On November 11th we celebrated Veteran’s Day. This year was the first time I wore my uniform on Veteran’s since 2008. In 2008 I was in the first month of a six month deployment aboard the USS Rodney M. Davis conducting counter narcotic interdictions off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean. Now in 2017, I’m five months into a fourteen month deployment in Afghanistan (I’m spending 12 months in Afghanistan, but I am serving an additional month initially for training and one more afterwards to process off active duty). I am honored to be wearing my uniform again on Veteran’s Day.
There is another Veteran’s Day I will never forget, Veteran’s Day 2009. That single day changed the life of many especially TJ and me. TJ was stationed on the USS Momsen and I was on shore duty working for the Pentagon. It was a Wednesday, and neither of us had duty so we were both home. I decided it was a good morning to take the pregnancy test I had been delaying to take. I had heard from somewhere you should take the test in the morning when your pee is most concentrated. There was no doubt the test was positive. On Veterans’ Day 2009 I became a mom and TJ became a dad.
There is one more day in November I want mention. On November 16th 2016 Naval Operational Support Center Chicago called me at approximately 0950 to tell me I had orders for Afghanistan and I was scheduled to leave early June 2017. I remember the time because I was scheduled to run a meeting to discuss generators for new bikes which were under development. I sent a few text messages and walked into the meeting. If you know me I need to make a plan to fix every problem and I immediately walked into the room, late which is unlike me, and told everyone in there what just happened. They all told me to leave, but I stayed. At one point I did leave to take a phone call from my Unit Commanding Officer, but I stayed for the remainder of the meeting. I was distracted and towards the end I sent a message to an engineer in the room asking what were next steps.
The meeting ended and Brittney Kieres, a good friend of mine, took me into another conference room to chat. This room was ironically called The War Room. I was upset and she was there for me at moment I really needed it. I will never forget what she told me. She said I needed to pull it together, this was not the Darchelle she knew. I didn’t get upset, I fixed things and she said I would make a plan for this too. She said she’d never seen me upset like this. At that moment I knew I needed to get a plan and everything would workout. I don’t get upset, I take action and fix things. That is exactly what I did. I taught my infamous Wednesday lunch time evil workout, and then I started using my support group to get a plan to get us through. The following week was Thanksgiving and I took the week to get my life together so I could come back to work the following week and be there 100% until I left. I believe I delivered on my promise.
Now a year later for Veteran’s Day 2017 Life Fitness asked if I would write a blog post for them. I was honored to write it and you can read it at the link below!
https://lifefitness.com/blog/posts/afghanistan-where-life-fitness-employee-works-out#
I’m not sure what Veteran’s Day 2018 has in store for me, but most likely I will not be wearing my uniform. I know for sure I will not be wearing an Army uniform. What I do know is Veteran’s Day 2017 always hold a very special place in my heart forever!
Darchelle's Vacation with Uncle Sam 