A Few Moments

In a couple of days we will "graduate." We graduate as a team, not as individuals. For the next couple of days, the team commander will brief senior officers on the status of the team, show them that we have individually and collectively checked the blocks. Then we will have some sort of ceremony and we will get leave. We don't know exactly how long our leave is for, but we do know that we will get leave. We have each requested leave for two weeks.

Today we turned in our weapons to be secured for us until we return from leave. They are nice and secure, and we are unburdened of our constant companions. It's a nice change that won't be repeated until we get our mid-deployment leave individually.

We will move up the hill to different quarters tomorrow, as they need the space at the FOB for teams that are just starting their train-up period. Two man semi-private rooms... very nice compared to the six man rooms we have right now.

We will get a few moments of joy before we go over to do the mission. Each man on the team has his own circumstances. Married, single, with grown kids, with little kids, with no kids, good marriages, and marriages that may not survive the winter of deployment. We will each go back to the scene of our "normal" lives before we come back to what is now our reality... that which is so unreal to everyone we know outside of the Army. We will wait here for movement overseas and for our mission to begin.

All of this has been nothing more than a noisy prelude.

But first, a few moments of as close to normalcy as we can manage. I can't wait to see my kids.