This is my first Thanksgiving with neither of my children at home.  I’m not looking forward to it, in fact if I could I would just stay in bed all day and ignore the world.

The boys are able to spend the holiday together, which is a nice thing.  They have been invited to spend the day with Kendall (Dan’s lovely girlfriend) and her family.  So, while we can’t be all together for the day it is nice to know that my sons will be with each other and not sitting alone in the barracks.

I know they are coming home in December and I am looking forward to having them both home for a little while.  Of course that means another bout of “empty nest” when they leave but I am more prepared for it this time around. (Yeah right)

I am trying to get people to write holiday greetings, etc to put in the Corpsman.com newsletter for the end of year issue.  So, far haven’t heard from anyone but hoping that will change once Thanksgiving is over and people are thinking about the Holiday Season.  If anyone wants to put something in the newsletter please email me editor@corpsman.com and I guarantee it will be in the Year-End Issue.  Deadline is December 12th at midnight.  I want to have it out and on the site by December 23rd.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Doc’s Mom

Friday morning my son (the youngest) finished US Navy Boot Camp at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, IL.  We were there to witness it as we were when our oldest son did the same thing 3 years ago.

Did I cry?  Do big brown bears make piles of crap in the woods?  You bet your boots I did.

He looked so mature in his uniform, standing in formation with his Division (378) patiently waiting while all the pomp and circumstance that accompanies this type of ceremony was completed.  Then they let the sailors join their families.  It took us a few minutes to get through the crowd and to him but let me tell you, getting that first hug was one of the best feelings I have ever had.

He had to fly to his “A” school on Saturday, which meant we only had the liberty time for Friday to spend out and about with him.  We took him to lunch at Chipotle (one of his favorite places to eat) then off to Best Buy to get a bigger iPod since he wasn’t taking a laptop (not yet) with him to his school, picked up some munchy food and Red Bull then back to our hotel room to relax and unwind (something they don’t get to do at boot camp).  He went online and checked out all he had missed on his Facebook page and sent messages to some friends, watched The Nightmare Before Christmas (one of his fave movies) and loaded all the music he could possibly listen to on his iPod.  It was nice just having him in the same room, being able to look at him and talk to him. All too soon it was time to take him back to base for the night.  I tried not to cry but I know he heard the emotion in my voice when we said good night at the corner by the base chapel.  I tried to hold it in, but I cried most of the drive back to the hotel and then some more in the room.

He had to be ready to load on the bus at 0830 Saturday and go to the airport at 0900 - stupid thing was that the flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until around 1830 (that’s 6:30pm for the non-military types).  We were told that we could meet the bus at the airport and give him the items he couldn’t bring back on base with him (cell phone, iPod, watch, sunglasses, contacts, etc)  Well we got to the airport (Midway) before their bus arrived and I talked to one of the ladies at the counter for the airline they were flying out on and she told me that we could get a gate pass that allowed us to go through the security check point and spend the time waiting for the flight with him in the terminal.  I was THRILLED.  Once they arrived the airline hooked all the families that were there up with gate passes and checked all the sailors in for their flight that evening.

So we went through security and spent the ENTIRE day Saturday in the terminal at Midway Airport in Chicago.  Rob commented that this was the longest amount of time he had ever spent at an airport and didn’t go anywhere.

But it was really nice to just sit and talk or wander around the terminal with him.  The boarding of the plane was a little hard on me (and on him too, I’m sure) I’m sure I wasn’t the only Mom that wanted to storm the plane and take their kid off and home with them.  But I didn’t, which was probably good because I’m sure the TSA frowns on that type of behavior.  :)  Did I cry - yeah I did.

But he seemed to be much less stressed about everything that is coming (A School and everything there) on Saturday then he had been on Friday when we got to talk for a bit.

I’m still a little stressed (ok a LOT) but I have been through this once already and I will get through it this time too.

We met up with friends for dinner after we left the airport and it was nice to see Darrell & Karen and to finally meet Morgan & Ann.

He called when his flight was on lay-over in then called again when they arrived in Charleston (he sounded tired but not stressed out) - Said he will call Sunday once he gets a little settled in.  We told him we love him and to get some rest.

Didn’t sleep too much Saturday night, mostly because he is on my mind all the time, (they both are).  Checked out of the hotel around 0930 and headed back to Michigan.  Dan called from the field in North Carolina and talked to us for a bit, he must have gotten the psychic message that his mom needed to talk to one of her children. :~) He is planning to go to Charleston next weekend and see John, I think it will be good for them to see each other.  They have a LOT in common again (having both gone through Navy Boot Camp).

John has called a couple times today - I love being able to talk to him pretty much whenever I want now :)  He sounds really good and is looking forward to starting his classes once all the in-processing is done this week.  We are going to put together a few care packages of microwaveable goodies and stuff that he likes that is non-perishable to send down once we have an address for him.

Guess that is the latest and best news from my corner of the world. I will try to write at least once a week to keep the world updated on my life (It may be boring sometimes but it is MINE)

Have a great week
Doc’s Mom

Face it, while I wish I was good about writing what is going on in my life I’m just not.

It’s been AGES (seriously) since I have written on here.

Here is the article I wrote for the July-September 2009 issue of Corpsman.com’s Scuttlebutt News

From the Desk of Doc’s Mom; Editor & Navy Mom

If you have been listening to the podcasts this summer you know that our youngest son, Johnathan, graduated High School in June. Summer was busy with camping trips to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, a trip to visit Da-Chief and his fabulous family, a party for friends and family to wish John luck in the Navy, a trip to the Michigan Renaissance Festival and then John went off to US Navy boot camp on 9 Sept. You can just imagine how messed up my emotions have been….. let’s put it this way, it doesn’t take much to make me cry and I am not a weepy person.

Just before Labor Day (9/3/09) HM3 Benjamin Castiglione was killed in Afghanistan. His Uncle Joe Petre was the one who came on the site and broke the news of his passing. Darrell and Tony worked fast and were able to do an online memorial for “Doc Stiggy” that night and from what I hear there were several family members in attendance when it was taped. In 2006, when Dan joined the Navy as a corpsman, I made a promise that if a corpsman from our area were killed that I would do everything within my power to go pay my respects to the family of that corpsman. Ben was from the same area where both of my parents grew up, so it wasn’t far from my home to his. We didn’t know when services would be but I was already planning to attend (as long as it wasn’t the same day as Johnathan left for boot camp) As fate would have it, the services for Ben were scheduled for the day after Johnathan left.

The plan was to stay in the background and quietly pay my respects. This was not to be the case, Darrell and Tony knew I was going to be there and they let Joe know and it was requested that I introduce myself to him. It was an emotional event from the time I arrived and drove up the driveway of the funeral home with Patriot Guard Riders and Rolling Thunder lining the drive with flags. When I parked, I called Darrell and cried. All I can think about is how do I go in and approach a complete stranger and tell him, I’m DeeDee from Corpsman.com. Darrell was so supportive, he knew how hard this was for me. He told me I would be fine and make everyone proud. So, in I went. When I saw the flag-draped casket, it really hit me hard. The tears were at the brink again. I found one of the escorts and asked him to help me find Joe Petre, it just happened that at that very moment Jennifer Petre (Joe’s wife) was passing by, I told her who I was and was immediately enveloped in the arms of this woman who had never met me, wouldn’t know me if she passed me on the street, but here she was hugging me like I was a long lost member of the family. She took me to Joe, who hugged me and told me how much my being there meant to all of them. I was introduced to Ben’s mother, Carrie, and too many of Ben’s family to remember all their names. But they are all etched in my memory. I have never been hugged by so many people who have never met me, I hugged back and cried with them. [It’s a good thing I come from a “huggy” family, or I might have run for the hills] The love and kindness I received from his family is something I will never forget.
I heard great stories about Ben from his family and from his fellow Corpsman, who traveled from Camp Lejeune to be with his family during this time. I know that I would have liked Ben if I had been given the opportunity to know him. I have never had so many people thank me for what we do on Corpsman.com.

This was my first time at a service were military honors were rendered. I didn’t stay with Joe and his family. This is just too personal a time for a complete stranger to be hanging around. So, I stood behind the Patriot Guard/Rolling Thunder flag line. I cried, not only for Ben, but for his family and friends. It was beautiful and heartbreaking to be there. I can’t even begin to explain how this part of the service made me feel. But I do remember afterward, one of the boys saying to me; “This is all we have left of him.” referring to the folded flag that had been presented to them. All I could do was hug him and let him cry.
I was invited to join family and friends for dinner following the services, I considered not going, but Joe basically said I had to go so I went. I’m glad I did. Ben’s family is incredible, I am honored that they allowed me into their family.

I have had a really hard time writing this but wanted to share my experience with all of you. I am very proud of my sons, it takes a lot of courage to enlist and serve, especially during these times. But, I worry too, Dan leaves on a MEU in January, who knows where they will send them and what situations they will be in.

Johnathan is just about half done with boot camp. His PIR date is 6 November, of course we will be at Great Lakes, in the stands just like we were when Dan graduated 3 years ago. Darrell and the rest of the Crone family will be there with us to congratulate John, as will another member of the Corpsman.com family, IDCWife, who I am looking forward to meeting. Then he is off to South Carolina to learn to be a “Nuke”. I am adjusting to our “empty-nest”, sometimes it seems like he just left and others it seems like it has been an eternity since we last saw him. But you can count on this….. I am one proud Navy Mom.
Thanks for letting me share this with you.

Doc’s Mom
Editor, Scuttlebutt News

Yep this is just a little teaser - I have been HORRIBLE about posting since Dan left to go back to Camp Lejeune and believe me there have been lots of things I should have blogged about - so starting this week I am going to get you all caught up on the comings and goings of this Doc’s Mom.

Check this site out in a couple days and see what is new

First of all, let me apologize for not posting sooner - I should have posted last week.  But since I have been busy enjoying having my son under the same roof as the rest of the family, I think I have a legit excuse.

Dan’s flight home was scheduled for 05 May 2008, from Raleigh, NC to Detroit, MI.  We had reserved a rental car for the drive down so we would be more comfortable for the drive than we would have been in our Honda.  Once we had word about Dan’s return date - the wheels were set in motion for a welcome home committee by our very own 8404 (Tony) and Da-Chief(Darrell) who took it upon themselves to contact the PGR in Michigan and arrange for a welcome home.  I received a call from the Ride Captain, Mags, who told me that while Tony was behind the call, they would not come out unless we approved of it.  I was hesitant about letting them come out since Dan is one of those people who says, I’m not in it for the recognition - I’m just doing my job.  But Tony and Darrell explained to me that this was just their way of making sure that Dan knew that his service is appreciated and to let them do this for him. So I told Mags to go ahead and get the ball rolling.

The PGR members were meeting us in the baggage claim area of the terminal an hour prior to Dan’s arrival time so they could meet us and get their flag line set up.

Then mother nature took over, I got the call from Dan moments after taking delivery of the rental car.  His flight out of Raleigh has been delayed 45 minutes and isn’t going to make Cleveland for his connection until about 15 min before the connector flight to Detroit is scheduled to depart.  Not a problem I told him - that is plenty of time to get from one terminal to another.  We will see you in Detroit in a few hours…….  well, in actuality, his flight was delayed almost an hour and a half.  Off we head for Detroit Metro Airport to meet up with Mags and the rest of the PGR members coming out to greet Dan.  I called Mags to give her a heads up just in case he doesn’t make the connection, we decide not to cancel the welcome home until we know for sure he didn’t make the flight.

Dan’s best buds are coming to the house to wait for us to get home from the airport so they can see Dan for the first time since he left.  So, off we head for the airport, knowing that the guys are hanging out at the house and will be there when we get home.

9:07pm - cell phone rings, we are just outside of Detroit, almost to the airport.  It’s Dan, his plane just landed in Cleveland (the connecting flight left at 8:55pm) so needless to say, he wasn’t on the plane to Detroit.  OK. let mom make a couple calls, we are now heading to Cleveland because the next flight to Detroit isn’t until 7:30am the next day.  Call Mags to let her know that we aren’t going to make it and thank her for all her hard work getting this all set up and apologize for not being able to be there.  She promises pictures of everyone who came out will be emailed the next morning.  (She did, too)
Thanks to these wonderful PGR members who came out for a late evening welcome home for our son.  You are really incredible - THANKS from all of us

Now for the rest of the story - called the guys at the house  and let them know we are going to Cleveland to get Dan and bring him home.  You can wait for us there (we will be back around 4am OR you can go home and come back later) Of course they aren’t going anywhere. I knew that was what they would do but wanted to give them the option anyway.

So, we keep heading South into Ohio, I had looked online earlier to see how far it was to Cleveland from home (just in case) we were already an hour closer since we were in Detroit and not Lansing, so, south to the Ohio Turnpike and head East toward Cleveland.  I had already called Darrell to let him know that we were going to get Dan.  He & I sent text messages back and forth the entire drive from Detroit to Cleveland.  I even asked him to google me a map to the airport since all I knew was that we needed to get to the airport but not which exit we needed.  THANKS DARRELL

Dan & I talked several times during the drive, mostly because he was bored sitting around the airport doing nothing.  Though it did come out later that he had been rolling around in a wheelchair on one of the upper levels for a little while and that he had met up with an undesignated sailor fresh from boot and helped him find his ride.

We arrived at Cleveland airport around midnight - no fanfare to welcome Dan back, just me getting out of the car as fast as possible and hugging my son (trying not to cry - but failing just a little) no pictures, just memories.  I had made a really nice sign too. Didn’t get to hold it up for him to see when he came home but have a nice pic of him and Rob with it when we pulled it out of the trunk for him to see it. If my camera had been faster I would have gotten a GREAT picture of Johnathan and Dan.  But, alas, it was not to be (just another great memory for mom).

Dan & Rob with the sign

Brothers - nuff said

Yeah - can you tell I am happy he’s home????? 

Dan is home now - until he has to return to Camp Lejeune in a couple weeks. We are really enjoying having him home.  Paintball is a weekend event - they played on Mother’s Day in the pouring rain and still had a great time, playing this weekend in a scenario game at Hell Survivor’s field in Pickney; then a batchelor party playing next weekend too.
He is spending a lot of time with his friends - who have missed him A LOT (the feeling is mutual too)

Until next time.
Respectfully,
DeeDee

I wanted to say thank you to everyone on Corpsman.com who has been so supportive of me and my family while Dan has been on his deployment with the 1/10 from Camp Lejeune.              

Dan left for Iraq in September 2007 and returned to Camp Lejeune on Saturday April 26th.  If you have been following my blogs and posts in the forums you know that we had planned to be there when he arrived. Sadly, this was not to be.  Travel arrangements to move the troops back to Camp Lejeune were changed and rather than arriving 21 or 22 April they were delayed until 26 April - Unfortunately this meant that we would not be able to make the trip to North Carolina.  When Dan first notified me that their units travel dates had been changed and that he really had no information to give me other than to contact someone at a phone number he had been provided I was devastated.  I had everything set - I mean EVERYTHING - the rental car, reservations at the Hospitality Lodge on base; but anyone who has dealt with the military knows that plans are always subject to change.  And this trip was no different. 

I cancelled all our reservations and called the phone number that Dan had given me - it was definitely a bad number as it rang into a police recruiting office. So back to the drawing board - search the internet and locate the home page for his unit and call the number for the FRO - well of course, there is no answer there. Tried the OD, no answer.  NCOD? Same, no real people answering any phones. 

So, I did the next best thing, contact my Corpsman.com family and see if anyone can help me out.  Well, CrazyCajun is a really awesome individual - I’m not going to ask who’s arm he had to twist but he called me the next day with a phone number to call for information about Dan and his return from Iraq - HOLY COW it was the number to Dan’s Lieutenant - and what a nice guy he is.  He helped me find out what was going on and when the date/time were set he called me.  I had to laugh when I answered the phone to “May I please speak to Doc Reno’s Mom.” that was too funny but so appreciated. 

When we didn’t hear from Dan for a couple days we knew his unit was in the pipeline coming home. He called at 0400 EST  Saturday morning - usually early morning calls make me grumpy but not this time - It was GREAT to hear his voice and know he was in Germany getting ready to start the last leg of his trip back to Camp Lejeune.

Dan’s group arrived on Saturday afternoon (just like his Lt. told me) - when he called, he told me that as he was putting a box on a bus after their arrival that his Lt. came up to him and said; “Doc Reno, call your mother.” Dan likes to tease me about knowing so many people in the Navy even though I am an Air Force veteran but this time he didn’t say anything - just called his Mom to let her know that he was back in North Carolina and safe.  

Thank you again for all you have done your words of encouragement and support have meant so much.DeeDee (editor Scuttlebutt news)  

Due to circumstances beyond ANYONE’S control our trip to North Carolina for the return of Dan’s unit from it’s deployment was CANCELLED on VERY short notice.

I received an IM from Dan on Thursday afternoon, mind you we were scheduled to leave on SATURDAY, letting us know that his group MIGHT be back on Friday - not tomorrow FRIDAY (4/18) but NEXT Friday (4/25) which was the day we were scheduled to LEAVE North Carolina to head back to Michigan.  Absolutely shot our plans down.  No trip to North Carolina.  Had been thinking about trying to make the drive down on Thursday this week and being there on Friday sometime - but there is absolutely no way I could do 18 hours drive all by myself in one shot.  So, trip cancelled.  Probably better off since I got an IM from him today saying that the group that is due in on Friday left today and that he and his group weren’t part of it.  GOOD GRIEF!!!!

Been talking to one of the other corpsman moms - her son is with Dan too - mostly about whether or not our sons will be able to use the airline tickets that they have already purchased to get back to their home states for their leave.  I have been told by a reliable source that if for some reason they can’t make their trips out on time they should contact their airlines and let them know that the reason is military transport back from Iraq delayed their departure.  And that the airline should change their ticket at no additional cost to them.  I hope it is true but not going to hold my breath as we are counting on an airline to do the right thing and with all the people who got hosed when airlines cancelled flights for inspections I am not real optimistic about it.

Guess that is all the news that is fit to share - will let you all know when Dan is home on leave so you can stop in and say hi or catch up with him while he is home.

Yep, you guessed it - time is coming for Dan to return from his deployment - OMG I am so excited I can hardly contain myself :)   It’s hard to believe that the deployment is almost over and that his unit will be coming back to Camp Lejeune soon.

We were all supposed to make the trip down to be there when they arrive but due to circumstances beyond our control Rob will not be making the trip with us.  Johnathan, Morgan(my neice) and myself will be making the trip on our own.  Which is going to be strange to drive all that way with only one driver.  I know I didn’t do the majority of the driving on past trips, so this will be a totally new experience for me.  But rather than drive it all in one day we are going to split it up a little - go 6-8 hours the first day since we won’t be leaving until late afternoon and then do the rest the next day.

Dan has requested that I bring all things paintball with us so that he can get a much needed paintball fix when they get back.  So in addition to all the uniforms that have been stored here for the duration of the deployment I also have to bring a selection of civilian clothes and the paintball gear.  Which means the trunk of the rental car will be FULL.

We have reserved a room at the hospitality lodge on Camp Lejeune which is really a nice place to stay and since the rooms all have kitchenettes we won’t go broke eating out while we are there. Definitely a plus in my book. 

We are planning to get together with Mr. & Mrs. Crazycajun while we are in the area - something we have not been able to accomplish on any of our previous trips down to the area.  Don’t worry - pics will be posted for all to see

I am still working on the Adopt-A-Doc project for the corpsman.com website - but I am low on docs and people who want to adopt them.  If you are deployed and would like to be on the receiving end of care packages and letters please email me deedee@corpsman.com and get me your name, rank and mailing address.  If you would like to send out packages please email your name and address to me at the above address and I will happily get you a name.

Okay, so that may be true but it is really hard to remain patient when you are waiting to hear from someone who is far away and doesn’t get the opportunity to actually call home very often.

Dan got to go on 5 days R&R last week to Qatar.  He sounded great when he called home from there.  You could just hear that he was more relaxed than other times we have talked.  He said they went on a tour of the city where the base is that he was at and that the buildings are really interesting and took lots of pictures.  He also said they drive like maniacs.   I can’t wait for him to upload them for us to see.  I got the impression that he didn’t go do much while he was there just basically relaxed and enjoyed being away from life in Iraq.

We are on the downhill slide now - less than 2 months before they should be coming home.  Can’t wait til we know more details so we can plan our road trip down to be there when they get back.  Count on pictures being uploaded for your viewing pleasure

I know I haven’t been great about getting entries done as often as I would like.  Usually this is due to nothing spectacular happening that would warrant a post.  I should have gotten on here on Feb 3rd when the NY Giants won the SuperBowl - specially since Rob and the boys are HUGE fans.  For that I apologize.

I will try to get on more often to keep you up to date on the mundane comings and goings of my life.

Cheers and talk to you soon

Well, the holidays have come and gone. I wish I could say that I was sad to see them go but quite frankly the holidays just weren’t the same without Dan at home. I know I am not the only parent who spent the holidays wishing their son or daughter was at home with the family.

Spent Christmas Day pretending that I wasn’t waiting for the phone to ring. You know I was. Finally around 2:45pm the phone rang with a rather strange phone number on the caller id. I knew it was Dan. Apparently the internet was down (not surprising since it was a holiday) but for some reason Vonage phones were working so one of the guys with Dan was letting people make calls home (bless him). The connection wasn’t great but just hearing his voice was worth the snaps and crackles on the line.

The Thursday after Christmas we awoke to find the inflatable snowmen lying on the ground. Further inspection of them showed that they had been viciously attacked in the night and both of them sported 2ft slashes down them, rendering them uninflatable. I cried. Here we hadn’t even planned to put up ANYTHING and when we finally do it we get vandalized. Of course, we know that it was kids with nothing else better to do.

New Year’s Eve we were invited to a party in Williamston about 20 minutes from home. Since I don’t drink when people around me are; I offered to drive the four of us to the party so that no one had to worry about having too much to drink. It started snowing around 5:30pm and kept on until well into New Year’s Day. By the time we departed from the party (around 2am) the snow was pretty deep and the roads were pretty much drive where ever you want since you can’t see where the lanes are anyway. Good thing we had driven the Tahoe and not the Honda. I managed to not need the 4WD until we hit Okemos (which was when we finally started seeing other traffic and they were slippin and slidin all over the place) - Well it took us an hour to get from Williamston back home. We certainly got plenty of snow that night.

And that was the extent of our “holiday season”. Am I glad it’s over??? YEAH I am.

We talk to Dan on Instant Messenger every chance we get, usually atleast once a week. Of course, sometimes he is playing WoW (World of Warcraft) and Johnathan will see him on there and they get to talk for a little while which is nice for the brothers to get a chance to talk. Dan will be pinning on his FMF badge soon (needless to say we are pretty dang proud of him). He has talked about getting the paperwork started to stay active duty with the unit he is with once his deployment is over and if his IDCs seem to like him as much as he alludes to they will be working HARD to make sure that happens. I sure hope so, because I know how much he enjoys his job.

Work is work as usual. Nothing special to report there. Trying to do too much in too little hours.

I have been spending my Sunday afternoons making candles. I find it relaxing and enjoyable.
I am spending a lot of time on the Corpsman.com website, answering questions, promoting the newsletter, clicking ads and in general being “visible” to other members.
When I can work in the “spare time” I have been working on my cross stitch project and doing my online Wicca classes, both of which I enjoy.

Guess that is all from this Corpsman Mom. Hope you have enjoyed my blathering.
DeeDee