Routines

I’ve been home for two weeks now, and have spent most of the time getting moved back into my home. I’d had a house sitter, who moved out a couple of days before I returned. She has lived in my house longer than me, by a few months.

I’m finally up and on line, so I hope to catch up on postings. I won’t be seeing too many other soldiers for a while, so until we start to drill again, I’ll be writing about things that I couldn’t write about while on active duty. My leave ran out yesterday, and I am today, for the first time in 18 months, not on active duty. Thus, I am not subject to many of the restrictions I used to have to obey.

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A master sergeant from my unit lives around the corner from me. We saw each other almost daily in Iraq, since our CHUs were near each other. I drove by his house a couple of days before Thanksgiving, and he was standing in his yard. It was fairly warm, and he was in a short sleeved t-shirt, drinking a Corona. As I passed, he grinned and thrust the bottle in the air, part wave, part salute, part celebration of being home. Over this last weekend he was up on his roof, bundled and hatted against the cold, putting Christmas lights on his house.

It feels a bit odd to me to be taking care of the usual household chores. All my little routines disappeared, and I’m feeling my way back to them. I suppose the sergeant felt a bit strange to be up on his house, in the cold, stringing lights.

Back home

My unit has now essentially demobilized, and we are returning to civilian life. I, like many others, am still on orders, using up accrued leave. I plan to return to my civilian job after the first of the year.

I try not to talk too much about what’s happening to me in my blog, but since I’m not around soldiers much right now, I don’t have much to report on. We have our first two drills off, so we will all reassemble for the first time in early February. It will be very interesting watching the changes and dynamics.

Our unit, the 116th Cav Brigade, has been changed from a heavy armor enhanced brigade to a new Unit of Action. That means many changes, but we’re not sure exactly how it will play out. Also, various leaders are now due to rotate out of leadership positions, so that will also trigger changes.

I am in the process of moving back into my house and trying to restart my life. It’s been a week now, and my reactions to things continues to surprise me. For one thing, as I unpack I am finding it very easy to discard “stuff” I’ve been keeping. Having lived a pretty Spartan life for the least 18 months, much that used to seem important now doesn’t seem so.

Oddly, frequently when I contemplate my experience over there, I want to cry. I looked over a retrospective of our deployment, published by the Idaho Statesman, and cried all the way through it. I’m starting to tear up as I write this. I don’t know why.

I’m writing this from the Kuna, Idaho library, as I’m not back on line yet, so posting will be a bit sparse for a while. I’ll keep writing about the experience as long as I think I have something interesting to say. I will try to talk about soldiers, rather than myself.

Demobe

We are now safely in Ft Lewis, Washington, going through the demobilization process. This consists mostly of standing in line for hours, then spending a minute or two in a chair looking at paperwork.

Yesterday I arrived at 0800, even though we were told to arrive at 1000. I waited in line, slowly advancing to the front of the line. At 0911, somebody called my name, I went to the front of the line signed an insurance form, and was done for the day. The day before, we didn't do anything, just took the day off.

It has been cool, 50s, and raining off an on. Lots of folks have colds, including me. Still, it's nice to be here. We're supposed to be outta here in a couple of days.

Internet access is almost non-existant. I just got lucky for a moment to send this update.

We are staying in the old WWII open bay barracks. Not great, but not bad. We have the same food as we've been eating, and it's hard to go to the chow hall. We do have the freedom to come and go, so if a person has wheels or a ride, we can eat off post.