Saturday, September 16, 2006

U 93 and Family Matters

I'm watching U 93, another exception to my decision to avoid R rated movies. I remember the day the world changed. Perhaps I had dreamed intimations of that day. I cannot say for sure. But when I was called into the living room of my parent's home by one of my sisters and watched the World Trade Center being destroyed by a devilishly clever innovation in warfare, I sensed that not only my nation but my family would be impacted by the act.
In France my son Sam was serving a mission. When he heard the news he said he knew that if he had not been serving the Lord at the time, and was home in Provo, he would have gone to a recruiting office right away. As it happened, Same was still in France when the decision was made to invade Afghanistan because of Taliban support of AlQuida, the organization that had planned the use of American Airliners as bombs. When Sam eventually returned to the US after finishing his mission, he returned to college. He finished his degree in Mathematics, applied to graduate school in Electronic engineering, and joined the Army Reserve. In early 2005 he entered boot camp and began his training to become an American soldier. As a reservist he was not immediately deployed, but he was waiting to do so. He returned to college and completed a semester of graduate studies before his division was organized and it was time for him to take additional training in his specialty. He was home when I broke my ankle on January 31 of 2006. Then he was gone again. After some additional preparation he was flown to Afghanistan. Today there is activity there. The American forces are combining with the Afghans to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds. I haven't heard from Sam by blog or e-mail for some time. I pray that he is not in danger, but of course, that was his accepted path. He put himself into a position of risk, and I am proud of him. Proud and prayerful.

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