Hello everyone and hello from the USA!!!
Yes, I am back on US soil and ready to end my adventure. It has been a long 16 months and I know a lot has changed while I have been gone. It will take some time to get back in to the swing of things and get back to "normal". I still have 2 weeks of school to get through at Ft McCoy and then I will be back for good around the 17th of August. Now to tell you how I got home.......
First, on the 18th back in Balad, we had to get all of our stuff ready to go at 4am to go over to the terminal. Come to find out, when we get to the terminal the plane we were supposed to go on left at 2am and they hadn'tt found a new flight yet. Next, they told us that they had a plane with 40 spots on it and I was one of the lucky 40, so I thought. The plane broke down on the runway and we were stuck in it for a hour and a half in 125 degree temps in full battle rattle. I was Soaked!!!! After we got off that plane we were told that the next flight out would be in a couple of hours, but that turned into all day. Needless to say, we didn't leave on the 18th and we had to find a tent to crash in for the night. The morning of the 19th came and we had to be at the terminal at 8am to see when we would have a flight. After we got there, they had one for us right away and we had to hurry to get on it. This time it was able to take off and get us to Kuwait to wait some more. The morning of the 20th came and we had to be ready by 3am to load up the trucks and get ready for our 9:30pm flight. It was crazy. We had brief after brief, then we had to go through customs (all 350 of us at the same time). When that was done, we got to sit in a holding area for about 4 hours before the buses would load to go to the airport. Then off to the airport to sit and wait there for about a hour before we boarded the plane. Finally we were off to come home. After 15 hours of flight time and 2 stops we found ourselves in Wisconsin!!!!!
All I can say is that I am so glad to be home and see green grass, trees, and of course Sarah as you see in the picture above. I look forward to see all of you in the near future or at least talk to you without long distance charges. Have a good week and I'll talk to you all again in about 2 weeks after school.
Thanks again for all of your love and support over the past 16 months. I wouldn't have gotten through it without you.
Dan
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