Three months ago I found out my brother-in-law Tony, who is an Air Force Lifer in his 25th Year of service to our country, is being deployed to Iraq for a six-month tour. He leaves one week from today. Ever since that day I found out, I’ve been praying to God to keep him safe so he can come back and spend the rest of his days with his wife June (who’s my younger sister), and their two boys, Derek (16) and Collin (10), my two nephews who I love to death.
So I decided to call him today for a couple of reasons: first, Mom told me today that Tony passed the E-8 exam and should be promoted to Senior Master Sergeant some time next month. Thus, Tony beat his older brother George, who retired as an E-7 recruiter, and my Dad was a Radioman Chief (E-7 CPO) from the Navy.
There was also another reason why I called Tony, and I will point you to the Babylon 5 episode “GROPOS” from the second season: Dr. Franklin had problems in relating to his father, who was an EarthForce General and was about to deploy with 25,000 troops to another planet. He didn’t know what to do to heal the rift with his father which had developed over the years (which, thank God, Tony and I do not have), and he told Commander Susan Ivanova, who replied without hesitation:

“Tell him you love him.”

And that is exactly what I told Tony. I love him because he’s my brother-in-law, I love him because he takes care of June and vice versa, and I love him because they gave me two great nephews who I love to death. All this…and a whole lot more.
I ask each and every one of you to please keep Tony and his family in your prayers, to keep him safe so he can come back and spend the rest of his days here. Thank you all.

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