We've got HOW MANY days left...?

Heh, the funny thing is, we don't really know.

Maybe we'll move out of our barracks and into transient quarters on KAF on the 16th. Or maybe on the 18th. And maybe we'll start flying to Kabul on the 18th. Or maybe not until the 20th. And maybe we leave Kuwait on the 27th. But maybe it's the 29th.

But one thing is FOR SURE.

We're almost done here. We've turned our vehicle over to the New York unit. We don't do missions anymore. We've only got a few more days of guard duty. Pretty soon, we'll be headed home to de-mobilize and get sent home to our families!

For some people, this is a hugely good thing. For others, it's a mixed bag. I still don't have a civilian job lined up, although I had a phone interview the other day that went fairly well. I'm also still pursuing a commission, but who knows how that will pan out. Going home will be wonderful, yes, but there's going to be a whole different kind of stress involved in being home and not having a steady paycheck coming in.

On another subject, we were talking on Monday about how dangerous it is over here. None of us has ever really felt that we were in much danger. The most tense I've ever been was when we were in downtown Kandahar and an Afghan National Police officer came running out into the road carrying an AK-47 and wearing a bandolier of magazines. At a glance, it looked like a suicide vest. While my mouth was shouting "look out!" my mind was thinking "all that vest will do is create a big bloody smear on the side of the vehicle..."

So, no war stories from me. I'm just not creative enough, or good enough at lying, to be able to tell lies about all the really dangerous stuff that happened over here. Sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping for really exciting stories about how dangerous and deadly it is, I didn't see any of that. And not for lack of trying either!