Going Home

'Going home, to see my baby.' Great line from a song, one of the best. Don't know the rest of the words, but my dad used to sing this line all the time. Tomorrow I leave Germany enroute to Italy. This has been a long month, away from good food, hot showers, decent coffee, and most importantly, Katie. I am so looking forward to going home and being with her. Once I get back, we will get ready for block leave. All dates are tentative so far. I expect to show up one morning, stand in formation and here the First Sergeat say, 'Thanks all folks, go home.' At which point a miracle will happen: a whole company of soldiers will disappear simultanously. Sweet.
As a final epilogue for Hoenfels and Grafenwohr, a lot of soldiers write on the latrine walls. I can't do that so here is my final salute to the mud pit of Germany.... Peace! I'm out of here. :D

Spades & Spoons

Hello Everybody. I have just returned from The Box: a remote area where we role played through our upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. It was interesting to say the least. Once we got back to near reality in Hoenfels, Germany, my soldiers and i decided to celebrate by playing cards. Spades and Hearts are a favorite way to pass the time. I had only won one game since coming to Germany, 4 weeks ago. Tonight, PFC Klein and I won out a brutal game: total time 2.5 hours, final score 536-531. It is the longest game I have ever played and the longest one I have ever heard of. Either way, I won. Ha ha, so there. As a means of celebrating, Klein and I went to the mess tent to have coffee and finish the brownies Katie made for me. They were a big surprise when they should up at our camp so I have been hoarding them as best as possible. Tonight there were only two left. But there was a slight problem. After a week and a half in my medical bag, countless missions, time after time hitting the dirt, the poor brownies (which where nice and fluffy to start) where now completely pulverized. It didn't matter though, we shoke out the crumbs into our canteen cups and ate them with plastic spoons for victory was ours. Katie, thanks for the snack. The boys really appreciate Mrs Doc. :D
I am glad this rotation is over. In two days I get to go home, to my beautiful wife and furry cat. :) The best part about getting back to Italy is that we will get ready to go on block leave. Katie and I are excited about going home; it will be a nice vacation for us both. Katie really misses her family; I did kinda steal her away as our friend Mhairi is fond of saying. Don't worry Mhairi, we'll be home soon, Katie will race you to the nearest Starbucks.
To all, thank you for the emails this past month. They have meant a lot. I hopefully will be seeing all of you soon. Till that future happy day, take care and best wishes.