heartbreak...

i call this post heartbreak...

i want/need to write about it... then we will move onto happier times...

more light hearted...

the scene... 1am... brent had to check in near what you see here. it was so very cold... so i stayed in the car (where the picture was taken from)... i wasnt as brave as all those other people that you see standing around the buses... they are all family and friends of the other marines that were leaving on the buses... see the tents in the background... like that would keep you warm... i think it was easier for us both for me to stay in the car... we dont like to let others see us cry... but for some reason... everyone always sees me cry... you are lucky if you get to see brent cry... it does happen but not nearly as much as me... what can i say... i have a tender heart... and weepy eyes sometimes...

our last picture... my heart aches when i look at this picture...

lets just say that it was the only thing i could do to not cry... at least for the second that the flash went off... words were hard to have... what do you say in that moment... other than goodbye and i love you... there is nothing to say really... good thing it was 3:30am by this time and we were both so tired from being up all night... i think about it now... it was easier this way... jones was fast asleep at our house with a friend that spent the night... so i didnt have to deal with him yet... and i was so so so out of it... being the time it was...

we said our goodbyes about 3:30am march 3rd 2010...

at 3:57am i sat and watched as the buses left... i actually followed them for a minute or two... i dont know why... or what i was hoping for... i guess part of me hoped that the impossible would happen... they would stop and say, "you know, lcpl martindale doesnt need to come anymore... he can get off the bus and stay with his family." but we all know that that didnt happen...

then... as the buses turned right to leave the base from one exit i had to turn left to go home... what a dramatic turn... we were literally heading in the opposite direction from one another... and that is how this adventure of our 7 month deployment began...

we miss him...

this picture makes my heart ache too... but in a way that only can be described as true love... what can i say... a man in uniform makes my heart pitter patter...

march 3rd 2010...

.....

since that night/morning

.....

he took the bus to a base in riverside ca

then a plane to a base in maine

then another plane to germany

then another plane to krygyzstan

spent a few days in the country of krygyzstan

then another plane to afghanistan

he is there now at camp leatherneck in the helmand province and and should be until the end of september or early october...