A note of thanks

Reflecting on good days in bad places

It’s okay to have good days

It’s been a tough month by any measure. November 5th has had a deep impact on millions of us. I have very few friends and family who aren’t still reeling from what all of this means and what is coming. It’s hard to feel very thankful this year for so many.

I get it. I certainly have some hard things in the future even beyond politics.

I’m also reminded that I spent a lot of Thanksgivings away from home in my 22-years in the Army. So many memories.

Starting in 1988 at a base near Chunchon, South Korea where I served the troops in the dining facility before we made our way into town to drink soju and sing that god awful song “Proud to be an American” in the ugliest of American ways.

A desert encampment in Saudi Arabia in 1990 where our company leadership staged a ‘Turkey Day Tournament of Champions’ to fill the day. Volleyball, spades, and touch football including handmade trophies I created from the sheets of wood they gave us for tent floors. I was so tired I kept dropping every pass in the game and earned my own trophy as the ‘Biggest Screw Up’ of the game.

A month and a half later we went into battle for Desert Storm.

I remember a chow hall on Q-West Airbase in northern Iraq, where I needed help getting back to my hooch as my back finally had enough of me bouncing around the desert and flying with full body armor. The day finished with a shot of painkillers and me passed out on the concrete floor of my bunker in 2003.

Standing in a long line in the Green Zone behind the Republican Palace in 2005 as then-Ambassador Khalilzad and General Casey worked their way down queue of waiting troops thanking us for being there so far from home. I remember the incredible ice sculptures our contractors made for us.

There are more I can’t even remember with the passage of time but so many years being stationed in the U.S. far from home so we put on our dress uniforms and served our soldiers first before eating.

There were good days in the midst of the hard ones.

There is hope

Those certainly weren’t my best Thanksgivings, but they also weren’t my worst. We made due. We bonded over a shared experience and we laughed, ate until we were ready to burst, and then reached out to our loved ones.

Today is nothing like that. I am home with my fiance and the boys. While my older kids and grandkids gather in Virginia. They are all safe and healthy. There will be laughter, we will give each other crap about things that happened this year like me falling down the steps or the trail of spilled coffee I leave all over the house.

It’s okay to take a moment for joy. It’s okay to take time with family for hope. Even in the darkest times we can find happiness. We must. Without the ability to find our centers we will lose it all.

So, from me to you…happy Thanksgiving. I offer my sincere thanks to you for joining me on this journey and supporting me when things are tough.

I hope you have a good day and take that moment at least to find your center no matter how you do it.

We get back in the fight again tomorrow and don’t forget Small Business Saturday. Our small businesses desperately need your support right now.

-Fred