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"Hooah" from Ft. Benning: Almost there...
By Brandy Lewis
Now that Cade is nearing graduation, I find myself thinking about
the last 13 weeks and all of his achievments. What at one time seemed
to be a nearly impossible feat, has quickly come to an end. There
were times of uncertainty along with moments of great joy.
It was my 43rd birthday when Cade decided to tell me he had joined the
Army. He waited until the end of my party to tell me because he didn't
want to ruin it. It was then, he handed me a pamphlet and for
some reason, it came as no surprise to me. I immediately accepted his
choice even though I did make a plea for him to attend college since he
was getting a scholarship but it was very clear that his mind was made
up.
At that point, the countdown had started until the day he was leaving.
Every moment was precious and I took my camera everywhere. We crammed
in as many memories as we possibly could in the next few months.
We did everything as a family. He attended all of his sister's softball games and we attended all of his swim meets.
My favorite memory happened at Kings Island. We were on White
Water Canyon and Cade was getting wet while the rest of us managed to
stay dry. I was in tears laughing so hard at him getting soaked. He was
screaming like a baby. I guess you had to be there but it was good ole
family fun.
Cade had a Army meeting that night and planned on leaving Kings
Island early. Then he stood there and said, "God, family, country
comes first in that order". He stayed the rest of the evening with us.
That night meant a lot to me because of what he said. We had laughed
and played all day long.
When night had fallen, I said it was time to go home but Cade wanted to
stay for fireworks. I, as a mom, said it was getting late.
When I pulled the van in at home, I had a vehicle full of sleeping
kids. Cade said he was glad we didn't stay because he was so tired but
we all had a good day.
Days like that only come along once in a while. It was a great memory and times like this you can never get back.
The final days leading up to his ship off date, I tried to spend as
much time as I could but finally the hour had come. We watched him
swear in and I only felt pride. This was soon followed by a bit of
depression knowing he was about to fly to Georgia.
I still remember his smile and the hug he gave me as I held back the tears.
Cade was in the Army now! I'll never forget those first couple of homesick calls where I could do nothing to comfort him.
His letters home had progressed from being a scared boy into a
confident man. The broken hand that had jeopardized everything and
threatened to have him recycled healed quickly. The relief of hearing
his cast was off and his hand was recovering with minimal
effect to his training came with great joy.
Cade's funny stories of spiders and deer, cracked us all up.
There was the first training excersise with the gas chamber and his
ability to laugh it off after the training was completed. Cade,
throughout this journey has been able to find humor in most of the
situations after the fact.
This is something that emphasised to me that Cade had made the
right choice going into the Army and that he was going to make it
through.
After 11 letters from him, he finally started to get my mail. I wrote
him almost everyday. In the beginning, I sometimes wrote him twice a
day. It was a long period of time for him to not hear from us. There is
a system to the Army wether we like it or not and from day one, they
were preparing us for deployment. I can look back and be upset about
not getting letters or calls but if deployed, it will be a lot longer.
As I look over my column and how he has developed, it really makes me proud how much he has grown.
Now, he is a team leader. This will bring on added responsibility after
he receives his leadership training. He has passed his last couple of
physical training tests so we don't sweat those anymore.
We had a wonderful family weekend with him which ended with him proposing to Lauren, his girlfriend.
He's written several letters since family weekend and is only having
fun now. Even when he did his three day, overnight field training
excersize. It had rained the first night and Cade and his battle buddy
had to dig a 18 inch fox hole. They tarped it to stay dry but the tarp
wasn't tight enough and it kept collecting water. They had to
drain the water off occasionally so it didn't collapse. Cade
drained the tarp once only to see the water filling the hole with the
coldness coming in on him.
The following two nights, Cade froze due to the cold weather but he
said besides getting the rain and cold weather, it was fun for him.
It's good to know he's keeping a positive attitude through it all.
He talks of boar tracks, turkey tracks and seeing a pack of coyote. He
is always aware of the nature around him. Of course there are spiders
and luckily, non venomous snakes also.
So my son it having fun despite the negatives that get thrown at him.
He just did his March to Honor Hill. I wish I could've seen his face as
he made it to the top! I should get a letter this week with with the
much awaited details.
It's nearly time for graduation so we are excited about that.
My son has made it through black phase and is now in gold phase. I'm so
incredibly proud of how far he has made it and the positive attitude he
has maintained.
He is truly #ARMYSTRONG!
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