Back in the USA!

I know you were probably starting to wonder if I would ever get home. Well, breathe easy, I'm here.

After being told 3 times the day and time we would be leaving Baghdad, then being told 3 times that we would not be leaving that day after all, we were starting to wonder if we would ever make it back. But like they say the 4th time is the charm right?

We were finally given the green light for Sunday(Aug 16) evening. We had to get our final stuff taken care Sunday afternoon so we could leave. While doing this were told we might not be able to leave after all. The rotator (the contract plane to take the troops to and from the States) leaves out of 2 places, Qatar and Kuwait. We were trying to get on one out of Qatar but they had us on one a few days later our of Kuwait. So unless they could get confirmation that we were on the plane out of Qatar they were not going to let us leave. But just as we were about to give up hope they got an e-mail confirming us on that flight. This was also good because that flight would be leaving just about 6 hours after we got to Qatar instead of a few days which is normal.

Here we are getting ready to go, just waiting for our plane. I know, we make body armour look good!

Sitting on the C-130 on the way to Qatar. This is my first time on a C-130! Not the best way to travel, but I recommend doing it at least once.

Once we got to Qatar, we were told that we were not scheduled for the flight we thought we would be on in a few hours, but were in fact still scheduled for the one later in the week out of Kuwait. Slight panic, but the really awesome Master Sergeant said there were some empty seats so she could get us on anyway. We got some food, hung out in a "sit on the floor or don't sit" crowded Passenger terminal, then got on our plane.

After a couple hour stop in Romania, and quite a few hours later we landed in Baltimore on Monday afternoon. We stayed that night, and got free tickets to an Orioles-Angels Baseball game, 7 rows behind the dugout.

We left pretty early out of Baltimore, had a short layover in Clevland and got to SLC about 10:30 AM. Marni is posting pictures of the homecoming, so I won't double post here.

What can I say? I'm Proud to be an American...

I am glad I had the oportunity to go to Iraq. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot. But there really is no place like home. Nor any better way to spend my time than with my beautiful wife and 2 way cute kids!

Still Here!

Well they decided we didn't need the couple days of turn over after all. But they did want us to wait until our replacements got here so they wouldn't be short handed.

So we were told we would be able to fly out Saturday afternoon. (that is today, and it is now night here)

Then yesterday we were told they would be coming in around 1am tonight (or Sunday morning) so we were scheduled on a flight for about 3am. Well around 9pm local time tonight we were told they were not coming in until tomorrow afternoon, but the plane they are coming on is going from here back to Qatar so we could fly out on that plane. Now we wait to see if that actually happens.

I mentioned to one of the guys in my group today, that I wouldn't believe it until we actually take off. He said not to believe it until we are on the ground where we are going because it could always turn around and come back.

Anyway, just thought I would give you an update for anyone who was wondering.

Waiting

Sorry not pictures today. So for any of you hoping to see my signature pose I am sorry to disapoint.

For any of you wondering when I am going home, Welcome, I am a member of that club too!

Up to this point I have been told I would be leaving Iraq tomorrow, and probably be getting on a plane for the states on Monday. However...

Normally our replacements get here about 2 or 3 days before we leave so we can have a couple days to turn over anything to them they need to know etc. However, they have been having trouble getting our replacements here in a timely manner, and since I am leaving in a small group (only 5 of us) those we work with figured they would be fine until our replacements get here. So that was the plan we were going with, so we could leave on time.

But today I was informed that we may be waiting for our replacements after all, so we may not be leaving tomorrow. Unfortunatly they don't even know where our replacements are, other than the fact they have not left the states yet but should "soon". So if that is what we end up doing, there is no telling how long we will be here. We have to wait for them to get here which could be a couple days or more, then a couple days of turn over, then get on a flight home etc.

So now I guess we just wait and see...