Our first stop in the United States was at New Hampshire. It was our first step back on American Soil. There was a welcome party there for us, from an organization formed by War Veterans and Citizens. I was overwhelmed by the support we received from these people. They had woken up early in the morning to receive us. I felt an instant bond with the old warriors there; an instant recognition – something that only exists between servicemembers. I won’t even try to compare my experience to what those heroes have been through. These were veterans from World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, and Desert Storm. You have to understand that some of these veterans, especially the ones from Vietnam, had no one to welcome them when they came back home from war. In fact, they were spit on, hated, and ridiculed. It angers me when I think of the indiginities they suffered, especially from a public that has no idea of the horrors of the war. Quite often they decide that the dishonourable actions of a few are good enough to condemn a majority. This is why I am happy to see that the majority of the American public still support their troops even if they don’t agree with the war. A lot of these veterans feel sad that they can’t join us at war. In fact, as a World War II veteran told us, “I wish I was there fighting alongside you gentlemen, but I don’t think they take 80-year old men in the Army anymore…”. Before we took our leave, the veterans got into formation and saluted us. Our Company XO (Executive Officer) called us to attention and we saluted them right back. The CO of the Veterans’ Formation told us “You have no idea, how much it means to us, for you to salute us.” That counted as one of the most moving experiences in my life. I find it hard to describe the emotions experienced by a servicemember to civilians – it is not something that you can put into words. It is something you have to experience. It some something you develop when you spend time with friends who you know have your back. It is something you develop when you spend time with friends in an environment where any of you can die at any time. It is something you develop when you pray everyday that no one in your company gets hurt when they go outside to do their missions. It’s when you are party of a family. A brotherhood.

After leaving New Hampshire, we stopped at Ft. Lewis. I remember watching troops coming back from Iraq, when I was there over a year ago. I knew I’d be in their position one day, and I sure was. We stayed there for about five days to go through paperwork and briefings. Finally, early on the morning of the 12^th, we headed back to Phoenix, Arizona. On August 29^th, 2005, I remember thinking “One day, I’ll be on a plane flying in the opposite direction”. And sure enough, there I was. My level of excitement mounted as I realized that in a very short time, I would be seeing my friends and family… and that they would be elated to see me.

All things come to an end. Sometimes it feels like it takes a long time, but eventually…

As always, here are some pictures. I also have pictures from Thanksgiving ’06. I missed last year’s Thanksgiving, but this year’s more than made up for it. Everyone was there, including my mom and dad, my sister-in-law, and my sister’s fiance. Oh, and I also have pictures of my brother’s and sister-in-law’s wedding reception.

Patten, Valles, Terry, and I at BIAP.

UH-60 Blackhawk

Chinook

Inside the C-130

Everyone inside the C-130

Patten and I in Camp Virginia

Soto, Valles, and I in Camp Virginia

Nordic Sunrise

Veterans’ Welcome at New Hampshire

This doggy was there to welcome us at New Hampshire

He had a little buddy to welcome us too

Roughnecks at New Hampshire

My buddies and I went to a Mexican Restaurant near Ft. Lewis. When we walked in, I saw these polaroids on the wall of people with Sombreros on. I found out that if it was your birthday, you got your picture taken with a sombrero. So I told them it was my birthday and my buddies played along.

Welcome Home, Roughnecks!

Michael and I at Sky Harbour

Michael, Naima, and I

Patten and I at the Moastery

Valles and I at the Monastery

Valles, Patten, and I at The Monastery

Viridiana, Berenice, and I at The Monastery

Dipu Cheta and Keerthi

Dipu Cheta, Simi Chechi, Keerthi, and Mannu

Keerthi

Keerthi and Simi Chechi

Keerthi, Simi Chechi, and Amma

Maya, Priya, Keerthi, Simi Chechi, and I

Maya, Priya, Dipu Cheta, Keerthi, Simi Chechi, and I

Prem and Simi Chechi

Priya, Simi Chechi, and I

Priya, Maya, and Simi Chechi

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner

Keerthi, Dipu Cheta, Simi Chechi, and I

My sister and her fiance

Mannu, Keerthi, Amma, Acha, and I

Priya and I

My sister and I

Keerthi, Mannu, and I

Maya and I

Priya, Maya, and I

Shipra, Maya, Simi Chechi, Keerthi, and Priya

Aniyammama, Hemammayee, Dipu Cheta, Simi Chechi, and Prem

Simi Chechi and I

Ok, so this last month (May), I went on leave. My leave date was the 8^th of May. Little did I know that this day would be the beginning of what I would like to call…

The Worst Travelling Experience Ever

We meet our hero at BIAP where he is waiting with his fellow soldiers to get a flight to Kuwait. It is around 8 in the morning, and the day hasn’t gotten hot just yet. Everywhere there are Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Seamen and Civilians sitting and waiting. Some are playing cards or talking amongst themselves. Others are listening to music, or watching movies on their laptops, or reading books. Still others are sprawled out on benches or on the dusty concrete floor, sleeping, using their luggage as pillows. At about 9 in the morning, a formation is called. As our hero hurries and falls in, he looks around and notices Captains, Majors, and Sergeant Majors also in formation. It strikes him as a little funny since he usually sees them in front of a formation, and not in one. Leave – the great equalizer. Somebody comes up to the front of the formation and informs everyone that there are two flights leaving Baghdad. The first one leaves at 12 noon, while the second one leaves at 10 pm. However, there are personnel who have been waiting at BIAP since yesterday, and therefore, they will be given preference for the 12 noon flight. Our hero hopes and prays that there is enough room on the flight for him. However, he has been in the Military long enough to know that expecations are rarely met, and Murphy’s Law holds sway most of the time. Sure enough, there isn’t enough room on the flight and he has to wait for the 10 pm flight. He settles in for a Long and Boring day.

It is past noon. The time is irrelevant. Our Hero is extremely bored. It is much hotter than it had been in the morning, and there is a hot and dry wind whipping through everything, drying everything out. Lips feel like parchment. He drifts in and out of sleep. There is only one thing on his mind. Getting to India on time for his Brother’s Wedding. He is understandably anxious and keeps exploring all the different possibilities that this journey could take. In the best scenario, he reaches India on the evening of the 9th, in good time for The Wedding. However, as he will soon find out, this will be far from the case. 5 pm rolls in, bringing a blinding sandstorm in its wake. The sun is blocked from the sky by a huge wall of sand, and the bright sunlight is replaced by a sickly yellow gloom. A lot of people leave the outside waiting area to wait in the tents. Our hero and his buddies decide to stick it out. Sand and grit get everwhere and faces feel like sandpaper.

It is 2200 (10 pm). There is no word on the flight.

It is 0000 (12 am). There is still no word on the flight.

It is 0130 (1:30 am). Finally, everyone is told that the flight has arrived. All of them wait to board the C-5 in a zombie-like daze. His last thought as he drifts to sleep is “Finally made it out of Baghdad… it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to India now. Everything should go just fine…”

“What do you mean I can’t fly to India?!”
“You need a clearance from the Indian Embassy. You can’t just fly to India.”
“But I’m an Indian Citizen! I hold an Indian Passport! They can’t keep me out of the country!”
“Regardless. Furthermore, you don’t have a Kuwaiti Visa, so you won’t get a departure stamp. And they won’t let you in India without one. You’re a Permanent Resident of the US right? Yeah, so they’ll probably ship you back to the US, not even Kuwait!”
“But see… I have an Indian-”
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do. Rules are Rules. You have four options. You can either cancel your leave, or apply for a Kuwait Visa – this will take a few weeks so you will have to fly back to Baghdad – you can’t wait here, or you can fly to Frankfurt, buy a ticket to India, and get your departure stamp there, or you can fly to the US, buy a ticket to India, and get your departure stamp from there.”

I got there on the night of the 21^st, at around midnight. My sister let me in, and hearing the noise my doggy Honey walked out to see who it was. She stopped because she didn’t know who I was at first. But once she recognized me, she ran out to greet me. She was rolling on the floor, jumping on me, and licking me all over. My sister told me that Honey was pretty depressed after I left Phoenix, so she was really happy to see me again.

It was fun hanging out with my family, even though the days passed by really quickly. I just sat around and chilled, and ate some nice home-cooked meals. On my last day there, we had a barbeque, which was pretty awesome too. Though I felt like my time with them was too short, it was better than nothing so I’m glad I was able to spend time with them. I left on the 24^th back to Ft. Lewis. It was hard for my family to see me go again, but I did my best to put them at ease. It was pretty hard for me too – but I know that each second that goes by only brings me closer to when I can see them again.

Since I’ve been back, things have been pretty easy here. We’ve been getting time to relax and chill, so that’s pretty good. The other major development was the removal of all four of my wisdom teeth. It was a mildly unpleasant experience. The parts that sucked were the numbing (when they stick a needle into your gum, and roof of the mouth) and the part where they used to drill to cut up my lower teeth – their roots were intertwined with the teeth in front of them. Once I was done, they gave me Percocet and Ibuprofen for the pain. The combination is pretty good – makes you feel mellow and chilled out, and helps the pain. Right after I got done, I was sorta miserable because my mouth was completely numb and I was unable to swallow. As a result, the blood and saliva were pooling in my mouth. Since I wasn’t allowed to spit it out anyway (because spitting can cause dry socket), I could only let it dribble out. It was pretty gross. Once the numbness went away, I was able to swallow. Towards the middle of the day, I felt much better, and the bleeding had stopped for the most part.

I’m on quarters for 3 days, and I am also on a no-PT profile for a week. It’s kinda cool, because I get to sit around in the barracks and chill. Today I was able to sleep in, and part of that was due to the Percocet, which completely knocked me out. Other than that, nothing much is going on. But I’ve been rather pensive recently, and especially when I was travelling out to LA. Everytime I see a civilian now, I feel how I am not part of that world anymore. I feel detached and separate – a sense of “us” and “them”. I imagine how they are able to go home after work to their families. It is not a sense of regret. I should say it is more of a sense of longing. There are simple things that you miss, like some of your freedoms. The freedom to go anywhere you want, and to do anything you want. There are things that you have to give up. I have even realized how simple my needs have become. A soldier has very simple needs and wants. A good bed, a nice meal, a few words from home – these are all a soldier needs to make his/her day. These are also things that I used to take for granted, and their importance is only evident to me in times like these. Well, that’s about all I have for now. Take care.

I have updated my blog. If you are still seeing this entry, it’s due to a bug I have in my redirection. I haven’t had the time to devise a new algorithm yet. What you want to do is clear your browser cache and reload the page. It should redirect to the latest entry. The best way to know if I’ve updated my blog or not, is to take a look at the calendar. If you don’t see anything new, jump forward to the next month to be sure.

What else? Work is cool. I am writing some neat perl scripts and pretty soon I think I might get to do some C. Sometimes I feel that I shouldn’t enjoy my job so much. Most people don’t. What if this means I will hate it a lot later? I really should stop being so paranoid and suspicious. Yeah so that’s pretty much what’s happening at work. It’s fun and I work with a great bunch of people.

I can’t wait for Halloween. I don’t know if I posted this before, but I got myself a Halloween costume. It’s a DS9 Star Trek Costume. Captain Sisko’s, so it’s the command uniform (red shoulder). I even got a communicator that beeps and says “Bridge Here, Status Report” when you press it. It sounds like Worf, or some dude who’s voice has been slowed down, or maybe the battery on the thing is dying. Yeah, so this whole thing screams “NERD!”. I don’t care. Hey, I enjoy it and it’s fun for me. If it pisses you off, then I don’t give a crap.

I have an unknown girlfriend. I have no idea who this girl is. If any of you see her, please tell her to call me. Or maybe she expects me to call her seeing as I have never called her. Everyone seems to think I have a girlfriend. They keep asking me about my “girlfriend” or “girlfriends”. I can only give them a blank look and go “Uhhh… girl… who?”.

That’s pretty much it.