New homeowners!!

Jordan sans Jamie (who was waiting for us at their rented duplex)

On the way home from Orcas Island this past Sunday, we made a stop in Spanaway, Washington, an unincorporated suburb of Tacoma, to see Jamie and Jordan’s new home. That’s right -- their new home.

The Army has a homebuyer assistance program for its troops. Jamie and Jordan sat through a few classes, then went out with a real estate agent and looked at a dozen or more homes. They made an offer on one they liked -- a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, split-level house on a quiet cul-de-sac -- and they got it.

They figured that since they were receiving an off-base housing allowance as a married couple, there was no reason they shouldn’t think about investing it in a home. They made the offer in late May, just before Jordan started three weeks of field training.

While he was away, there was some back and forth following an inspection but Jamie handled all the negotiations and the seller agreed to pay for all repairs. They began moving into their new home little by little and by the time we passed through on Sunday, the 26th, they'd gotten most of their big items in there.

We gave them a Home Depot gift card so they could pick out a lawn mower. They'll need it, as the backyard has a terraced lawn that wraps around one side and out to the front. Jordan, the presumptive mower, will have to maneuver around five fruit trees, a greenhouse and a raised bed for gardening.

Once they decide where to board Jamie’s two horses, they'll be set. The move puts them much closer to the Army base at Fort Lewis as well as to Tacoma, with its expanded shopping and entertainment options.

As you can imagine, we’re very proud of them. Homeowners at age 23 (Jordan) and 26 (Jamie)! What a great start.

Memorial Day 2011

Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta

As Americans prepare to observe Memorial Day, I imagine there will be plenty of people who don't give much thought to the meaning of the holiday.

How I wish I could sit them down in front of a TV or a computer and have them watch a "60 Minutes" special that aired tonight: "Honoring Our Soldiers"

The first segment profiled Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, a self-described "average" or "mediocre" soldier from Iowa who was awarded the Medal of Honor last November -- the nation's highest combat honor -- for his extreme bravery in a firefight with the Taliban in 2007 in Afghanistan's notoriously dangerous Korengal Valley.

The second segment took viewers to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where an Army captain and his troops at a small base are trying to hold their own against a relentless wave of insurgents, many of them foreign fighters who pour over the international border in one of the most hostile environments on the planet.

In both cases, you're left admiring the soldiers' professionalism and their absolute dedication to each other and their mission. You also can't help but plead for President Obama to pull the plug on our involvement there and bring the troops home. But for one night, those geopolitical considerations were secondary to Sgt. Giunta's story and what it depicts about the courage and heroism that spring up in the most ordinary of American servicemen.

Giunta was a teenager working as a "sandwich artist" at a Subway shop when he decided to enlist. Four years later, he ran directly into enemy fire at close range to drag a wounded sergeant to safety and then ran back a second time to kill a Taliban insurgent and prevent another wounded soldier from being taken captive.

For his actions, Giunta became the first living American soldier since Vietnam to receive the Medal of Honor. And yet he comes across as the most humble person you'd ever want to meet, insisting he had done nothing special and was, in fact, uncomfortable being singled out.

"This is only one moment," he said in the interview. "I don't think I did anything that anyone else I was with wouldn't have done. I was in a position to do it. That was what needed to be done. So that's what I did."

Of course, I thought of my son Jordan and his buddies. This weekend, they're away from base, in the midst of three weeks of field training designed to prepare them for deployment if and when it ever comes. I understand that Jordan wants to put his military training to use -- it's only natural to want to follow through and test yourself on the things you've practiced over and over. But as a father, I pray he never has to be put in harm's way.

If that day comes, I'm confident he'll serve honorably. For me, it's not that much of a stretch to see that Spec. Jordan Rede has a lot of the same qualities and values as Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta: Humility. Loyalty. Dedication to the team and the task at hand.

I'm equally confident that parents all over this country would say the same about their own son or daughter serving in today's volunteer Army.

"Two weeks in hell"

Long before he left for Fort Bragg, Jordan told us that if we ever had a chance to watch a Discovery Channel documentary called "Two Weeks in Hell," we would know exactly what it's like to go through Special Forces training.

Thanks to a friend who alerted us to the program Friday night, we now have that better understanding. It's grueling. And in writing that, I know a single word doesn't do justice to the demanding training regimen for soldiers who aspire to join the ranks of U.S. Army Special Forces and, ultimately, qualify to wear the distinctive green beret.

Understand, I'm not glorifying war or praising the warrior mentality by writing about Jordan's quest to join the best. What I am doing is acknowledging the extreme physical and mental toughness it takes to even be considered, along with the tremendous desire and focus -- not to mention tolerance for pain and discomfort -- that these soldiers must bring to their two-week challenge.

Here's a link to a short video, "Only the first day" if you want to get a sense of the training at Fort Bragg. (Warning: there's some puking and other stuff you need to be prepared for.)

I don't know when or if the documentary will play again on Discovery, but I can offer these highlights:

-- The first week emphasizes individual testing. Long hikes, with heavy rucksacks on the back, plus climbing, crawling, running. agility drills, etc., all designed to test your physical limits and confront your phobias.
-- The second week turns to group activities, where teams either succeed or fail as a whole and standards are exacting. Need to move a 600-pound weight over six miles of unpaved road? You and your teammates need to devise a plan to transport it, using a set of tires, some pipes and ropes, and you need to reach your destination in X number of hours. Miss your deadline by a minute -- as one team did -- and you've failed.
-- The training ends with a 20-mile walk in the middle of the night, carrying your weapon and who knows how many pounds of gear on your back. Sleep-deprived? Aching all over? Hungry? Get over it. You could -- and probably will -- face much worse if you're deployed anywhere in the world on a Special Forces mission.
-- Of roughly 250 soldiers who begin the training, less than half complete it. Among those who finish, only some are chosen to advance to the next level of training, an intense year of preparation there at Fort Bragg. The others? Well, it's not uncommon to try three or four times before breaking through and winning a spot.
-- The clincher: The Army just added another five days to the training, so it's now 19 days in hell.

Jordan told us we'd only hear from him if something didn't go well -- i.e., an injury or dismissal from the program. Even if things don't work out, I've learned enough from the program to respect his even trying out for Special Forces. There's no question it's an elite unit made up of only the most tough-minded, most adaptable, most driven individuals. Seems to me there's no shame in giving it your all, even if you come up short.

That said, I hope he makes it.

Above: Special Forces soldiers at Firebase Cobra in central Afghanistan. Image from "Inside the Green Berets, a National Geographic special airing Monday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Next stop: Fort Bragg

"Hurry up and wait."

That seems to be par for the course with the Army. But, thankfully, Jordan's wait has paid off. He was notified yesterday that he's among a group of soldiers who'll under a first phase of training at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., that would lead to longer-term intensive training with Special Forces, billed as the Army's specialists in unconventional warfare.

Jordan completed the last of what seemed to be a pile of paperwork yesterday and then boarded a plane this afternoon. He'll be gone for roughly three weeks, during which time his new bride, Jamie, will get by without him in El Paso. (It's gotta be tough on a military wife as a soldier makes multiple moves during his career.)

Lori spoke with Jordan last night and said he was excited and nervous. Understandable.

Put me down as excited for him (what a nice compliment that he's qualified for this initial round of training) and nervous as well (as any parent would be).

If all goes well and he advances to the next round, it would be great if we could visit him back there.

Afghanistan, reconsidered

Leave it to Bob Woodward, half of that storied team of Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal 35 years ago, to get me to thinking about Afghanistan again. Not that it's ever far from my mind.

When you have a young son who's in the Army, you read the newspapers and magazines and tell yourself that he won't be deploying for several months, maybe even a year or more, to either Afghanistan or Iraq. At the same time, you read these articles and watch the TV news reports and try to come to some understanding of what our interests are in that part of the world and whether it makes sense to be there...regardless of the soldier in your family.

It was obvious a long time ago that George Bush invaded the wrong country after 9/11. What a waste of manpower and money and public support on such a misadventure...

And so here we are eight years into the Afghanistan War, launched ostensibly to root out Osama bin Laden, with little to nothing to show for our efforts. You've got a corrupt or incompetent government with allegations of fraud in the recent presidential election, some of the most formidable terrain in the world, an impoverished and largely illiterate people whose loyalties flip back and forth between U.S. and NATO forces, the Taliban and their individual tribes, based mainly on who can help them feed their families.

As Woodward reported this week, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, warns that the war can be lost if we don't commit more troops and quickly implement an effective counterinsurgency strategy. President Obama and his advisers are reviewing his assessment as public opinion polls show waning support for our involvement there. Congressional leaders -- i.e., top Democrats like Nancy Pelosi -- have already signaled their reluctance to get in deeper. And who can blame them?

The parallels to Vietnam can't be overlooked. There, we tried to force our values and military superiority on a people whose resiliency we grossly overestimated. Back then, we were fighting North Vietnam, backed by China. Now, Afghanistan is our ally and the real threat to the United States is posed by al-Qaida cells in Pakistan, which we can't invade because it too is an ally -- though probably the most unstable and erratic of our "friends."

A week ago Sunday, we devoted quite a bit of space in print and online to the Afghanistan War:
-- A thoughtful analysis by Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich, asking "How committed is Obama to the Afghanistan War?"
-- A "Letter from Kabul," an on-the-ground report from a Lewis & Clark College professor, Zaher Wahab, who's been going back every year to visit his family and help rebuild his country's higher education system.
-- An op-ed piece by Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus, in which he contends "Afghanistan isn't Vietnam -- yet."

We followed up with an op-ed by one of our Oregon congressmen, David Wu, who had just come back from Afghanistan and announced his support for our continuing presence: "War in Afghanistan: an ongoing threat to our security."

And today our editorial board weighed in: "The general speaks. Now what?"

I don't know that I have the answers. Like Wu, I fear that withdrawing from Afghanistan will give the Taliban carte blanche to continue recruiting young men to their cause and plant the seeds for another potential attack on Americans, here or elsewhere in the world. I understand there's a difference between the religious extremism of the Taliban and the deadly militancy of al-Qaida, but it seems like the line would get blurred awfully quickly if we were to pull out entirely.

Editorial cartoon by Jack Ohman, The Oregonian

Goodbye, Oregon; Hello, Texas

We arose early today -- as in 3:30 a.m. -- in order to get Jordan to the airport by 4:15 for his flight to El Paso, via Phoenix.

The 10-day leave that began after his graduation from boot camp in Georgia came to end this weekend and PFC Rede was required to report to Fort Bliss by midnight Tuesday or face sanctions. So, with plenty of motivation and looking ahead to the next chapter as an active-duty soldier, he diligently packed up a duffel bag, a suitcase and a carry-on to see him through the next few months.

All we know of his next assignment is that it involves advanced infantry training. Where it leads from there is a question mark, with the most likely answers being Iraq or Afghanistan. Early on, Jordan considered opting for training with the Army's Airborne Division but he decided, wisely, I think, to put that off in favor of more general training so he can get a better sense of his own interests and abilities and how they might match up with different opportunities within the Army.

Already, he's heard of at least three fellow soldiers from Ft. Benning who were dismissed from Airborne school because of injuries or certain deficiencies. The standards are rigorous -- as they should be for that kind of specialty.

We enjoyed being with Jordan in Columbus and Atlanta, as well as Portland this past week. He spent a lot of time with his girlfriend Jamie but also managed to see a few friends, too, as well as a slew of relatives at this weekend's reunion.

While it was nice to see him relax in front of the TV -- watching the UFC (mixed martial arts) fights Saturday night was a priority -- two things that I saw at the beginning and end of his visit tell you everything you need to know about his character.

First, despite arriving home around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, July 13 -- six hours later than scheduled because of an unscheduled landing in Denver, due to mechanical problems -- he came into the house, immediately set down his bags, got on his knees and reached under the dining room table so he could pet Rudy, one of our two cats, whom he hadn't seen since leaving for basic training.

Second, as we were about to leave for the airport this morning (keep in mind, this is at 4 a.m.), he paused to again stroke Rudy's back and then reached into the cage where our dog Otto was resting to give him some love, too.

He may be a soldier, but he's always been a softie with animals. No wonder that Rudy was perched in Jordan's lap the night before as he sat on his bedroom floor, packing for this trip.

Graduation Day!

At the Turning Blue ceremony a week ago Thursday, Jordan and his fellow recruits were awarded the coveted blue Infantry cord, signifying their new status as active duty soldiers.

The following day, under a cloudless Georgia sky, we watched from the shade of a grandstand as members of the 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment marched onto the parade grounds behind the National Infantry Museum for their actual graduation.

The grassy field is considered hallowed ground -- and for good reason. At a dedication ceremony in mid-June, soil from eight American wars was sprinkled over the field as a reminder of the Infantry's role in U.S. history. Imagine marching on green grass, with granite markers containing so-called "sacred soil" from the battlegrounds of Yorktown, Antietam, Soissions, Normandy, Corregidor, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan.

Friday's graduation ceremony itself took about an hour and was followed by a visit to the National Infantry Museum, recently completed at a cost of $100 million and dedicated on June 19, with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, himself a former Fort Benning trainee, as guest speaker. (Check it out here: http://www.nationalinfantrymuseum.com/)

During the ceremony, there was music (patriotic songs performed by the Army band based at Fort Benning), there were speeches (from the commanding officer), there were a handful of awards (to the highest-ranked soldiers in each company and their drill sergeants), there was a demonstration of the equipment carried by members of a typical nine-man squad, and there were still and video cameras to record every moment. Most of all, there was a feeling of accomplishment at completing a rigorous 14-week basic training program.

Immediately afterward, soldiers were either given leave to spend time with their families or they were shuttled onto buses to be shipped to their next assignment, whether it be with a National Guard unit in their home state or another level of training, such as Airborne school or advanced infantry.

In Jordan's case, he'll be with us in Portland through Monday, July 13, when he flies to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, to begin his first assignment as a bonafide soldier. From there, he says, he'll most likely be shipped to Iraq or possibly Afghanistan. Things could change at the last minute -- and change back again.

All in all, an unforgettable experience.

Turning blue

A week ago today we rose early to drive 100 miles from Atlanta to Columbus, Ga., to be in place by 10 a.m. for two events at Fort Benning that would conclude with our son Jordan officially becoming a soldier.

To say we were proud parents -- eager to pick our trim, tanned 21-year-old out of the approximately 60 recruits in his company -- doesn't do justice to our emotions. We hadn't seen him for 14 weeks and we knew we were treading, literally and figuratively, on unfamiliar ground from the moment we drove past security onto the base, toward the Sand Hill Rec Center and nearby Kanell Field where things would take place on the parade grounds.

It was easy to get caught up in the excitement of the moment, but in retrospect I have to say that it was the "turning blue" ceremony where the fog began to lift for me.

You see, I've always had a murky understanding of the U.S. Army -- everything from its traditions and organization to its far-flung locations and Jordan's place in it. After spending parts of two days on base, I can say I'm beginning to grasp it.

Fort Benning is THE place where the Army trains every recruit who wants to be an infantryman. Thus, it's all men, as women are prohibited from combat. The guys go through physical training while learning all the basics -- how to shoot and care for their weapon, how to fire grenades and rockets, how to survive a chemical weapons attack, how to give first aid on the battlefield, etc.

Each recruit who successfully completes basic training is awarded a blue braid that is attached to the right lapel so that it encircles his shoulder. Lori, Jamie (Jordan's girlfriend) and I walked onto the field at the appropriate time and it was me who put the braid in place during the "turning blue" ceremony. Quite an honor for this peacenik of a dad.

In that instant, looking at the young man Jordan has become -- with great posture, self-discipline and a newfound self-confidence -- it was blindingly obvious that this is the experience he wanted all along, an opportunity to challenge himself and be part of a team in service to his country. Finally, we could see the hills he had run up, the woods where he had learned nighttime navigation, the barracks where he had slept, even the infirmary where he'd been treated for pneumonia.

It's possible that we might have come the longest distance to be there for Jordan. All but four states were represented in the two companies, Alpha and Charlie, that make up the 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment, and the commanding officers noted that the largest number of recruits had come from Texas, Indiana and Florida. In addition to those states, I recall seeing visitors' cars with license plates from all over the South -- Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky -- as well as an occasional Wisconsin, New York or Pennsylvania.

The actual graduation ceremony came the next morning, on a sunny Friday, on the grassy field behind the just-opened National Infantry Museum. More on that in my next post...

Headed to Georgia

One of the best things about Portland is the annual Waterfront Blues Festival, a multi-day bash on the Willamette River that also serves as the Oregon Food Bank's largest fundraiser of the year. It's always a great mix of music, food and weather, with ponytailed, tie-dyed hippies dancing deliriously alongside folks half their age on the grassy knoll south of the Hawthorne Bridge.

I was really looking forward to this year's line-up: Etta James, Robben Ford, Johnny Winter, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and many more. (Turns out Keb' Mo' will fill in as headliner for Etta James, who's canceling because of illness.) Alas, I'm going to miss them all...but for the best of reasons.

We fly out Wednesday morning to see Jordan graduate from basic training at the Army's infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia. Hard to say who's looking forward to it more: him, us or his girlfriend, Jamie (pictured above with our favorite lucha libre wrestler).

We haven't seen him since March 19. We've talked to him a few times, as his schedule has permitted, and visualized the transformation of an eager but innocent young recruit to a confident and capable young man. There were times when, hearing his voice, we sympathized for what he was going through. We could detect weariness and loneliness at times, but always a resoluteness to push through.

The last couple of times we spoke, it was a series of rattling coughs. He'd been diagnosed with pneumonia. Fortunately, the antibiotics kicked in and he sounded much better yesterday. He and his buddies were attending an alcohol-free Fourth of July picnic on the base -- some deserved down time from their daily routine in the Georgia heat. (He says as he steps out of the air-conditioned barracks at 5:45 each morning, the humidity smacks him in the face and he starts sweating. It was 102 degrees the other day.)

So...we fly into Atlanta and spend one night there. We rise early Thursday to drive to Columbus, about 2 hours away on the Alabama border, for some orientation activities on the base and then watch the graduation ceremony on Friday. Assuming Jordan is given a medical OK, he'll begin his leave and can join us in traveling back to Atlanta on Saturday before we all fly home on Sunday.

The one thing I want to do for sure off-base is visit the
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. I've seen it once before, along with the Ebenezer Baptist Church, below, where Dr. King regularly preached, and it remains one of the most moving experiences of my life.

Seems entirely appropriate to begin the visit honoring Jordan and his fellow soldiers, who've committed to doing a job that entails great risk in the name of freedom, and end it by honoring Dr. King and thousands of ordinary heroes, who also took on great risk for the cause of civil rights.

PFC Rede: Six weeks in

Today marks six weeks since Jordan left for basic training. It took until this past weekend for us to finally get a chance to talk to him. We missed his first three calls and had tried to be diligent about carrying our cell phones with us wherever we went.

On Saturday, we nearly missed him again. I literally had my hand on the doorknob, ready to head out to the grocery store, when I heard the phone ring in the kitchen. I rushed back to pick up and was delighted to hear it was Jordan. We had a short but reassuring conversation and I was prepared to fill Lori in when she returned from seeing her Saturday morning clients. The moment she walked in the door, the phone rang -- Jordan, again. Turns out he and his fellow trainees were given a six-hour leave and he had time to kill. Why not call twice?

Some quick highlights:

-- The first few weeks weren't as physically challenging as he expected, but his drill sergeant really stepped things up last week. He said he was sore all over, but welcomed the challenge. Others haven't fared so well, either because of illness or injury or because it's been more than they can handle. (One guy went AWOL but quickly returned when he realized all he had were the clothes on his back. Another faked being gay.)
-- They've been marching more and more -- even to target practice, which involves a two-mile uphill climb with all their gear on. The routine is getting harder because it's heating up; 90-degree days are becoming common. The most challenging and fun part of the experience so far is learning land navigation, at night as well during the day
-- The food is OK, better than expected, and they have more than the stereotypical five minutes to chow down. Still, he was thrilled to have his first bacon-cheeseburger that day at a restaurant in town.
-- They were scheduled to have a marksmanship test this week and Jordan was hopeful, even confident, that he'd score well.

All in all, he sounded good, even if it was obvious he's fighting a cold himself. He readily admitted being homesick, but we'll be seeing him in a few weeks. His company is scheduled to graduate from basic training on July 3. Our plane tickets are booked.

A final word...Last night as I watched President Obama answer questions at a press conference marking his first 100 days in office, my ears perked up when I heard him say that he was been "profoundly impressed" with the servicemen and servicewomen he's met since becoming president.

"They are very good at their jobs...and fiercely loyal to their country," he said.

I share our new president's pride.