Kyle decided before he left for Iraq in December of 2006, that he would keep a journal of everything that was going on. That didn’t happen, as he was OBA (Overcome By Activity). However, he did manage to keep it up all throughout, here and there, whether he wrote something every other day or once a month. His journal was for his time there, events, work, emotions, everything; in order to share it for future generations to come, and now for you, our loyal listeners:

Entry #16 of 17:

28 June 07
9:30AM
H/C: 77

 

These last 3 days have been a tease to say the least. I was supposed to leave late night, June 26th. Then the flight got pushed back to early morning of the 27th. The third time it changed, I was set to leave late afternoon the 27th. The last 3 times it changed to 1:30AM the 28th, then to 4:00AM, then finally to 8:00AM. It's now 9:30AM, and I'm on the flight from Iraq to Germany, then to the states. We took off 15 minutes ago. I haven't slept for almost 2 days straight now in anticipation of the upcoming flight out. I don't intend to sleep on this portion of the flight, as it is only 5 hours long, and I want to be able to sleep the whole 10+ hours from Germany to the East Coast. This has been a long, terrible trip. Noone in their right mind likes it over here (with the exception of the lucky few who live in embassies, hotels, etc in Baghdad... lucky bastards).

I'm looking forward so much to seeing my family again, and enjoying the little things like indoor plumbing, air conditioning, and personal vehicles. After all of this, you would think that I would be thinking about the numerous times I was almost killed, how many people have died because of me, and my fallen comrades. But that's not the case; above all, I find myself worrying about my brother. He's headed down a slippery slope, and I care too much about my little brother to let him hit bottom. It looks like I may be landing in the states late at night, so I will have to wait a little bit to go get my cell phone plan set up. I hope I'm not stuck at Lackland (San Antonio, TX) too long while they contemplate my sanity before releasing me. I want to get to see Jarrod, Brandi, and my new cousin Emma. All while relaxing by the beach... that's exactly what I need right now. Looks like I've written enough for this portion of the trip. I should only have one entry left.

Entry #16 of 17:

12 July 07
4:55PM
On Vacation

 

I have nothing left to say except this:

"Without the sour, the sweet just isn't as sweet."

That is all. "

 

From Kyle, today:

It's all pretty surreal most of the time to even think back to this time in my life. Occasionally, I'll catch a hint of a smell or a feeling in the air, and it'll snap me back to Iraq for a moment. Mostly, chlorine does it more than anything (the insurgents used to use chlorine tanks to layer in their vehicle explosives, so that they have a secondary effect of chlorine gas exposure to the surrounding personnel).

 

Funny story though; once I got back to Germany from Iraq, we were delayed a little while more (around 5 hours), and this led to a stop-over for gas in Newfoundland, instead of the schedules in-flight refuel. I wasn't aware of this, so I took the Ambien that they provided for me to sleep the whole 10+ hours back to the states. I remember nothing of getting off the C-17 in Newfoundland, and walking around at the duty-free shop for around a half-hour, before getting back on the aircraft and leaving. "

This is the last entry of this 17-part series, that covered my entire journal from my deployment to Iraq from December 2006 – July 2007. Hopefully you enjoyed the read, and followed along week by week.

CLICK HERE to see last week’s installment of this 17-part series.

 

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