I’m wrapping up my final week in Afghanistan. It’s strange. I’m ready and excited to get home, but I’m sad to leave good friends I’ve been working with. The transition process is draining. There is so, so much I’ve learned here and so much of it was new. I can say for a fact I learned new things every single day being an artilleryman working in an Air Force world. My replacement is ready to go, and I hope I’ve passed him all the information from my brain and experiences. The good news is he has an amazing team to help him, even if I didn’t get to transfer every single tidbit of knowledge!
In my last week, I’ve said tons and tons of good-byes. I’ve visited the post office several times to mail things I don’t feel like carrying. I’ve made calls and used help to search flight times to see when I get to leave. I’ve packed and cleaned. I’ve caught up on sleep and I’ve swiffered my room. I’ve given away items and sold some. I’ve kicked myself for not sending more through the post office. I’ve balanced my thoughts on whether I would prefer to be stuck in Afghanistan or Kuwait, as if I really have a choice in the matter! I’ve happily introduced my replacement in meetings and felt happiness when I saw the team functioning just like clockwork without me. I sat in the wings and giggled uncontrollably with another lady as we waited for our replacements; the video brief telling them they might hear the incoming fire sirens “a few times” during their deployment. I’ve transferred the files from my unclassified computer that I need. I’ve finalized a letter of recommendation for a young man I deployed with 15 years ago. I’ve enjoyed meals with friends, soaking up the last moments of chit chat and fun stories, talking about the “good old days” when we were still stationed up in Kabul at the Resolute Support Headquarters. I’ve made plans for how to stay in touch with the friends not on Facebook.
And one memory I want to keep, that was special in its own special way, was watching the royal wedding. I know, it seems funny. But being in a NATO environment, there are things that are very special to certain countries. I think some of the Brits scoffed about only the Americans being interested in the wedding, but that was not the case for us. We have a liaison officer that works on the floor with us and she insisted the spare televisions showed the wedding. There is another British officer who works with us who decorated his whole office with flags and served tea, coffee, and cakes. And the British Air Commodore who I report to, who is equivalent to a U. S. one-star general, was busy watching on his television in his office when I went to get him for our scheduled “tour” of our work area. He and his aide told me immediately we all picked an awful time on the calendar! So instead of immediately heading out for the tour, I sat in his office and watched the procession of the princes. How many other Soldiers get to say they watched that in a Air Commodore’s office? After the princes arrived, we headed out to the floor to start the tour. The team briefed him well, and then we paused our briefings so we could watch the bride walk down the aisle, starting them again when they met at the front of the church. Just a special, surreal moment which is special in a NATO environment!
I’m ready to start the next adventure, but I’m always going to hold this whole deployment experience with my special memories.
This has been a trying week. There have been lots of changes where I work and the fighting season has kicked off. No kidding – the Taliban actually announce this stuff. And kick off we did. Monday was a day that will probably go on record as my longest and most stressful. I’ve dealt with other issues before and have had go-mode on for hours at a time. For some reason, Monday hit hard. There were multiple attacks across the country, targeting civilians, journalists, US forces, Afghan forces, Georgian forces and children. Yes, children. I can’t even comprehend this, yet the terrorists seem to think it’s fine.
I honestly, deep down, feel like I lead a normal life, but I also realize there are some interesting things I do. I remember very much disliking my chores that I would have to do every night (and mornings and nights on the weekends) while growing up on a dairy farm. To be fair I didn’t despise them all the time. But I do remember not ALWAYS enjoying them! My first clue into the whole “things that other people do are awesome” thing came from my friends and cousins when they would visit or stay overnight. They would come to the barn with me and help with chores. And they were always pumped to help. Like they thought it was the coolest thing ever! At first, I’d wonder if they were a little crazy, but then I would realize, yeah this is pretty neat and nothing like what they are used to. It seemed to always give me a new view of my mundane farm chores, and made me feel like the boring and tedious chores I had to do were actually something special.
So because of that, I want to share with you. I want to share my journey. Partly because I’m in an interesting place – not just my location being deployed, but also in my life. I’m close to retirement, newly married, and learning how to be a step-mom and integrate into a family dynamic that’s already established. I’ll very soon be working to pick up my derby skills after a year off, working to figure out how to combine two complete households into one, and continuing to work on a long distance relationship during our new marriage as I continue active duty service while my husband and kids are established where I grew up. Another part of me enjoys writing and sharing and I figure that even if no one reads this, I’ll have a record for myself and my family. I absolutely love heritage and family history and I feel like this is a great place to capture that.
I would love it if you all to get involved too. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I have a comments section and you can contact me via email as well through the “Contact” form. Maybe your question will become the topic of a new blog post! You are free to disagree with me about what I post and share – that’s completely normal and I expect everyone to have their own opinions on different topics. I do have a rule though. I expect everyone to treat each other with respect on my blog. I will not tolerate name calling or personal attacks.