Baghdad Break...

Jim von Krieg · 02-06-2007, 10:23 AM,

Tide1 · 02-06-2007, 10:56 AM,

Welcome Home Soldier

Thunder · 02-06-2007, 12:56 PM,

Hey Jim,

Nice to hear you are back even if only for a short time. Hope your stay is a good one and be careful when you get back there...

Thunder

RedDevil · 02-06-2007, 01:14 PM,

Welcome Home Boss!!

was wondering why my ears were burning.. :)

K K Rossokolski · 02-06-2007, 01:22 PM,

Reminds me of coming home from a different war, different place, half a lifetime ago. Different stops, same paperwork!!!

Take care, soldier

Cheers
KKR

Big Dawg · 02-06-2007, 01:24 PM,

Jim,

We are all glad you are safe.

Again, thank you.

Jack

Reddog · (This post was last modified: 02-06-2007, 06:24 PM by Reddog.)

WELCOME HOME! I know it may not sound like much... but it comes from the heart... thank you and all those that were with you.:thumbs_up:

**Jason Petho** · 02-07-2007, 12:30 AM,

Welcome back, Jim.

Hope all is well!

Take care and good luck
Jason Petho

Jim von Krieg · 02-07-2007, 07:05 AM,

Thanks to all...

It is great to be back... I left Kuwait at about midnight on 3 Feb... and was home in Killeen by 0830 on 4 Feb... In time for the Superbowl...

It was a long flight... I think there were 5 or 6 movies during the flight... and four meals... I was sleeping much of the way... which means it is almost impossible to sleep regularly now that I'm back...

I spent most of last night getting my e-mail un-snarled and finally gave up at 0700... LOL... just a few more messages to get processed... mostly viruses and junk mail... but there was sure a lot of it... 31,000 messages and 400 Megs of e-mail... now that I have it paired down it is running faster... Still I can't send through my Blitz account, but I do receive...

If you haven't guessed by now, I've been just a tad busy since I came to Fort Hood and deployed in support of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom). My life has been on the express train of extremely long hours of training and working...

I was looking to retire in the not too distant future. In fact, I would have become retirement eligible before the end of this deployment...

However, the military has a way of screwing with you to get the most they can squeeze out of you... In November, the Army had a promotion board... and someone forgot to tell them what a screw up I am and that I had retirement plans in 2007... So, they decided to promote me... And the most comical part is they put me #1 on the list... WTF?!!!! Is the Army so hard up that I'm their #1 guy? What's up with that? When I'm on a list it's supposed to be a duty roster.

My unit had the distinct honor of having the first as well as the last spot on the Master Sergeant list for my MOS... Well needless to say, everybody was patting me on the back and sending me little notes...
Well, the Army doesn't do anything without expecting payback... and their payback is called "additional service obligation" from the date of promotion... Well, so much for immediate prospect of retirment... LOL... Another tour in 2009... Probably Afghanistan...

If that weren't enough... My youngest daughter had her first baby right before Christmas... and the pictures were of a BEAutiful little girl. Then my New Years Eve with marked by my promotion ceremony. That is the benefit of being first on the list and not last... Last on list means promotion at the end of 2007.

And now I'm home... Wow... what a ride at the end... I just contemplate the final leg home and it brings tear to my eye... It's a story all by itself...

As our plane landed in Dallas, we were greeted by two firetrucks firing water cannons in salute... then the Army and US Customs/Immigration paperwork... which went suprisingly fast... then as we walked through the airport in uniform (about 180 Soldiers) on a ramp that overwatches the terminal... people waving at us... and then the best part... the old vets turned out just for us... shaking hands with several World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam War vets that came there just to meet us was quite a show... and it went by so fast it was just a blur... they were thanking me, when it was I who should have been thanking them... What a Country?!!!

Then it was "what terminal are you headed for?" B... and zoom... on the yellow bus packed with other Soldiers and off we went... To the American ticket counter... We walk up and as quickly as I've ever seen a group of people processed through an airline ticket counter we were headed for the security point and our final leg home... What is funny, the ticket counter folks said "hurry" we have you on the very next flight and it's about to push back... So, you need to run...

Which would have been fine, had we not had to be strip searched going through the security check point and being in DFW where the gates seem to be about a mile apart... boots off, belts off, etc... etc... I had to ditch my dangerous bottle of cold water handed to me as I got on the bus... as well as the arabic lettered Diet Coke can that I had been carrying for four days... Sorry, no liquids past the security check point... Well, into the trash can they went... and off we went...

the flight was waiting when we got there... settled in for the 30 minute flight to Killeen.. and when I got there, I was trying to figure out how I was going to get home... and viola... and taxi van was sitting there waiting... apparently I'd probably have been out of luck had I arrived say around Super Bowl time... my driver said all the drivers were taking the night off to watch the game... home by 0830... an extra day of leave that counts as travel time... and some time to relax... I sit back and think I probably wasn't in DFW Airport more than an hour... which is probably an overestimate on my part... It was one big BLUR...

Life is good and at the moment its just a JOY to be home... daughter showed up later that night with the new granddaughter... on their way to El Paso...

Take care guys... I'll be around a lot the next few days... LOL... Nothing as relaxing as gabbing on the Blitz Message Boards...

Jim von Krieg
Rear CP Killeen