Back in NYC

Got back to NYC last night, not without a hassle. The first flight from Chicago to LaGuardia was cancelled, but they were able to get me on a later flight. I arrived back here about 10:30 pm.

All in all it was a fun trip. Chris looks good and he's happy. He made it through the toughest time he's had in his life and from what I heard from his drill sargeants he did very well. He received a special commendation from his sargeant major for building a wooden castle (the symbol of the engineers) along with three other recruits. They built it to replace the one outside their barracks, but the Lt. Colonel and sargeant major told them they will only use it at special ceremonies for their platoon. It was on stage during their graduation.

At the family orientation we were warned by the first sargeant not to get in their way when we took them to dinner, as for 14 weeks they have been only given 20 minutes to eat their meals (as they were told "eat it now, taste it later"). I think he ate his steak dinner in about 10 minutes. And it was funny seeing all the other recruits who happened to be at the same restaurant scarfing down their meals as well.

(Chris shaking the hand of the first sargeant after receiving his engineer's pin). After the graduation the platoon assembled outside in formation waiting for the parents and guests to line up. When the drill sargeant saw all were out he called them to take two step pacing position. You heard a collective groan out of the platoon. That command was followed by "half right face" and "forward leaning rest position". Yes, he made them drop and give him 20 one last time (but he got down and did it with them). After this they were dismissed and he couldn't wait to get off the post and into civvies.

After we left he went to stay with some of his platoon that were staying through until Saturday. So, what did they all do? Of course, got a tattoo. They will be stationed together in Germany when Chris goes back on the 29th. The only negative I feel about that is that he's been told to only expect to be in Germany for 3-4 weeks. After that he should expect to be sent to Iraq. I'm not looking forward to that time but I do know that he's received the best possible training for that job. I'll still worry.

It was nice to get out of the city and into a country area. This part of Missouri was very nice, quiet and peaceful, clean air. I was able to meet some very nice people there (including one in particular ;-) ) who made it feel like home. And while it was very comfortable being there it's still good to be back home. It felt great to wake up this morning in my own bed. But I just noticed no one has made up the room yet. I'll miss that.