You can back track to my previous posts about what started all of this at this link.
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Got back this past Thurs. and now I trying to get adjusted back to everday normal life. I was working 12 on and 12 off the whole time out, fortunately we were only gone for five months. Original planning had us staying out for 10 months. It was an experience I am glad that I got to do. But it's not something that I want to do again. Being away from my wife and daughter that long, was really hard. We had email while we were out there, so keeping in touch wasn't all that bad. We stopped at 3 different ports. We stopped in Crete, Slovenia, and Spain. Slovenia was the a great place to visit. I preferred it over Spain. Crete was a waste of time in my opinion.
Our Squadron (VFA-201) made a lot of history being out there. It's the first time since the Korean War that a Reserve Strike squadron has gotten recalled. We proved a lot of people wrong in the military structure. Congress didn't even think it would work. We operated out of the far eastern Med by Syria the whole time. We didn't do a lot of actual bombing on Baghdad. Our main objective was to control everything in the northern part of Iraq. We supported all the Airforce ground troops that parachuted into the North when all they had, was what was on their backs. We dropped approx. 220,000 lbs of bombs.
It's just great to be home. I have more than enough Sea Stories to last me a life time and it was my first experience being on a ship. I give all the credit in the world to the people that have done multiple cruises in their military career. I don't know how they do it.
If you have any specific questions ask away, I'll try and answer what I can.
Jim
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