After untold years of paper processing, waiting, and resubmitting, Erik the Younger’s military retirement is finally about over.  According to Tiffany, the official date for it to start is December 13th of this year, or about a month away.  I say it took untold years, because he started the process so many times, and then had to start again.  So to be fair, let’s say it took 3 years, because it was in process when he deployed for the last time in 2010.  He went even when it was medically wrong.  He went back even after he nearly died of pneumonia in the spring of 2011, a few scant months after his arrival in the treacherous mountains of the Hindu Kush.

So we should be grateful to the military for finally getting its act together, after this momentous effort on Erik’s part.  We should be grateful that they’ll give him a monthly stipend in exchange for all he endured, physically and emotionally, in those horrific places.  So are we grateful?  I suppose we are.

But Erik’s story has a happy ending because he has a wife that is a magnificant combination of attributes that buoyed him in the lows, chided him when it was needed,and  kicked ASS when the army treated him shabbily after his return from Kunar Province.  So I give credit where it’s due: to Tiffany Drewniak Cloud Olson – my heroine of the millenium.  And – to his credit – that wonderful son of mine knows he has a jewel in that woman, and treasures her beyond the spoken word.  So thank you, Tiffany D.C. Olson.  You are the best daughter in law a mom could ever wish for.