A letter from Joshua about my sonJune 26 2008

Hi mom,

It always brightens my day when I wake up, and the first thing I do is read from you. I am sorry for the grief, but as u had said earlier everything happens for a reason. Do not let the grief overcome you coz Lane is resting peacefully. Our grief would disturb his rest. Be strong mommy. You can do it.

I met Lane and talked to him the very first day we were in boot camp, and he was very friendly to me. I thought it was really nice of him because you know with being a foreigner and having an accent. As some of the people say I was a little bit laid back and tried to keep to myself, but always Lane would come to me whenever we were free and ask me a lot about Kenya. We even started planning on how we would go together someday and buy houses and resale them later. It was amazing how we just clicked and had so much in common. We had goals....

Our friendship grew even more when we were first allowed to go and worship.  I think that was the 2nd week of boot camp. They normally let you go for Sunday service but you gotta sign and hand in the names of those going and what specific service or religion they are going to. Now guess who used to write the names of the group we went to service with........  It was Lane. He was a leader in the making and some recruits kind of didn’t feel good about his ambition.

Anyway, he was my best friend, and we had a lot in common. We both loved this song “Come Now is the Time to Worship.” I believe you know it. And they had like a video playing as the song played. It was fun. Church was a big relief from the yelling and monotonous routines of basic training, but we were strong.

Now when it came to asking one another what job they had signed for in the Navy, I realized that Land and I were in the same rating-the Hospital Corpsman job. That made us even closer, in a good way.

On Sundays before or sometimes after church, Lane would come all the way from the other end of the hall where we used to sleep and come to my corner, and we would write letters home together even though I didn’t have anyone to write to at the moment. Lane asked me one day if I would write something to you all, and I think that is how I started knowing you and the rest…

He inspired me, and I inspired him. I felt so bad when I had been trying to help him with the running and he ended up having a problem and couldn’t make it, but he always showed the will to go on.

note: My son injured his leg 2 days before the end of Basic Training. He was kept in medical for a couple of weeks until they determined that the injury would require several months to heal. He was dismissed from Basic Training. He could have returned in 6 months, but would have had to start all over. Because of his heart defect, he had gone through a lot just to qualify, and the medical waivers required to go back would now include his leg. He decided not to go back… with great disappointment.