Sending your kid to war is harder than I thought

This staying behind thing sucks. I never realized it was so hard to be the one staying home where it's safe. I've always been the one leaving.

I went to the PX today and picked up some things for Aaron's first care package. He lost his watch so I got to shop for a new one for him. Being a watch nut, that was fun for me. In this case I found him a cheap Casio digital, just in case he loses this one too.

Some of the other things I picked up:
Anti-bacterial wipes
Eye glass cleaning wipes
Single load packs of laundry detergent
Q-tips (for ear and weapon cleaning)
Ibuprofen
Moleskin (for blisters)
Self heating hand and foot warmers
Book of crosswords
Couple of decks of cards
A set of dice
Vitamins
Batteries (AA)
Protein bars
Sunflower seeds
Ziploc baggies
A magazine and a paperback book

(If you know anyone over there, all this stuff is nice to get.)

Since Aaron's birthday is coming up, I got a big Hanna Montana gift bag in which to put all this stuff. Not because he likes Hanna Montana, but just for laughs. Imagine a Marine infantryman in combat opening up his care package and everything is in a little girls gift bag.
Well, maybe it's funnier in my head, but I'm sending it anyway.

Then on the way home a song on the radio hit me funny and I had to pull over because of the tears. I'm not the crying type, but there it is.