Hello, March.

Hello, March. You sexy beast.

When you’re on the home front side of a deployment each new month is cause to celebrate. I guess he’s celebrating the new month too, but heck this side is all I know. Sometimes I daydream about being on the other side of the deployment, you know the side that actually deploys and goes to foreign countries with a team and a mission. Part of me envies him, you know? The idea of going out into the world… Yeah, sometimes I envy him.

During one combat deployment years ago, I had this reoccurring dream of suddenly being transported to that far off place where my husband was fighting. In my dream I walked through a camp, trying to find where my husband and his team. I knew they were set up at the perimeter of the FOB, but I didn’t know where. It was night, and it smelled like smoke and gunfire. There were bullets crossing overhead. I had a ballistic helmet on, a flank jacket and a kit just like the rest of the team. When I crossed a small hill at the edge of the FOB I finally found him. He was with a few other of his “guys”, they were crouched low behind a stone fence, their riffles balanced on the old rock. I saw his face, full of paint, and focused on the task at hand. The dream normally cuts out when he turned, and our eyes met.

On the same trip I had a dream I would appear at his FOB, but this time it was as he was getting back from a mission. It was daybreak and he was dropped via helicopter. He was carrying his helmet, and his gun was slung across his shoulder. He looked rough. Wild hair, and his face paint was smudged. He pulled out a cigarette to smoke some of the tension from the night away. Once he saw me, I took his hand, led him into a tent, and he laid his head down in my lap. I ran my fingers through his hair and listened as he told me everything about the night he had just survived.

This post was not going to be about dreams I had years ago, but I suppose that’s what needed to come out. Now, I will go to bed and maybe dream about the man that I’ve been saying hello and good-bye to for 15 odd years.

Sweet Dreams,

HR