Passing the Torch

About a week ago, I took this picture of the miniature T-wall outside the building where we've worked for 10 months (T-walls are normally 12-foot tall blast walls). This thing has been standing here since we got to Iraq, but I took the picture to commemorate a recent change: there is an end date painted on it!


Yes, our replacements are here, and they are here in force. We have been showing them our jobs, giving up our desks, introducing them to the revolving door of temporary colleagues they will be working with while in theater, as our predecessors did before us, and as they will do for someone else.

I normally don't post about the goings-on of my unit itself, and while I realize those are the juicy details that sell papers, they're also the kind that the Army doesn't like posted in blogs and, incidentally, the papers. Well, the secret of our redeployment is already out, and it wasn't posted here on OIT first (it was posted here ...), so I think I'm ok. If I end up with the guys in black coats and generic government cars, you all know what happened ... (they didn't get their free T-shirt from the last run we sponsored).

As the article says, we're waiting for movement back to the US to do a mountain of paperwork, and to get released. As such, we have a lot of time to think about the last year, even if all anyone talks about is what they're going to do when we get home. I know of a couple of motorcycles, a bunch of new computers, drinking too much beer, and a whole lot of romantic dinners (mine and Autumn's included!!) that are frequently mentioned plans. I'm also afraid that things won't be ok, and I have no idea what to do to prepare for it except to meet it head on as the last trial of the deployment.

The ironic part about that is that even the unknown over here had an air of finality to it - I took the baton from someone working on a problem, carried it all I could (due to time or the limits of my knowledge/ability/authority/etc), then passed it to the next appropriate person. The next step was always clear here, where the environment is so volatile and complicated, and I know it won't be so simple at home where the environment is presumably peaceful and uncomplicated.

Oh well, once more into the breach ...