Signing Off
It’s the last night of the deployment, and feels like the night before Christmas. Everyone is gathered on the mess decks listening to a band, and sharing stories from the last six months. There are no arguments or animosity. Everyone is in a good mood tonight. The TV’s and books are packed away. The sheets have been stripped off our racks and turned in. There is nothing to do and everyone is too excited to sleep. Reveille sounds at four thirty in the morning, to prepare for our helicopter ride back to Camp Pendleton.
It is an odd feeling being on this side of six months. To think of everything accomplished, and learned over that time. We have accomplished more than any MEU in many years. We have been to six different countries. We spent a month sleeping in tents in the desert, and over a month in a combat zone. We have seen and lived in cultures unlike those we have ever imagined. While it was all happening I don’t think we realized the value and grace of it all, but on this end of the stories it is like we lived a novel. It is an experience that gives us all a since of pride. I feel awkward now as I think of myself stepping onto the ship that first night before we got underway. I was scared, unsure. Not necessarily scared or unsure of the war, but of the life I was leaving behind. It was like everything was put on hold, and as if we would sleep for six months. The world around us and the lives of those we cared about would move on, and our control over all those things that stress us on a daily basis were then far out of our control. Our lives revolved around men that were practically strangers. Now as I think of that I know that there was nothing to be afraid of. Time moves on and in essence our control over anything is limited. It is as it is with any great journey. The hardest part is turning away from the starting line and facing the horizon. If only these realizations had come sooner then the whole float would have been easier. I would have been able to let go and cast my ship away from that pier with a broader perspective. So as it is with life, a lesson learned and taken to heart.
Tomorrow we fly off the ship around 9:00 in the morning. I face the question what now? Moving back into the routine I left behind what seems like a lifetime ago, but in the great scheme of things was a second in the clock of time. We start a new cycle of training all over again. We will lose all of our leaders, and we will become the leaders. We will receive new troops strait from the School of Infantry, and new Corpsmen from Field Medical Service School. None of them will understand what happened here, and they will look up to us for our experience, just as we did over a year ago. Soon we will be out at sea again. Time seems of little importance now. The ups and downs move on with the rhythm of life, but we will always have this to be proud of.
Thank you for following me on this trip, and your kind remarks on my writing. It has made it easier to be open and honest. Most of all thank you for the support that has been given to all of us. Whether the American people believed in the war or not, the important thing is that you all have supported the troops. That gives us a piece of home to hold on too. Thank you.