After I handed over the mission to my replacement, 2LT Goldy, it was finally time for me to go home. Gosh, it was a long trip! I had to start it by showing up to the airfield at 30 minutes after midnight. I don’t understand why those silly air force guys wanted us to show up then. I have a sneaking suspicion that decision was made by an owl. Just to add insult to injury, our flight didn’t leave until 0500! I had to wait four and a half hours in a little tent with the other soldiers. Here is a picture of me and CPT Schooler passing the time waiting for our flight from Tallil:

Finally it was time to get on the plane. Once again, the loadmaster tried to have me strapped down to a pallet, since I weigh 1100 pounds. MAJ Simer convinced him that he didn’t need to do that. Here is a picture of us on the plane just before takeoff:

The plane flew us to Kuwait, where we got on buses and went to a place called Camp Virginia. MAJ Simer told me that we had to wait at Camp Virginia for our flight back to the US. He explained that because of the frequent sandstorms in Iraq, the Army always schedules soldiers to spend a couple of days at Camp Virginia waiting for their flight, to allow a little room for error. I guess that makes sense.

When we got to Camp Virginia, we moved into some big tents. MAJ Simer was having trouble with his shoulder, so I helped him move his baggage:

MAJ Simer gave me a reward for helping him:

Kuwait is very windy! While we were at Camp Virginia, we had a problem with the portable toilets getting blown away in the wind. I offered to help. I put a rope over some of the toilets and cinched it down so they would be secure:

Unfortunately, I guess I cinched a little too hard. Sometimes we polar bears don’t know our own strength:

Finally it was time to get on the plane back to the US! I got a whole row to myself, sort of by accident. A bunch of soldiers came by and asked if the seats next to me were taken. When I said, “Grrrrrrrr,� they all moved on to different parts of the airplane. Here is a picture of me getting ready to take off from Kuwait:

We made a lot of stops. We stopped in Germany, in Ireland, and also in a place called Bangor, Maine! There were a lot of people waiting to greet us in Bangor. Apparently a lot of US soldiers stop there on their way back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and people from the local area come out to meet every flight! That’s very nice of them. A lot of these people are veterans. MAJ Simer found one man who had served in 1-9 Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam! MAJ Simer was in 1-9 CAV as a Lieutenant from 1998-2001. This man had served from 1965-1966. I took this picture of them together:

Finally, we arrived at Volk Airfield in Wisconsin! The weather was MUCH cooler in Wisconsin than in Iraq, although it was still a little warm for my tastes. Here’s a picture of MAJ Simer and I at the airfield just before we got on the buses to Fort McCoy:

My journey wasn’t over yet – I still had to get on a bus to Fort McCoy to do my outprocessing - MAJ Simer called it either “demobilization� or “REFRAD,� for “Release From Active Duty.� That was an interesting experience, too - I’ll tell you all about it in my next update!