Up & Coming Weekly

DECEMBER 23-29, 2009 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MARGARET DICKSON, State Representative and Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or call 919-733-5776 or email MARGARETD@NCLEG.NET The Real True Date by MARGARET DICKSON SFC Sam Taylor is homegrown. He is a 2003 graduate of Albemarle High School, a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the middle of three sons. Sam followed his father and older brother into military service, and most of us will be with our loved ones this holiday season, Sam will be serving as a chaplain's assistant with our Army in Iraq. Sam's parents are friends, and they have shared some of his e-mails. Each has been interesting and well written, but this one struck a chord with me as I contemplate the arrival of our precious jewels for the holidays. I share this with you with Sam's blessing. § Hey y'all, Never let anyone tell you that the Army is not a marketplace of ideas. Round here you get the chance to take part in the most complex, intellectually challenging debates. These aren't just clashes of information, but of philosophies, sometimes theologies. People swing from questioning the foundations of morality to questioning the possibility of having absolute knowledge. The defi nition of terms alone, well, hours and hours are just ground away. Thing is, most of these high level discussions are focused a single topic: The date on which we get to return to America. I suppose that it's a symptom of us having just a few months left in the deployment. In the past two weeks a huge number of rumors have sprung up. Folks are trading scraps of information like spies in World War II. Every third person claims to have some high-level source channeling her or him special, extremely true dates of when we'll be putting boots back on that sweet Southern soil. Just yesterday I listened to a fellow explain to a group of his buddies why the real reason that another of their friends believed that we would be home two weeks later than he did was because of a tragic character fl aw, that this other gentleman simply neither had the strength of will nor the basic morality to understand the reasons that we'll be leaving on the Real True Date. I suppose I'm not overly bothered by the whole, "I don't know when this will end" thing because I was given a great piece of advice from my brother Will who served in Iraq back in 2005. He told me many useful things about how to deal with Iraq, in this case to make sure that I took my leave near the end of the deployment. There are some folks who take their leave just as soon as it's offered. They spent two or three months here in the Sandbox, go home for two weeks, and are then faced with that whole towering mass of time without a break when they return. Some folks I've talked to say that leaving home after their two weeks of leave was actually harder than the original goodbye for the deployment. So I've saved my leave for a while. It has given me something in the not- too-distant future to look forward to over the past few months. I can't tell y'all how much I'm looking forward to having a few days off, to spending time with my family and friends, to not spending a fourth of my brain power on ensuring that my uniform looks right, that my weapon's clean, to not having to think about the security situation constantly, to not worrying about the possibility that the air conditioner has deposited a visible layer of dust on my desk while I was at lunch. Once I return here I'll likely join in on the quest for the Real True Exit Date. We're doing good, necessary work here, but boy do I miss my family. In other news, a friend of mine has gotten his guitar and bass in. He has a drum kit in the mail. We actually managed to fi nd practice space, and there are a few other folks in the unit interested in starting a band. It's great how fast talented people show up when there's the chance to accomplish something. Sometimes I wonder if getting amazing things done isn't about the same thing as putting up bird houses: You just give folks a place to do their thing and they'll nest there. It might be a little bit silly, but I'm actually wildly excited about it. I tell you what, for all that there's been to bear up under on this deployment, it has been absolutely wonderful learning to play the guitar. I don't know of any activity so restful as sitting around practicing on that thing. It's not just that it's like not being in Iraq, it's that it's like learning to run or to read, engaging the world in a whole new way. I've never really been able to do anything musical before, never able to do anything musical well, at least, but I tell you what, I love that guitar. Anyway, I need to run. I miss all you terribly. It won't be too long at all before we get to see each other again in person, and friends, that is going to be paradise. Stay safe, Sam FLORENCE CIVIC CENTER PRESENTS A Photographic Tribute to Soldiers and Marines from the Civil War to the War In Iraq on display now through February 2, 2010. Special thanks to 3300 WEST RADIO DRIVE • FLORENCE, SC • 843-679-9417 • www.fl orenceciviccenter .com Vietnam Veterans of America Day January 9, 2010 • 11 a.m. to honor our Vietnam Veterans and their families. This event is open to all Vietnam Veterans, all US military men and women, as well as the general public. Please join us for this special honoring! Guest speakers will include: Lt. Joseph Marm-Congressional Medal of Honor recipient MG Robert E. Livingston; J5-CCC CENTCOM Entertainment: 282nd Army Band - Fort Jackson, SC Admission is free!

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