Day 91; Assume = ASS U ME

Sunday, February 13th

The email I received today was not what I expected. 

To all of you moms out there who take pride in your child and sometimes feel the need for "bragging rights" -- you know what I mean... Like, "My little Joey was student of the month," or "My daughter got the lead in the school play," or "Mary was accepted into Stanford/Harvard/Yale," etc.  -- I guess I did just that when I told my friends that my son is an officer in the U.S. Army, and I was admonished for it, because I made an assumption...

I forwarded my soldier's email regarding his arrival in Camp Taji to some of my friends.  In my intro, I stated that 'since he is an officer, he was fortunate enough to fly into Camp Taji instead of having to travel by convoy...'

I received many nice comments (via email) of support from my friends.  I then forwarded one of my friends' comments to my son, and he was able to read my intro to his email.  Here was his response to me:

I didn't fly to Taji just because I'm an officer.  My whole unit flew up here because there was no tactical advantage to taking a convoy and we are an aviation unit, not a combat arms unit, so we don't have dozens of vehicles we have to drive up there. 

I didn't get treated any more special than my soldiers, and if they had convoyed up I would be right there making sure they are okay.  Platoon leaders don't abandon their men.


Wow. 

No, Dear Mom, or Love Richy was on this message. 

I wasn't trying to imply that my son was abandoning his men... Honestly, I guess I assumed his rank allowed him to fly instead of travel by land, especially since one of the other soldiers' mothers told me that her son was traveling via convoy. 

I stand corrected.

I made an assumption; I took pride in telling my friend that my son was an officer and he was able to avoid convoying (convoys scare the crap out of me), and I ended up offending my son.  What is the old saying?  "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"...?

I may delete this post later, as I am feeling pretty crappy right now and I am just venting.