CH-47 Chase

My first CH-47 escort mission today and it went well. Only flew 3.7 hours which is light on flight time usually they are between 5 and 7 hours. We flew all over the place moving parts and pieces to many of the small outpost that cannot be resupplied by truck or cargo plane. Some of these outposts really made me thankful of my accommodations I will try not to complain anymore. Many of them were other than US military, not to say they were ANA or ANP just that they were not US Army or Marine enough on that.

Well once again I sit here listening to my iPod and watching my slide show on my big laptop. I guess it’s as close to home as I can get right now. It’s looking like I will be home sometime in Aug for my mid tour. Still have no idea what we are going to do when I get home for my mid tour but I know it will be epic, sky’s the limit.

My entire family is back to school now and it sounds like they are all doing well and I knew that before they did. Marie is trying to maintain here 4.0 GPA and I have no doubt that she will do this with style. I am counting on her to get her degree done and get a nice job so that when I retire I can sit around the house and catch up on some of this time that I am missing with my kids. I am sure I will go back to work eventually but I will take at least a year off just for me, to be selfish with my kids. It never gets any easier hearing stories about what happens with my kids and then figuring out that I was gone at that time and missed yet another significant event in their lives. It sucks, again I am not complaining, for the most part compared to many of my friends here I am lucky. I was there for the births of all three, only missed a few Christmases and thanks to my family I have been lucky enough not to miss too many weddings.

Wow that was a long break, I sat here looking at pictures of Robby when he was about 2 to 3 years old and got sucked right in. Needless to say that boy was too cute and what a sharp little dresser he was. Marie you are such a great Mom and our kids are so lucky to have you. I am lucky to be able to go out on a mission and know that my family, my kids are in such good hands. I see so many people over here dealing with so many problems from home, thinking to myself how hard it must be for them to stay focused on their jobs and what they have to accomplish over here. Thanks for all the help Household 6, thanks for having my back.

I am off tomorrow and then I work seven days straight, so tomorrow I will try to enjoy myself and maybe even take a nap after lunch. I went to the Hajji mart and bought a few movies to watch, Whip-It and Case 39. Two for 3 bucks you really can’t go wrong and most of them are DVD quality. Well it looks like I am running out of things to talk about so I guess I will call it a night, Night all