Iraq and Back.....



He's BAaaacccckkk!!
After 230-some days, Rick finally arrived back in Misawa from Balad Air Base, Iraq. Hannah Jane and I went out to meet him....AT MIDNIGHT, on a Thursday night/Friday morning....IN THE POURING RAIN...only to be told their plane had been turned away due to the bad weather. This delay came after being told 3 days earlier that it would be this night...and before that being told it would be three days earlier, and before that being told it would be "just a little longer" due to the earthquake, and before that, "now 7 months instead of 6" and before that "6 instead of 4' and so on.... You can imagine how elated all the wives and sleepy children were to be told to go back home through the pouring rain and wait for word when the plane might indeed arrive. So home we went. And then the word did come with a phone call at 4am -- the plane was landing. Our guys were home. So back out into the pouring night we went with our signs, flags to wave, and the best smiles we had...at 4am. We did pretty well though -- here's Hannah Jane while we waited for Rick to come through the hangar door......












And here she is waiting patiently with her best friend Katie, whose Dad is one of the pilot's Rick sometimes flies with:












And finally, here she is with Daddy.....






She's telling him here, "Daddy, I'm four now!" (just in case he forgot.....)






After this, we grabbed Rick's bags and headed back home where at 5:45am we decided to skip trying to sleep and had a champagne breakfast instead. To plow through the day and stay awake as long as possible with the idea of getting to bed early, we unpacked a bit and later toured Misawa to see some of the post-clean-up earthquake damage. The waterfront is still in bad shape with roads wiped out and large equipment still turned over in the parking lots, but the trees and hillside built decades ago to guard against large tsunamis did their job. The trees were all leaning landward and you could see the waterline, but most of houses were saved (though some were indeed completely swept away) I unfortunately don't have pictures but I guess at this point you've seen so much footage -- it just seems like overkill...and like it's time to move onward. And that's what the Japanese are doing now. They've mobilized a lot of contract work through their own agencies giving a much need boost to the economy, and things just seem to be moving forward. Things here in Misawa are definitely more "normal" though the base is still on limited power and will be working to massively conserve energy for some time, but we have all we need in terms of food, fuel and decent energy supplies. Off-base we're even more "normal", not under the same energy constraints being on the economy, though we'll continue to do our part. We're just incredibly happy and lucky to all be together again and to have all that we do - including our health (more on that in another blog, another time....) I hope to post some more "post-deployment" photos soon to show you what we've been doing with Rick's two-week "reconstitution leave" which is only now ending. In the meantime, thanks for tuning in and as always, thanks for your support!
take care.......Mary