tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933Wed, 06 Nov 2024 02:59:31 +0000Send Your Traffic is a memoir, of sorts, recalling the battle for Fallujah (Operation Al-Fajr/Operation Phantom Fury) as a wife left behind while her Marine husband fought in the largest Marine offensive since Hue City. My husband was an infantryman with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines out of Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii which was part of the battle for Fallujah, Operation Phantom Fury/Al-Fajr.http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)Blogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-6424866917771350082Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:27:00 +00002013-02-04T10:27:06.893-08:00Today is the 235th Marine Corps birthday. While this is a huge celebratory occasion, it does remind me of November 10, 2004 and how I spent the 229th Marine Corps birthday... It had been weeks since I last talked to my husband at this point.  I was starting to lose my composure, assuming I had any to begin with, given the situation in Iraq at that time.  Operation Phantom Fury was http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2010/11/semper-fi-do-or-die.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-8711376576619307291Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:08:00 +00002010-11-04T10:20:44.659-07:00"If my heart can talk, it will not stop." Today is election day, as well as the second day of November.  In five days, it will again be the anniversary of Fallujah.  Of course, it annually conjures up memories... In 2004, on election night, it had been many days since I last talked to my husband.  On the 30th of October, we suffered a devastating loss when a suicide bomber http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2010/11/if-my-heart-can-talk-it-will-not-stop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-5223089383340347233Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:15:00 +00002010-11-10T18:56:49.012-08:00"Death before dishonor..." Since Sgt. Rafael Peralta was denied the Medal of Honor in 2008, I have been one of many people hassling politicians about the situation, and the urgency to elevate his posthumous award from the Navy Cross to his originally nominated Medal of Honor.  After politicians nominated him for the award, after the 1st Marine Division Commander said "without a http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2010/10/death-before-dishonor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-5255617886181130952Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:09:00 +00002010-10-13T21:09:36.851-07:00"Tears are words the heart can't say..." I haven't written in here in a very long time, but it's almost November, again.  And I am feeling as pensive as I always am this time of the year.  It never goes by without my marking it in some way or another. I feel like I am "healed," whatever that means.  I still think about that ten months all the time, at least once every day, but http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2010/10/tears-are-words-heart-cant-say.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-5277787725446297499Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:55:00 +00002010-11-03T13:09:45.940-07:00It's been awhile since I last updated.  Things have been, well, chaotic to say the least. Re-acclimating after a deployment is time consuming, especially with work and school pitched in there.  I will get back to this as soon as I can, I promise. http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-been-awhile-since-i-last-updated.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-5616006258941209255Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:01:00 +00002009-12-12T15:01:34.288-08:00"Forever until the end..." I let the month of November go by without a post to commemorate the month's heartache and tragedy.  I thought about it everyday, but was, at times, too enthralled with it all to verbalize the feelings.  The month has passed now, and we are in December. This means, the five-year anniversary of Phantom Fury has passed with it.  It's ironic, my husband http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/12/forever-until-end.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-4477749927885269462Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:39:00 +00002010-11-03T13:10:17.983-07:00"Make me feel." This third deployment of ours is complete. As this homecoming has come and gone, I remember the months leading up to our reunion after Fallujah... Of course, this deployment was nothing in comparison to our 2004-2005 Iraq deployment. Nothing. In fact, as horrible as it sounds, I am not sure how I feel about this reunion. I don't feel like I "earned" it. There was no http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/12/make-me-feel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-1359539232411454793Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:58:00 +00002010-11-27T22:14:37.112-08:00The following is an excerpt from Bing West's book, "No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah".  As you will recall, Casey was a part of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines (1/3) from 2002-2006.  This story makes me beam with pride and was carried around the battalion, long before Bing West got wind of it or decided to write his piece on it. Although I love this part of "Nohttp://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/11/229th-marine-corps-birthday-five-years.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-8277893801380107395Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:25:00 +00002009-12-13T11:51:59.326-08:00"How your heart feels..." For about five weeks, my husband has been back on United States soil. I am overjoyed to have him back in the country. While I only get to see him on weekends currently, it is much better than months and months of nothing at all. And it's been a while since I've written as a result of all of the recent changes and chaos. I have a number of posts started, but none http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/10/for-about-five-weeks-my-husband-has.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-6593961103996095339Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:06:00 +00002009-10-25T17:08:29.574-07:00The Military Channel put together an excellent documentary on the battles for Fallujah. The documentary is called "The Fight for Fallujah" and covers Operation Vigilant Resolve as well as Operation Phantom Fury.Please watch it...http://military.discovery.com/tv/fallujah/fallujah.html(More from me will be coming soon)http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/09/fight-for-fallujah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-5540187986272631117Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:46:00 +00002010-11-03T13:08:51.174-07:00"Where am I?" There were so many moments when we didn't know if our husbands were alive or dead, when we knew that 1/3 Marines were dying, but we didn't know who. No one could know who was KIA until next-of-kin was notified. This could take up to 24 hours. You pace your home, peer out the windows -- watching for that government-plated vehicle and Alpha-clad Marines walking up your steps -- http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/09/where-am-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-1290410258024501913Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:13:00 +00002009-08-22T22:22:09.300-07:00"I've been meaning to write."And unfortunately, things have gotten a bit hectic. Good hectic, though.More will come soon.http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/short-hiatus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-4023604704792653253Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:25:00 +00002009-08-05T23:25:15.471-07:00To love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it,And everything you've held dearcrumbles like burnt paper in your hands,Your throat filled with you, its tropical heat,Thickening the air, heavy as water,More fit for gills than lungs;When grief weights you like your own flesh,Only more of it, an obesity of grief,You think, 'How can a body withstand this?'Then you hold life like a face,http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-can-body-withstand-this.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-1624394702013549183Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:13:00 +00002010-11-04T10:16:21.476-07:00"As we're escaping, ghosts of the past sleep lightly, so mind the floor boards." From an article in the Honolulu Advertiser: "An eight-month deployment that was never supposed to leave the Pacific took the Hawai`i-based Marines instead to Iraq and the worst corner in the war on terror - Fallujah." The article below is about a friend of Casey's, Maher. Casey told me recently that there is a boyhttp://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/as-were-escaping-ghosts-of-past-sleep.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-8420583881811393663Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:31:00 +00002013-06-11T13:28:33.850-07:00 "This is for the white in your eyes." Because of the holidays and the intensity of fighting still through the month of December, a memorial service wasn't held by the regiment until January for the Marines we were losing. We had one in November for those lost through that time. This one in January was for those lost since. I always sat with a few of my close friends at these. My two http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-is-for-white-in-your-eyes_04.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-5703612752658648281Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:28:00 +00002009-08-05T23:23:56.989-07:00Posted on: Saturday, November 6, 2004 10,000 U.S. troops to retake cityBy Jim KraneAssociated Press Writer NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — Long convoys of American soldiers and Marines rolled onto a dust-blown base on the outskirts of Fallujah today and U.S. warplanes intensified attacks in preparation for a major assault on the city that has come to symbolize Iraqi resistance.After months of http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/6-november-2004.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-4602575711679814186Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:48:00 +00002009-08-05T23:23:00.977-07:00"There's a flutter in my chest."In the beginning, there was so much conflicting information. We didn't have any idea what was going on. This article, which was featured in Hawaii Marine, just added to our confusion.1/3 strikes from the sea with 31st MEU Marine Corps News Submitted by: MCB Camp ButlerStory Identification #: 200471502846Story by Lance Cpl. Joel Abshier CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/theres-flutter-in-my-chest.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-8829560886350082647Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:31:00 +00002009-08-05T23:22:35.443-07:00"These are just moments. I struggle with the in-betweens."On my way out of Honolulu for the 2004 holidays, I grabbed a Marine Corps Times to read on the flight home. It was Thanksgiving Day, 2004.HNL to PDX.I hadn't been able to speak to my love in quite sometime. In the meantime, this incident had happened.Sadly, it was our own that caused the scare. A US Army artillery unit responded to http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/08/these-are-just-moments.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-7539598740630562821Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:21:00 +00002009-08-05T23:22:05.488-07:00"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain."After we realized what was really going on, and where the Marines were really heading, it was hard to hide the fear -- from our husbands and each other. I remember reading a letter from him that documented their entrance into Iraq. Bear in mind, Iraq in 2004 was not remotely similar to present day Iraq. This is Iraq just after http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-those-moments-will-be-lost-in-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-1767307583461967853Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:19:00 +00002009-12-13T14:15:39.225-08:00"Be here for this moment. This is your life." We got married when I was barely nineteen. That factor alone was enough to cause strife in a marriage, and could have torn apart the most normal couple. He left in July 2004. 1/3 was reserved for standard UDPs (unit deployment program) in the southeast Asian regions. If I remember right, this was a measure that followed World War II and the http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/07/be-here-for-this-moment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12146358462756933.post-7268452604545758430Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:47:00 +00002009-08-05T23:20:34.981-07:00"Be honest, even when it hurts."I have been married to a Marine for many years now.As we go through this most recent deployment together, it reminds me of years past and the one that changed everything. This journal is dedicated to that time and to what happened during those unforgettable and life-altering months. Those are the months that no one will ever forget, and those are the months that http://send-your-traffic.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-have-been-married-to-marine-for-many.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (elevator love letter)0