One more day

I'm in the process of packing up all of my uniform items. The boys have that look in their eyes. At around 2 in the morning I woke up to see Sergio just staring at me. It was time for our talk. His big concern was that one of the bad guys would be dumb enough to try to hurt me. His words. It is true that in our childrens eyes we are supermen. I explained to him what we would be doing, the lines of defense that we have. I had to drive home the fact that we are very well trained and we will be going through training with Marines and other Seabees that have been there at least once. The good this is that although my orders are for 365 days, I found out that we are expected to be in theatre for no more than six months. If that holds true we will be back in the states by March or April.
My family has not come around much but that is their way of dealing with the inevitable but that's cool we've been through the depoloyment thing before. My boys took me out on Friday and that was a good time. (So they tell me) Vinny, Sammy, Louie, Bubba, Jaime and Robert, my nephew Abel....Thank you! Much love to all of you.
To my son Sergio, my ichiro, be strong mijo. Marcelo, keep on being you. Monica, you are my rock and I love you more than I show it but know that loving you is the only thing that I am really good at. Mom and Dad; soy quien soy por ustedes, y se los agradesco. Mando, Linda, Vero and Chela; we don't hang out as often as we should. I hope that changes. To everyone keep the love, positive juju and prayers coming. Thank you and God Bless all of you.