Home…

The year plus odyssey is over, and I am back at home, typing this on my couch.  I cannot believe it is over – almost hard to believe it actually did happen.

The last day in the Yem was nice, though as one would expect it dragged.  I stayed up all night my last night, and then slept until mid-day so my sleep schedule would not be too screwed up.  A last shower, final packing, and restless pacing while the minutes ticked away.  Then, one final evening over at Brit’s house with some guests – a nice glass of 15 year old scotch, a final dinner at Al Fakher with the usual Yemeni cuisine… Salta – a stew, Bint-al-Sahn, a bread soaked with honey, and some Gahwa – a special Yemeni coffee.. then off to the airport.  The usual chaos at the airport – and fighting the last round of moochers as everyone who touches your suitcase wants a tip of some sort.. they call out ‘Sadeek’ (friend) but I know enough to ignore them.  A final bit of indignity, as the security at the gate gets semi-medieval on me (I had to remove belt, wallet, shoes – all VERY unusual for Yemen).  It was pretty much obvious harassment – a tit for tat since Yemenis coming into the USA get pretty tight security – so I sucked it up and dealt with it.  And then, at 11:59pm local on Sat April 3rd, Lufthansa flight 653 took off, and my time in Yemen was over! 

The flights over (with a stop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and changing flights in Frankfurt) were nice, as I was in Lufthansa business class – strange going from the chaos of the Yemen airport to the smooth, cool Teutonic efficiency of the Lufthansa flight crews.  The seats were those things that fully reclined, so it was bliss.  Not the usual sitting in the cheap seats, crammed in like sardines.

I landed back in the US around 4pm on Sunday the 4th.  The first stop was immigration, and my own country gave me a special welcome.  The officer at immigration put my passport in a clear plastic envelope, called another guard over, and I was escorted to a side room for extra attention.  I sat in the ‘special’ room with a bunch of non-US citizens, waiting 25 minutes until I was called in to get cleared.  I was steaming mad, but managed to bite my tongue.  I half expected special treatment since my last stop was Yemen, but this was more than I expected.

The next stop was Navy Mobilization Processing Station (NMPS), Gulfport, MS.  Here, I was medically checked, attended some lectures, and received my ‘DD-214’ – the form which marks my discharge from active duty.  There were 8 in my group, all returning from a year overseas, and the process at NMPS is pretty much fixed… so there was a lot of waiting.  The first day was done by lunch time, and it was a lot of lectures that lasted 15 minutes – but were booked for one hour.  Day two was the same – done by 11ish.  Frustrating as all hell.  Alas, had a bit of a situation at home, and was able to get them to get me through the last couple of steps on Tuesday pm (and they could have EASILY done the rest of my group, but that is not the process and they would not do it!).  And, I was able to make it home that night.

I also had to make a stop at my local reserve center and that process took less than an hour – pretty much a total waste of time.  I can’t believe that they were going to fly me to Fort Worth, TX for a day just for an hour of that – am REALLY glad that I changed that!  So, I am now on terminal leave, and will be off of active duty later this week.  I can resume my reserve activities when I please, but I think I will wait a couple of months… Per law, I do not have to return to work for up to 90 days, but I have already stopped in, and am actually looking forward to going back.

And so far, it has not been that big of an adjustment returning home, even though I have been gone over a year.  Am sure there will be a bit of friction, but in some ways if feels like I never left…