OIF

Hey guys.  I'd like to give out a congratulations to the newest father in our company.  My buddy Ricky Barrett's wife gave birth to a 6 lb baby boy on the 24th of this month.  I would also like to point out an injustice though.  Although Ricky, his friends, and even some of the NCO's in his chain of command pushed and pushed and tried their hardest to get him home to see his baby's birth, he was denied by higher ranking officials every time, most for ridiculous reasons.  Like for example, one reason was that he couldn't trade R&R slots with someone else because they weren't going in the same month.  Another reason is because to trade with a higher ranking person would show favoritism.  There are a lot more and apparently in our system, baby's births are no longer important enough to go home to see.  It's sad but it's true.  Ricky's a good friend of mine and it's sad that this is the way our system works.  But nonetheless, he's a brand new daddy of a healthy baby boy.  So congrats to him.  Well, that's it for now.  Thank you all for your support.  God bless you all.