No, not Bryan. Too obvious. Plus, I don't think of him as an Armed Forces guy.
No, not Mayfield. He's a contender, to be sure. Easily Top 5.
No, not Mitchell, a name only family friends would recognize as he is a long-time friend through one of my sisters. He was the first military person in my life, and I'll never forget how he picked me up after school one day in his black Camero to the astonishment of my 7th grade peers. I felt very cool that day.
Sorry, Suzanne, not you, either, though if you were still active duty, you would be.
Not Don, though his wife Carlynn is my favorite spouse of an Armed Forces guy. This was the couple that first taught me the use of the word "heifer" in reference to rude people who offend us. Thanks, guys!
All very, very worthy nominees. There are many more I could honorably mention, but this is Sunday Storytime, and I must get down to business.
My favorite person in the Armed Forces is Colonel Putko, Bryan's boss. He's reading this blog, and so he gets the title. Kidding! Kidding! He is most assuredly not reading my blog, and though I am a lot of things, I am not the kind of wife who would so shamelessly kiss up.
He is my favorite because the day Bryan shared the news with him and the other people at work who needed to know, Putko called Bryan into his office and told him, commanding officer to subordinate, that he was under orders to make his family the very top priority. Whatever Bryan needed to do for me and the kids, whatever time away that required, he should do.
And as Bryan took off lots and lots of time over the last 2 months, he felt nothing but support from all the people at work. Putko even went out of his way to tell Bryan last week that though he had been gone a lot of hours, he hadn't "missed a beat" in terms of his productivity and duties and that Putko really appreciated the effort.
Bryan is the kind of guy who needed to hear this from his CO in explicit terms. If he hadn't, he would have felt very torn between two duties. This is just the way he's built, and so this is why I love Colonel Putko. He freed Bryan up to be the husband he wanted to be.
We went to the "company" picnic on Friday. (No, it's not really a company. But my other option was to tell you we went to the JFCC-IMD picnic on Friday. Why be haphazard with the acronyms?) We walked up to him and I asked, "Colonel Putko?" and he stuck his hand out and said, "Chris" (because all these guys are all about first-named-basis with the spouses--no rank here!) and I said, "But you are Colonel Putko, right?"
He nodded and smiled, and I said, "I have to hug you! Thank you so much!" and he hugged me back and said, "Of course, what are you kidding me? Come on!"
Then we took a picture with him.
I'll tell you more about the picnic later this week. But let's go, Amy, get to storytime already!
Today's story is about the first time I met Colonel Putko. It was mid-November. Bryan and I went to the retirement party of the guy Putko replaced. They had all just finished one of their long exercises. These are very elaborate war games, played out through computer simulations, executed all the way to the top as though it were the real deal and, short of a real missile crisis and/or war involving inter-continental missiles, these exercises are as big a deal as it gets.
I submit to you, quite humbly, that Bryan is a very key player in this command come exercise time.
The stage is set then. All the people working at this command have just come off one of these things. It went very, very well. This was the first time the new Colonel in town had seen his new team function.
At this party, Putko came towards our table, and told me, "Turn away! Don't look at this."
So, of course, I looked as he bent down and kissed Bryan. A big one. Right on the neck. Then he shouted, "I can't help it! I love this kid!" And then he walked away.
This was the first time I'd ever seen Bryan blush.
Then it was time for the toasts and talks. After everyone else offered their parting remarks to the honoree, the departing Colonel stood to offer his own. At this kind of thing, the guy who's leaving makes a point of thanking people by name, in public, and so on. . . The retiring Colonel got to Bryan and said, "And Bryan, I just can't say enough about this kid and his work. I just love him--"
At which point Putko shouted out, from the front of the room, "So do I!"
All heads swiveled towards his voice. Then he shouted, "I even kissed him!"
All heads swiveled towards Bryan.
Bryan blushed again.
And since then, it's been our little joke in the house. When Bryan had to go to DC with Putko for some conference, I said, "I think I should go just to chaperon." Or Bryan will mention how he happened to ride the shuttle to the parking lot with Putko and I'll ask, "Did you two make out in the back of the bus?"
It's all good. What can I say? Colonel Putko? I love that kid! I even hugged him!
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