I've been trying to figure out how to write this post. I've tried the poetic way, the emotional way, and a few other tactics that just don't seem to work, so I'm going to go with the honest way:

An old friend of mine, Dee Mikula, is shipping out soon. She isn't in the military, but works as an EMT in Seattle and is registered with the Red Cross as a first responder in disaster situations. In 2004, she worked in central Florida during hurricane season, and on Tuesday, the ninth of September she's flying down to the Gulf to …