Return to the USA!!

Well I made it back to the good ole USA. It was a very long day for me but as the plane lifted off of the runway in Iraq, I felt many people throughout the airplane give a sigh of relief. My day started out just like any other. Early morning explosions rocked the base about 4am, but my replacement was already up and trying to get over his jet lag. He just wanted to know what to do and I groggily said to listen if the explosions are getting closer or are they getting farther away. So, that's what he did. It was just a short burst of 3 mortars, then silence. I rolled over and went back to sleep, but he got up and left the hooch. I finally got up at 0800 on Friday, 7 Oct and smiled as I walked the 200 steps to my shower, FOR THE LAST TIME. I went in to work and tried to get my replacement to get the hang of what he would be doing for the next few months. But he still was in a panic mode. I can't blame him but what am I gonna do, I already gave him 3 days to catch up and that is more than enough time to get your feet wet. He has to learn that most things happen when you don't expect and you just need to roll with the punches and laugh along the way. But, I actually found myself running behind schedule as the day went on. Before I knew it, it was 5pm and I needed to out-process and finish the packing, before I had to report to the passenger terminal at 8pm. I still needed to eat dinner, since I didn't know when I would get a chance to eat again, and I needed to finish making sure I had all the documents I needed to bring back copied onto my thumbdrive. But, I also needed to go watch Sumo Wrestling. The Mission Support Commander had been talking trash to the senior enlisted man in our wing and had challenged him to a Sumo Wrestling match. I wanted to see the Mission Support Commander get his tail kicked. He was not a nice guy and he promptly got his tail handed to him rather quickly. Nice. I quickly finished all that I needed to do and was dropped off at the passenger terminal (a tent) at 8pm. It took the next 1.5 hours to go thru customs where they looked at everything. Everything. But I just laughed and knew that they weren't gonna find anything worth the effort but who cares. I then went into this secured area for the next 4 hours. They kept telling me that the flight was delayed and then delayed. The flight was a medical flight or better known as medievac flight. I knew that they would be patients onboard and that they needed to be handled with care, so that is why there were delays. At 3am we finally took off from Iraq. As we flew north toward Turkey, I went up to the cockpit to chat with the pilots. As I was up there, 2 people I knew from the Balad Predator squadron came up to the cockpit. These 2 people were airmen that actually did some impressive things in the last few months and I took the time to tell the pilots stories of what awesome things these two people did with their job. The young lady that is just a year or two older than Melody watched the insurgents all the time and noticed some trends that they were doing. This information was passed to us at the General's staff and we made some changes to the way we prosecute the war. And so her initiatives ultimately saved lives and allowed us to shift the war to kill them before they killed us. That is the bottom line in war. I survived 92 attacks with 213 direct impacts on my base. Yeah

The sun was coming up over Hungary as we continued to fly to Ramstein Germany. I sat up front in the cockpit as we descended into Ramstein. It was foggy at the airport. My plan was to land at Ramstein, take a taxi to Frankfurt Airport. But the fog started to make me wonder if my plan was gonna work or not. Since we left Iraq about 2 hours late, I now have 2 hours to get off this medievac flight, cab it to Frankfurt Airport and get on the flight to Detriot then Phoenix. We landed in the fog and had trouble finding the terminal but with the help of a pickup truck with bright light, we followed him to the terminal. It is 8am and there was nobody around. The terminal has carts to help me with my 5 bags but it costs money. I haven't had money in my wallet for 4 months, where am I gonna get $3 to get a cart to help me get my bags to the curb. I am ticked off that there is nobody around to help me. So I lug my bags to the curb and wait for a taxicab. Finally, one showed up and we loaded up and off we go to Frankfurt at 220 kph, I think that is around 125 mph... in the fog. The fare is unbelievable. It will cost me 170 Euro which I think is $212. It is only a 1 hour drive but what am I gonna do, so I pay it. I get a free baggage cart at the Frankfurt Airport and go up to the Northwest Airline counter, 1 hour before my flight is scheduled to leave but they tell me it is oversold and that I can't get on that flight. No big deal...I just go over to Continental Airlines and get on a flight that leaves in about 1.5 hours to Newark. I check 4 of my bags and off I go. I finally get on the airplane and we flew 9.5 hours to Newark. I watched 2 movies since I couldn't fall asleep. I go into the bathroom and notice that I look tired and nasty. So I shave and actually wash my hair in the sink and then laugh since I don't have comb with me. SO I end up improvising and use my patches on my uniform to comb my hair. I look and feel better now but I still can't sleep. After we land at Newark, I have about 1 hour to go to baggage claim, grab my 4 other bags and go thru customs, again, and then recheck my bags to Phoenix and then go thru security to the gate. whew! But I am being paged over the airport system to go back to customs. They just wanted to find out if I knew I had a gun in my bag....Duh!!!!, So back thru security etc...to the gate with about 7 minutes to spare. I had a whole row to myself for the 5.5 hour flight to Phoenix. And as we descended into Phoenix, the sun was starting to set. It was now 7pm Phoenix time and the sun that I saw rise over Hungary was now setting over Phoenix, what a day. It was a total of about 46 hours up and nearly 24 hours in the air. I got a great reception in Phoenix, and was very surprised to see Matt had made the trip from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Very nice!! All in all, I think I am glad that I had the opportunity to volunteer to help do my part with the war on terrorism but I really feel bad for all of the people that had to either learn something different about their job and/or work way beyond the normal scope of their job to help me get to and from the war zone. I have a personal debt of gratitude to my unit's administration section (1 Person office, I won't say your name here but you know who you are...thanks, she will my guest of honor at a very nice dinner here in Phoenix soon). Thanks to everyone again that prayed and supported me during this time. This is that and that is now really that.