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There was a small article that appeared in some Bay Area newspapers about my unit the other day that I thought would be interesting for some of you. It detailed some of what soldiers may experience when they return, and what families can expect. (CLICK HERE)
Tonight, for the first time since my blog began in April of 2004, I am writing to you from the United States. In a way, the feelings are overwhelming and can only be defined with one word, surreal.
Arriving the other night, it felt as if even the air was welcoming us home. Is it possible that even the air in America is inviting? I can answer that tonight with absolute assurance. Stepping off the plane, we were greeted by an Army band playing in the background, and a line of Sergeant Majors’, a General, and several Colonels welcoming us home and thanking us for our service. It felt like a dream, suddenly it seemed like the entire year momentarily disappeared from my mind and I had never left. I did feel somehow different though, somehow a lot older. I tried soaking every image and every feeling in, narrating the feelings and images in mind as if I was writing them down that very moment. I didn’t want to forget any aspect of it, and if it was a dream I wanted to be able to remember it the next day. I did have dreams like that over the year. In my dreams, I kept waking up in different locations, sometimes I was home, sometimes at different sites in theater, sometimes stepping off the plane like I did last night.
One of the more powerful images for me came as we marched in our company element from the plane to the hangar, passing a group of firefighters by their engine; its ladder extended what seemed like hundreds of feet in the air, with a large American flag gently waving in night sky. The sight of that flag, the sounds of the band, looking around and seeing the men and women I served with taking physical and metaphorical steps closer to being home, combined to form moments of absolute perfection that I know I will remember the rest of my life.
There is now the process of de-mobilization to endure before I can be re-united with my family and have more time to write. I had to find a computer and internet access though, and let you all know that I couldn’t be happier to be back in America and that me and my unit had made it home safely.
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