Yes, I'm Home

If anyone is still checking my blog - Yes, I made it home, I got back about 3 weeks ago and have pretty much holed up at home. I haven't had the same interest in making posts to the blog since being home. But, after talking to a couple people who told me they were wondering if I made it home and were checking the blog, I decided to do one more entry.

Since I couldn't include pictures with the last posting, here are some pictures of the airplane we flew on from Salerno to Bagram. It's called a STOL, Short Take-Off and Landing. It is mainly used to deliver the mail and a secondary purpose is to move small numbers of personnel. We had to help unload the mail before we could load our gear on the plane.

There are eight seats on the plane, enough to get us started on our way home.

The pilot - civilian contractors with Blackwater Aviation. After about a 45 minute flight we arrived at Bagram. Below are pictures of some of the guys on the C-130 while we were waiting the many hours to get off the ground at Bagram.

After 3 long days at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, we started the long journey back to the states. The trip started with a 0100 showtime/bag drag on the 23rd of July. It's called a bag drag because you have to "drag" your bags to the terminal and put them on pallets to be taken to the aircraft. Then we were turned loose to go eat, but had to return at 0400. We boarded the aircraft at 0800 and took off for Incirlik AB, Turkey. After 4.5 hours of flying we landed, got off the plane and waited a couple hours, before the next flight to Ramstein AB, Germany. The flight to Ramstein was another 4 hour flight, where we did the same thing, got off and waited a couple hours for the flight to Baltimore. The plane took off at 1700, after 8.5 hours of flying we landed in Baltimore at 2000, the same day we left Manas AB, 23 July. The first time I have experienced 34 hours in a 24 hour day.

After spending the night in Baltimore, I had a short day to get home. Flew from Baltimore, through Chicago and on to Des Moines. I was home by 3 pm on the 24th. Here are some pictures from the airport where I was greeted by family and friends.

Since I have been home, I haven't done much but relax. We did take a weekend trip to St. Louis to see a Cardinals game and go to Six Flags. The Cardinals game was a good one, they beat the Astros. It rained on us at Six Flags, but quit by noon and turned out to be a pretty nice day.
No wonder these seats were available, we were looking directly into the setting sun, but only until the end of the second inning. Then they were pretty good seats.

Two more weeks to relax, the kids (2 out of 3) start school tomorrow, the 3rd starts school on the 15th of September. I don't have to go back to work (my civilian job) until 1 Sep. After being away from that job for 9 months, it'll be like starting a new job. I don't plan to continue with this blog as my Afghanistan adventure is over and my civilian job probably won't provide the material for blog postings as my experience in Afghanistan did.