Day 204

"Oh, General Patton, why must you wake me every morning at 6am?" Well, I suppose it's better than F-15 Strike Eagles taking off and the occasional rocket attacks that woke me up back in Afghanistan. So I slept in to 6:30am...I know...living dangerously. I made my way over to the decompression tent and caught up on some e-mail and benefited yet again from the Keurig coffee maker and Wolfgang Puck's blend. (my espresso pot is packed away) I headed off to my last breakfast in Kuwait and just barely made it in before they locked the doors. Afterward, the next thing up on my agenda for the day was the final travel brief but first, I took up the ex-Marine now Navy chaplain on his offer for the Sunday morning service. I think I was only 1 of about 6 in there but it was good to be there. Shortly after that, I headed back to my tent to grab all my baggage and head over to the main hangar/tent for our final brief and have me and my luggage weighed. It was PACKED! All of a sudden, we had Army personnel on Navy ground....wuz up wit that? Well, it turns out that they will fill the flight to the United States and leave no one behind or seat unfilled. Yea, I'm definitely good with that. "Bring us ALL home, I say." So as the hangar filled with soldiers, sailors, and their gear, we had a seat and listened to the instructions about weighing our bags, customs forms, and the schedule for TONIGHT.

Afterward, I went and watched another movie to pass the time..."The Adjustment Bureau" this time, starring Matt Damon. Pretty good flick. After that, it was lunch and more downtime to kill.

OK..confession time. I wrote this blog post in the middle of the afternoon, Kuwait time...morning for you. A cool feature of Blogger is, though, that I can schedule the post to go up when I dictate...I actually use that feature all of the time. Well, in interest of operational security and never talking about future movements before they happen, this post will go up later tonight when I will lack the ability to write. I'd hate to miss a post, right? Right. So, by the time you read this, I will be on my way HOME. Most likely, if you read this timely, I'll be in the air somewhere between here and the U. S. of A. A lot of travel will happen on one day...nearly 17 hours of in-air time and four different flights...all bringing me to my processing station which is the final stop before my trip home to Kansas. Hopefully, you'll get a Day 205 post which will tell the tale...hopefully some photos, too, of the journey. I'll have my iPhone ready. Remember the plane shots on my way out here? We'll see what I can get.

So that's it for today...much will have happened before you read this and I (and many others) will be in uniform, on a packed commercial (but chartered) flight, heading for America...appropriately named the "Freedom Flight."

Goodnight, everyone.