Is it really here already?

Well here we go...I've started my own blog. I hope that I'll have the discipline to keep this up for everyone who might be interested in knowing what I'm up to this year as I am deployed. Most importantly, I want my kids to have this so that when they are a bit older, maybe they'll understand a bit better about what Our Family went through in 2010.

The last time I deployed, in 2004 and 2005, my Dad and close friend Jennifer Cabrera, scrapbooked my e-mails and updates and gave them to me as gifts. I cherish them as my own Journal entries suffered from the ebb and flow of our OPTEMPO and seemed to me to be incomplete or lacking detail. But somehow, I was pretty decent about sending home e-mails on a regular basis. Its wonderful to be able to look back on that 18 month period of my life and remember the good times and bad times.

So there we have it, the first entry is in the books...I'm not going to add much to this until I arrive at Camp Shelby and get settled in. I'm trying to wrap things up at the house and spend every available second with the 3 of the most important ladies in my life. But I assure you...as most of you know...I am not a man of FEW words...so I'll keep you posted.

I mobilize on January 5th, 2010...and should be back home in less than 400 days. Please keep my wife, children, and family in your prayers for me. I will be fine...the days of leading a Platoon are far behind me in the pages of history. This deployment will test me in different ways than the last one and my family will be the ones who truly have a more difficult time. I love you all and look forward to seeing you again...as always: Pro Deo et Patria!

CPT William W. Saint
Brigade Engineer
256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Louisiana Army National Guard