Home at last!

I have always loved the pictures in the newspaper showing servicemen (& women!) coming home from deployment and seeing their loved ones for the first time in months and sometimes for the first time ever for all those babies that are born while their daddies are away. I was really excited to be there when my brother came home from Iraq. I imagined a big bus pulling up and mass chaos as the troops exited the bus and rushed to their families. I imagined a warm afternoon with kids running around and a military band playing. Ok, maybe not the band, but the rest of it. I was a little off...

My brother was supposed to be to Camp Pendleton at 10 in the morning originally. As the day drew closer the time gradually got pushed back until finally, on the day of, it settled at 7:30 pm. My first thought was that 7:30 does NOTHING for the beautiful, emotional (not to mention well-lit) pictures I had planned out in my head. Yes, a somewhat selfish thought, but I wanted to document this well! My second thought was "oh goodie... Kurt can come!"

Kurt got home from work and we headed down to Pendleton, arriving just in time. Just in time to wait, that is. My dad likes to say that the military's slogan is "Hurry up and wait." So we waited. There were a bunch of people... wives, kids, parents, grandparents, girlfriends, boyfriends, you name it. They had food and music (no, not a military band... a couple of speakers blaring everything from country music to Dave Matthews) and a bounce house (obviously whoever planned this thing knew that the kids would need something to keep them entertained as they waited. Heck, I almost went in for a bounce myself.) Every so often they would stop the music and say that the guys were just about to come.

Around 9:30, after my toes had frozen through (don't wear flip-flops to Camp Pendleton at night in the middle of February!), they finally came. It wasn't a bus and mass chaos. Rather they filed in in orderly ranks... quietly, solemnly, dutifully. The anxious crowd was anything but quiet. Everyone cheered, patriotic music played, there was clapping and flag waving. It was all very moving. At that point I don't think it mattered what anyone thought about the war and whether or not the US should be involved. At that point everyone was proud of these men and women who had served well... Proud and glad that they were home after a long seven months!

The troops stopped in a long row of ranks as their commander barked out the last orders of this tour. They turned, backs to us and held that position for a moment. The commander shouted "About face." The crowd went nuts as the travel-weary troops faced us. Everyone scanned each face, hoping to find the familiar one they had missed so much. Then came the words everyone had been waiting for..."Company dismiss!" Then came the chaos. Michael knew right where we were and walked straight to us as we all squinted trying to pick out our camoflauged brother/son/husband in the dark.

Even though it wasn't well-lit and perfectly photographable, it was still beautiful and emotional to watch him greet his wife, my parents and Kurt. It was so fun to introduce him to Liv and see her face as she checked out her uncle. And of course it was great to give him a big hug myself and welcome him home. He had been gone longer while he was stationed in Japan but it was different this time and we were all so glad that he was home, safe and sound.