Day 176

Pretty good day...slept in for starters...a great perk for Sundays.  I gave Dorothy a quick and to the point phone call (rare for me) and spent most of the morning PACKING! Yea, yea, yea....a bit early, but I've got so much gear, I just wanted to dump it all out and repack it and make sure I didn't bury something in there back in April. Plus, the tighter I can fill these seabags, the better they'll travel when it's time. I headed on in around lunchtime and surprisingly, I was pretty busy through mid-afternoon where we had another Hail and Farewell scheduled...MY TURN! Yep...at today's farewell, we said "hello" to a few and goodbyes to others. I still have time to go but the next farewell won't happen until after I'm gone. They served up some food then went through all the motions. As for awards today, I received the NATO/ISAF medal and also the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, both of which will be added to my other medals and ribbons on my uniform. Those are in addition to my weapons quals that I did back in April/ May at combat training...remember? I qualified as Sharpshooter with the 9mm and qualified on the M4 rifle. Those both are medals. That makes 4. On my way out of here, the Navy will give me the Overseas Service Ribbon, as well...five. Then, there are two commendation medals I will be awarded based on my accomplishments over here. One is a Joint Service Commendation Medal and the other an Army Commendation Medal. Both are higher than anything else I've ever received. The Army one is pretty cool to get, too, for a Navy guy. I haven't "officially" received these two yet, though...but I know they're coming. Anyway, once we were given those two medals, we said a few words and then given our one-of-a-kind parting gift...the infamous "T-Wall." (pictured here) The "77" is the name of the company who manufactures all of the huge concrete T-Walls that surround the base here so they are essentially an eternal reminder of our deployment. They are an exact replica and made by the 77 Company and given to us for free. In the center is our official coin. Pretty cool takeaway, eh? After we were all presented our medal and T-Walls, we said goodbye to my boss...he'll beat me out of here by under a week. He didn't want the medals presented to him as no one was senior to him to do so. But, we did have a little present for him. We all pitched in and got him a gift certificate to one of his favorite restaurants back home and I made up a certificate to go along with it. He was totally surprised and as he began to say a few words...it hit him like a ton of bricks...it's his last deployment. With 22 years in, he'll be retiring from active duty next year and that combined with the surprise gifts got him all choked up...and I mean choked up to tears. I thought about Dorothy right then...she'd be crying, herself! It was cool, though...just raw emotion about serving his country for 22 years and this deployment being the capstone on it all. I happened to have my new camera with me and caught that emotion. When I got back to the office, I checked them out and they turned out really well. I sent them to him and him alone to do with as he pleases.

So, around 6 or so, we called it a night and headed back. Not too much else to speak of today...just a little TV, internet, and some reading back in my room. Ready to start another work-week. Not too many more of these! Woot!!! Only a couple more days till Day 180...dang.

Goodnight, everyone.