Iraq Update and More

First, news on the kid front: yesterday was the first hard day we've experienced since Grace started school. I could tell on the walk home that she was in a mood and it wasn't good. She didn't make good choices and had a few consequences. I know a lot of it was because she was tired. She told me that one of the girls in her class wanted to wake her up during their rest time after lunch, but Mrs. Kueser told the other little girl to leave Grace alone. That was funny because just before that I asked Grace if she had napped during rest time and she said no. I guess the truth is somewhere in there! Oh, and Grace is going on five days of perfect behavior in the classroom. She wants to make the whole school year without having a discipline issue. We'll see.

Davis continues to ask to wear his cowboy hat everywhere we go. He's talking so much now, some which can be deciphered, some which can't! He misses his sister badly while she is at school. He calls for her constantly and it breaks my heart. He's at a really precious age and I am so glad Jasen's getting to come home to see it!

Okay, first the "toot your own horn" portion of this update: Jasen's name was on the promotion list to major! Yea! So sometime in the next fiscal year (OCT to SEP), Jasen will be promoted. He's glad to finally know for sure that he's going to be a MAJ. There wasn't a whole lot of doubt, seeing as the promotion rate is over 95%, but it's always nice to have the reassurance that, yes, the Army does deem you qualified to move up. Jasen also said he's done everything he could do as a captain (and some things twice!) and he's ready for his time as a captain to be over.

Guess who else has some cool news? The stay at home mom/FRG leader! I was nominated by Jasen's brigade as the volunteer of the quarter. I think our brigade commander's wife feels sorry for me and all the people I am supposed to be keeping up with! Anyway, it was very nice that they chose me out of all the volunteers that this brigade has and there are a lot.

Now comes the Iraq update, which was promised in the title. Jasen's brigade commander, COL Gibbs, is home on R&R and briefed all the FRG leaders and our company last night. He's your average infantry guy, very HOOAH (gung-ho, for you civilians out there!) and loves his soldiers, even if he drives them hard. He had a great slide presentation prepared for us and there were some things he mentioned to us that I wanted to share with you all. Since 4IBCT has taken control of a sector of Baghdad, as part of the surge, the following things have happened:

• Murders in their area dropped from 553 in February (before they took control) to only 58 in July
• IED incidents dropped from 180 to 59
• total events (murders, ambushes, IEDs, etc.) have gone from 883 per month to only 231

COL Gibbs also mentioned that because of some of the progress that is being made in these and other areas (electricity and gas availability, road improvements, etc.) the average Iraqi is more open to giving our soldiers helpful information. He said the one area of concern he has is that, with the talk of us leaving Iraq, the Iraqi people are fearful and have said, if we are going to leave, they need to get right with the "right" people (choose sides in the neighborhood, if you will) before we go. That makes them less likely to help us with intelligence.

I hope you all know that I am not beating the war drum here. I just got this information and wanted to share it with you. Jasen has said before that he feels they are doing good work in Baghdad, but he didn't have the numbers to back it up. COL Gibbs has those numbers and they speak for themselves. He mentioned that 4IBCT lost more soldiers than he thought they would, but he said their area was in such a mess before. Now, it's getting cleaned up and our casualties have leveled off. Let's pray those will continue to decline.

Funny, when I think about it, Jasen's last deployment, his brigade was playing clean up. Let's hope whoever follows his brigade this time does a better job keeping things clean.

On another note related to the Gibbs, they were in D.C. on Monday to present Jasen's previous battalion commander, LTC Greg Gadson, his Purple Heart and other awards. He and Nolly said the Gadsons were doing well. Currently the plan for Greg after rehab would be for him to go back to West Point (Greg's and Kim's alma mater) to coach football and teach. That would be amazing and such a great thing for those cadets at West Point. They would definitely be learning from the best the Army has to offer.

Hearing all of this last night and repeating it for you today has me in an emotional state. We Army wives hold it together pretty well, but sometimes the dam just breaks. There are so many things I choose to "stuff" but you can't stuff it forever. I am just so darn proud of Jasen and the soldiers, some of them just babies to me, who are working so hard and making progress. Then, when I think about Greg and the other soldiers who have lost a part of their earthly bodies and those who have given their lives, it's just too much. Just pray for our soldiers and their families.