Thursday, December 3, 2009

Un-Nerving

UPDATE: The Mother sent an email to the Lt. Col. that is the Battalion XO and soon I was speaking to the young Jon that is my SN2 with the Company 1st Sergeant in supervison!! All is well in the AF but SN2 could not talk long as he was under orders to find and speak with his Mother. Sergeants can be that way!!

Most everyone here knows that I troll the internet at least once a day for any news articles or pictures of my son the Marine, SN2 over in the AF. I start with a google search for news of Marines in Afghanistan.

Well today, I stumbled onto this article from a TV station in Jacksonville, Florida. Same name, same rank, same age, this one is in the 2/2 Marines and my son is in the 1/5 Marines and both units are in Helmand Province, but they used the Picture of my Jon that ran originally back in October.

Scary.

I wonder how close the two units are in the field, if they actually would overlap and be part of a joint operation. The 1/5 Marines are being replaced in country by the 1/3 Marines and I think the 2/2 Marines replaced the 2/8 Marines.

I guess I'll just worry all day and see what is waiting for me when I get home. I have already texted the Wife, get ahead of the storm.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

6 comments:

Buck said...

Did you advise the Jacksonville paper that they had the wrong photo, Jimmy? Your Jon was still up when I looked right now... and I didn't see you in the comments to the story.

JimmyT said...

Buck, thanks for the idea. I just went over and dropped them a note. I also called a neighbor to make sure there was not an official staff car waiting for us at the homefront. Just to be sure.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

virgil xenophon said...

You know the services and personnel paperwork, Jimmy--especially during wartime. In WWII they sent my Father's footlocker home to my Mother in advance of him returning to CONUS post-VE Day stenciled MIA! And Dad was out of contact on a troopship on the way back. You can imagine Mom's emotional state for almost two weeks before he contacted her...and the Army and War Dept were in total confusion with rapid demobilization of half the force and shifting the other half to China so they were no help at all either...

virgil xenophon said...

PS: I re-painted that old wooden thing that sat in the garage for years and took it off to school with me at LSU in 1962. If I'd been thinking I'd of saved it as was as it still had the Army Mia stencil on it and other nomenclature--sure wish I had it today for the memories. Then it was just something that sat in the garage for years to a 19-yr old boy. And Dad was NEVER the sentimental type about things like that--had used it as a tool locker. IIRC was HIS idea to paint it and take it along!

JimmyT said...

VX - the military is real good about stuff like that now, each member is given a "Kill Number" that they are referred to when they become a causality. I think here, someone asked the DOD for any picture of a Jonathan Taylor not realizing that there could be more than one at the same time, in the same place. The funny thing is that they both have the same rank and middle initial and are the same age. Spooky!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Bag Blog said...

That is pretty amazing - and spooky. I know you are ready for Jon to be home - safely.