So happy to be there

For those of you who know Shawn, you know he's a cowboy, and being in combat in the midst of small arms fire with nothing to eat but an old MRE and having showered about two months prior is his version of Heaven. I've tried convincing him that if he would just come home, he can easily have the same experience by camping in the middle of one of the flooded, unused paddocks while I randomly fire a 9mm over his head and he takes aim at the fairly bold coyotes. He's not buying it.

Any-who, I was directed by SFC Last's wife, Sarah, to check out a blog that Corey is keeping for a local 3rd grade classroom. Corey has been posting pictures of a small character named Baldwin who is currently on deployment with their unit in Iraq. Shawn had the honor of taking his picture with Corey's furry friend. Doesn't he look thrilled?



I have to explain that Shawn's lack of enthusiasm is absolutely not related to the bird perched on his knee. Shawn has regularly expressed his disappointment in the lack of action he's seeing on this deployment. Notice how clean his uniform is? If he's not rolling around in the mud, his life just doesn't feel full. Personally, I'm okay with this scenario.