Veteran's Day

I am an American Soldier. I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier.

Happy Veteran's Day to the rest of my veterans out there.  And if you're not a veteran but know a veteran, then today, thank them for their sacrifice, whether you agree with it or not, because unless we all put our lives on the line for the freedoms of others.



HOOAAHHH!!



PFC V.V.B.-Delta Company

Vic

DADT Repealed, Jack at Work, Snooping & Writing

Okay so unless you live under a rock (which would be weird because you're reading my blog and I don't think you can get internet reception under a rock) you know that Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been repealed (YIPPEE!).  Now as you all know I am an Army vet (yes, I love to point that out to people) and when I served in the Army one of the things that they hammered into us was the USMCJ (United States Military Code of Justice) and how violating one of those "codes" could get you an Article 15 (which is like a misdemeanor), an Article 17 (which is like a felony) or an Article 13 (which will get you dishonorably discharged-I believe those are the numbers, can't really remember.  I remember the Article 15 though, I got threatened with that....A LOT).  So if someone brought charges or made a complaint that you approached them to have homosexual relations or if you were caught have homosexual relations (yes, it says relations and not sex in the book, because the word sex is too vulgar...you know for the officers that make you say "fuck you" when doing pushups) you got an automatic dishonorable discharge, after the bogus trial you'd have to endure.  Now, it was the same thing for those who committed adultery as well.  The MPs (Military Police) would come and arrest you and put you in holding (the Navy calls it the brig) until your trial where you'd be court-martialed.
Now when I served, I would say that 65% of the females in my barracks were having sex with each other and about 50% of the males.  How do I know?  Well, I would hear the girls, I'd see them in the shower, washing each other, they'd sneak off to the showers while everyone else was sleeping (I'm a light sleeper, it's what made me such a good soldier) and have sex.  It was the same for the guys.  How do I know that?  My Army boyfriend.  He was half Italian, half Sicilian *shiver*, he was the only one who knew about my strap-ons that I'd smuggled onto base and into the barracks (they are considered contraband) and he was the first guy that I slept with in basic training (what?  You think we didn't?  There's a very nice SSG out there who still smiles at the mention of my name.  LOL).
The point is, covert "homosexual relations" have been going on since the inception of the the fucking military, but, there's no threat of punishment.  Now they can be just as open and free to love and fuck around as everyone else without that stupid USMCJ hanging over their heads.  I am SO excited for them all!!  And I'm going to share with you the email I got from said Army boyfriend from ^:
                  B*****(he used my last name, sorry you don't get that)!!  Did you hear?  Tell me you heard!!  I'm so excited I feel like wrapping my flag around me and running through the base and I'm not talking about the American flag!  I wish you were here to celebrate with all of us.  Sucks that you're not, but I heard through the grapevine that you're becoming a man.  That's great!  When you do, you should get surgery on your back and hip and reenlist there are some GORGEOUS guys that are enlisting these days.  Love you honey!  And here's one for the road!
Then he sent me a very special picture.  LOL.  Which is of course when Jack walked out of the bathroom and saw what I was looking at.

So,as you all may now, after my scary Sunday, I've been at Jack's, he's been taking very good care of me and reading blogs, reading m/m books, watching LOGO, it's been great, but he had to go to work today, so I'm left at his place while he goes to make money (Woohoo!).  Anyway, this morning I woke up to Jack working out.  He was doing push-ups on the floor.
With one hand.
The man is a fucking god....well, that too.  LOL
Anyway, apparently I make audible noises when I'm turned on (who knew?) and I like moaned and he heard me, which led to a wonderful morning, but I fell back asleep immediately afterwards (it was a quick doze) and by the time Jack came out of the shower I was commenting on blogs, checking on GR, responding to emails and procrastinating on my writing (I get better at that every day).  So Jack sees the picture and he says: "That's not mine."  LOL.  Um...duh!  So I tell him whose on it is and he says "Does he know you have a boyfriend?"  And I'm like "Do I?"  I was TOTALLY just teasing!  Jack didn't know that and he just sort of looks at me, so I apologize, tell him I was joking and he just sort of nods, grabs his stuff for work and says he'll see me when he gets home.
*Sigh*

So after he leaves I decide to do a bit of snooping.  I'm going into every room and looking around, checking out the kitchen, the living room, the backyard.  Nothing interesting.  I mean I wasn't like doing a FBI search or anything, just sort of walking into each room, standing in one spot and then turning to check out everything.  I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  So I gave up and now I am laying on the couch in the living room, the tv on mute, Billie Holiday playing on the stereo and blogging you guys.

I should be writing.  I wrote some new stuff for "D & R" on Sunday but today?  My brain has gone silent.  It's quite unnerving.  So I'm going to read Clear Water by Amy Lane and hope that the juices start flowing soon, because I promised Jack I'd get some writing done today and I always keep my promises.

America the Beautiful-Another 9/11 Memorial

I went to two different 9/11 memorials today.  One that my neighborhood had early this morning and then one on the military base.  The one my neighborhood had was very quiet, everyone just sort of stood around waving flags, holding lit candles as the H.O.A. president talked about what happened on 9/11 and how we still remember.

The one at the military base broke my heart and left me shattered.  I was asked to sing "America the Beautiful" and halfway through I burst into tears.  There were so many widows there, children without fathers or mothers, a few that lost both parents.  One little girl lost her father in Afghanistan and her mother in Iraq a few years later.  I thought about Meagan and Jay and Keith and all of the rest of my military friends who fought in the war and lost their lives.  That wasn't what broke me though.

I thought about my friend Justin and how he avoided the tragedy in New York, just because he decided not to go to that part of town that morning, how he could have died from that, only to die from AIDS at the beginning of this year.  I thought of the people who went to work the morning of September the 11th or went to the airport as if it were just another day.  The conversations that were never finished, the families that forgot to say "I love you" one last time, the people living with regret.  Then I thought about those of us who aren't really living at all.

The night before Christopher died I had a bad feeling in my gut that something tragic was about to happen, it was the same feeling I had the morning of the attacks, so I called him every 15 minutes saying "Just making sure you're still alive.  I love you.  Bye" until finally he stopped me and asked if I needed to talk.  I said yes and we talked for two hours.  We said "I love you" to each other and hung up.  I finally went to sleep after that, it was about 3 o'clock in the morning, I got the phone call from his mother at 9am that he'd passed away in his sleep.

A few days before Justin passed away we talked about all of the close calls that we'd all had with death.  The times we'd avoided going to a certain place only to find out that a shooting had occurred.  Times that we'd taken a different way home only to find out that a fatal accident had occurred.  Justin not going into the city on the morning of 9/11, Tiffany, not being on any of the planes and me, being injured 86 days before my deployment to Iraq, where some of my battle buddies were killed.  Then we looked at Justin, something so simple as not getting tested, having sex with his partner bareback for years, even though he knew that his partner was cheating on him, something as simple as that, killed him.

I thought about all of this as I sang and it made me cry.  How many of us take life for granted?  Take our relationships, our friendships, our loved ones, our partners, even our online friends and family for granted?  As if they were promised tomorrow?  As if WE were promised tomorrow?

Yes, 9/11 taught us about how strong our nation is, how powerful and courageous we can be if we stand together, how it feels to really be the UNITED States of America.  But more than that the attack on America on September 11, 2001 taught us, or rather it should have taught us, how fragile life is, how important it is to treasure every single moment that we have with each other.  To love each other as strongly and as fiercely as possible and to make sure that we end every conversation that we have with someone that we love with an "I love you."  So that we won't be standing at their funeral or them standing at ours saying "I just wish that I had told you I loved you one more time."

So remember that as we honor the fallen, the victims, the survivors, the troops, the first responders, and those of us who will never forget them.

{HUGZ AND SQUEEZES}

Vee/Vic