God Bless America

If you don't know my oldest brother Jacob Alan Willoughby served in the United State Army for 12 years. During those 12 years he was sent on two tours to Iraq. At first before September 11, 2001 he was just in the U.S. National Guard protecting the Texas/Mexico border. Then all of a sudden the Twin Towers were hit and the US found out it was Iraq, Jacob was automatically sent from the border to Special Forces training. He trained for 2 weeks and out of no where he was sent to Iraq.  At this time i was in 5th and 6th grade, and ill never forget it! My brothers are my life! Weird enough to say that, but I can't do anything without them. There always there to catch me when I fall, help me when something goes wrong, makes me smile and laugh, and they teach me things your parents wont teach you. So for my brother to just up and leave and have no set date or time on when he was coming back hit me soooo hard! I'm actually crying writing this right now. Anyways, the next day after we found out that Jacob was deploying we headed to Fort Hood Army Base in Waco, Texas for a deployment ceremony. I was completely fine through the whole ceremony to show how strong I was for my brother but in the car ride home I broke down. Just thinking that could of been the last time I saw my brother forever. Thats just the WORST thing ever to think about, but how can you think about anything else in a time like this. 

6 Months went by with no word or anything from him. All over the news was "100 US Soldiers died in Iraq today" or "Will we be lucky if our soldiers return?" WHYYYY why was this happening to us, my brother died???? why couldn't the news post the good about what was happening? After 6 months we got a letter in the mail from the military, my mom broke down crying and all I could think about was "Someone shot and killed my brother!" I ran to my moms side and just started crying with her. Now my mom doesnt cry so seeing her cry I knew something was wrong. She opened the envelope and it wasnt what we thought it would be. It was a letter from Jacob and the only thing written on the page was "I'm okay and I love yall, try not to worry." You have NO idea this feeling until you've gone through this yourself. Getting that letter was the best day of my life I dont care if it was only 10 words long or 10 pages long, it made everything better for me. And if theirs anything i've learned from my brothers its if they tell me not to worry, you dont worry. 

A year went by and then a year and 3 months went by and we finally got word he was COMING HOME! After what seemed like FOREVER we were headed back to Fort Hood Army Base. I never knew that I could have a Love/Hate relationship with a place before haha. After the Arrival ceremony was over I ran down the bleachers towards all the Army guys and girls. I had no idea where he was among these 1,000s of soldiers but I knew he would find me! When I found him I ran as fast as I could up to him and nothing felt better than him wrapping his arms around me and picking me up! Finally my brother was home! I could sleep at night and not worry about watching the news.

 All my friends had no idea what was going on over seas or didn't understand about any of it. So it was hard for me to talk to people about my problems with my brother being gone. 2 years later Jacob got sent back over seas to Iraq, this time the war had settled down a little bit but was still a serious matter. This time, we got letters and phone calls all the time from him, which made it a lot better. He even got pictures this go around. Anyways, I am so proud of my brothers, not only are they just my brothers, there also my best friends, some one I can talk to all the time about anything, always there for me, and more than any of that their my HERO. Not a lot of people can say they have a hero in their life, but it feels so good that I have one. 

2nd tour in Iraq

P.S. Jacob was apart of the capturing of Saddam Hussan. How amazing is that, not very many people can say they caught a terrorist! Im one proud sister!