Home

After a long but uneventful flight, I arrived back home to a hero's welcome last Thursday.  Not only was my family there (they were able to meet me at the gate as soon as I walked off the plane - special deal the airlines offer for just this sort of thing) but the officers from my parent command were waiting just outside the security boundary to welcome me home as well.  It was a wonderful arrival!

Yesterday was my first full day home and mostly I was struck by the dichotomy of feeling out of place "back in the world" and also feeling like I'd never left somehow.  It is hard to adequately explain but I hope you get the idea.  Being home isn't 100% normal just yet but having the long weekend to ease back into my routine should help that transition.  I have to say going out for pizza at our favorite local place for dinner last night was awesome!  I'd forgotten how much flavor food can really have - plus, I was able to have a beer with my pizza like usual - whoo hoo for the big small things!

I have one more wrap-up post in mind, but it is hard to imagine not having "Pearl in the Desert" as a routine forum anymore.  Thank you all for your support these last ten months.  I can tell you without a doubt, the support from folks here at home makes all the difference in the world to the men and women still in harm's way.  Even though I am back home safe and sound now, please continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Cheers, Pearl

Last Day

It’s finally here – my last day in theater!  Yesterday I said goodbye to all of the folks who’ve been on this journey with me since my initial training in Norfolk back last July.  Right now they should be somewhere over Europe after a refueling stop in Germany.  Like I’ve said earlier, in some ways it sure would have been nice to be on that plane instead of writing this post here still in Kuwait, but last night as I was getting a sound night’s sleep while they were going through their last agonizingly slow Army processing, I imagine more than one would have changed places with me.  I suppose it’s a “grass is always greener…” thing.  Regardless, after dinner tonight I’ll be taken to the airport where I’ll fly like a normal person on a regular airline.  And through the magic of jet travel, I will be home by early afternoon tomorrow.

Part of the intentional down time built in to this out-processing is to let us transition from “adrenaline life” to “normal life.”  I think the Navy overestimated how much adrenaline we’ve been living on but the model they use is Vietnam where Soldiers were transitioning from the jungle to the dinner table in 48 hours.  When I think back to my grandfather (WW I) and uncle (WW 2), that sort of transition wasn’t necessary because they had at least a two-week ocean voyage just to get back to America.  Only because of jet travel do we intentionally have to build in a transition from a wartime environment to a peacetime environment.  Anyway, I found that interesting to think about this week.  It’s not like I had a whole lot else to do!

Anyway, today is my 281^st day in theater (my orders were for 280 – I get a bonus day – joy!) and thankfully my last.  I have a few more posts left in me to wrap things up but “Pearl in the Desert” is winding down.  I want to thank all of you who have read, supported, and prayed for me and all of us over here.  Every bit has been warmly felt and appreciated more than I can adequately express.  God bless you all and especially those still in harm’s way.

Cheers, Pearl

Almost Finished

Well, the journey is almost complete.  Yesterday I turned in all of my Army-issued equipment (a day we all called the "2nd best of our tour" since the Army holds people personally financially responsible for issued gear and we were all anxious to get receipts that we'd returned it all in good condition) and today we attended three hours of Return and Reunion briefings.  I suppose for someone who has never deployed these briefings were helpful, but for those of us who have been saying goodbyes and hellos for a career, the golden nuggets were few and far between.  However, the best part is, the transition program is now finished and all I have left to do is fly home (the 1st best day of my tour)!

Because of some quirk in making travel arrangements, three of us won't be leaving with the rest of our group in the wee hours of Wednesday morning on the military charter flight but instead will be flying home via commercial airliner Wednesday evening.  On the bad side, instead of arriving home late Wednesday night I won't arrive home until mid-day Thursday.  But on the very good side, I don't have to go through tedious hours of hurry-up-and-wait with the others beginning tomorrow at 2pm for a 1am flight!  When I learned I was flying commercial I was disappointed at first, but after hearing the charter schedule and procedures to get home, I think flying the "Friendly Skies" of United might be a more civilized mode of transportation - well, as civilized as a 7,700 mile flight can be!

Yesterday at lunch here at the new base we were startled to be eating off real plates with real metal forks and knives (instead of plastic which was all we had in Iraq) and most remarkably of all, glass glasses for our drinks!  I don't mean to say this was all fine china as it was still institutional stuff, but it was a somewhat jarring change from what we had all come to regard as "normal."  I guess it just goes to show how one's standards truly change when having a Coke in a standard cafeteria glass is a remarkable event.

The other changes that we noticed here were the number of people in civilian clothes.  Apparently here Sunday is a regular day off from work and when one is not working civilian clothes are authorized.  Also, the buildings are not all surrounded by protective concrete blast walls.  I don't know if recognition of these seemingly small differences were intentional parts of the transition program, but they really highlighted to me that I was finally out of a combat environment - that and not carrying a weapon everywhere I went!

Just three more days until I'm back home!  Yippee!

Cheers, Pearl

Kuwait

Somewhere over Iraq in a C-130 - heading south!

My journey home has begun – I bid a final farewell to Iraq yesterday and am now in Kuwait.  I will spend the next two days at the same base where I was stuck when I went home on leave before moving on for final out-processing.  Knowing I will be here as part of a plan is much less frustrating than when I was stuck here not knowing what was going on day-to-day like last December, but two days of just sitting around is still two days of just sitting around!  But, this time I’m in a VIP tent for O-5 and above (not sure why I didn’t get one last time) so I have a single bunk instead of a bunk bed and a wall locker to lock up my gear.  It is odd though how putting in some minor things makes it VIP.  I mean, after all, it is still a tent with seven other guys – it’s not a swank hotel or anything!  But after being over here in less than ideal conditions, any little improvement is very much appreciated.

Early Sunday morning we (those of us EWOs who are finally heading home) will move to a different base to actually begin the Warrior Transition Process.  Some of it is quite important, like turning in all of our Army equipment, some of it is mandatory, like the “don’t go home and beat your family” lectures we get at the end of every deployment, but it is all intentionally designed to take longer than necessary to give us time to “decompress” from our time in a combat zone.  I think their heart is in the right place but I imagine by the time I get on a plane to head home I will be more antsy than relaxed after all of the sitting around time.  I will say it is nice not having a schedule today and being able to just wear my PT shorts and t-shirt in the 105 degree heat rather than having to wear my normal uniform with sleeves rolled down!

One odd thing did happen this morning though.  As a few of us were standing in line to get some coffee at the little coffee shop on base, we heard an explosion.  It turned out to be some training for one of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal units nearby but still, we all looked at each other with a “I thought we were done with that” look.  Perhaps the extra time here to make the transition from thinking explosions and gunfire are “normal” might be alright after all!

Cheers, Pearl

Packing and Good Byes

I found out earlier today that I'm leaving sometime tomorrow.  I have to call at 10pm tonight to find out when my flight down to Kuwait will be.  The way it works is flight information for the entire day isn't out until 10pm the day prior so my flight could be first thing in the morning or late tomorrow night.  Why should even going back home be simple?

Anyway, the good news is I'm leaving Iraq for good.  I've spent the previous week packing boxes to ship home and I sent the last one off this morning - a large footlocker-sized box with a bunch of stuff I've accumulated over the last 10 months.  I live a pretty simple lifestyle and still I managed to mail a bunch of things home so I wouldn't have to haul it back as luggage.  But, I'm now down to a couple of bags of Army stuff to turn in and be finished with and just one seabag for my stuff plus my carry-on backpack and computer.  The room feels pretty spartan now and a little empty.

Which finally brings me to my point - I'm having a hard time getting 100% excited about leaving here.  Oh sure, I'm quite happy and thrilled to be heading back home to see my family again - absolutely!  But, the past couple of days have been hard leaving folks who will continue to fight this fight for another six months.  I've never left a deployment early before and when I say good-bye to the people I've become close friends with here, it will be the last time I see them, likely forever.  Unlike in the Navy where there is a possibility of being stationed together again or at least passing somewhere, the Soldiers of 2SCR are on a completely different path than I have.  So, it is with very mixed emotions that I anticipate my flight tomorrow and yet feel a pull to spend a little more time here in the company of heroes.

I know my feelings of heartache will pass - they did when I left home to come out here last July and will again.  And I will be left with fond memories of serving with great people in a terrible place.  But tonight, there's a little sadness mixed in my joy.

Cheers, Pearl

Pearls Before Swine

Cheers, Pearl

Big Morning

I had a great morning today!  This might take a while to write up so you might want a cold drink to keep you company.

I received my end-of-tour award from the Regiment this morning.  During the presentation the Colonel said a number of humbling things about the work I've done here (really the work my people have done) and added that he'd found my blog and was reading it last night!  In addition to my work with the Regiment, he added that this blog was worth a read because it was insight from a man who was doing something completely out-of-normal and yet managed to keep the focus on the important people in the fight here - the average Soldiers.  Like I said, very humbling.  My audience for this blog was family and friends back home but it turns out I have incoming EWOs, desperate for information, as well as Regimental leadership reading my thoughts about being a stranger in a strange land.

Actually, I haven't been a stranger.  I told the folks here today watching me receive my award that I have never felt like a stranger with this unit.  They welcomed me right in as one of their own and made me feel every bit as much a Dragoon as if I had a U.S. Army ID card and had come over with them for the deployment (which I kinda did since we arrived in Iraq at the same time, but I think you understand my sentiment).  Life here for me has been about as good as it gets for a Sailor of One (to steal the old Army slogan) and I have been blessed to work with such men and women here in 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment.

I had two events that exemplify what I'm talking about not being a stranger here happen this morning.  First, after receiving my medal I was presented with my gold "combat" spurs.  In a cavalry unit, by serving with them in combat, one is entitled to wear gold spurs as a Cavalry Trooper.  When I first arrived I was told, "You are issued your horse, you buy your Stetson, but you earn your spurs."  Well, the Army issued me tons of equipment (I don't remember signing for a horse though but that was a pretty busy day way back at Fort Jackson - he he), I bought my Stetson right away, and today became a full-fledged cavalryman when spurs were strapped to my boots during the award ceremony.

"Order of the Gold Spur

Be it here known that

me

with Carbine and Sabre has followed the Cavalry

guidon to the very frontier of the free world and beyond to

Iraq in support of 

Operation IRAQI FREEDOM

and has demonstrated the Skill, Fitness, Discipline, Dash,

and Cunning of a United States Cavalry Trooper.

Therefore, this trooper is hereby entered on to the rolls of

"The Order of the Gold Spur"

and is authorized to wear gold spurs at all formal Cavalry Formations."

Second, after the formal awards were over, a couple of the staff sergeants came by my office to give me something special from them and tell me that I would be missed.  The Sniper tab they gave me to wear under my pocket flap (they are both snipers as you might guess) is a greater gift than any medal I've received.  It symbolizes acceptance from the guys who put it on the line every day and that, to me, means I've had the most successful tour of duty I could have hoped to have had here.  As excited as I am to be heading home, I will miss them dearly too.

Cheers, Pearl

Sweet Sixteen

My daughter turned sixteen today!  Hard to believe!  I called her first thing this morning (for her - it was early afternoon for me) to sing Happy Birthday off key just like we always do.  She laughed and said that my wife and son had sung decidedly ON key so it was nice to hear it sung "normally" from me.

As you might imagine, missing your child's sixteenth birthday really stinks and I would have much rather been there this morning in person.  But, this is the LAST birthday I'll miss - I should be home two weeks from tomorrow and then have all summer to reconnect and teach her how to drive a stick shift car.  When I was home on leave we went and got her learner's permit and had a few driving lessons then, but that was with my automatic.  Now, we get to step up to the varsity level and learn on a stick shift.

The car she's going to learn on is my old Ensign-mobile that I bought right when I graduated from college 19 years ago (this month) and we used regularly until 2003.  "Gus" (the car, well truck actually - all of our cars have names) has been on my brother-in-law's farm waiting for this special day.  We're going to pick him up this summer, get some work done, and then my sweet sixteen sweetie will have her first car!

Her big bash is this weekend and I know it will be just perfect.  Happy birthday Sweet Pea!  I'll be home to tell you in person before we know it!

Cheers, Pearl

Cinco de Mio

I know many of you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo today.  Heck, we even had some pretty good Mexican food at the DFAC for dinner tonight.  But in our house, we celebrate, as my wife puts it, Cinco de Mio because today is her birthday!

Normally, today is the beginning of a very hectic week for me.  Today is my wife's birthday; my daughter's is the 7th; my wedding anniversary is the 13th; and the weekend closest to the 13th is always Mother's Day.  You'd have thought I would have planned better than all that!  So, while it truly stinks to miss another birthday (I've lost count of how many), in some perverse way, being gone this week will be more relaxing than usual!

As you might guess, there have been plenty of times where the girls had dual birthday celebrations - but not tonight.  Tonight they will be gathering just for Elizabeth and for her only.  Next weekend my daughter will get the royal treatment and I think that's the best way to do it from now on.  Birthdays are very special days.  It marks the day we were allowed to experience some wonderful new person in our lives and I am especially thankful for Cinco de Mio!

Happy Birthday Babe!  I'll be home soon!

Cheers, Pearl