Back to Work and Time to Close It Down

Apologies for not having updated my blog like I said I would after I got back home but the few times I started to write I kept saying "screw it and I'll get to that later". We'll that later kept being pushed out and I guess that today is the day to post and close her down.

I enjoyed my 3+ months of leave and vacation thanks to the US Army and Sun. It was a great feeling to do what I wanted to do, get up when I wanted to get up and basically enjoy some serious down time, and also gave me a chance to get fat and happy!! On top of that there was plenty of work to do around the house. May was rather hectic, the same night I got home Javier had his Confirmation. The next week Ascension received her Nursing pin and the week after that she graduated from University of San Francisco with her BS in Nursing.

We got a chance to do some traveling while I was still on vacation. Carmen and I went down to Paso Robles for a couple of days. Besides getting out of the house and having some time alone, it had been years since we were there and the wine is just awesome. Getting a chance to visit the various vineyards for two days and tasting the great Zinfandel and Rhone style wines made the trip a blast. I went home (Wisconsin) for about 10 days to spend time with my parents and sister and her family. Plus on the 4th of July my parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary so all of us congregated in Milwaukee to enjoy the celebration and get a chance to meet lots of old friends and family. We also got a chance to spend a week down in the Florida Panhandle along the Emerald Coast in Panama City Beach. After 13 months in the desert it was nice to just be able to chill out on the beach, swim in the ocean and enjoy all that great seafood! I have been able to spend time with my family and that is what I have enjoyed the most of my vacation!!

I have been back at work since 11 August, and just as I had thought I had been voted off the island, meaning that my old job no longer existed, which wasn't surprising. Prior to leaving I had handed off that job to another Program Manager, so I was offered another position in the same group but now a Manager of the Customer Backlog Management group which handles the key Sun accounts. So bottom line is that I am learning a new job and getting back into the heart of operations which is what I wanted to do.

I found a new unit the 1st Brigade 75th Division at Camp Parks which was my first reserve unit that I joined in 1995 but back then it was 1st Brigade 91st Division. It was reflagged last year and I know a fair number of the officers in that unit. I begin drilling later this month. As for the rest of the PMO team, Major Young is working down at USARC HQ in Georgia and she sounded very happy last time I got an email from her. She's going in front of the O-5 board soon and I am sure that she will be selected for LTC. SSG Gamboa finally finished his BNCOC, I was there at his graduation. He should make E-7 at this coming board, and it looks like he too is making a career change and is applying for the AGR program. Filly the interpreter who was like a brother to me was dismissed from his job in Taji due to performance issues and I'll leave it at that. Bob is putting in his paperwork for a Visa to come to the US as part of the special program that allows interpreters to apply for Visas based on their performance as interpreters for the US forces and as gratitude for their sacrifices they have made putting their lives on the line in support of coalition forces.

I look back at these past 16+ months of mobilization and deployment and I am proud to have once again been able to answer the call and deploy into harms way. Yes this deployment was different that Desert Shield/Storm, the circumstances, living conditions, coalition, enemy were all different. But the underlying theme was that we were helping people in need to become free and get a chance to enjoy the freedoms that we as Americans have enjoyed and worked so hard to maintain since 1775. Was it worth it? A resounding yes it was, as I could see the difference that we made in Taji and in other places inside Iraq. Someone asked me when I got back what would happen if called upon again by my country to deploy. I told them that I would once again answer the call wherever need be. As Thomas Jefferson said: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Thanks to all of you who read the blog, sent me emails during my deployment, sent me care packages, prayed for my safety and sent me many words of encouragement. Also thanks to those who stayed in contact with Carmen and the kids to see how things were going on the home front. Although I am home there are still over 160,000 members of the Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan serving in harms way, please keep them in your prayers!

"God Bless America"

The Colonel