Well, it was a very long and trying year in Afghanistan. However, it is finally over. On October 19th (2 days later then originally planned so two units could fly home at the same time and save the government some money) we touched down back at Hanger 3 aboard Ft Campbell, KY. Mom and Dad where there to greet me home and it was incredible to see some friendly faces beyond the ones I had spent the last 366 days with. In case you didn't get any pictures from Mom earlier, I have included some here as well.
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| Me walking from the plane to Hanger 3 for the Welcome Home Ceremony on October 19, 2011. |
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| Mom and me during the brief family time portion of the Welcome Home Ceremony. |
Overall, my unit did an amazing job supporting all the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coalition Forces in Regional Command (Southwest). (Afghanistan is broken down into six regional commands. Each one is commanded by a two star general and reports directly to NATO's International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF)) My section ended up planning over 100 convoys pushing mission essential equipment between three Regional Commands. We moved 35,000 tons of equipment over 300,000 miles. A great accomplishment considering a lot of the those miles were driven over open dessert terrain. We could not have done it with out the more then 600 Soldiers in our battalion who completed all these missions and made the battalion headquarters successful.
Our battalion lost five great Americans while we were deployed. Four to IEDs and one in a vehicle rollover. Not a day has gone by since we lost the first two on January 29, 2011; two on August 25, 2011; one on August 29, 2011; that I haven't thought about them. I will never forget the ultimate sacrifices they and their families made for a very grateful country. Gone but never forgotten.
Not sure what I'll be doing for the next couple months. I do know I will be home for Turkey Day and Christmas this year. And I know I'll be going to the Combined Logistics Captain's Career Course (CLC3 - abbreviation is pronounced "Click-3" if you hear me say that) in March at Ft Lee. Other than, not really sure. Looks like I'll spend just enough time in Clarksville to get good and settled in and then it will be time to start moving.
Can't wait to see everybody in a couple weeks!
