Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Home Sweet Home

We are all finally back in NC. I arrived at Cherry Point at 0230 on Christmas morning and then it took 5 hours to get the bags unloaded, drive to Camp Lejeune and then get all the weapons turned in before we met the families and everyone else waiting for us at 0730. It was a great Christmas present for us all and I am glad to be back.

I went into work today to drop some stuff off and check in. Tomorrow thing start back up with a regular schedule. I kind of like the Navy way of ending a deployment. You pull in and then go on leave as soon as everything is settled with the return. The Marines do it a bit differently. I got one day off and then some today as I didn't go in until the afternoon, but I still will have the rest of the week as work days and then after the new year we have more days of classes and stuff and the battalion doesn't get its leave block until January 11th. Makes it feel less like a deployment and more like a long field operation.

But, the most important thing about our return. EVERYONE MADE IT HOME! No KIA during the deployment and I find that impressive with all the fire fights and IEDs we encountered in 7 months. That speaks volumes to the Marines and their leaders over the deployment. We had many close calls but everyone made it back alive and no one lost any limbs. There are still some Marines in the hospital due to injuries, but again they all came back in one piece. Thanks to all who prayed for 1/9 the last few months.

1 comment:

Neal said...

Julie and I are happy to hear that you're back! Let us know if you're headed back to TAPC at any point. We'd love to see you.