My neighbor's son-in-law is now serving with the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, NC and was up here for a visit with his wife and child. I had a brief chance to talk with him the other morning as we both finished our morning exercise routines at the same time. I was most interested if the streets at Bragg are filling up more now than they were the last time I was down there (Soldiers coming home) and he said they were, but nowhere near the way they used to be. He said it's strange looking down Long Street which used to be full of jogging and chanting Soldiers each day at dawn, and seeing much less activity. He's deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan several times since 2003, albeit in multiple 3-6 month stints, versus longer 12-15 month tours. He can't tell me what he does, but did say it's special operations related. He said one thing that really ticks him off while deployed are seeing so many troops essentially working full time in relatively secure areas, hardly going outside the wire, with almost as many comfort and recreational opportunities as back home. He's typically in a rugged field environment with much fewer things of that nature available when he's deployed. I said I remembered the same thing during the Vietnam war when those of us in the field used to complain all the time about "Saigon Warriors" holed up in the city. He also told me he did not like the new Army blue uniform, as well as the black beret. His view was that the Army ought to have left all that alone. I totally agreed with his view. As we went inside our respective homes, I told him how proud I was as an older retiree, of the manner in which Soldiers like him were performing their jobs, under such stressful conditions. He'd earlier said that many of his friends were getting out of the Army because of multiple rotations and their effects on family members, but so far he had no such inclination. I hope he stays in, the Army needs people like him.
