Back on-line

After a week, I finally found a place to plug in my laptop and check email; I'd already called home to let my wife know I'd arrived safely, but there were last minute things to send out to congregants back at Fort Hood and emailed letters to friends. As I pushed send on an email, a young lieutenant came by, looking a bit lost and wondering if he could put his computer down on the table across from me. I invited him to join me, and he told me his wife had given him a laptop computer to stay in touch.

As he set it up, we talked for a little while. He told me he was in the National Guard in Utah, and was joining a unit up in Iraq. He was replacing a lieutenant who "got blown up." He told me about things back home, the sort of family things that make everything worthwhile, especially when you're a young man going to war.