Our friend Chuck Dorion (we say it Du waa waa) was in Mom's 6th grade class way back when... then he and Rach went to High School together. He's a grown up now and does scary stuff like defending us and our own from bad guys... from the seat of his very own Black Hawk!! As my mama asked, he compares our upcoming battle with his deployment.
Chuck- you fly Black Hawks in wars and stuff, but you're real bravery is posting literary prose for Debbie Byrd to critique! She loved your email and asked me to post- which means you passed the English teachers' test! I don't sometimes, but I'm bigger than her now. Thanks, Chuck.


i wasn't sure if i was supposed to email you, or leave a blog entry (thinking thats just for the fam)

but here goes....

in the next few lines, i'll briefly describe MY experiences going through the deployment process. when i compare the deployment to the rotten kidney, i am speaking only from what i have heard from the blog as to what KORK and the KORK KREW (i kinda like that name for you all) have gone through. here goes nothin!

-- our WARNO (Warning Order) comes in. now i hate to compare this to the...well, as erin put it..."nether regions" symptom, but its our "heads up, somthings coming" letter we get.

-- then there is the actual Deployment Order. this is the point at which he family does most of the worrying! my thoughts...ok, lets get this thing done (kinda sounds like KORK doesn't it). from what i hear, this is the part where you all knew something was up, and now you know for sure.

-- time to prep! while im being "guided" by my family to get this, that, and the other thing (paperwork) done, i'm more interested in doing the things i love. flying, fishing, having a drink with friends. sorry KORK, no banjo for me! in this mode, you're not really trying to forget the upcoming "adventure" just living in the moment. however, the love and support from family and friends is always welcomed! this is the part i LOVE reading about on the blog...KORK playing the banjo and driving the drop-top, and mamma byrd google-ing everything about the soon to be ex-kidney!

-- the go-to-war part. not the part anyone really wants to talk about. but from a deployment view....yes, we all think about the bad. yes, we are all scared at some point. but that is where the support group comes into play. for me, it was the family and friends i had back home....oh and i can't forget about mamma byrd and rach threatening to write my commander and tell him i wasn't "allowed" to go on this trip! that still makes me smile! some people might wonder why KORK isn't worried. its probably the same reason why a lot of soldiers "arent worried"....we have plenty of other people doing that for us. that is the stage i think you all are in right now. KORK is playing his banjo, just waiting to jump this last hurdle that is keeping him from the beach!

as i read the blog, i laugh! its great getting to hear everyone's point of view. but the one thing that jumps out of every single one, is KORK's courage. The smiling pictures, the constant joking, and no fear! With his attitude towards life, i know for a fact, that if the army special forces had tile guys, he'd be the one they picked first!

i know my "few" lines i mentioned earlier has now turned into many. but as i write i can't help but think that these two events are a lot alike. well except one thing...erin said the kidney doesn't stink....iraq does! one last note:

the best definition of courage that i have found is this..."Courage is ones ability to accept and overcome fear!" Sounds like KORK to me!

oh and if you don't want to accept any of this, and would rather crunch some numbers....the way i see it, ya'll have 9 good kidneys vs. 1 misfit kidney! you do the math!

p.s. thats just the numbers in your household. you've got 2 more right here ready to fight!

Chuck (or Charles, but only for you carrot)