A Man of Legacy

So…here’s the preface to this one. My grand pa (dad’s step dad) is not going good at all. He has been having a lot of issues. This man has been a conerstone within our family. He and my Grand mother got married when they both had 6 six kids each! It’s like the brady bunch on speed! But my grand parents love everyone of their kids, grand kids, and even great grand kids with all their heart. With all of that being said, it breaks my heart to hear about what he is going through right now and can only imagine how his children (all of them) feel about this and then to think what must be going through my grand ma’s mind. This last week they celebrated 44 years together! They are an example to many and have touched more people than any one I know. I love them and wrote this out about my “paw paw” L.R. Gentry, when I heard what he was going through with his health.

“A Man of Legacy”
My father’s my hero, my confidant, and my friend.
As a child I wondered when I’d get to be like him.
I remember asking myself how did he get so smart
No problem arose to great for his insight.
He’s the man who taught me to love, taught me to fight,
To know the difference when, and to fight for the ones I love.

It was when I was older and wiser I started to ask…
Who’s been there for him as he’s been for me?
Who’d he go to with problems and for prayer in time of need?

This bond we have while unique, wasn’t the first or new.
These same lessons I have learned were taught to him too.
My faith, love and character come from a family tree.
God brought my Grandma and her man together to raise a family true.
My dad’s step dad, on this side of the family was the only grand dad I knew.
Patience, Strength, Wisdom, Love, and Faith are who he is, just to name a few

I pray that one day, my grandsons will know, where their family comes from.
Not from me, or even my father, but this man…L.R. Gentry,
The man who gives the world a proud family legacy.

Men of Madness

I walk among men of madness, a breed of beast built without guilt.
What they lack in cander they make up for with their killing skill.
These men are sons, fathers, brothers, team mates, but infantry soliders above all.
Watch as one draws the line on the other to bring about a brawl.
Fighting among us is training, it’s natural, it’s a call,
Between us it’s fun and games, however let an enemy come against us and we’ll kill them all.

Listen as we tell tales of war, how we long for more.
Begging send us now and into the night, it’s who we are, down to the core.
Trained and ready is who we are, it’s not for love of war.
Rather for love of life and knowing our sacrifice is worth the reward.

Only One Thing Left To Do

To My Future Wife,
I want you to understand that the thought of you is constantly on my mind and heart. I find my self thinking about and praying for you daily. Even through out my days I can not help but wonder what life will be like with you by side, how our kids would be and even how many there might be.

One thing you should not question is this, all these thoughts and thinking of you, do make me happy! I do not come with a perfect past, I have loved and lost and never again do I want to lose the one I love. This is why I write this letter…to PROMISE that I will love with all I am and do everything I can to come up with new ways to say it and say what you mean to me. I will vocalize, hold, protect and serve you. I give you my word that I will do my best to be everything a best friend, lover, husband and one day father should be.

If and when we are blessed with our family I will love them as I have promised to love you and to be everything they need me to be as a man, father and friend…an example. I refuse to end up as a statistic or another failed relationship. I will love you until this body breathes no more.

Now, there is only one thing left to do…Find out who you are and what God has in store!

- Yours.

Carpe Diem

Riddled by a past
So let the bad be gone
With this new life, let live
Do it right, make it last

Praying for chance
Seeking a hope
For me, the hope is you
Wanting, one more dance

Asking, kiss me now
Pleeding, hold me tight
Whisper, it'll be alright
Let us do away with these lonely nights

Home Sweet Home / Post Surgery

So a year or so ago my foot fractured or at least on the small bones in the foot called a sesmoid. Finally after a long restricted PT profile, x-rays, bone scans and ct scans I finally got the surgery needed to correct it. They had to remove the bone completely and while they were in shortened another bone as well.

When I woke up from anesthesia I thought they said something about a screw but wasn’t sure. I could care less really as long as the issue is fixed and I can return to duty as soon as possible but I heard right

oh well! Like I said, I just want to return to training and being able to get to the field. The healing process will take a few months and the added benefit to the procedure is one month of convalescent leave and I am back in Texas until the 20th of October!

I am looking forward to seeing friends and family and relaxing by the pool!

Twisted

How is it I can't trust you and yet you're still in my life?
Buried deep in truths and twisted in reason, it's been lies from the start.
How are we friends or do we just play the part?
Years have passed, dark days and lonelier nights had me wonder,
What are we doing, are we are addicted to the strife?
I ponder what could have become and what if it had been.
And all this time I thought it was my fears that kept us apart.
Broken, ruined and damned are terms you used for me
For you blamed her for breaking my heart, her for this scar.
My fears are absent from the cause of this.
Honest to God, I think it would be hell, 
Constant, haunting feeling of being locked in a cell.
White as they may be, still to me lies they are.
Assure me and tell me to trust you again.
When I listen, watch as I show you the fool I am.

A Year Later…

While on most days it seems to have been longer than a year ago that I began this journey on some it seems like yesterday. On May 25, 2010, I left Houston, TX to go to Ft. Benning, GA to begin my Infantry osut (One station unit training) which is the combination of basic training and advanced individual training. While my initial contract was not for Infantry but as a Special Forces Candidate, the basic and ait is the same. Due to injury I was unable to stay in training with SF and received orders to be stationed with the 82nd Airborne Division, 3rd BCT, 2-505 parachute infantry regiment. I have been here with this line unit since late January.  In February I went and had my foot examined to find out it was in fact broken. This injury has sidelined me on a lot of training and I am in the process of healing and trying to get back to where I can run and ruck.

Ok…on to news, the 1-505 pir of my brigade 3rd BCT deploys this week to Afghanistan for a year. Please keep this unit in your prayers as they serve their tour. I know for a fact that everyone in my unit wishes that this was us or that we could be leaving with them.

As far as my unit goes, I have met some outstanding people and a few that are close friends. The next biggest thing that we are all anticipating is our block leave! I miss everyone more that I imagined possible and look forward to seeing them. While on the topic I want to say a HUGE Thank You to my family for the prayers, calls, videos, and support. While I am not over seas it still feels like a million miles separate me from them.

I mentioned I’ve met new friends and acquaintances but I still miss the ones that were closest to me and seem to have lost contact with. In joining I knew there would be sacrifices, but in my mind it wouldn’t be the loss of contact with friends…especially while state side. But as one of my favorite authors Robert Frost said, “In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life, it goes on.” I’ll continue to do what I can and let time sort out the rest.

Since I’ve been gone the question I have been asked the most is, “Do you still believe you made the right choice in joining?”. My answer is and will continue to be yes! My only wish right now is to get the chance sooner than later for a deployment. Once back I have a few options within my initial contract time and they are to either stay enlisted and further my training with Ranger School and then I can back to either SF training or stay in a line unit. The other option is take advantage of the Army’s Green to Gold program and finish my school, do OCS (officer candidate school) and accept a commission as an officer. I still have a good bit of time to make that decision, my priority for the moment is to heal, train, and deploy.

Thank you again for all of your support. If there is anything I can do for you or if you have questions let me know!

- Joe

Brunette Veil

This long curly-haired brunette could steal the show.
She walks in and by the silence you’d swear they’d seen a ghost.
Fun loving, Life of the party, most confident girl I know.

The world at her finger tips and yet she’s shadowed by a past,
As we all have, mistakes were made that she fears will always last.

Impeccable smile and has the sexiest of stares.
But when she’s scared she hides behind her brunette hair.
Unsure of men and if that history will happen again,
she swore them off and said screw you to all the them.

Who can blame her? They’d put her through hell,
Beat and kept her down, she stayed in her shell.

By chance, I met this girl,
She held my hand, glared into my eyes and said I hate you.
I bet you’re like all the other men.
But the way she held on to me I could finally see beyond that brunette veil.

Hear Them Ring

At the end of the day, I know I’m not some great writer, but writing has always been an way to clear my head and escape. Read it slow as some the phrasing is a little out of place, but that’s how it came out so I’m keeping it the way it is.

“Hear Them Ring”

Quiet whispers of a first hello will forever echo in my soul.

Memories from the first time our eyes ever met shall carry me through.

In a thousand lifetimes I’d still know and prefer the sweetness of your kiss.

No temptation or any earthly thing could make me stray from the want of you.

Like the suns brings warmth to a cold winter morn, so does your smile for this heart of mine.

When I am here and all alone, it is the simplest thought of you that I most miss.

Your my best friend, the woman that may never know I ever fell for you.

I’ll be ruined if I live this life unsure if you thought without you, I’d be fine.

To live without you would be a life in hell, my heart wouldn’t be the same.

Listen now and close as I say these three little words, I love you.

Love the way you laugh, kiss, cry, and dance and to live without you is a shame.

Listen now and forever, hear them ring as I say the three words again, I love you.

He Waivers Not

I am too far from home right now and wish I could be there with you dad on your birthday. I love you and hope you have a day that is above and beyond all other days. I’ll see you in 29 days!

“He Waivers Not”

Aspiring to be a fire fighter and or super hero
All through childhood, I dreamt of what I would become.
Running through the woods I’d I play cowboys and gi joe’s
Without a care in the world I played and told of all I had done.

Life went on and I grew older
Some of those childhood highs soon become my adolescent lows.
My dreams turn into curiosity of what my future would hold.
I couldn’t just run along and pretend to always have fun
It was time to see reality and for life to begin.

Friends all around me came from broken homes.
They had no idea of what to do or who to be.
By no means was I a perfect kid but I knew who I was.

Time progressed and I never thought I’d be this “old”.
Never did imagine I’d go through even half of hell
Surely not that my heart would get so cold.
It’s because of my Dad that I knew I would live
God graced with me a mother and father that taught God would forgive

All my life I have had a buddy, brother, mentor, father, and hero.
When I imagined and would pretend as a kid to save the world
I see now that all I was doing was trying to be like him.

This man, my father, is the best of men I know.
He’s true to his word and waivers not from what he believes.
A leader of men and follower of God, that is my dad!

Now…I finally get to live my dream, I’m a gi joe!
I have the chance to fight for freedom, live and die for rights.
Sure I may not save the world, but there is a hope
If I can be half the man my father is, I can do so much more.

Happy Birthday Dad!