Thank you, Mrs. Greyhawk.

My fiance just got home from a 1-year call-up by the Army and throughout his deployment, he's been thrilled and relieved at how easily I accepted everything he's had to go through and what's been required of me being the one "at home" and taking care of business.

Having been born and raised in the military (Air Force) had everything to do with that. Military life isn't easy, but it's got its rewards. And those rewards don't come without a price.

You spelled out quite nicely how "different" we are. Many of us our quite worldly, but we've had so many hard knocks the last thing we'd think of would be to stick our noses up in the air about it (g).

I grew up an "Air Force Brat". As a kid I remember Black, Phillipino, American Indian, Japanese, Korean, & a whole slew of other types of kids as friends & aquantances. We all went to the same churches for the most part too. Prejudice didn't really raise it's head, until I went to school in the deep south in the mid 70's. I've been back since & it's not as bad now . but it was palpable & went both ways back then. I couldn't really understand it. Having travelled to over five foreign countries since, you realize people are pretty much the same; everyone wants someone to love and have a safe place to raise their kids. Cultures may be different, but most people are the same. Keep supporting your husband and know ya'll are in our thoughts allways.

My pops was an Air Force Pilot, Double hernias grounded him in fighter training for Vietnam, so they sent him (and us) to Jerusalem to fly UN bigwigs around until we hastily departed in '67. We lived in an apartment with Arab neighbors on the Jordanian side of town...While I agree some of the military in red states has 'been around', to claim the preponderance of red staters isn't provencial is stretching the truth beyond what any silly putty can maintain... I've got relatives in Jackson, Miss. West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas and Colorado. Believe me, there is a backward slant to their thought processes that takes a little modifyin' on my part, having grown up with West Coast ideals as a norm....

Scott: "to claim the preponderance of red staters isn't provencial is stretching the truth"

I would accept your statement if you dropped the word "red". The preponderance of Americans are provencial, it is more the self-centered elitism of the upper echelon "blue staters" that allows them to project their own traveled cosmopolitan experiences on all in their domain. It is exactly this conceptual disconnect with the average American that continues the marginalization of the Democrat Party.

As much as the "left" deride the "mindless, bigotted military" they continually miss that it is the single greatest example of succesful integration and meritocracy in the US. I would be interested in seeing statistics of multi-ethnic families in the military compared with the population at large. Far from just the "war bride" factor, I can say without a doubt I regularly see more cross-cultural couples among natual Americans on base than I do in town.