Monday, December 31, 2012

Paula Rocked It!

Back when we lived in Livingston County, Michigan, Jodi, Jarrod, Paula and I each had a set of cross country skis. And we'd take them to the nearby golf course and go crazy. This is a photo of Paula doing her thing.


Sunday, October 28, 2012

No Time For Sightseeing

So my son-in-law, Lt. Col. Michael Kasprzyk, USMC, is sent to Egypt on a mission I dare not get into for fear of a knock on my door.  (If Homeland Security is monitoring this weblog, I know nothing.)  And what does he do in this land where 100 million Muslims would love to see him dead?


He goes sightseeing, for God's sake.

Sunday, September 02, 2012

The Effects Of War

It's said that combat changes a person.  That it hardens the psyche.  Makes a young man sober beyond his years.  I wouldn't know.  Never been there.

But my brother's son has.

And war changed him.

Forever.

Jon Fuhrman was with the 101st Airborne Division in 2003, when his division commander, Major General David H. Petraeus, led his men into Iraq in "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Jon was with the 101st as it and the 3rd Infantry Division pushed into Iraq and secured Baghdad.

He was there at the fierce battle in and around Baghdad International Airport.

He was in Mosul as part of the team that brought justice to Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, in July of that year.

He witnessed death.  Including the deaths of some of his friends.

And then he came home.

A different person.

Always reserved and on the quiet side, he returned to his parents, my brother and sister-in-law, a brooding, often dark, always lonely, seemingly out of place young man.  It was as if the world had changed completely for him while he was in Iraq.  And he just didn't seem to fit in it anymore.

Over the next several years Jon bounced from job to job, trouble to trouble.  He lived on the edge.  And preferred to be there.

He brought back demons.

Demons he couldn't shake.

He'd seen too much.  Was affected too deeply.

Jon once wrote in an email:

"I think it is much worse to come home hard than it is just to stay in the place that made you hard.  I lost some friends who were good guys with kids.  I can't help feeling that I was not supposed to come home but they were.  Like I took their place or something.  I know I don't deserve it because I am so f**ked up and they wouldn't have been like me coming home.  I really think I was never supposed to leave Iraq but I took the place of some guys who should have."

The thought haunted him.

Until this past Monday.

When Jon Fuhrman killed himself.

His demons won.  His family mourns.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Out of My Past

I came across this photo of me from 1980:

A valuable lesson I learned about physics: When an object in motion - a motorcycle - meets an object at rest - the side of a brick house - the object in motion tends to cease its forward motion.  Abruptly.

Three broken ribs and broken collar bone later ...

And that's all I'm sayin' about that.

Sunday, March 04, 2012

9mm. The Great Equalizer.

On a day when I read this - "Girls and Guns… It’s A Social Thing" - I get a photo in my email inbox from my sweet little daughter, who's shown punching holes in targets at the range the other day: 

Love those pink ear protectors.

From the article:
While it’s too soon to say that we’re witnessing a social revolution, the dramatic increase in the number of American women who own guns makes one thing clear. Social networking, as it has recently in so many real revolutions around the world, is playing a pivotal role in both spreading the word, and supporting the efforts of millions of law abiding women who have at last come to the gun. Whether their interests lie in hunting, competition, entertainment or defense, those of us who care deeply about America’s shooting heritage are proud of the growing legion of girls with guns.
Yes, we are.

* For what it's worth, I think Jodi's firing her Ruger 9mm. What's not seen is the fierce blaze in her eyes.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

News From The War-on-Terror Front



My son-in-law, Marine Lt. Colonel Michael Kasprzyk, shown here recently receiving a commendation for his contribution to the war effort, is returning home this weekend from a six-month deployment. Next month he leaves for a one-year deployment to Bahrain.

Though it seems far removed now from our daily lives, the war on terror goes on.

And, like so many hundreds of thousands of wives, my daughter makes the best of it.

Here's to both of them for offering up the sacrifices they make.