One of my best snippets of news about my son Brandon?

I am incredibly proud to say that he has been with the USAF for over 2 years now. He enlisted and headed off to boot camp in Austin, TX in August 2004. Those were some scary moments for mom, trust me! There is something different about truly "letting go" of a child (yes I know, young man, but he will always be my baby!) into the military, and knowing that one is putting your trust into the system and hope that he will stay safe. There are never any guarantees, but this is always the hope of anyone who has a loved one in the military. My heart truly goes out to those who have lost someone special.

Brandon has grown into a wonderful young man and I am so incredibly proud of him! I have seen so many amazing changes in him over the last 2 1/2 years, and I've seen how he has learned much about being responsible for himself. He's just an awesome guy, what can I tell you? Mom's are allowed to brag. <grin>

He graduated boot camp in September 2004, spent six weeks in Sheppard AFB (which was tiny and boring as the word went) before going to his duty station in Tucson, AZ. He has weathered some of the typical southwestern desert heat, red flag days (when it's too hot to work!), the typical monsoon season and SNOW! It snowed in Tucson for the first time in over 10 years in January 2007. Who'd have ever guessed it would have happened. He called me all excited about it! I am still waiting for the pictures he took....

The shop in Tucson,AZ where they work on the egress systems of military jets.

In March '07, Brandon will be adding a new location to his worldwide experience, when he will be deployed to Osan, South Korea for the next year. He's been busily packing up, getting some of his belongings, including his car, set up to go into storage, and the best 'lagniappe' of all, a trip to Shaw AFB in South Carolina in March for a 2 week training stint! We knew he would be attending training, just didn't think it would be in this area!

Jenna and I took a weekend to go visit him before he heads out. A little over 3 1/2 hour drive later through the back country of SC and some amazing starry skies one Friday night, we ended up in Sumter, another small typical military town. It didn't have much there to speak of, but a lot of little stores, a small mall, restaurants, typical pawnshops, etc. Yours truly went to visit the first pawn shop I'd ever been in.. interesting. I think it had the worlds largest collection of old stereo equipment that I'd ever seen!

Brandon has already got word (unless that gets changed in the future) that his next duty station after South Korea will be in Misawa, Japan. Wow... but now is the time for him to see the world. I just think it's really neat that he will get to see places that I don't know that I will get to see in my lifetime. So, my son, I will visit them vicariously through you!

April 2007 - Brandon has arrived safely in Osan, and already has been doing some exercises (fun.. or not depending on one's perspective), has his web cam already set up! Talking to him via computer is definitely different than the 'old' way of land lines or even cell phone, which he does not have out in South Korea. Now... I just need to adjust to the 13 hour time zone difference. Day and night is reversed here! He's already discovered how different it is from here, good food and SMELLY. Guess their sanitation practices leave something to be desired when sewage dumps out in to the street. He's learning the art of haggling, learning to play pool and joined up with a league! A few pretty barmaids are teaching him.. not a bad life huh? :) They'll teach him as long as he buys his own drinks. So he has a beer or few or whatever... he's done and gotten all growed up on me!