Home #1

YEA!!!! I am home.  Thank you to the Allens, who came and picked me up this evening.  My flight was late, but they hung on and brought me home.  Kirt and Erin are at the hospital having a baby (well Erin is, I dont think that Kirt is the one doing all the work, his part is done.)

I will be packing and unpacking tomorrow and since the house is empty please come on by.  I dont having anything for hosting so if you want snacks or drinks bring them yourself.  I will be here untill the evening when I am going out to dinner, so please just drop by.

I will set up my computer to show all my pictures and will have time to lie about all my war stories (you guys all know that I dont really do anything, I just make it sound good).

Hope to see you tomorrow (Saturday), because then I am off to England early on Sunday and I and the family will not be back untill the 31st of Oct.

Going Home

Ok I have my flight home and I have officially signed out of the Army.  YEA!

I am getting to Portland this evening and the Allens are coming to pick me up.  Please do not be offended if I dont see you in the next 24 hours.  I will need to unpack, pack, find my pass port, and get ready to go to England for a month.  My parents are picking me up to go back up to the airport at about 5:15 in the morning on Sunday, so I will not be doing much visiting.  Keep an eye out on the blog.  I would just open the house up for people to drop by, but untill the end of October it is not my house.

Plan on seeing all of us the first week of November.

Oh, and to Dave, I have already explained the whole spelling thing.  Just read some of my earlier blog postings.  :}

Ft. Benning (still)

I just found out that the 2 briefings today are now 1 briefing.  I will have to do the other one tomorrow.  Oh well, I will still be getting out of here tomorrow, it will just be a little bit latter.  I will be home Friday probibly late afternoon.

Keep praying that Gillian stays preganant untill I get there.

Ft. Benning

24 hours on the ground here in Ft. Benning, the home of the infantry and I am already over half way done with out processing.  I have turned in all my gear, and gone to a bunch of briefings.  I have 2 more big briefings tomorrow then I fly home.  I dont know if I am leaving tomorrow night or Friday morning, but either way I am ahead of schedual.  I am stuck on post because I am to tired to do anything with all the jet lag and general travel stess. 

I am really looking forward to that home cooked meal promised by Sonia.  It looks like I will be home for 2 days before I leave for England so dont be shy offering another meal or two for me for anyone who loves to cook ( I need some fattening up, I have lost almost 30lbs and running 10-12 miles a week).  I have this feeling that my pregant wife with 2 kids is not going to offer a bunch of babying to her newly returned husband so I need to get it out by the time I get to England.  I figure she is going to put me to work pretty fast. 

Actually our plans when I get to England are for Gillian and I to go to a nice restraunt and a B&B for the first night.  Then after the 2 of us have had a home coming then see the boys the following day, and relive the Grandparents from their long hard duty.

See all you Oregonians soon.

Atlanta

So here I am at 0800h eating a Chilis sandwich and drinking an IBC rootbeer (notice the subtle advertising? I get kick backs from them.)  I will be getting into the Ft. Benning area by about 1400h and I hope that I will be able to at least start outprocessing, but I bet I will have to start tomorrow.  I got into Ft. Dix Delaware yesterday at about 1700h and then got all the gear and signed in by about 1900.  The local VFW meet us there and feed us a home cooked dinner.  It was pretty cool, and good.  Then after a few briefings they released us to the barracks.

It felt pretty good to take my first shower in over 2 days.  Since we all wanted the shower, I did not truely luxurate in it, but it was still very nice.  I then promptly went to bed.  We had to get up at 0100h to get everything loaded and get our tickets and then get over to Philidelphia airport.  I got a police escort all the way to the airport.  We did not stop for a single stop sign or light.  I am sure that it was because I was in the bus, not that the were taking care of 5 bus loads of returning soldiers.  What was shocking is no one even bothered to thank me for it. :}

I meet a realy great Christian on the way to Atlanta, he is a Pastor, Lawer, and Missionary.  The ministers to Christian and non-Christian business men.  It really sounds like an interesting ministry.  We had a great couple of hours talking about ourselves, our faith, and our missions.  It was a great welcome home.

Once I got to Atlanta I went on a search for dinner, now I know it is the morning, but my brain (stomach) said it was dinner.  It was pretty depressing, they were only serving breakfast every where that I went.  So, I ended up only getting a sandwich.  It was quite dissapointing.

Now I am updating my blog as I wait for the plane in about 21/2 hours.  You are now as updated as I can make you.  Keep holding your breath for more exciting updates.

Germany

YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am now out of the Asian theater.  I am now on a 2 hour layover in Germany, then to Texas, then to Delaware.  After that I get on a civillian flight to Ft. Benning.  It still sounds like 2 days to out process, then home by the 28-29th.  Then finaly out to Enlgand on the 1st. 

I am flying commercial airlines, but it is totaly booked by the army and completely full.  I am in a middle row, so life is not a lot of fun, but, hey, I am on the way home, it cant be to bad.

As always I will keep everyone updated on my progress as I am able.  I will keep doing this blog untill the whole family is back in the US, so stay posted.

Answere for Stupidity

I have been thinking about this, and I think I know why the Airforce does this: it is to protect the crazy passangers.

Look at it this way; no one is dumb enough to pull a gun with 80 other heavily armed soldiers, they would get blown away.  But, if you pull a knife, shooting you would be overkill so you would probibly not get shot.  You are just at higher risk of doing something stupid with a knife.  So the whole thing is not for the aircrews protection.  It is for the crazy passanger protection.

See it does all make sense if you think about it.

Yea, I am leaving tomorrow morning to the US.  I think I am headed to Ft Bliss Tx, and then on to Ft. Benning after that.

Stupidity of unusual porportions

I have some true stupidity for everyone: not I am gettting out of the Army type stupidity; it is you have to be kidding, no you really mean it, stupidity.

It reminds me when I was in the rangers and someone broke their ankle on a parachute jump, and they were wearing non-issue boots.  The rangers then in their infinant wisdom made the conclusion that the boots where at fault so they banded non regulation boots.  We will totally ignore that on average there are 5-6 broken ankles a year in a parachute battalion.  I love the army.

Anyway I, and 80 other soldiers, marines, and airman get on a C17 yesterday armed with M16s, M4s, and 9mm pistols.  We have enough fire power to take out a battalion of Talaban with some to spare.  When we go through the security gate we are serched for knives.  There is an Airforce policy that you cant take knives on board.  You have got to be kiding me.

Let us see, I think I will ignore the pistol at my side and hi-jack the plane filled with heavily armed soldiers with my pocket knife.  I can see why the airforce would be concerned with that.  I possibly said something sarcastic to the airforce, but fortunately they still let me on board.  I love the Airforce.

Ok so the real travel update is I am now in Kuwait and my flight back to the US is very early in the morning on the 24th.  That is great news as far as I am concerned.  I am told that it takes 2-3 days to out process, so I should be getting back to Oregon by about the 28th.  I am planning on buying my ticket to England for the 30th, and then the  whole family will be back the 31 of October.

I will keep you updated if I find anything dumber than the no knives, but guns are ok rules.

Bagram

Yea, one more step in the right direction.  Thanks for all the prayers.

So here is the current situation.  I received a letter from the DCO (the second in command here in Afghanistan) stating that I need to be hurried back to the US.  That got me moving and a number of people involved trying to organize flights for me.  Bagram is the big hub to get into and out of Afghanistan and I am hoping to get on a flight to Manas tonight, but there is another one tomorrow morning as well.  Manas is the hub for getting back to the US.  I am hoping to get out of Manas in the next 2-3 days, maybe to Dover, then a comercial flight to Ft. Benning Ga.

I will keep everyone updated on the next leg, and I want to say thanks again to everyone who is praying for me, and to all the millitary people that have helped me get this far.

Hail and Farewell, and Birthday Party

              

This is officially Jo’s birthday, but also my going away party.  For all of you who have missed my smile the first one is for you.  The next one is one of the interpetures that worked with us a lot.  The next one is one of my medics, the birthday girl (she does not look 50 does she?), and me.  The dress she is wearing is a gift from a couple of the navy guys and it is pretty stuning.  The final one is basicly the whole aidstation.  We are missing two in this picture, but we did get most of them.

So here is the deal right now.  I got back to Camp Phoenix today (your time) and have started the out processing.  I worked pretty hard yesterday (today for you) and got about 80% done.  I will finish today, then it will be a matter of getting a flight out of here.  Unfortunately the first official open seat out of here is the 3rd of October.  That will not get me to England in time for the birth.  However, there are a bunch of people here who are aware of my situation and they are working on getting me an earlier flight.  Please keep me in your prayers about this.

The good news is I am not sitting around doing nothing here, I already have several Ortho appointments schedualed.  So at least I will stay busy while I am waiting for the flight.

Hopefully I will see you all soon.