Wes and Patience

I remember how changed my brother was upon his return from basic training. There were the usual things you'd expect: more disciplined, more mature, very focused, etc. But I was shocked to see how patient he had become.   Driving home late one night after a concert, the gas gauge hit 'E' when we were 30 miles from home with no gas station near us. I had to preach the next morning so I was 'freaking out' a bit about the situation. I didn't like the thought of spending the night on the side of the road in the January air. My brother, on the other hand, was completely calm, even jovial. He began to blast the heat and speed up. I inquired as to why he was acting like an idiot. His response was classic Wes, "Dude, if I'm about to sleep in this car, I want to coast as far as I can and I want this thing to be warm!" We ended up making it home miraculously. Honestly, there is no way in hell that car should have made it home. Wes and I refer to this incident as "The Night of the Fuel Gauge".

I'm learning now why Wes is the way he is. Part of it is his personality. Outside of my wife, Wes is my best friend in the entire world. I'd leave today and bankrupt myself if I knew he needed help and I could get there. As you grow up, you learn to love your siblings and cherish them. This just comes with maturity. But you also learn to admire your siblings, even those that are younger than you. Wes is a calm dude, not much affects him. There's a saying in the Army, "Embrace the suck." It means what it says. When things suck, just embrace it. You're not going anywhere anyway. Wes exemplifies what it means to "Embrace the suck."

As the S5 (Civilian-Military Affairs) for my platoon, it's my job to plan things for the platoon to foster esprit de corps. In a real unit, the S5 acts as a liaison between the military and civilian world. However, for school purposes, our platoon S5's are basically party planners (very prestigious). I received permission through the chain of command to use a certain room to hold a movie night for my platoon. Our morale is low, we needed this. After spending the entire week taking care of logistics, I was told today by the cadre, that I in fact did not have permission to use the facilities. I was livid. This project has taken my whole week and now I'm told on the day of the movie that I can't do it. I've been upset all day, until I talked to Wes.

Wes is in Iraq, that's all I'll say for opsec reasons. Hearing Wes talk about Iraq, op-tempo, morale, etc. made me realize how ridiculous and whiny I was being. The Army does not tolerate self-pity in any form. If you want to whine, do it behind closed doors. And yet, I was doing just that: wallowing in my own self-pity. Sometimes we just have to embrace the suck. Stuff goes wrong and plans get ruined. We could all learn to be like my brother and embrace the suck. So the next time life throws you a FUBAR, put the pedal to the metal, blast the heat, and smile. After all, if you're going to be here, you might as well be comfortable.

Wes after his BCT graduation at Fort Benning. He was a fuzzy at the time (PV1). We're proud of him. He's much more squared away than I, but don't tell him I said that.