30 July 2005 2048 EDT
After that, we continued on towards Winchester with our escort. A state trooper was up front with lights flashing while a hundred+ bikers lined up in front of and behind our two buses. They blocked off sidestreets the whole way to Winchester so that we wouldn't have to stop. We probably ran a dozen or so red lights...that was pretty cool. On top of that, the bikers ended up blocking off I-66 and I-81 when we got on the interstate. That probably wasn't the safest thing in the world, but it definitely made us feel important. Then we hit Winchester and people all over town just waved at us all the way to the staging area for the parade.
The parade itself was pretty neat, and a lot more people showed up than I would have expected. The mile and a half march to the Armory was lined with people on either side, all with signs or flags in hand waving to screams of "welcome back" and "thank you." The only downside was that the 18-man bagpipe group was way up in the front of the parade, so I didn't get a chance to hear them. The 29th Division band helped us stay in step, though, and the guys and gals from Rolling Thunder stepped off just a little ahead of us. Other than that, my family found me somewhere around the mile point, and they kinda followed the formation the rest of the way to the armory, where we were greeted by more people, food, and VIPs which included a couple of generals and politicians.
The speeches were pretty quick and harmless. All four or five speakers were done within about 15 minutes, much quicker than I had anticipated. But the last speaker was Donna Cherry, SSG Cherry's wife. She released two balloons for her husband and SGT Beasley, and it took nearly all of my strength to keep from crying right there in formation. I can't even imagine how she feels welcoming all of us home. But hey, no dwelling on that. It was a happy day today.
Tomorrow, I've got a quick day at the armory and then that's it. I'll have about a dozen days off before I have to head down to Fort Benning for my advanced course and then it'll be off to school after that. Monday, I'll stop at human resources with my DD 214 to figure out where I'll be teaching and then it'll be off to the post office to pick up my foot lockers that I mailed back home from Afghanistan. Hopefully, my cell phone will show up via FedEx on Monday too. Other than that, I'll just be hanging out around the house. E-mail me if you want to hang out.
29 July 2005 2015 EDT
As can be expected, there has been a lot of drinking going on these last few days. I think that's the unofficial army pastime. Anyway, the alcohol has led to some interesting conversation these last few days; and in addition to the counseling I've done with various soldiers, I've been finding out a lot about my platoon that I hadn't known before. Some of it is to be expected and some of it was surprising. In the end, though, I finish with the feeling that maybe I didn't know my guys quite as well as I thought.
It's kinda like the conversations I was having with my family while I was on pass...except those weren't alcohol-induced. I wonder what my dad felt like when my siblings and I opened up and talked about all of the hurt feelings and secrets we'd been holding back for the last twenty-some years. Was he sad that we felt like we couldn't say what was on our minds all of these years? Did he question himself or think about how he might have done things differently had he known? A lot of that has been going through my mind, and I just wonder if it's the same with him. I guess I can always ask.
28 July 2005 0002 EDT
But yeah, like I was saying...I ended up spending about an hour at the gym and then just ate some pizza while the shower freed up before heading up to the CQ desk to jump on one of the computers there. I just logged into AIM Express and let that sit while I checked my e-mail and tried to catch up on my blog-reading. I guess it was kinda late. I just left my buddy list open in the off-chance that one of my boys from back home or one of my students would message me. Instead, I got an IM from Willow from UB. It's funny. You know that feeling I described when I finally ran into JP from The National Guard Experience while I was down at Ghazni? It was amazingly similar to catch up with Willow...considering we've never met or talked before. I've been reading her blog though...and she's been reading mine. That' almost like knowing each other. Anyway, it was really nice to chat for a bit before she had to go back to her homework.
It's getting late though. I guess it's my bedtime, even though formation is delayed for my platoon in the morning. They can sleep in tomorrow. Instead of a 0600 formation, they have until 0800. I can be so generous sometimes.
Oh, last thing...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE!!!
27 July 2005 1850 EDT
The ride back is supposed to happen on the 30th (Saturday). I'll probably be racked out for the 5-6 hour trip, after which we will have a little parade with a bunch of the residents and businesses of Winchester in attendance. We're supposed to show up around noon, and then it'll probably take a little while longer to get everything set up right...so I'm guessing it'll actually happen around 2:00 PM plus or minus an hour or so. Everyone's invited to stand out in the 90+ degree heat and watch us walk by if you want to come. If not, you can just come by my air-conditioned house a week later and we can celebrate in a cozier setting. My sister sent out the eVite (Sunday August 7, 1:00PM) and she only knows a few of my friends, so I know a lot of you haven't been invited. But if you want to come, I'd love to see everyone again, whether it's old friends from high school and college, former students, family, or just random single ladies. Just give me a quick heads up before the 7th so that we can get stuff together before this all goes down. I'm still trying to think of a theme. I'm considering going with the longstanding hawaiian shirt tradition, but I'm always open to suggestions.
26 July 2005 1907 EDT
Okay, that was today. Let's rewind a little bit and go back to last night. I would have written about it last night, but I didn't have time to post by the time I got back to post (ooh...confusing...two different uses of the word post). But I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start with the mandatory fun. All of the officers in the battalion were required to attend the officer's call at J.R.Rockers, a little sports bar over at the Air Force side of the post. Of course people like to complain about stuff like that, but I think some good came out of it. We ended up staying for about three and a half hours, during which time we discussed all of the battalions accomplishments this last year. Part of that was to shed some positive light on the deployment. I think morale has been pretty low and a lot of soldiers felt like they wasted a year of their life for nothing. So together, we came up with a list of things that we could share with our soldiers and families...so that soldiers can brag to their friends and tell hooah hooah stories when they go out drinking a week from now. But yeah, that was that.
At the conclusion of the little event, I got together with five other lieutenants and we set off towards downtown Fayetteville. So yeah, six officers in one vehicle with yours truly as the designated driver...I can smell trouble already. I won't share stories of everything that went on last night, but it was a lot of fun. The only downside was that I rolled in around 0230 or so and only got about an hour and a half of sleep before getting up early to finish packing my gear for CIF. The rest of the what happened I'll probably write in a book one day. But hey, enough talk. I have a mandatory fun night planned with my platoon tonight, so I'm going to head out. I'll share more tomorrow.
24 July 2005 1150 EDT
I think I may need to spend some time watching Kindergarten Cop again. I should probably watch the Substitute and Stand and Deliver too. Can you believe that I've never watched those movies? How can a teacher...yeah, I've heard it a hundred times. I was the same with military movies. I didn't watch Platoon and Full Metal Jacket until a few years ago myself. Apocalypse Now I didn't really enjoy, but I think I need to give it another chance. But yeah, I'm getting side-tracked. Let's get back to the first day of school. I'll use this as a little sounding board to iron out the kinks in my first day of school speech. Here's what I'm thinking for the time being:
Good morning (afternoon), class. My name is Mr. Louie. You can call me Mr. Louie or Teacher or Sir. Any questions so far? Okay, let's try this out. Each of you will take turns saying good morning to me and telling me your name. I will say good morning back and this will be your chance to correct my pronunciation. (At this point, I will attempt to butcher every name in the class in an attempt to get the kids to correct me. This is a hard thing for a lot of students with hard-to-pronounce names because they've grown tired of correcting teacher after teacher. But I'm hoping that by butchering every name, it'll make those kids feel less out of place and it'll give me an opportunity to practice saying their names correctly. Two weeks...that's my goal this year. I need to be able to identify every student in my class by the two week point. Outside of class, I'll give that a month.)
Here are the ground rules for this class. Rule number one: No crying. (Of course I'll say it with a completely serious face. I think this would be fun.) If you want to cry, you can ask to go out in the hall, but you will not cry while in this room. Any questions?
Rule number two: Participation in mandatory. When I ask a question to the class, I am looking for all of you to respond. You will either reply with yes or no if it is a yes/no question or you will nod your head north/south or side-to-side. If you are not sure how to reply or if you have an additional question or comment, you will raise your hand. Let's try this out. Are there any questions regarding the first two rules? (At this point, I'm counting on someone being too cool to participate. In high school, it's cool not to participate...though kids are usually on their best behavior on the first day of school. It usually isn't until the second week until you know who the real trouble-makers are. But if you play your cards right on the first day, you can pull it out. Me, playing the hard-butt role for the first time this year...it'll be a learning experience for me. But I think this type of behavior from me will present enough of a challenge for the wannabe slackers to bring them out in the open. At the same time, I'm also trying to practice modeling early. That's something they taught me in my teacher classes. If there is a particular type of behavior that you want from your students, you need to state it, model it, and then reinforce it. So from day one, I want to send the message that they need to listen and they need to participate. I'm sure it'll take some time, but it needs to be a conscious effort this year.)
Okay, rule number two-bravo: If it is a simple question that everyone should know the answer to, I expect to see twenty-five hands in the air. Let's try this out. What did you do for fun during the summer? (At this point, I will wait until everyone's hand is in the air. I am kinda hoping that some of the kids will get tired of waiting for their classmates to figure it out and decide to put their hands down...at which point, I might break into my drill sergeant routine and drill them on why they put their hand down. Hehe...I know I really wouldn't do that, but it'd be fun, yes? Again, I'm working on the modeling thing. We'll see how it goes.)
Rule number three: Everyone has fun learning. Any questions? (Again with the modeling thing. I want to make sure that everyone is participating and at least shaking their heads when I ask a question to the class.)
Okay, good. That's it. There are other policies that you'll read about in my introductory letter, but those are the three main rules for the class. Now let's review. Can anyone tell me what the three rules are? (At this point, I'll have a star-shaped sticker to slap on the forehead of the first student who can name all three.)
After this fun introductory part (I'm giving it 20-25 minutes, with most of it being taken up with the names/introduction exercise), I will ask them to clear off their desks and pull out a sheet of paper along with a writing implement. I will then proceed to administer a test. I am not sure what I want to give yet, whether it be the final exam or a math pre-test or both. Right now, I'm opting for both. We'll practice grading it together as a class, and then go over what the results mean...absolutely nothing for now. This is, for the most part, everything that they need to know by the end of the course. If they know it already, then great. They should probably take a different class. If not, then that's fine too. In either case, I'm taking a departure from my usual syllabus and grading policy waste of a first day of school, and I'm going to try to make this as dense as possible. If time permits after going over the tests, I'll try to throw in a simple demonstration or two. I'll have two or three of them standing by, each five to ten minutes long. But that should be it. What do you think?
24 July 2005 0705 EDT
Another dream involved my platoon living in an open bay much like our own barracks here. Somehow, a water fight ensued and I ran into the bathroom to grab a stack of paper towels. But by the time I got back to the bay area, all of the junk had been pushed to the sides of the barracks and my platoon had erupted into a song and dance number...which a few moments later turned into a football game inside. Where they got all of the red and blue helmets is a mystery to me; but it's a dream, so I won't read too much into it. Anyway, it's seven o' clock on Sunday morning, and everyone will be asleep for a few more hours here. So I think I'll take this alone time to go for another run and see if I still have that altitude advantage. Until next time...
23 July 2005 1603 EDT
Anyway, with that stuff out of the way, our unit gave us the rest of the day off, along with tomorrow. Me, I'll probably spend it doing some reading and sleeping and running (sorry, Ben, BTW for not getting my Army ten-miler application in on time). I know that's not very exciting, but I'll save the real heavy partying for when I get back home. I mean, why spend all of my money here in Fayetteville when I can give back to my community back home in the 703?
That's pretty much it though. There isn't too much to report besides that. Oh, and I'll try to get to a computer and answer some e-mails today. How's that?
22 July 2005 2023 EDT
Okay, so back to last night. It was interesting to say the least. After Wal-Mart, we went next door to O'Charley's. But as we walked in, the hostess informed us that their menu would be limited today due to lightning striking their building the night before. That was strange...but due to the lack of salmon on the abridged menu, we continued on next next door to Logan's steakhouse. I think the last time I'd been to one of those was a few years ago when I went to the one in Manassas with some of my boys back home. Anyway, that was fun. One of my soldiers is quite the lady's man (is it ladies or lady's?), so that added another dimension to the evening...just a lot of small talk with the various waitresses in the restaurant.
But yeah, we moved on from there to a very southern place called the Cadillac Ranch. It was supposed to be karaoke night there, but it turned out to just be a bunch of line dancing. And while I didn't participate in the festivities, it was entertaining to watch. My companions, though more engaged then myself, soon tired of the place and we were gone within an hour or so. Next (and last) on the list was a place called IT'Z. We went there because they knew that there'd be karaoke there tonight. That was really the intent of the evening. We ended up running into a bunch of other guys from the unit there, so that made it interesting. Roo was there too, and we had a chance to catch up and talk about a lot of things that we hadn't talked about in the past. That was really nice. I mean, we went to OCS together and even roomed together for the year or two before going overseas...so he was probably one of my closest friends going into all of this. And while we didn't spend all that much time together overseas, it was always a good feeling to hear him over the radio in the TOC or watch as his patrols rolled back in the wire safely.
Anyway, it was a very nice, albeit long, night. We rolled back in a little after 0230 with a 0645 formation looming in the near future, and I was passed out before I even had a chance to check the clock a second time. Interestingly enough, I woke up a few minutes before my alarm clock was to go off around 0600 and had a chance to brush and shave and install the A/C unit before everything got started in the morning. In the end, there wasn't much to do today; after the equipment turn-in at 1000 and a little bit of paperwork, I spent the majority of the afternoon napping in my sixty-five degree room.
Tonight will be a quiet one compared to yesterday. I think I'll just fall asleep reading my book. We're on deck for medical tomorrow, so that'll be a 0530 start in the parking lot waiting for the buses to take us all down to the clinic. We should be done by noon and we'll let everyone go after that...just one more small step. They add up though; just a few more and I'll be able to trade in for my freedom.
21 July 2005 1922 EDT
This morning, we got off to an early start. The lights came on in the barracks some time around 0500 and we were outside waiting for the bus to take us to our seven hours of briefs before the D-fac even opened up shop for the morning. About a third of the briefs were repeats of reunion, legal, and safety briefs that we had in Bagram before we even left country. But there was some useful information that came out of it, and you can never stress safety enough to some of these guys. Anyway, surprisingly enough, I stayed awake through the whole day. I surprised myself more than anyone else, I'm sure. And there were some fun moments too. The chaplain that spoke to us was pretty funny, and we had a pool to estimate the time when the briefings would be over. Plus, you could look around the lecture hall and see who ended up staying out all night until two or three in the morning. In less than fifteen minutes into the first brief, I had five guys in my platoon already passed out. And after lunch...it was worse than my physics class.
But hey, there are only so many briefs they can give us, right? In just over a week, this'll all be over. I think that's what everyone is counting on these days. Until then, we'll just try to beat the heat.
20 July 2005 0715 EDT
The rest of the day doesn't look to be too promising as far as out-processing goes though. We have a 0930 formation that is rumored to also be the release formation for the day. If that's the case, I'll see if I can convince the platoon to take a nice late morning/afternoon trip to the gym. Other than that, I'll see what else I can square away on the teaching side of the house and get some reading in. I brought three books with me from home, the Cartoon Guide to Physics, Thinking Physics, and the 5-Minute Iliad. I have a good feeling that I'll be done with all three and heading to the bookstore again before this whole process is over. We'll see.
19 July 2005 0831 EDT
I hit up IHOP with Lenny, Ben, and Thuy last night. It was the first time I'd seen Ben and Thuy since I'd gotten back. They were in Vegas for the weekend and just flew in about an hour or so before they met up with me. I had the usual...didn't really have to look at the menu. They only downer was that they had run out of the corncakes again. I always wonder when they say that, but oh well.
But yeah...goals for the next two weeks include: staying in shape, locking in a teaching position, catching up on sleep, deciding on a cell phone/possible new carrier, not spending all of my money, and talking to girls. We'll see how that works out.
18 July 2005 0507 EDT
But yeah...family time. That's been surprisingly constructive these last few days. I've made a point to flush out as many deep-rooted issues as possible in the short time we've had...I think part of that has to do with the acceptance of Lenny's engagement (or lack thereof these days) and part of it has to do with various leadership and team-building lessons that I picked up while overseas. Lenny and I stayed up until nearly six o' clock yesterday morning talking about growing up and girlfriends and marriage and parenting philosophies. I don't think we'd ever talked like that before. We came close about two years ago while we were lifting weights at the GMU field house; but not since then. I guess a lot of this newfound interest has to do with my deployment. I feel kinda bad for not calling home; but I'll be honest in that I didn't really miss my family that much.
I know that sounds like a horrible thing to say, but it's true. I'd been away before...at college, at OBC. It wasn't much different. But then again, I never really knew my family. We haven't been very close in the past except for physical proximity. Being overseas, I guess that made it easier on me. But now that I'm back, I think I want my family to develop that dimension. It'll be one of my many little pet projects for the next few years. I'll tell you how it turns out.
Other than that, I'm catching up on all of my blogs and picking up my online lifestyle again. I feel bad that I wasn't around for Sweet Lucy when her father passed. I wish I could say more about that, but I don't know what. On my car ride home, my little sister told me that I'd garnered a few mentions on Willow's page. I was kinda happy about that.
Tonight, I came home at nine or ten tonight and just crashed on my couch after a day of visiting with cousins and aunts and uncles. It was great seeing everyone again...plus, we played about a half-dozen rounds of boggle. Everyone has grown up so much. I woke up maybe five or six hours later and sat on AIM for a bit. I talked to Arun for a little bit and some random guy who e-mailed me a while back when he started on the polyphasic sleep thing. Then I saw the girl from the last 5 pages online and talked to her for a little while. That was neat.
It kinda sucks that I'll be back down at Bragg in less than 48 hours. But oh well...I took care of a lot of things already, so I should be able to actually enjoy my time off when I get released for good in a few weeks. I'm definitely looking forward to that.
Oh, cell phone. I don't have one any more. I called my old number from my sister's phone yesterday and got someone else's voice mail. That made me a little angry. I almost left a weirdo message, but then I realized that the guy with my number didn't deserve any hostility from me. It's really Verizon's fault more than anything else. Plus they charged me a cancellation fee...like two hundred dollars. I think I'll go see them today some time. But yeah. I forget my point. It's nice to be back.
16 July 2005 1040 Eastern
The homecoming itself was a little anti-climatic. For me, no big emotional displays or screams for joy. My family wasn't there at the field house as I thought they would be. But I did get a hearty handshake from Roo and the BICC and a few other soldiers I'd spent the year with. After grabbing the rest of my bags, I circled back to good ole' building 5256, the same barracks I'd stayed in when I was at Bragg just a year ago. I took a shower and then went on to breakfast chow with one of my privates. He wasn't one of our original soldiers, so I had to tell him about the Platoon Pull-up Game (aka PPG50) and the 5 pull-up requirement before each meal. We each did a dozen before eating breakfast and then crashed on the year-old mattresses for a late morning nap.
My family is currrently en route to my location though...ETA two hours. Until then, I'll just hang out and bask in the Americanness of this land. There'll probably be another trip to the chow hall and another dozen pull-ups. Other than that, who knows...I guess life can be simple here too.
13 July 2005 1739z
You see, there is another unit hanging out at the airfield with us for now. But instead of leaving the beautiful country of Afghanistan after a yearlong deployment, these guys are on their way in. If I didn't have such a good time this last year, I'd almost feel sorry for them. But yeah, that's pretty much all that's going on. I played maybe a half-dozen games of spades today and followed that up with a two-hour gym session with a couple of my soldiers. I followed that with my one breakfast/lunch/dinner meal for the day and that's pretty much it. It's nearly midnight local time here, but I want to stay up at least another 7-8 hours in an attempt to transition to eastern time. We'll see how well that works out though. Last night, I am told that I fell asleep with pen and paper in hand as I was just starting to make an attempt at some poetry.
12 July 2005 1724z
In the end though, after hours of waiting in line for customs inspections, a game of Lord of the Rings version monopoly, and a few dozen hands of spades, about a hundred of us trudged our tired selves down the flight line to the C-17 that would serve as our freedom bird out of country.
And it brought us here...Manas air force base in the middle of the former Soviet Republic. There are maybe two hundred of us gathered in this hangar now, just a few hundred meters away from the flight line. Not having much to do here besides eat and wait, I picked up a couple of spray bottles at the PX to augment the entertainment. That provided a little bit of amusement and a little bit of relief from the heat this afternoon. Other than that, it's just been spades and chess and eating. Part of me is tempted to do some reading, but I just don't have the resolve to do anything quite so productive right now. If you want to understand what it is we're going through right now, just imagine the waiting room of the dentist's office, but a little bigger...and no air conditioning. Oh, and imagine having to wait for three days But it's like the best dentist appointment in the world...so it's kinda worth it. It feels something like that.
While work is probably the last thing on my mind right now, I have given thought to getting started on my school stuff. I know I won't have very much time to get back into the swing of things after my two weeks at Benning. So it probably wouldn't hurt for me to start drafting my introductory letter/teaching philosophy/grading policy now. I have a feeling that a lot of my old material will change after this experience. Gone is the nice Mr.Louie of years past. Enter: thenewmisterlouie. I don't know. I probably won't end up doing anything. I do want to start working on adjusting my sleep to get back on eastern time though. Right now, we're about ten hours ahead. I'll try to cut about 3-4 hours each of the next few days to help with the transition. We'll see how that works out.