This will be a short entry.
first the good news:
As of this moment, he is reuniting with his wife and three sons whom he has not seen in 8 months.
The bad news is that in just over two weeks he will be returning to Iraq to finish his tour.
More on the flip.
He left Iraq to start his leave on Saturday, and arrived home today. The Army is not taking into account travel time as part of leave (how generous of them) so he will return two weeks from tomorrow.
There is really nothing new to report form previous diaries. To some degree, he has been bored over there and has asked his superiors for his unit to take on more responsibilities.
At some point in the future, I will post some photos he has taken and sent to us. Nothing dramatic, but they show the countryside as well as the dust storms, which he states are worse than the sandstorms.
My wife and I are flying to see him on Thursday and will spend a few days with him. We want, however, to make sure he has as much alone time with his family as possible. One request he has made is not to be around too many people at one time.
His plans include fishing, picking up his new pick-up truck, and being with his sons. His eldest, particularly, has been recently asking about him a lot.
The real reason for posting this diary right now is to see if there are any questions people would like answered that I can ask him. Keep in mind that he is not part of a combat unit, although he has had to go to a few different bases and into Baghdad.
Additionally, he can be very closed mouth at times, so I am not sure how much he will want to speak about his experiences.
Once I know he is safely back in Iraq, I will post part V with whatever answers I get. No promises.