100124 – Back in America!

So one of the big projects I’ve been helping with had a conference coming up at Scott AFB and they needed to send two people to represent our organization. They picked a logistics Lt Col to lead the TDY and it was between me and another O-4 to go to assist. Fortunately for me, the other O-4 didn’t have a passport. (He’s a Naval submariner, so as he put it, “I’ve never needed a passport in a sub.” But I’m an Air Force tourist stationed in Germany, so I definitely had a passport.) It was a very complicated process to get the orders and travel arrangements made, but I kept telling myself that it would be worth it. After all, it’s very rare that you go TDY from a deployment and even more rare that that TDY is a week conference to the US. While it’s great to be going back to the US from a deployment, you have to remember, I haven’t been in the US for a year before the deployment. While Germany has been a great adventure and a very interesting place to live, there are a lot of things about the US that the family and I have missed. So while I felt bad for the other deployers that don’t get the chance to take a TDY back to the US, I felt probably worse for Val and the kids who weren’t able to take a quick vacation back to the US like me. I arrived yesterday and in just that first day I went to Target AND Wal-mart to buy some things I couldn’t get in Afghanistan and Val couldn’t get in Germany (tons of variety for things I’m actually looking for and the prices are great), ate barbeque ribs at Texas Roadhouse for lunch and a double cheeseburger Mighty Kids meal at McDonald’s for dinner (seriously), watched a Gators basketball game, talked to Val and the kids for more than an hour via Skype, and downloaded new songs and TV shows from iTunes (via free high-speed Internet at the hotel). Man, America is great! Today I plan to watch the NFL conference championship games, download all of the updates my computer and programs need, Skype Val, and go to Olive Garden or Boston Market for dinner. Tomorrow, I guess I’ve got to get back to work, but even that, being back on a big Air Force base, will be a nice change. More later…