Aug 11 2008
Farewell in Mosul
The deployment countdown shows that I’m at 100% done with my time in Mosul. Sometime tomorrow I’ll be on a C130 headed to Kuwait. COL Burcham is in Mosul for a command visit, so this evening, we had a mandatory dinner in the VIP room at the DFAC. She agreed to present Sarah’s end of tour award. If you haven’t heard the big news, Sarah is going home to Texas in September. She’s been here in Mosul for the past two years. Before that, she was in Kuwait starting at the end of 2003!
Sarah's Award
After that, COL Burcham presented my end of tour award. It’s always humbling to stand up in front of a group of people while someone else says nice things about you. For my gift from the office, they had a printout of me in my Kurdish uniform framed. This evening everyone signed the picture. Sarah has promised to mail it home for me; it wouldn’t have fit into the footlocker anyway.
COL Burcham Presents GRN Coin
After the official business concluded, COL Burcham was treated to another Iraqi custom. Each person wanted to have his picture taken with her. Here she is with Nazar, one of one hundred separate pictures she had to pose for!
COL Burcham and Nazar
Since we just returned from taking LTC Manry to the airfield I know he is unable to edit this before anyone sees it. 🙂 Mike “Miller Time” Miller, Patrick, Gee and myself took him to the airfield, shared a last cup of coffee, a few insults and a few thank you’s. He is now waiting for his flight to take him to Kuwait.
LTC Manry is too humble. He neglected to mention that at last nights dinner he received what I believe to be the only standing ovation in the history of Mosul Area Office. I have thought long and hard about this. I truly cannot remember this ever happening. His colleagues and co-workers applauded him for so long, he returned to the front of the room for one more smile and nod.
May God be praised – both for His work through you and your safe arrival in Kuwait. We are so proud of you and so excited for your soon arrival home. May God continue to bless and keep you and the Manry clan. We love you all!
P.S. Now that you are 100% done are you going to start a countdown until the Meloch family reunion? I’m guessing that reunion is the next big event on your calendar!
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 08/12/2008 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
I had to tell Sarah and her fan club to just leave the airfield. They were all hovering around me like I was about to fall apart. Everyone else at the airfield started giving me funny looks.
The flight from Mosul went well. I’ll post a blog entry later today.
I could tell from the first time I met LTC Manry that we had ourselves a great leader. He is level-headed, a good listener and had a good sense of humor. I have learned so much from him. He truly exemplifies the Army values, loyality, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. You will definitely be missed!!!