Pretty Much Up To Date

Sean came home on leave this weekend and brought a few friends with him. This weekend was awesome. The guys and I had an amazing time and some wonderful experiences. I'll start with: Did you know that some of the camps and bases are named after firefighters that died on 9/11. I did not. So, as we are on the way to the WTC memorial and construction site Sr. Airman Kevin mentioned this. I had no idea. Well he then went on to say that he was stationed at Camp Bucca during one of his deployments. Well a lightbulb went on over my head. I have a neighbor who's son was a fire marshall in the NYC Fire dept. and died on 9/11. You guessed it, Camp Bucca is named after Ronald Bucca. I called his mom and told her that these fine young men are here and would like to meet her. Soooo Mrs. Astrid Bucca took a stroll over and joined us. She brought them t-shirts and hats and got to ask them what the camp was like and just chat in general. A very moving experience for all involved. We also had an incredible experience when we went for dinner. The guys wanted to wear their uniforms to the WTC as a tribute, so of course they were still in uniform when we went to the restaurant in Little Italy for dinner. A man came up to our table, thanked these awesome young men for their service and asked me if he could help take care of the bill. I thanked him for his generous gesture and told him that we would be honored. I know that people want to do something for the troops and welcome the opportunity when it presents itself. Well in case this wasn't cool enough, when we asked for the check the waiter informed us that someone had alreay taken care of it! Needless to say many people came up and thanked them for their service. Some of them clearly saw the gratitude campaign video and put their hand to their hearts in appreciation. All in all it was an amazing weekend. Just the fact they these Airmen wanted and expected me to join them was....(I'm out of superlatives) I'll try to remember more and post but these are the pretty spectaular highlights of the weekend. I've never had so much fun cooking, cleaning and doing (their) laundry. Still have sheets and towels to do and I'm on cloud 9.