The trip home was long but the reunion made it worth every second. I will not bore you with the details but in short we arrived 14 hours later than our original arrival time but fortunately we still had some connectivity with the families back home and we were able send news of our delay before families and friends headed to the base for our arrival. Unfortunately we did not arrive into California in time to trick-or-treat but each Marine received a little bag a candy from the USO during our fuel stop in Minnesota. At 0100 on Saturday morning I was able to give my bride a big hug and kiss after our 6 month hiatus. When I arrived home I woke my kids to let them know I made it home safely and would see them in a few hours for breakfast. Now that I have made it back to the creature comforts of living in a house let me recap some numbers of my trip to Iraq.
As a unit we worked over 180 days with only 8 days off and made 99.4% of our assigned mission. As an individual I flew over 260 hours, ran over 240 miles, earned two Air Medals, and lost about 10 lbs. Of the 10 lbs I lost I am pretty sure at least a few ounces were from the wind sandblasting dead cells from my skin. Overall this was a good tour largely inpart of the dedication and teamwork from the Marines within the squadron. The moral of the squadron never wavered even in the face of 140 degree heat. With the sand and wind now a memory there will be much to celebrate over the next few days and especially during Thanksgiving.
I hope this blog has been an interesting read as this chapter of my career comes to an end. So when will the next entry be? Good question. At this time future entries are unknown but if the our involvement overseas continues at its current pace you can guarantee I will be entering several more posts before I retire from active duty. Thanks for reading and have a great day.
1 comment:
Glad to hear you're home safe!!!
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