It begins . . .

Standing in formation outside of our battalion offices at Fort Richardson, Alaska I felt very relieved.  I did it!  I managed to wrap up everything before leaving the country for a year!  While I blew a sigh of relief, I still had no idea what lay ahead of me. 

As the battalion commander and command sergeant major spoke to our formation I noticed the family members of the deploying troops standing in the background.  Final good byes had already been said and they were listening intently, dreading the moment when we would load up on the buses that would take us to the nearby air force base.  The irony struck me.  While I couldn't wait to board the plane, many others were dreading this moment! 

May 2010 was a very busy month for me.  Over the course of 5 weeks I had driven 4 thousand miles across the North American continent to Alaska, located an apartment, moved my belongings into the said apartment, found out that I would deploy to Afghanistan, frantically completely all of the Army prerequistes to deploy in a fraction of the time others receive, learned how to navigate through Anchorage, packed up my belongings, moved out of an apartment, put my car in storage, and completed many other odds and ends associated with leaving the country for a year.  I completed all of this alone!  More than half of those tasks were accomplished during the weekend before I left including giving a talk at church.  No wonder I was so happy to deploy! 

As our plane took off from Elmendorf Air Force Base I saw the beautiful snow capped mountains surrounding Anchorage.  I thought what it might be like when I return.  What will the next year have in store for me?  What will I learn?  Will it ever slow down?  How will I change? 

After nearly eight months of deployment I'm still receiving answeres to those questions.