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I was just over at rose princess' blog. She is a former colleague and a good friend. She is also the wife of an Army captain who is getting ready to deploy, again, to fight the War on Terror.

Her post reminded me of something.

I was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, back in 1989. My grandmother had been there for a visit. We took her to LA and walked down Hollywood and Vine Streets, visited Mann's Chinese Theater and toured Universal Studios among other things.

We had just seen her off at LAX and were almost home when Danna told me, no, forced me to pull off the side of the road so she could throw up out the open door.

She was pregnant again.

I loved where I was but hated it at the same time, if you can understand that. I had recently (before I knew she was preggers) put in for an assignment. I chose to volunteer for a world-wide, remote assignment which means that the Air Force could basically send me wherever the fuck they wanted. Also, that meant that I would have (within reason) my choice of assignments when I came back stateside. It was the quickest and easiest way to get out of Cali and it worked.

I was picked for a remote (no family accompaniment) to Korea. It's the Gunn family luck. Long story short: She would stay with my mom and dad while I was gone. My ship-out date coincided with the projected date of Ryan's birth. The last month before my departure, we made about eight trips from Cali to Louisiana to get her shit moved and make sure she got into the hospital system at Fort Polk. The last two weeks we were going to the hospital just about every other day. She was about two weeks overdue and we were worried that I would have to leave before the baby was born, and I did NOT want that.

They decided to induce labor so that I would be able to see my son before I left. We checked into the hospital at 6 a.m. June 14, 1990 and Ryan took his first breath about two hours later. He was beautiful and a week later, I was on a plane to Korea.

Fast forward a year later. I arrive at Houston International Airport and the family is there to meet me ... including a one-year old son that doesn't know me from Adam. He screamed and pulled away from me when I took him in my arms. It broke my fucking heart. I think I cried.

Through the years he warmed up to me and both my sons and I grew to be great friends. My wife and others say Ryan is just.like.me. I take pride in that for some perverse reason but today, I realized that is not necessarily a good thing.

You see, Ryan got suspended from school for three days today.

He went to buy a bag of chips from the vending machine and they got stuck. "What did he do, Tommy?" Yeah, I know that's what your asking. Well, the machines are bolted to the floor so he couldn't shake them. So instead of going to a teacher or someone else to tell them about it, he broke the glass and got his chips which proves to me that the "nature versus nurture" argument is proven. It's nature. Genetics rule. He certainly has my DNA flowing through his body. You see, I used to rip off the coke machines on a regular basis. Given 15 minutes, I could empty a coke machine of two cases of product and not think twice about it.

On the other hand, this is the first time he has ever been in trouble in his life. Well, at least trouble that caused a suspension. If that is the worst thing he does, I can handle it. My mom called me to tell me that the school had called her office looking for me. I don't know why they didn't just call my cell, but I left work early praying he hadn't gotten in a fight or had to be taken to the hospital for some reason.

I got home and he met me in the driveway and told me immediately what he did and what happened. If he felt comfortable enough to talk to me about that, then I feel that we have a good relationship. Yeah, his ass is grass and he will be punished, but he knows that he can tell me everything that happens to him, good or bad. That he is comfortable coming to me with shit like this speaks volumes to me about our relationship and that makes me happy. Maybe I'm full of shit, but I'm proud to see the man he's growing into.

I just regret that we didn't get off to a closer start.