This flashback is dedicated to celebrating all of those happy homecomings we've experienced through the years. While deployments are mostly awful, there is nothing quite like the homecoming. If you've never experienced one, it'll be hard for you to imagine what I'm talking about.
When Cliff was a Marine, he went away for schools here and there, but for the most part, he was home with us. All of that changed when he became a Chaplain.
November 2000
Cliff left the Marine Corps one day and was commissioned as a Navy Chaplain the next...and left for Newport, Rhode Island for Chaplain school right away. He was gone for 10 weeks. Not exactly a deployment, but we were SO proud, we still had to give him a great big welcome home.
He reported to Destroyer Squadron 21, headquartered on the Aircraft Carrier, USS Stennis in Coronado. Two months later, he flew out to meet one of his destroyers, which was already underway with another Carrier Group. He spent about 6 weeks with that group, then returned to San Diego to join the rest of the destroyer squadron.
The Stennis Battle Group was due to deploy in January of 2002. September 11th changed all of that. Cliff was in a constant state of "work ups" (gone weeks at a time) from then on...until he deployed on Veterans' Day 2001, 2 months ahead of schedule. He was gone over the holidays (something we've luckily managed to avoid ever since) and returned 7 months later in June of 2002.
He returned home on one of the destroyers, the USS Decatur.
Coree and Jake waiting for the ship to dock.
And here are Troy and Patrick, already on the ship, living large. They flew out to Hawaii a week earlier to meet Dad for the "Tiger Cruise" back to San Diego. I think it's probably one of the best recruting tools the Navy has going. After a week of playing PS2 on the big screen in the wardroom, drinking slushies at every meal and watching all manner of weapons demonstrations...they were ready to sign up.
This is what I'M talkin' about!
We got to enjoy having Dad back home for about 8 months. Cliff reported to 3rd Marine Air Wing on MCAS Miramar in Feb. of 2003, and left 2 weeks later to meet his unit already deployed to Kuwait (headed to Iraq as things geared up there). This time was a LOT different...scarier. I had always taken his safety for granted aboard ship...but things were so uncertain when OIF started. Cliff was only gone 4 months this time, but if felt like twice that long...falling asleep listening to news on the TV and waking up to check the casualty reports...meanwhile, trying to keep life as normal as possible for 4 children.
When the plane bringing them home landed, Coree fell to pieces. she cried and cried. I hadn't realized how much emotion this 6 year old had bottled up inside.
Together again at last...
We weren't the only ones over the moon to see Cliff again. It was always SO sweet to see Brownie's reaction to seeing him.
We were told that this would be it for deployments for this duty station (the first one wasn't even supposed to happen) but they were wrong. We got to keep him around for another 8 months, before he had to head back to Iraq as the Marines tried to clean up the huge mess over there. He stayed for another 7 months, and in August of 2004, we had another sweet reunion.
I'm not sure why they do it this way. The families are lined up behind a yellow rope in the hangar, while the Marines get off the plane and line up in formation. Maybe it's to keep them from killing each other to get off the plane, maybe it makes for better photo ops...I don't know. But this was the longest 10 minutes of my life, watching and waiting to hear that magic word..."DIS-MISSED!"
Everything that matters in life, right here!
The United crew asked us to pose for their photo.
After doing a few of these, we have the whole process down. In case you can't read this, it says, "Welcome Home Dad" across our back fence (which faced the entrance to our neighborhood).
Front door
Livingroom/Diningroom ceiling
And here's our rockstar!
After 4 wonderful years of having him all to ourselves, it was time for Cliff to deploy again. This one was just as unexpected as the others...but we've learned to expect that!
2 comments:
I was tearing up as I read this. I remember when Dan came home from Iraq in 2003, Sabrina (just like Coree) could only express her emotions by bursting into tears. Dan was brought close to tears, too, at her reaction. I guess 6 year old girls just have more emotions than we realized! :)
Wonderful! Even though I only had to endure 2 deployments, to this day I can replay the home comings in slow motion. I still remember what I was wearing...what Shelbylyn was wearing. The first moment I saw him..the works.
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