A day to honor

To all those who have served our great nation - both past & present - we honor you today.
For those great individuals who have sacrificed their life in order to protect us - we honor you today.
Thank you.
Not enough people tell our military personnel this...
So, again, thank you!

I thought I would ask my husband, who is approaching his 20 year mark of his active duty military career, what his proudest moment has been in serving our country.  In his own words:

"I deployed one month after 9/11 to Al Udied, Qatar to set up the hub [central location] for RED HORSE Sq.  I was busy but bored. I was asked if I wanted to forward deploy to Uzbekistan to link up with a team to certify runways and look at building integrity at the airfields.  I was told I would only be gone two weeks which actually turned out to be 120 days. 

I jumped at the chance so, December 18th 2001, I flew to Uzbekistan and from there I got to see Bagram, Kabul, and Herot, which were controlled by small Special Forces teams. I forward deployed to Mazar-E-Sharif, Afghanistan, with a small team to repair two 60' craters in the runways using a concrete mobile batch plantused to make the concrete.  These repairs on the runway enabled C-17 aircraft to resupply the Special Forces in the area.  Additionally, I worked directly with Special Forces teams downtown fortifying their safe houses; it was these instances in my career that I feel was my proudest moment. It truly opened my eyes that every small detail plays a huge role in the big picture. I still to this day do not believe I will ever have a better deployment but feel this was what shaped me today."

2500 bags of concrete later...

Cover photo of the 2002 Executive Report for Headquarters ACC, Office of the Civil Engineer:

SSgt Brian Heck, 823d RED HORSE