Neighbor Back from Iraq

My neighbor is back from Iraq and visiting her parents a couple of doors down from me. Of course, I have a hard time seeing her as a soldier for us all since she grew up with the other kids on my street, including with my son. I have pictures of them all splashing around running through water hoses and generally having a fine old time on the sidewalk. But here she is, back from a tour of duty for a few months and then I think she returns. Her son stays with her mother, so I get to see him all the time, probably a lot more than she does!  She told me the story of how this little boy, he's less than two years old, telephones her in Iraq on the Internet using Skype so he knows what she looks like. When they met at the airport he ran all the way up to her she said, then he put his little hands on her face, to experience her three dimensionally, because for him, his mother's face has been two-dimensional for far too long. [If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes, your heart may be a little bit stony.]  When we talked, she had no complaints about the job she's doing except to say she couldn't get to wear a bikini at the base swimming pool as there are some Muslim Iraqi soldiers also on the base in training with the U.S. and apparently the Command accedes to their value system. I got the impression she didn't really like this rule, but obeys because, well,  she is a fine and disciplined American soldier She's in her desert uniform here and looks totally amazing, fearless and strong.