Coming Home

by: Richard Allen Smith

Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 12:05:54 PM EDT


Since the middle of January, I've blogged on the front page here at VetVoice from Operation Enduring Freedom here in Afghanistan.  I've done my best to bring information about Afghanistan from the "front lines" perspective, as well as discuss issues that are important to all Veterans.  I've enjoyed providing this point of view, but all good things must come to an end.  I've moved into an RSOI tent that sleeps half my battalion.  My replacement arrived today, and tomorrow I'll be turning over my place of duty to him. I have been properly relieved and it is time to quit my post, at least here in Afghanistan. It is indeed time to close the book on this 15 month chapter that is well longer than the 11 month stateside volume that preceded it.

Like anything in the military, the redeployment process (and I'm sure all my fellow Veterans already know this) is a grand exercise in the old tradition of "hurry up and wait".  It will be another few weeks before we leave here, and a week a so before we arrive back stateside.  All told it will be a month before my wife meets me planeside with my 14 month old daughter in tow.  I'll delve into life raising an infant, a life I have known for only a short 25 days; a week after she was born and before I deployed, and 18 days of R&R leave.  It will be a challenge that I cannot wait to face.

In a personal e-mail a few days ago, one of my fellow front pagers asked me if it felt weird to be going home. I responded that it did not, because it hadn't really sunk in yet.  It was about half a second after I clicked send that redeployment became a reality.  Thanks, Brandon. Time has never in my life gone by as slow as it has since you asked that question.

I'll be posting as long as I am able here, and I look forward to blogging in a time of day where some of you are actually awake once I return to the states.

So at the risk of sounding sentimental, this is my thank you. Thank you to VoteVets and VetVoice for giving all of us Veterans who have felt that our ideas of sound Veterans' and defense policy had been overlooked in the traditional media, and for giving a voice to those of us who wanted to be heard.  Thanks to my fellow front pagers for the honor of writing alongside the most talented bloggers and Soldiers (and ok Nixon, Sailor too I suppose) I know. Thank you to the bloggers who comment and post your own diaries for your words of encouragement and of disagreement.  Discourse is the key to the democracy that we all have taken an oath to protect. And even to the lurkers, thanks for reading, although you should join the conversation with us.

Consider this an open thread for coming home stories, and lurker introduction.  

Richard Allen Smith :: Coming Home
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Coming Home | 22 comments
Cool! (0.00 / 0)
Here's hoping for safe and expeditious travel.

Thank you Richard (4.00 / 1)
For those like me who have never been to Afghanistan, you have explained things in a way that makes sense and helps to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.  I have often referenced your diary "Afghanistan 101" when talking to other veterans.  I hope you will continue to blog and work with VoteVets even after your return home.  Thank you.

"No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided." - Barack Obama

I'll second that... (4.00 / 1)
...and look forward to 'seeing' you out there with VV after the interminable redep. process ends.  

[ Parent ]
Don't worry (0.00 / 0)
I'll be with VV as long as VV wants me around.

I'm on twitter.

[ Parent ]
Funny, word on the net is that VV was already trolling the net (0.00 / 0)
for your replacement... didn't you hear about that?

I'm kidding!  LOL.  I can't imagine that you would be going anywhere other than home and blogging from there.

I lurk more than I can comment b/c I have been so busy but rest assured I have been reading and I hope you keep writing here.

Hugs,

C

Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible.
~A. Philip Randolph



[ Parent ]
So are you going to be blogging at midnight? (0.00 / 0)

You said you look forward to blogging at an hour when most of us are awake. I know that many of us are night owls, so we look forward to your midnight bursts.

When I first got home from Afghanistan I was ALWAYS looking for my weapon, as the days went on I decided that it was best to replace my M-4 with a beer. Not always the best idea, even though it worked... sorta. I stopped looking for my weapon at 2 am, but often ran out of beer and had to walk to the store.

Take care.

Brian


We'll see (0.00 / 0)
I've got a feeling I'll be sleeping whenever Kennedy is sleeping.

I'm on twitter.

[ Parent ]
Glad to hear it, Richard! (0.00 / 0)
The process wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's really not painful if you have rank! I skated because of a hernia I developed in country. In the middle of our customs detail, I walked into the CSH with my medic and he diagnosed the hernia and wrote my no-lifting profile right there. I showed it to my platoon sergeant and walked back to the bay. I knew about my hernia for a couple months, but we were too busy to have it taken care of. I got surgery on it almost a month to the day we got home.

I look forward to seeing you and others at Net Roots Nation. I'm ready to celebrate your ETS date on my birthday. It'll be a grand time.


a grand time it will be indeed (0.00 / 0)
I had a hernia fixed about two months before i went to basic. that shit sucked. but of course i did go to New Orleans two days after the surgery.  Nothing like hobbling around the french quarter drunk with eight staples in your groin.

and did SGT count as rank in your batallion? It doesnt in mine. Our stock has dropped like crazy this deployment.  

I'm on twitter.


[ Parent ]
Ehh, not exactly (0.00 / 0)
But E-5s got out of mundane details of heavy lifting and equipment cleaning. One of my favorite parts of military life looking back is NCOs yelling at us to hurry up and finish something as they stand in groups of five to ten. Urging us to hurry so we can get out of there. Makes my head spin every time. Luckily, we had a few sergeants that pitched in to help us go a lot quicker.

[ Parent ]
Yeah (0.00 / 0)
i can never do that because i remember what it was like when NCOs did that when I was a joe.

I'm on twitter.

[ Parent ]
As you know I've been lurking (4.00 / 1)
Hurry home, son. We love you.

Thank You (0.00 / 0)
Travel safely and thank you for all you do.
Enjoy the family time and the smiles without sand on your teeth!

SeabeeVet


BTW. . .sorry for asking. (0.00 / 0)
I should have known better.

haha (0.00 / 0)
that was more snark than anything.

I'm on twitter.

[ Parent ]
LT.... (0.00 / 0)
ppphewwww...   I think we can all speak for our experiences of each time we came back from the 'Stan or Iraq...

I will say that nothing is the same, or rather nothing was the same...  even very foreign..

However, it was foreign in many more good ways than bad for me...  The best good part, though, was having fellow vets to commune with while I decompressed that didn't look at me like an alien...

if you ever need anything on your return home, what I have is yours brother...  I live in the Lowcountry, SC...  

Semper Fi...


correction... (0.00 / 0)
LT..  RockRichard...

yeah.. the prince does make mistakes!!!  ;-)  I was looking at both of your names just before I read your entry..  

The door is still open for you and the family..  anytime..

Semper..


[ Parent ]
Here's wishing you a safe journey home... (0.00 / 0)
...and hoping that you won't be a stranger around here - at any time of the day or night!

Manas... (0.00 / 0)
One recommendation if you're traveling back through Kyrgyzstan: the Baltika #6 and #9 beers are tempting because of the high alcohol content, but they taste horrible, like a rancid Budweiser.  The Moldavian wine, on the other hand, isn't that bad, is still pretty strong, and they pour big serving sizes.  Other than that, I hope you're not stuck there too long!    

We can't drink (0.00 / 0)
until we get back stateside, but then the Newcastle will flow!

I'm on twitter.

[ Parent ]
awesome (0.00 / 0)
Welcome home!  I remember sitting through all of those redeployment briefings in Bagram and thinking that I would never get out of that place.  You're definitely in for readjustment but it sounds like you'll be too busy raising a child to notice.  

Coming Home | 22 comments
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