Navy wife and author Alison Buckholtz (Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War) had been scheduled to talk about her book on the blogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that I co-host with Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com.
Then Alison emailed me very apologetically that the scheduled interview time was right in the middle of a few snatched hours she would have with her husband en route from training to deployment. Of course I understood why she had to cancel the interview.
Later, thanks to an update in my Gmail chat, I discovered that Alison wrote about these few snatched hours in the first entry of her "Deployment Diary" column.
Here's the opening of the column:
Military units are breeding grounds for rumors, and the story was now circulating that Scott and his colleagues’ flight would be delayed by 30 hours. I judge my own military wife cynicism by the degree to which I don’t get excited when I hear news that’s in our favor, because I’ve been disappointed so many times before.
This time, though, my heart leaped. Maybe my parents could bring the kids after all! Or we could have an overnight back in our own room, and a home-cooked meal! It seemed only right. After all, the other services contributing troops to the mission had been granted four-day passes between training and deployment; only the Navy sends its troops directly to theater.
My mind raced between happy homecoming visions and stern warnings to myself, cautioning against a letdown.
As we waited in the long, winding line for reticketing, I heard sustained applause, happy stomping, and delighted whooping from the floor below. Nosy even in crisis, I peered over the open balcony.
We were directly above the “Freedom Shrine,” the gate service members pass through when flying home from deployment. Several dozen volunteers typically staff the gate to give these troops the rowdy thank-you they deserve.
Read the rest of this column now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also writes articles as a National Internet Business Examiner and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life.
Phyllis' company has launched the monthly program WeTeachWebMarketing.com to help people promote their brand, book or business online. Her company also does Twitter tutoring -- see TeachMetoTweetNow.com
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