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We were on base before six o’clock. We were so anxious to see Gregory for the first time in months. We had spent the entire evening before listening to the drill sergeants on Lackland AFB, nervously waiting for this morning. After parking, we walked across the base, and lined up along the side of the … Read more

After spending a year at Small Boat Station Pensacola, Florida, conducting search and rescue and minor law enforcement, I was sent to Law Enforcement School. The school presented the ins and outs of past cases in law enforcement. The school covered all the past mistakes and success stories about drug trafficking. What struck a chord … Read more

The transition to normal life can be harder than one would imagine. For me, coming home the first time was, at first, the best time of my life. I didn’t realize the physiological differences in me yet, but my wife did. I didn’t realize that six hours of straight sleep would be a blessing. I … Read more

From the time that the wheels of the C-130 lifted off of the runway at Al Asad Air Base, and I took off on my very first combat flight in Iraq, it only took me maybe a little bit more than 72 hours in that environment to become a completely different person. I was a … Read more

I remember seeing my wife for the first time after Iraq. Our homecoming was a sedate affair. We came home in waves as company’s not as a battalion. If we had all come home together maybe there would have been a bigger celebration, a bigger welcome. Instead a couple of people were there at Camp … Read more

This last deployment, my dad had two homecomings; one for his R&R and one for his final homecoming. Both were difficult for very different reasons. For the first homecoming, I had to tell him something that I knew would hurt him. I had to completely miss the second homecoming. This was a new experience for … Read more

The longer I stayed in Iraq the more it changed me. Every day it was in my veins, consuming, burning, and leaving something else. I was deep into my deployment. The nobility of the mission had long since withered on the vine. My Bible gathered dust as I surrendered to indifferent fatalism. I thought of … Read more