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DEL.ICIO.USArmy wife has mission of own
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mikki K. Harris
Sybil Laudermilk endures husband's absence with mission of own.
If you wanted to, you could call Sybil Laudermilk a promise keeper.
When her husband got called up to go to Iraq, this is what she told him:
“If you’re gonna be on a mission, I’m gonna be on one. You’re deployed and activated, then I’m gonna be deployed and activated working just as hard as I can for you.”
No use worrying about what you can’t control, and Sybil Laudermilk knows for sure that she can’t control Congress, the troop increase, insurgents or public opinion. Yet in the messy situation that is this war, Sybil Laudermilk can keep her word. And calling herself up for her own tour of duty might make enduring her husband’s tour a little bit easier.
Her husband is Georgia Army National Guard Sgt. James Laudermilk of Flovilla, by way of Everywhere, USA, because he was a Navy brat. She never once told Jim, “Don’t go.” Maybe she cried to herself in private, but to his face she told him, “Go and serve your country.” Her daddy served 40 years in the Army National Guard and her uncle was military, so, by her telling, she’s got it in her honest. She cries when they play the “Star Spangled Banner.” And she doesn’t particularly care if some people find that hokey.
Jim has been over there now seven months with Company H, 121st Infantry. When she’s not in downtown Atlanta working as a personnel administrator at CNN, Sybil’s post is in their home in Flovilla, south of Atlanta.
She starts each week of her tour at Jackson Church of the Nazarene. She and Jim found each other later in life, and Nazarene is where they made their oath. Hardly a Sunday goes by that she doesn’t have the pastor lift up Jim’s name in prayer. Maybe it changes things, maybe it doesn’t, but it helps her stand all this a little better.
By Monday or certainly Wednesday, she’s wrapped up a cardboard box of supplies to mail. She buys for Jim. She buys for the guys in his unit. Like the other week, Jim was hankering for some barbecue sauce from Shane’s Rib Shack over in Locust Grove. Sybil got it for him and sealed it up in a ketchup bottle. Jim told her it’s made the chicken over there taste a lot better. Jim’s captain got a satellite for the unit so they could access a Webcam to keep in touch with family. But they needed extra cable to reach an Internet connection. Sybil went online and found the 4,000 feet of cable they needed and shipped it. She told Jim it was her gift. He started to protest but decided it wasn’t worth fussing with a woman with a made-up mind.
Every two weeks, Sybil lugs 15 pounds of magazines down to the post office and plunks down $20 to get it to Iraq. Sometimes she puts movies in there or clothes for Iraqi kids.
Walking up to that mail box, a feeling comes over her that’s as close to pride as she likes to get. There’s comfort in every pound.
Just like the guys go on special missions over there, Sybil has one here. Almost every day she hits the treadmill and elliptical machine. She’s down 60 pounds now and counting. Jim will be home on leave soon. When he sees her he’ll probably come as close to pride as he likes to get.
Every night before she goes to sleep, she sends him an e-mail saying good night. Because he’s eight hours ahead of her, she tells him good morning in that e-mail, too. By 4:15 a.m. her time most days, he has responded.
She doesn’t burden him with details of what broke down in the house or stuff like that, because she’s 47 and can fix it herself or get it fixed. Besides, he needs to worry about staying safe, not that the plumbing is acting up.
Sybil has a purpose over here. She can’t worry about what ultimate purpose the war will have served.
“Whether you support the war or not, whether it does any good or not, I don’t know. But I’m gonna support them while they’re there. Those are human beings.”
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Reports from the Homefront
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By SGT James Laudermilk
March 4, 2007 6:21 AM | Link to this
That’s my PWLGP! (Precious Wonderful LiL GA. Peach) Thank you for all that you have done and do for us darling! I’m proud and blessed to call you my wife.
You are always in my prayers. Loving and missing you from Tal Afar, Iraq
By Jennifer
March 10, 2007 7:49 PM | Link to this
God bless you both! From one Army wife to another, I know both how hard it is and how great it is to be married to a soldier! Keep up all that you’re doing! And SGT Laudermilk, just know that more of the folks here at home are of the same feeling as your wife, and support you guys wholeheartedly!
By Penny Schneider
March 14, 2007 7:48 AM | Link to this
To the wives of Company H, 121st Infantry, I set where you are now sitting almost two years ago. My husband is with the GA ANG also. He was in Iraq with HHC 2/121 of the 48th BCT. My heartfelt prayers go out to each of you and your husbands. I applaud your bravery even when you don’t think you are brave. You (not just by being a military wife) are probably finding strength that you didn’t know you had and it’s going to make you a better equipped for any challenge. To my fellow “sisters in the silent ranks” I understand where you are and what you are going through, hang in there you are going to make it. Hugs to all of you and your families.