The Military

IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!!

Jeff is on his way home!! As of yesterday morning he was out of Afghanistan and was in a different country, waiting for his connecting flight to the US. If all goes as planned, he will leave the other country on Thursday morning (our Thursday morning, his Friday night) and will land at Ft. Bragg on Friday morning. Diana will be there to meet him and as soon as he does his out process stuff, they will fly back to Arkansas. Yay!! Praise God for answered prayers!!


Our best friends, Jeff and Diana Tate, live in Mayflower, AR. Jeff is a Physician's Asst. at the Army (I think?) base in Little Rock. He got deployed to Afghanistan back in April of last year. He wasn't supposed to be deployable in the first place, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, he's been serving in Afghanistan since June (they trained state side until then). He was supposed to be home around the first of January.

Well, as of today, January 25, 2010....Jeff still isn't home. And he was supposed to have flown out of Afghanistan five previous times between now and the 6th of January. They've changed his plans. The planes haven't shown up. His name isn't on the list.

It's incredibly hard on his family....and of course him too. Just last night (which is his early morning) they were in formation on the flight line for four hours-just to find out the plane wasn't coming. They loaded up the bus and were taken back to the barracks (a.k.a the shed where those who were supposed to be leaving...are now staying), being told that there is maybe another flight in the morning (our middle of the night).

Seriously, military people???!! These men and women have been defending our country for the past year (some even longer than that) and yet you can't even get a plane there to get them home to their families? REALLY!? Do you know what they've been told the problem is? All the planes are being sent to Haiti. HAITI!!!

Now mind you, I'm all about helping our neighbor and I think we definitely need to be in Haiti and helping out there. BUT, I think we need to take care of our soldiers that have been in a combat situation for the past year FIRST. They deserve to come home to their family and loved ones.

Poor Diana and the kids-they are just devastated. It's been a day by day (sometimes hour by hour) emotional roller coaster the past 25 days. It breaks my heart for them! And for Jeff, as I know he wants to be home just as much as they want him home.

Jeff went with a unit out of Ft. Bragg, so he's not flying back to Arkansas. Diana has to fly out to Bragg to meet him there, which she is all about doing-as soon as she gets the word that he's on his way!

I just think it's terribly sad that the US Military treats their own so bad. I've always said I could never be a Military wife and this is why. I can't imagine being in Diana or Jeff's shoes.

The last plan we knew was for Jeff to fly out tonight. IF the plane shows up, he'll have a couple of stops along the way, but IF it goes as planned (as of 6:45 tonight!) then he should land in Ft. Bragg on Friday. Diana is going to try and fly out Thursday in order to beat some incoming bad weather.

Please pray with me for my sweet friends. They want to see each other so bad. It's been almost a year. They deserve it.

Thank you.