Some of you might be wondering why in the world I am deploying at all. I literally was home for almost a year to the day before I left for this deployment. There is a long story about how this was an amazing opportunity to fly a new airplane, get a rating in a highly desirable jet, and get my license to fly for commercial airlines, but that story is boring. The truth is a combination of the following: A) I came home in the best shape of my life and had squandered it all away in about 6 months. Thus, this was my chance to get back in shape again (clearly Vegas needs more gyms, or Jen needs to stop being such an amazing cook). B) The Air Force finally figured out that I was flying fighters and began to wonder how long it would be until my luck ran out. They figured putting me in an airplane that requires me to ask another person to raise my landing gear was a good idea. C) My dear, sweet wife can only put up with me for a year at a time! I suppose the truthful answer has more to do with the long story, but I'm sure the other options had to have played a factor in there somewhere. The reality is that we ultimately chose to do this deployment. One of my best friends from high school called me one night from Afghanistan. He was currently deployed at the time and asked if I'd be interested in this job. My first thought was heck no! I'd only been home for 3 months, and the idea of leaving again was not high up on my list. It was actually my VERY supportive wife that convinced me to give it some more thought (see reason C). After really thinking things out, we felt like the opportunity was too good to pass up, and so here I am again...beginning another 6 months away from home.
The trip over here has been nothing short of AMAZING! Keep in mind that it's really only amazing if you like trips that have you leave on a Monday and arrive on a Wednesday. I'm still another 2 1/2 hours from making it to my final destination, but all of that will come in good time. In the meantime, I am staying in Manas. It is located in Kyrgyzstan. The purpose of this location is to act as a staging area to take everyone going into Afghanistan and funnel them to their respective bases. The other purpose is to see how well you adjust to sleeping with the lights on in a tent shared by 200 other
miserable men. On the bright side, we have plenty of "morale tents" in which to watch popular movies such as Gone With the Wind and Aladdin. I've yet to find the golf course and room service is not so great.I'm looking forward to making it into Afghanistan and getting this party started. It's never easy to leave my family behind, but there is solace in knowing we feel guided in our decisions and that there are good people back home watching out for Jen and the kids. My good buddy Rex Perkins always informs me of how good a missionary Jen is being while I'm gone. He tells me she invites a new guy every week and that my kids feel comfortable enough to call him Uncle...gotta love friends like Rex! He also thinks that Kaylea's boyfriend has nice tattoos and treats her well for a guy that's spent so much time in the detention center. PLEASE...I trust my family...can someone control my friend!
I'll try and post often. I'll especially mention those sending care packages to:
Mike Shepherd
430 EECS
APO, AE 09347
I'm off to see about sleeping with my 200 buddies. Here's to hoping no one snores!
