Military Design

I understand that our military is capable of great things. They have done an excellent job of protecting our country and coming to the aid of others. What they are not very good at is planning. Now you may say, "But how can that be when we are in a war. That obviously takes planning." And I would say, yes, one would think that. I have recently decided, however, that they plan nothing but still manage to look good. Michael is currently reporting to our unit everyday. This weekend, there is a family deployment briefing all day from 8 to 4:30. Michael was asked (by me) to RSVP to this event three weeks ago. Last week, while at training, he was asked again, and again responded, "My wife and I will be coming." ALSO last week, I received a phone call asking if we were attending. Now at this point I was still polite and told her yes and we had already responded twice. She of course apologized and said they just wanted to touch base with everyone. I understand this because I am a part of the Family Readiness Group (FRG), and it is hard to get everyone to respond, so I applaud their effort. I believe the last straw for Michael, was when they lined up everyone, and then went down the line and asked who was coming from every soldier's family. Now, Michael assures me he was nice, I think he probably responded nicely with the number again, but then lost it. He informed the lady we had now responded THREE times, to which she responded, "We are just double checking." Seriously?

Michael and I are both planners. If we are going somewhere, or we know something is coming up, events are planned to the last detail. Michael's 'vacation' to Iraq in July is in the middle of our summer. We planned everything around that trip. He couldn't buy 3 Doors Down tickets because he wouldn't be back, we couldn't leave for Disney until he got back, but we had to leave enough leeway in case his flight home was delayed. Yesterday, our lovely military told him he was no longer going. Now, secretly I am of course jumping up and down. The less travel time and time he spend there the safer he is. Michael is upset because of all the planning he had to do and the plans he had with the money he was going to make. Michael still would guarantee you he will get a phone call the day before saying he is going. We will have to wait and see. We will also see how this Saturday goes with the briefing. It should be interesting! Again, our military doing it's finest to plan.