Strong Minds

I just got off the phone with Major Zembiec’s mother and father.

A friend of mine came by just a little over an hour ago to pass on the message to me that the Zembiec’s would like to speak to me. Mr. Zembiec reiterated what so many of us live with now, people afraid to talk to “us” for fear of “opening up old wounds,” though I think by now they’ve talked with enough people and that feeling in their hearts tells them, confirms to them, that this wound indeed never closes.

Mr. Zembiec is a well-spoken man, a retired FBI agent, conservative and proud of his son. He’s ready for the “fan-fare” to die down, that part is terribly exhausting, and to just enter the phase of his life in which grief will always be a part of it, but I know too, his strong family, Mr. Zembiec’s strong daughter-in-law and the beautiful grandchild, Fallyn Justice, just now 1 ½ years old, will be a part of that, a balance as it were, to this process. When I asked him about Pam, the Major’s wife, he said, “You know the roller coaster ride, so everything is always up and down, but she has a strong mind … she, we, all will make it.”

His voice broke a few times during the five or ten minute conversation. He wanted to wish me happy Veteran’s Day, and to tell me how much his son thought of my son, of all of them, he said. “My son said there were not enough commendations to give out that day….”

Mr. Zembiec speaks with SgtMaj. Skiles on a regular basis.

They may come to visit sometime, as they live here in New Mexico.

Though he didn’t request it, I would ask that you would keep the Zembiec’s in your prayers. Strong minds still need a refuge, perhaps even more so.

Again, thank you, Major. Thank you Zembiec family. And thank you to all the Young Lions who fought by his side. I can tell you this: YOU’LL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN!