I'm Home!

Dear friends and family,

I’m home! Many thanks for all of your love and support over the last year. You made my deployment much easier. It was a busy last few weeks as we received and prepared the new unit to replace us. We gave them everything we had and worked hard until our very last day. The road home took me several days and I finally flew in late on the evening of the 16th and arrived at home very early on the morning of the 17th. Angie was there to welcome me home along with one of her friends who she recruited as the team photographer. It was great to see both of them.

I am absolutely in love with Washington. It has been right around 70 degrees. A great departure from the 119 degrees I heard reported in the weather report for Kandahar two days after we left. The grass is green here, the streets are clean, and most of all I have Angie here with me. It has been simply wonderful. I will have two weeks of reintegration, classes, and doctors/dental checkups and then will start some much awaited block leave (vacation)! We don’t have any big plans. Things will be mostly relaxed. We have a friend’s wedding to attend in Wisconsin and I will spend some time with the family there. Other than that we will do a few small trips around Washington and Oregon and hopefully one to the east coast. Thanks again for your support. It feels great to be home. I cannot wait until I can see you in person.

Regards, Mark