Worrell lived across the hall from us in Korea. We were all assigned to Suwon Airbase and Worrell worked for my husband in the warehouse. He was full of good idea fairies. He swore up and down that you could train a cat to use the toilet and well, since we had an illegal cat (no pets were allowed in the barracks, it’s a long story) we decided that sure, I’ll try to potty train the cat.

It lasted all of three days until the cat crawled into the chair behind me and pissed down my back. And there went that idea.

Worrell had a little mutt of a puppy (again another thing no one was supposed to have). SeaMax, as we lovingly referred to the asshole, was a first class douchebag, who like to beat up on one of the only two authorized dogs (the unit mascot known heretofore as T-Dawg and who in her hey day was credited with five enemy KIAs when she served as the early warning guard system for the warehouse. Another long story). Corporal Thunder hated SeaMax, who was a fluffy white hair ball prone to falling asleep at the drop of a hat and staying that way.

We tried to shave SeaMax one night. We thought it would be easy. I mean, after all, it looked easy enough when the pet store people did it right? Yeah, by the time we were done, SeaMax was a mutilated clump of white fluffy patches. He looked like he had mange and oh God did we laugh. Max was actually embarrassed though. It was a good memory.

Then there was the time that we finally got the company commander to agree to promote CPL Thunder to Sergeant. She’d been passed over for promotion several times and was about to call the Inspector General. Luckily, the chain of command had a sense of humor and Worrell stood in front of the formation, holding the chihuahua mix, making her salute the commander as he pinned sergeant rank to here chest. Here’s a picture in case you think I’m making this up.

We left Korea in 2003 and the war started. But my husband kept in touch with Worrell, serving another tour in Iraq with him, even though they were assigned to different units.

Worrell died in Iraq 2010.

For those who have served, the war never ends. Hopefully, it gets easier to talk about. Worrell, you will never be forgotten.

We miss you, buddy.