A special cup

October 21, 2004

Staff Sgt. Charlie Hightower saw something today he hasn’t seen in seven months.

His wife asked him over the Internet if he missed his coffee cup and raised the shiny stainless steel vessel to the web camera so he could see it.

“I do miss it,” said Hightower. “When I saw it, I got a little tear in my eye. Really. But I’ll be drinking out of it again soon.”

He didn’t bring his favorite cup to war. He has a different cup he bought especially for combat. It’s served him well, he says.

It may not sound like a big deal, but you have to know Charlie.

The man loves coffee.

He’s written a poem to Ol’ Blackie, the Delta Company coffee pot that has brewed pot after pot of coffee goodness ever since the brigade deployed.

And he’s trained many of us on the art of coffee brewing. Not just anyone is allowed to brew coffee around here. It has to be up to Hightower’s standards.

“Take a spoon from the [Meal Ready to Eat], pile it so high with Folgers that grounds spill onto the handle (He’s kind of a coffee snob that way) and repeat five times...”

Cream and sugar?

They’re for wimps, Hightower says. Actually, he uses a stronger word than wimp, I’ll just let you figure that one out.

Charlie expects to be home in a matter of weeks, able to drink coffee out of his old cup with his much-missed wife by his side.

He’s missed her more than his coffee cup, but he’s quick to say he’ll miss the guys staying behind just as much. Charlie is one of the more than 240 Arkansas soldiers who will be leaving for Arkansas in the next few weeks.

These soldiers were deployed just two years ago to Egypt and have been in Iraq since April. The Pentagon says they’ve been deployed for 24 months, the maximum allowed for guardsmen and reservists, so it’s time for them to go home.

They’ll get to go home to loved ones and favorite coffee cups, bass boats and old pickups.

But ask Charlie and any number of these soldiers, and they’ll say their minds and part of their heart will remain here with the buddies they’re leaving behind.

“I’m going to cry, I know it,” Charlie said. “You will, too.”

Well, we’ll see about that.

And if I know Charlie, while he’s thinking of his buddies in Iraq, he’ll be thinking of Ol’ Blackie, too.

Posted by Amy at October 21, 2004 02:53 PM