Its weird when you have a spouse that leaves for as long as John will be gone to Afghanistan. What I mean is I think you miss them differently than one might if you just knew they were going to be gone for a week or two. There isn't an acute feeling of angst...its more like a chronic feeling of loneliness that just kind of sits in your gut all the time.
Our family has been through so much separation.
Deployment from 2010 to 2011
Three months of school in 2011
Seven months apart/school in 2012
Deployment 2013 to 2014
So...since 2010 we've had a total of 11.5 months of dad living in our house with us. Give or take a week here or there...either way...That sucks.
So...when he is away we crave communication from him. And he has not disappointed these past couple of weeks. Its nice to hear about his life away from us....what he observes...what makes him laugh...what he thinks is interesting...even what his room/bathroom look like...
I've included some tidbits of emails that he's sent describing his time in Afghanistan...
The Night he Left...
At 0130, We boarded a commercial flight with stewardesses and everything. I was very suprised to learn that it was a direct flight to Germany and a follow on to Romania. So by some freak luck of the draw, I ended up in an exit row. On this plane, it meant LEG ROOM - I mean I couldn't even touch the seats in front of me. The side of the plane also fit my head just right so I was really excited to sleep. I put my headphones in and started to doze off when they turned on the lights and started serving breakfast. WTH? So, I ate - again and then was able to doze for a while. I can't remember the movie, but it was one I had already seen, so I stared at it for a while in between cat naps. About two hours out of Franfurt, we ate again - dinner this time. They had a little slice of Tillamook cheese in the meal and I exclaimed to my neighbor how awesome the cheese was. He gave me his and I ate it without protest lol. We landed in Frankfurt at about 1800 local time. We had a 2 hour layover in a small concourse that had a gift shop, two little kiosks and a newspaper stand. I tried to hook up to the WiFi in order to let you know what was going on, but other people ahead of me captured all of the band width. Anyway, we reboarded the plane and flew the 4 hours to Romania.
In Romania...
When I got back to my room - 0230 - I decided to try to shower so that I didn't have to compete with the rest of the dudes. They hadn't turned on the hot water in enough time for night time showers though. Hmmm. I just remembered Wallowa Lake and the polar bear plunge (and swim practices in the Hillsboro pool in January) and toughed it out. It was colder than those other bodies of water. I ended up skipping some areas and shaved in the sink, but a couple people walking by laughed out loud at my plight.
Arrival in Baghram...
They opened the back hatch of the plane to take out the pallets with the bags and it was raining - argh. None of my clothes were protected from incliment weather (except for my wet weather gear, which was in a water proof bag). The bags went one way and we went another. We turned in our ID cards and went through a couple briefings in the PAX terminal. We were released to get on the bussess, but first we had to load all of the bags onto a little transport truck. WTF? How come a baggage detail didn't have that done already? So - in the rain with our weapons slung on our backs and our carry on luggage at our feet, we created an assembly line chain to carry the bags from the pallets they were staged on into the back of the truck. We got on busses and went to the temporary/transient base. Again I got lucky and had a bottom bunk in a dark area of the building with an outlet right by the bunk. After unloading the bags from the truck - again in the rain - I got my bags settled, took out my tablet (thank you) and my credit card and ordered up internet service...
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