But first a response to Rae.
I cant wait to see the shirt. I will wear it with pride when I run in my off time. And yes I love being a dad. But that will come later.
See folks, if you write me a comment I will respond. Well maybe… NOW on with the show.
Take off… Ears Pop.
Leg Goes Numb.
Guy 5 seats down gets air sick.
Other leg starts to tingle.
Ears Pop… Landing.
And I am no longer in Iraq. The flight into Kuwait was less than a hour thank god. It is a short little up and down, but in the nasty cramped quarters of the C-130 it feels longer. There were a lot of guys that went to sleep during it, but I did not have the ability. I am not the sleep at anytime soldier. Never had that in my blood. But I am able to stay up for long hours with little problem as long as I am doing something.
So here we are in Kuwait.
We get off the bird and get bussed to our camp. A few welcome to Kuwait briefs and then we are bussed to the tents (really large nice air conditioned tents) that we will be staying in for… well crap. I guess that info will come later. And then we were released with a hard time of 0630 the next day for accountability formation. So I have been up for almost 35 hours. There is a nice hard cot sitting there with my bags on it. This is a great time to go to sleep right. Hell no! The McDonalds on base opens in a hour. It is time for so good ole American Fast food. Okay so it was not as American as I could have wished, but it was GOOOOOOD! We ended up eating there 3 times in our stay in Kuwait. Which by the way ended up being just 3 days. And it was a nice relaxing 3 days. Watching TV at the MWR tent. Eating better food. Taking hot showers in shower stalls that were big enough to actually big enough for me to bend down and wash my feet. A little shopping in the bazaar. I bought my wife her 2nd anniversary gift there. And more relaxation.
After 72 hours and a little bit of work (I was on baggage detail) we were through our customs check and on a plane. I ended up with 3 seats all to myself for the whole flight. Here is a hint ALWAYS volunteer for baggage detail. There were no 1st class seats on the flight this time, but still 3 seats to stretch out on for a 24 hour flight is nothing to shrug at.
The flight for the main part was uneventful. There was a bunch of mechanical problems, that we were never really told much about. We flew back in to Iraq, then off to Ireland for a stop over. Then on to America. We touched down, were welcomed back over the loud speakers, told that we could turn our phones on, and the texting begun. I sent out a big message saying I was home and one to my wife saying that we had landed. I got about 20 messages from the past 9 months of my phone being off. Then we gathered our belongings and carefully stepped from the plane. Then and only then did I take in a deep breath and let it out.
I was home.
Back to the… GREEN!
For now at least.
