Former Bracker's Employee Update

Some of you may recognize Fritz in this picture, holding his 6 month old son, Jesse. Fritz and Cindy met in high school and started dating after he returned from Army basic training. Although their romance didn't last, their friendship sure did. Fritz worked at Bracker's while attending Kansas University and participating in the ROTC program. During that time, he also met Dave (another Bracker's employee and Cindy's eventual husband) and became friends with him, too. In fact, when Cindy and Dave got married, Fritz was Dave's best man (and as maid of honor, I was lucky enough to dance with a handsome military man in full dress blues, or whatever they call the uniforms with all the colorful doodads and shiny medals). When he graduated, he was commissioned into the U.S. Army. Unfortunately for us, the Army wanted Fritz full time, and they wanted him in Texas, so Fritz left us for warmer and greener (Army green, that is) pastures. Fritz married a wonderful woman named Kelly and then the Army moved him again. So Fritz and Kelly bought a house in New York and then Fritz was called up to go to Afghanistan. About 9 1/2 months after Fritz returned from his tour, Jesse was born. Fritz and Kelly sure did miss each other! Now Fritz has been called to duty again, this time in Iraq. This picture is from his departure on August 12th. He travelled to Kuwait for a bit of training and mission preparation and now he's on his way to Baghdad for about a year. We all think of Fritz, Kelly, and Jesse as a part of our extended family and will be thinking of all of them very often during this difficult year.