Then she heard that so many families were calling the medical clinic at nearby
And finally, over the summer, an administrator told her that the hospital on base was overrun with women in labor, and was delivering nearly 300 babies a month. “I was shocked,” said Ms. Chavonne, whose husband, Anthony, is the mayor here. “That’s 10 a day.”
For the first time since the Gulf war, the entire 82nd Airborne division was deployed during the surge in 2007. Nearly 22,000 soldiers joyously reunited with their families when they began returning last October. The base is also host to 29,000 soldiers from other units, which all contributed to what by August was an estimated 50 percent surge in births at
The community has turned this into a celebration. On Saturday, about 1,000 recent mothers and mothers-to-be gathered as guests of honor at Boots & Booties, billed as the largest military shower ever.
It’s been ever so and I suppose only the NYT would find this newsworthy… the phenomenon is common knowledge among military people. The article also reminds me of that ol’ joke we used to tell each other… ad nauseum… when we were deployed:
Q: You know what the second thing is I’m gonna do when I get home?
A: Put my B4 bag down.
Plus ça change…
"Ah. Great minds... I posted on this today, too!"
ReplyDeleteWell so you did! ;-) And it's a rare thing when I beat you to a story. LOL.
And yes, homecoming sex even beats makeup sex. IMHO.
"And yes, homecoming sex even beats makeup sex. IMHO."
ReplyDeleteAGREED.
"Put my B4 bag down" pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteDoc and Andy: re: homecoming. Yep. We're ALL agreed on this point. Although I'd settle for almost ANY sort of sex at this point. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteLou: That joke was only a slight exaggeration, ya know. :-)
Obvious solution to shrinking population status: We just need to pass around that paratrooper food to increase the population.
ReplyDelete(My feelings are Navy chow has always been and always will be, superior to other service branches chow.)
I've only eaten in Navy chow halls once or twice in my life so I can't comment with any sort of first-person experience, although SN2 used to rave about the food on subs. He doesn't (or hasn't) talk much about run-of-the-mill Navy food.
ReplyDeleteThat said... I always thought Air Force chow was pretty danged good, especially on small installations (like radar sites, where I served the majority of my career... the site got extra dollars [1.5 times the usual amount of money] to buy food on the local economy). Case in point, from one of SN1s recent e-mails:
We had steak and lobster last night for the Marine Corps B-day… crab legs, BBQ chicken, polish sausage, and prime rib for lunch today for Vets day… and Wednesday is usually “Surf and Turf” night. I’m starting to feel like we’re a wee bit pampered…
Granted: Balad is a "joint base," with troops from all four branches, and the food is contractor-prepared. But still... USAF is the host org, so I'd call the food at Balad "Air Force food." Would that I ate that well on a daily basis!
Well, I see nobody is hailing the glory of Army food so far, and with good reason. We used to head from Bragg over to Pope when we had the chance to eat at a chow hall there.
ReplyDeleteDang that's a lotta kiddos...!
ReplyDelete(But no, I'm not surprised, either...hahahaha)
Andy sez: Well, I see nobody is hailing the glory of Army food so far, and with good reason. We used to head from Bragg over to Pope when we had the chance to eat at a chow hall there.
ReplyDeleteYup... I hear ya. I spent a year in a USAF tenant unit on an Army base in Turkey, and the food SUCKED (prepared by contractors, under Army "supervision," such as it was). Breakfast was the only meal they didn't screw up... and as a result I ate most of my meals "at the club."
Mezzo: Agreed!