Lessons Learned

So...after a full year of training and operations...after 158 blog posts and countless days and nights spent in Kuwait and Iraq...what are the conclusions to be drawn from this significant life event? It's tough to draw conclusions looking back this past year. Do I think that we made a signficant difference in Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom 09-10? Maybe, we'll see if they manage to seat a government and if a still active Al Qaeda force continues to push for chaos there in the next several years. Do I think that the unit was successful in its mission? Sure, we managed our operations well and met and or exceeded all expectations. But I will tell you that 30 years from now those things will be respectable footnotes of the experience and not the primary memory. The primary memory will be of those guys that this blog has been following for a year. The Crew of Majors (plus one).

I love these guys like brothers...because of what they do but more importantly because of who they are. I love them because they stand up for what they believe in and do so in the most vulnerable manner possible...with their personal safety. I love them for the moments this year when one or more of them reached down and yanked me out of a personal funk and made me continue to focus on the mission. I love them for the times when I had the privilege to do the same and was able to return the favor. I hope that we are able to continue those honors for some time to come. Dick Winters says in "Band of Brothers" that each Easy Company man had to return from the War in their own way and as best as each is able....I hope that we continue to support each other along the way as that happens. We did the usual dynamic at the welcome home ceremony yesterday....picked up bags after finding family members and then gave quick hugs and moved out...moved out towards our respective futures whatever those may be but let me sum up the year the way it should be done by pausing to thank them for their service but more significantly to thank them for their brotherhood. So...to MAJ Sean Ibarguen, MAJ Kevin "Kevina" Smith, MAJ Paul "The Tall One" Robbins, MAJ Dan "Gar-Keye-A" Garcia, MAJ Doug "Pigmeat" Whitaker, MAJ John Lee and MAJ Cory "Corndog" Matthews...thanks for the levity at bad times, the strength at all times and the support along the way. It's the guy on your left and on your right that makes it all worth it...I couldn't imagine the ride without it.

Coming Home.

The HHC 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team had a tremendous welcome home yesterday at the Cypress Ranch High School in Houston, Texas. After mobilizing on September 6, 2009 and spending three months on active duty training at Camp MacGregor, New Mexico and then eight months in the International Zone, Baghdad, Iraq and then a month of demobilization and redeployment planning and operations, the company returned from a highly successful mission. The unit earned the Department of Defense's Joint Meritorious Unit Award for our work in the Green Zone this past year and more importantly returned every single Soldier of the Company. There have been long nights and longer days...heat and significant events to ensure that you will always value what's really important...see above...my daughter Katy at the welcome home.

Ft. Bliss

So, we landed here at Ft. Bliss on the 7th of August (after spending my bday on the 5th in Kuwait) and have now endured 5 days of poking and prodding. Shots and checkups -dental exams, physical exams, mental health exams, finance checks and on and on. It's been a fairly well organized and expedient process but we are all anxious to get moving tomorrow as the unit catches a flight to Houston in the morning. Last night, the crew headed collectively over to the Cattlemen's Steakhouse just outside of El Paso for a good meal (but unfortunately no beer)....a good time was had by all as we brought a year of being together 24/7 to a semi-conclusion....MAJ John Lee has calculated that it was our 546th straight meal together since we arrived in Iraq last year.

Catching up

Well it's been a few weeks since we left Iraq and FOB Prosperity. We had our final Transfer of Authority (TOA) ceremony and then moved to Victory Base where we sat for several days waiting for military airlift to Kuwait. After three days we got lucky and caught a C-17 ride into Kuwait and then had several days there at Camp Virginia (see our tent photo) to "cool" our heels while we waited for a civilian charter flight across the Atlantic (some plane pics here also). We caught a plane and flew from Kuwait to Leipzig, Germany (in the middle of the night) and from there to Bangor, Maine (again in the middle of the night). We refueled All in all it was about 23 hours of movement. The amazing thing about Bangor was that it was about 45 degrees outside at three in the morning which was quite a change from the 125 degree heat that we left in Kuwait. So once at Bliss then we begin a week of processing -medical, dental, finance, admin, etc.

Last Events

So we are continuing to wrap things up as we get close to loading up here and getting moving to Kuwait for processing. Tomorrow morning we will conduct our TOA (Transfer of Authority) ceremony to officially hand over our mission to the 256th RAOC. Today, the Brigade Commander conducted a ceremony to issue out the end of tour awards to everyone....my crew included. The top two pics are of my Deputy, MAJ Doug Whitaker (receiving the Joint Commendation Medal) and SFC Karen Perry (receiving the Defense Meritorious Service Medal) for their tremendous work here this year. At the bottom is my buddies, MAJ Sean Ibarguen and MAJ Paul Robbins receiving their Joint Commendation Medals as well. This third tour has been distinctly different for me as I am in charge of a staff of legal professionals...responsible for their safety and their work and it has been a real pleasure...hopefully I was a capable and fair leader.

From GEN Stanley McCrystal's Retirement Comments

"It's an axiom in the Army that soldiers write the checks but families pay the bills. And war increases both the accuracy of that statement and the cost families pay.
In a novel based on history, Steven Pressfield captured poignantly just how important families were and, I believe, are today. Facing an invading Persian army under King Xerxes, a coalition of Greek states sent a small force to buy time by defending the pass at Thermopylae and were led by 300 special, selected Spartans. The mission was desperate and death for the 300 certain. Before he left to lead them, the Spartan king, Leonidas, explained to one of the Spartan wives how he had selected the 300 from an entire army famed for its professionalism, courage and dedication to duty.
"I chose them not for their valor, lady, but for that of their women. Greece stands now upon her most perilous hour. If she saves herself, it will not be at the gates. Death alone awaits us and our allies there but later in battles yet to come by land and sea.
"Then Greece , if the gods will it, will preserve herself. Do you understand this, lady? Well, now, listen, when the battle is over, when the 300 have gone to death, then all Greece will look to the Spartans to see how they bear it. But who, lady, will the Spartans look to? To you. To you and the other wives and mothers, sisters and daughters of the fallen.
"If they behold your hearts riven and broken with grief, they too will break and Greece will break with them. But if you bear up, dry eyed, not alone enduring your loss but seizing it with contempt for its agony and embracing it as the honor that it is in truth, then Sparta will stand and all Greece will stand behind her.
"Why have I nominated you, lady, to bear up beneath this most terrible of trials, you and your sisters of the 300? Because you can."
To all who wear no uniform but give so much, sacrifice so willingly and serve as such an example to our nation and each other, my thanks."

I can tell you for the true warriors...the Soldiers that go back over and over again to fight the enemy that is Al Qaeda...it is the support of the spouse standing behind them at home that makes it truly possible. At least it does for me.

Getting Ready to Leave

Without getting specific about our departure times, etc. I will say that bringing one of these year long deployments to a close is always interesting. You keep busy working the last minute chores entailing handing over your job responsibilities to the incoming unit while struggling to maintain focus. It is very tough to keep focused when your mind (for the first time in months) begins to actually entertain the ideas of your kids running toward you as you get off the bus or kissing your spouse again for the first time in a long while. I find that you don't really leave these places all at once as you sort of shed it. For instance, last month I loaded two duffle bags of extraneous equipment and clothing items into a CONEX to take the slow boat home ahead of me. Then last week I mailed a large black box full of personal items and keepsakes directly to the house. This morning I turned in some more equipment to the Headquarters Company and started getting rid of old emails and documents off the office computer. Soon we will load our final two bags on an armored vehicle and start the long road home. I have found that as I shed these layers that I also seem to do the same mentally as we get closer to the end. It'll come soon enough I suppose.

Some Random Shots...

...of the International Zone.

Australian Embassy

As we enter our last days here in Iraq, we are hitting all of the usual haunts one last time - last meal at the U.S. Embassy; last run over to Union III for DVD's, etc. We are also finally getting around to some events that we have not been to as of yet. One of those for me is the Austrialian Embassy in the Green Zone. I was on R&R in April when most of my buddies went over for Anzac Day so I

finally got over tonight for a meal with the guys and a tour around the Aussie Compound with our Aussie buddy, CPT Rod Lang. I was also presented with a Certificate of Appreciation from the Australian Embassy for my assistance to them on some legal issues that I worked on last January and February. Great meal and the award was much appreciated. The Aussies are both good mates and

great Allies.

Orange Skies Revisited

My buddy MAJ Kevin Smith sent me these two pictures which are better representations of your basic sandstorm here in Baghdad. These two pics are taken from the same exact spot and note that the tower "magically dissapears" in the top one. They are both taken in the Meadowlands area of FOB Prosperity.