? I took her 'Trick or Treating' only a couple years ago, and before that, she and her sisters held my hand tightly as we toured the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Twenty years old? In the Navy? This cannot be happening.

However, I was in for an eye-opening experience, and a treat. I don't have a lot of time for youngsters - they mostly seem like a rude, selfish, and ill-behaved bunch of louts, mopes, and ne'er-do-wells, and I'm too busy doing all those things myself to be troubled with the likes of them. Never had kids for a reason - I'm not tired of being one myself.

But my niece has gone and become a human being when I wasn't looking. We don't have an adult-to-child relationship anymore; she's an adult as well, and she has deeply impressed me. Oh, she is young, and impetuous, and headstrong, and she has already made a few bad decisions - real whoppers. But she has what she needs to get better. I like the person she is becoming. I enjoyed talking with her as we drove across the US. She has the usual gamut of hopes, dreams, and plans - but she is also well-grounded in reality, she seems to understand what can and what is not likely to happen. More important than having wants - she has reasons. Reasons are cool, I respect reasons. She wore her dress uniform to our Grandma's funeral, her's a photo of her with another of my sister's sons, Dolphinus Jones:



We got back last week, and now I am working double-time and weekends to catch up on the work I missed while I was gone - this sucks. But oh well, we do what we must to earn that daily ration o' beer.

But while I was at work, I got an email from my sister in Des Moines, she of the sons and not the daughters. Her eldest, my nephew Thunderbolt Grease-Slapper Jones, was just graduated from US Army bootcamp and sent directly to Iraq. He's doing OK, they had him in Kuwait for awhile to get used to the heat and the sand in your wrinkle, I guess. Here he is:




I didn't do the fancy montage thing, I guess that's his handiwork, or my sister's. These kids, they're wacky. And their music - it's just noise. But I digress.

He's another that I recall all too clearly as a little boy. Milcom Miasma and I used to babysit him from time to time, I was there at the hospital when he was born, out in the hallway, listening to my sister shout obscenities. I remember taking him to see a baby elephant that someone had dragged into a mall in Colorado, to get his picture taken with the 'lellyphant. He took one look at the monster and began screaming at the top of his three-year-old lungs, which, as it turns out, are quite powerful. I got my first migraine headache that day, which reminds me that I owe my nephew a boot to the head.

I got to spend some time with TG at his boot camp graduation in South Carolina, and he's another young man who appears to have his head and ass wired together. Although he's still way to interested in fast cars (or rather, fast piles of crap that he's wired together and refers to as a car), he's also one whom I have no doubt will make a fine man. I'm worried about him, of course. He's nineteen and looks it. Dear God, was I ever that young? When I was in the Marine Corps, did I have such a boyish face, did my relatives still see me in ripped dungarees and t-shirts, running around playing Cowboys and Indians?

So here they are - The Next Generation. We're asking a lot from them, and somehow it feels like we're asking more from them than was asked of my generation when we were that age - maybe that's just the perspective of age talking.

And I don't know if you support the war or not - heck, I'm not even sure what that means, and I don't know if *I* support the war or not. If things keep up the way they're going, old bald fat men like me could be squeezing back into cammies and picking up machine guns again someday soon (Iran, North Korea, who doesn't hate us?).

But I see a lot of those bumper stickers on the roadways - "Support Our Troops." I see a lot of ribbons that I think are supposed to mean that as well. I'm never sure just what that person has done to 'support our troops'. Does that mean that they just generally don't wish any harm on our young men and women who are in harm's way tonight? Does it mean that they pay their taxes, and thus fund the war effort? I have no idea.

But I do know this. The photos that I got of my nephew came with a wish list of things for a CARE package:

CARE PACKAGES FOR US TROOPS

PERSONAL & HYGIENE ITEMS
New Knit Hats & Gloves
New T-shirts – Large or XL
Antibacterial wipes, lotion, sunscreen
Travel-size toothpaste, lip balm, q-tips
Nail clippers, Disposable razors
Non-aerosol shaving cream
Band Aids, cough drops, dental floss, combs
Foot powder, boot Odor Eaters – no aerosol
Paper, pens, postcards, envelopes (free postage)
Black shoe polish

MISCELLANEOUS
Holiday Decorations
Blank Greeting Cards
Wrap-around sunglasses
Film (35 mm)
Paper Towels, toilet paper
Laundry Detergent travelsize powder, no liquid
Duct tape, Ziploc Bags, Styrofoam cups
Glasses wipes
Clothespins, Clothesline
Battery-operated Fans
Misty Mates
Pre-paid phone cards (#1 item)

FOOD & FOOD RELATED ITEMS
Ready to Eat Tuna or Chicken Salad Kits
Breakfast-type foods and drinks
Instant & Regular coffee, filters, creamer, sugar packets
Coffee makers, hot plates
Instant hot chocolate packets
Campbell’s chunky soups, chicken, beef, etc.
Fast Food Hot Sauce packets
Individual packets of Trail mix, Beef Jerky, Slim Jims
Peanuts, canned chips
Cereal bars, granola bars, energy bars
Pre-sweetened powdered drinks, Gatorade
Lil Debbie snacks, no icing
Packs of candy, gum, Twizzlers, tootsie rolls, skittles

ENTERTAINMENT
Disposable cameras
Handheld electronic games
Puzzle, Word Game & Crossword Puzzles
Beanie Babies for soldiers to give to kids
Magazines, local papers, comics, paperbacks
Games, Chess, Checkers, Dominoes, Parcheesi, Uno
Cribbage, Puzzles, Cards, Nerf Toys
Hackey Sacks
Frisbees, Baseballs, Footballs

I have his APO address in Iraq, I'm not supposed to give it out. The military doesn't take anonymous CARE packages from citizens anymore - too risky. But if anyone wants to send any of that stuff to me, I'll gladly send it in the box we're getting together for him. And thanks, folks. Just drop me a line - I'll send you my mailing address.

Anyway, back to work. I'm going to blog more about my trip to Illinois and my Grandma's funeral soon, but I wanted to mention this.

Always and Forever,

Your Wiggy