I am with in days of leaving Iraq and heading home. As you can imagine I am thrilled to be reuniting with my family. Being away from them, my OBX home, friends, and the Church I love, for the past 16 months, has been one of the most challenging and difficult times of my life. I never imagined it would be so difficult and the experience has exponentially increased my appreciation, respect and admiration for the men and women who serve our Country.
Many of the young hero's here have been through multiple deployments and their dedication to our way of life is extremely impressive as are their skills and leadership.
While serving with them I have also learned how important it is to be a hero at home. That is one who supports our soldiers with prayers, letters, emails, care packages, family support and so forth. It can not be understated how valuable it is to the welfare of our deployed loved ones to receive a kind & encouraging word, dry socks, fattening snacks, DVDs or a toothbrush. Not long ago I opened up a fresh tooth brush and smiled when I realized what was inscribed on the side of it; "Jeffrey D Jacobson DDS" along with a number I recognized as local to my home.
Dr. Jacobson is not my Dentist, and I am not even sure how he knew I was in Iraq, but he sent a care package full of tooth brushes, toothpaste and floss for me and the soldiers I serve with.
This simple act of kindness is received here as a remarkable act of caring and support.
I have included a picture I thought Dr. Jacobson might appreciate of his act in action. While the tooth brush never saw combat action the recipients of his kindness did and they are all very appreciative of the support they get from home.
So to Dr. Jacobson, and all who have taken the time to show they care, Thank you from the bottom of my heart and may God bless you and your family always. I wish I could list you all, but that would be a tough task. So many of you have supported us during this war effort and to us you represent the hero's at home.
