Sorry for the long wait, but I've been a busy individual. Traveling home was a trying experience. After moving out from transient housing, we spent over 24 hours in the PAX terminal because of pushed back flights. We slept on the floors while the terminal got more and more crowded with grumpy but patient military travelers. Our unit didn't even have the benefit of our checked baggage, which had already been palletized. After that test of patience, we flew down to Kuwait. Despite some temper flares, we moved quickly through the processing and stayed only one day, which is an accomplishment. The housing for that night were two enormous tents, one for males and one for females. We had about 60 people in our tent, and the females were really able to spread out. Customs was fairly quick and uneventful, and we made our way to Kuwait International Airport and out on our chartered flight.
The international flight was terribly long. If I remember right, when I took leave, the large DC-10 aircraft took one layover and about 18 hours of flight to make it back to Dallas. But in order to fly directly into our final destination with no aircraft switches, we took a smaller jet that had to stop in Eastern Europe, extremely Western Europe, New Hampshire, and finally at Peterson AFB. It took about 20 hours in the air. It was agonizingly long, but it didn't matter. We were headed home. And the stop in New Hampshire was actually very heart-warming; a group called the PEASE Greeters was there to meet us. They were citizens, former military and combat veterans, families, even pets, perhaps 300 people at the tiny airport, ready to welcome us home. During our 2 hour layover, they made small talk with us, fed us ice cream and chocolate, gave us presents for our families, and had a small ceremony to welcome us back. It was wonderful, and absolutely touching. Something I'll never forget.
Once back in Colorado, we turned in our weapons, found bunks, and headed off to the Welcome Home Warrior Citizen ceremony to be reunited with our families. Ashley and my dad were able to make it for the short ceremony, and we had a special exception to stay the first night off base. I was able to spend time with my wife and dad, eat a meal at a real restaurant, and not be in uniform for a few hours. After that night, we spent 4 days at Ft. Carson outprocessing. It re-introduced me to the military's fascination with "the line ride." Queue after queue, ending at stations with overworked and underpaid clerks that type in your social security number, make a few clicks, and put a stamp on your "outprocessing road map." But once again, we were one stamp closer to home. The final day came, and those that were done were released. Ashley picked me and SPC Gadget up, we dropped Gadget off, and I was home.
The couple of weeks since that have been spent mostly doing housework and readjusting to civilian life. There is a lot of housework to do; Ashley wasn't quite on top of all of the chores while I was gone. But I don't really blame her; if anything, she had a harder time than I did for the past year. I had a perceptible change in my routine, the goals set for me were clear cut, and I had a constant support group whether I wanted it or not. Ashley just suddenly had me missing. Her life continued, but I just disappeared. She's been overjoyed by my return, as have I. We may have issues to work with, but we're both taking a positive outlook for the moment. As long as we're back together, we can tackle anything. Watch out world. Chris is back!
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