USA!

After a 20 hour trip.....Germany ---> BWI ----> Atlanta ----> Gulfport we are at our NMPS and doing our final demob before heading home!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
BWI was pretty neat...it was a military flight from Ramstein and quite a few from USO and others were there to greet us as we deplaned. It was nice.

Germany and Beyond

One picture says it all.  We made it to Germany!

KAF and OHSU DET A!

Well there are not a lot of good things to like about KAF but one of them this time is definetly meeting up with my 3 shipmates from OHSU DET A!!!  That was a treat!!!

The First Leg Home

YES!!  We have completed the first leg of our trip home. We left Apache early this am and are now in KAF for our checkout with TFMS and NAVCENT.  It feels good. Pics are of our second group heading out. Second pic is the ride!

Sitting on the Dock By the Bay

The Crew getting ready to head home! We had our TOA yesterday and we are set to head out and start the treck home!!

A Very Dark Day

"A car bomb blast killed five Americans in Afghanistan, including three US soldiers and a young diplomat on Saturday."
Yesterday was a very dark day for us. We have become so close with our Amry Brigade here. Three of the 5 that died were from our Brigade. After 14 hours of caring for the wounded, we stood as a unit in the dark as the bodies were taken to the flight line, along with pretty much all of FOB Apache assembled including most of Raider 1-3.  So sad.

The Group Now

It is hard to believe we are winding up and getting ready to head home.  It has been on tuff deployment and as no surprise the everyone has done so well. I don't think they realise what an accomplishment to have come from a non-team to this now cohesive trauma unit. Truly amazing and one of the things I think that enjoy most about these deployments. The pic is our group pic outside the FST, now with the Miranda Trauma sign up. It is nice to see that most as still smiling!!!

Plank Owners

During our "TEA" we also had another tradition.  PLANK OWNER. This is a VERY old Navy Tradition where members of the commissioning unit of a ship a giver the "right" to own a plank of the ship when it is decommissioned. In this case the "Ship" is the new Navy Miranda Trauma Center FST Role 2E. It is kind of a neat idea and definitely gives us a sense of ownership for OUR Role 2E FST. We each got a Certificate of Plank Ownership! We also gave each of the unit members a OEF Certificate.

Easter at FST Apache

It is the day after Easter now here. We had a pretty good day considering. It has been raining for its seems forever, and yesterday was actually a really nice sunny day. So it was nice. We had our little "mini" ALL AMERICAN TEA on Easter courtesy of St Barnabas and the crew their. We only got a 2 of the 5 boxes that was sent (mail has been poor here because of the rain) but the two that we did get were GREAT!!! It was very appreciated!