Beyond the Game...

Plenty of other blogs have told you about the genius, Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun, and his opinion of Detroit. While I support you emailing him at robert.tychkowski@sunmedia.ca, I am going a different direction. Unfortunately I did not plan this out in advance, so there will be no pictures accompanying today's message.

I have known many people who have served or are currently serving their country as a member of the armed services. My father served in the Navy (thankfully not during combat) and my grandfather's brother who was in the Army is still listed as MIA. It kills my grandpa that he doesn't know what happened to his brother, but he is still so proud of him.

Many people I went to high school with have served in every branch of the military including my friend Chirag who was in the Marines and Casey, also a Marine.

My friend Jilian's step-brother Brian is an MP with the Army. From what I've been told, it is really dangerous for MPs to spend a lot of time in Afghanistan, so they rotate them out quickly (as in a few months at the most) between Afghanistan and a base in Germany. I haven't seen Brian in a few years, but as far as I know, he is still stationed in Germany/Afghanistan.

The deployment I know the most about, however, is my older brother's best friend Dave. Had I thought this through ahead of time, I would have asked Dave, a Wings fan, if I could put up a picture of him either in Army gear or Wings gear. Oh well, maybe next time. Anyways, Dave joined the ROTC to help pay for college. Through some weird circumstances, he went from being told he wouldn't see action to being called up to serve a few years ago. Recently, Dave decided he wasn't done with the Army and, after discussing it with his wife, went through whatever procedure he had to and is now back in Afghanistan with his unit. They have a dog with them for right now that they rescued from some boys who were torturing it just outside their base. He asks for letters and emails, but also for things like beef jerky. That request makes me laugh because he could always pack away an impressive amount of food.

So yeah, there's an idiot writing for the Edmonton Sun and, even more importantly, there's a game tonight. But there are also a lot of men and women all over the world putting their lives on the line to serve their country and we can't forget that.