Friday 26 July 2013

Something a little warm & fuzzy

While most of us are shivering through winter, I thought I'd post something a bit warm and fuzzy to help warm you up a bit. It is a story from a fellow army wife (taken from her website here).


Our Story … This is a lot easier for me to do over a coffee and a Tim Tam, writing it makes it so hard.
As you can imagine I really can’t go into too much detail but a small gist and some links will put things into place.
Sound asleep and the home phone rings, its DoD. I’m told that there has been a accident. I said there are no accidents over there but incidents. I was told that Andrew had been hurt but he was OK and being operated on shortly. I was numb. I was composed, yet there was screaming in my head. I walked into my mother’s room (we were visiting interstate) and collapsed on the floor a blubbering mess. I couldn't process what was happening all I could do is cry. A few hours past and the next call came from DoD Media wanting to take a statement, I needed time and wanted a few more days.
More hours past and finally Andrew was able to call home from the hospital over there. He was groggy and not making any sense but just to be able to hear his voice was the most amazing thing.
April 2007 a Roadside Bomb blew up his ASLAV – Andrew was the driver. He pulled himself out of the vehicle while he was on fire and attempted to put out his own flames. This was not working so he threw himself over the side and landed in a body of water that extinguished the rest. He then crawled dragging his legs to the back where he met with the other two boys in the LAV.
A US Chopper then took him to base hospital where the first lot of operations started.
Andrew suffered 26 individual injuries from burns to breaking bones, lacerations and more.
He had an amazing team look after him there and here in AU and if it wasn't for a certain someone he would not be here today, I hold her so close to our hearts and she has had the biggest impact on our lives, love and respect “Mum” (Those who know Mum will understand that they have a little bit of her in their heart)
It has been a long journey for Andrew, he had to learn to walk again. One year and one day after the blast he ran up Anzac Pde towards the Memorial in Canberra holding the Beijing Olympic Torch representing ADF and Samsung.
We have had struggles every day and without the support of our friends and family and the wider defence community I think I would have crumbled into a heap.
This now, with Australian Military Family Medallions we can give back to you all and support an amazing organization so that they can keep supporting our wounded.
So please take the time to check out Australian Military Family Medallions and support the great work they are doing.
Until next time,
C.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

We will remember them


Today I was ironing my son’s shirt in preparation for ANZAC Day tomorrow and he (almost 6 yrs old) asked where we were going in the morning. I keenly told him about the dawn service and what the whole day was about. He summed it up quite well when he said ‘we remember that soldiers do a good job and we say thank you to them’. I was so proud that he was excited about it and had to have a giggle when he ran off to tell his 3 yr old brother about thanking the soldiers.


Later on in the day, I was browsing through Facebook (surprising, I know) and I came across something that made me (temporarily) speechless.

We all know that past and present serving members proudly wear the medals they have been awarded on their left breast and that family members of deceased soldiers can honour their memory by wearing their medals on their right. But did you know there are some army wives who actually wear replicas of their living husband’s medals? I know, right? At first I just shook my head at their stupidity but then as I thought about it more, I became angry at their disrespect. Our past and present serving members have done the hard yards to earn their medals. And while I don’t disagree that staying home while your husband deploys isn’t easy, it is NOTHING compared to what they go/have gone through.  I also wonder if it isn’t also a bit of a bragging rights ‘my husband has more gongs than yours’ thing. Which, in my opinion, is also idiotic :-/

I think these women would do well to be reminded of my son’s words. ANZAC Day is about thanking the soldiers. It is not about us wives!

And on that note I encourage everyone who is physically able to, to brave the chill and get out of bed early tomorrow and pay your respects to our fallen at your local dawn service. For all the sacrifices our past and current service men and women have made, the very least we can do is remember them for one day every year.

So get your butts out of bed in the morning. And say thank you to the soldiers who ‘do a good job’ J.

Until next time,

C.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

                                                            Laurence Binyon



Sunday 10 February 2013

Toughest Job in the Military


Have any of you ever seen the TV show called ‘Dirty Jobs’? The show features a guy who tries his hand at some of the most disgusting jobs you can think of from Sewer Inspector and Road Kill Cleaner to Turkey Inseminator and Alligator Egg Collector. While all of these jobs are pretty feral, (Turkey Inseminator??? Really???) there is another job out there which I think would be more insane than all of these combined. And that is a Property Manager at DHA.

Sure, they don’t have to inseminate animals and come into contact with faeces but they do have to deal with a sometimes dangerous and always unpredictable species – the army wife.

I’m constantly surprised by the amount of army wives who lack the ability to think for themselves when they have a minor problem. I’m sure you’ll all know someone like this. They are the type to call the DHA Maintenance Line over something like a broken cupboard door handle and then get upset when told it’s not an urgent issue. This same person would then accuse you of attacking them if you kindly suggested they fix said handle with a spot of super glue.

But by far the Property Manager’s toughest foe is the army wife with a sense of entitlement. I would just love to be able to listen in on the conversations between them. I’d love to know how they responded to a wife when she complained that their house wasn't suitable because the main bedroom was too far away from the other bedrooms. Or how the Property Manager managed to hold back her laughter when the same wife told them that they wanted to move because their sloping backyard was a hazard to their toddler.

I know this is opening a huge can of worms but when did people start becoming so ungrateful for the housing we have access to and start demanding that everything be up to their own high standards. So the bathroom of the place you've just moved into has a shower with a curtain rather than a glass door. So what! Can you not get just as clean in a shower without a glass door?  What’s that? DHA gave you a house with lino instead of tiles? How will you ever survive? And heaven forbid that your backyard has a slope and your toddler might fall over. Guess what lady? Toddlers are going to fall over on flat ground too. (In fact, toddlers are pretty much going to fall down anywhere. They are just like tiny, little drunk people :-p)

I’m guessing that because we haven’t seen the news headline ‘property manager shoots whingeing army wife’ that they are (somewhat) successfully getting on with their job, despite having to deal with nut jobs. So I think it would make an awesome ‘Dirty Jobs’ episode:-P

Til next time,
C.