1000 Words from Iraq

I'm HOME... sort of

I’m in the USA!!!
I haven’t made it home yet, but I will see my parents tomorrow, so I’m pretty excited. The trip here was a mess. We left Mosul at 3am a few days ago (the time has got me so confused that I’m not going to try to remember days) and flew in a military plane to Kuwait. We arrived in Kuwait and I immediately engorged myself with Subway. (This account will include a lot of me eating food) I’m also pleased to inform you that I was able to eat KFC and Pizza there too.
FYI: the Soldiers stationed in Kuwait get hazard duty pay the same as we did and their weapons stay locked up and they get to eat good food, it’s not fair.
Anyway, we left Kuwait a couple days later at, guess what time, 3am. It seems that everything important happens at 3am in the military. We flew on a commercial airplane from Kuwait to Fort Dix, NJ., with a layover in Ireland. When I went home on leave, we stopped in Ireland, but it was, guess what time, 3am, and the airport wasn’t open. This time, we were able to go into the airport and I bought some souvenirs to prove I was in Ireland.
I survived most of the trip here without crying or getting too emotional, but when I saw the lights of the New Jersey shoreline, I bawled. That has to be the most beautiful sight I’ve seen. We were finally home. And though I’ve been in the US for a couple days now, it still hasn’t sank in that I’m here, that I’m home and I won’t have to go back. When we stepped of the plane, a gust of freezing cold air brought us back to reality as we realized that IT’S INSANELY COLD HERE!!! I hate cold weather and was definitely not prepared for it.
We drove from Fort Dix, at 3am again, in a bus to the Philadelphia airport. We got to the airport about an hour before our plane left and we almost missed our flight. We were assaulted by the baggage inspectors and we treated like shit by the airport staff as we were trying to get to our flight. I think it’s ironic that they allow us to check our weapons on the plane, but we have to empty all of our bags, be patted down, wanded and searched before we could get on our plane. They were rude and we were late. Way to welcome home the troops. There was no pomp and ceremony, just get in line and wait your turn. I should probably mention here that our bags were searched three times before we even left Kuwait and we were all in uniform.
Our flight from Philly took us into Minneapolis where I enjoyed a shot of tequila at a restaurant named Taquilaria on the sly, (We aren’t supposed to drink in uniform) and I at breakfast burritos from McDonalds, my favorite. Minneapolis is the closest I’ve been to home so far. We flew from Minneapolis to La Crosse, Wisconsin and then went on to Fort McCoy, where we are doing our demobilization briefings. Turns out, it’s even colder in Wisconsin than it was in Jersey.
So, for not having slept on a bed in a week and taken intermittent showers, it was nice to get back to the barracks we stayed at a year ago when we were preparing to leave for Iraq and sleep in a bed. Jet lag is killing me.

This morning we had to be up early to get our blood drawn. I, of course, got the one who couldn’t get my vein on the first try and spent five minutes digging around in both arms trying to get blood out of me. Not my idea of a good time.
We sat through almost five hours of briefings, all of us tired as hell because of jet lag. There was so much information thrown at me in such a small time that I felt like my mind was going to explode. I’m still recovering, so I’ll make this short.
My parents are coming tomorrow for our unit dinner. All of our families got together a year ago before we left and now we’ll do it one more time. I expect to get completely hammered tomorrow night, because I DESERVE IT.

posted by Blair Heusdens @ 5:01 PM