The First 10 Days

Today is Josh's tenth day at home! It has been wonderful to have 9 nights of sleep knowing that we are right next to each other. I know that the updates have been non-existent since he arrived home, so I will attempt to provide a re-cap of the last ten days.

Josh's Homecoming - December 27, 2008
The wait seemed forever in the Armory, especially once we knew that Josh's plane had landed and then once we knew that he was standing on the other side of the overhead door. The tricky part was that in the main group, there were four smaller groups - Syracuse, East-bound (Albany area), West-bound (Rochester area) and NYC. The Syracuse group was the group that Josh was in, the local guardmen. East and West bound groups each boarded a bus to be taken to an armory closer to home and the NYC group remained on the plane. Of course, each soldier had a few bags, of which they had color-coded with tape in Ft. Bragg. For those getting off the plane in Syracuse, priority was given to those who had to get onto a bus.

As I mentioned, once Josh arrived at the Armory, they were standing on the other side of the Armory's overhead door. Look closely and you'll see the soldiers standing in the dark...

At the appropriate time, the door rose up to show the men standing, ready to march in.

The "ceremony" was brief - maybe thirty seconds and then were released. Our first hug...

Several news outlets were there covering the reunions. Josh was interviewed by News 10 Now. You can read the transcript of the news story. Additionally, you can click on the video clip within the story to view Josh and I hugging, clips of our family and the interview of Josh.

Our arrival home... Dustin and Nikki had spent some time working on a special sign for Josh's return. As we arrived home, the spotlight on the sign could be seen from down the street. As we entered the neighborhood, I continued honking my car horn and then I realized someone else was honking theirs as well. Apparently as we were away picking up Josh, people would drive by the house, honking their horn throughout the night as they drove by our house. (This picture was taken earlier in the day during the "construction phase".)

"It will all be all right

I’ll be home tonight

I’m coming back home..."

And for the big reveal... As you know from the recent post, Josh had a little surprise waiting for him at home. He was really good, as soon as he entered the house, he went upstairs. He was shocked by the items hanging in the entry way and didn't even see the downstairs. I gave him his Welcome Home card and waited for him downstairs. His reaction...

Josh kept repeating that he loved it, but that he was completely shocked by it and therefore not as animated in his reaction as he normally would have been. I completely believe that he loves it considering how much time we have spent down there. He sat in the upstairs living room today because he felt that it wasn't getting enough attention! LOL

Christmas with the Bacigalupi's - December 28, 2008

On Sunday, we enjoyed our Christmas with Josh's family. It was a wonderful visit for all of us. I made meatballs and sausage, two different lasagnas and we capped off the meal with a variety of desserts from the recent Barry PTA Fundraiser.

Josh's family made the trek back to Virginia on the 29th after we enjoyed some treats at Dunkin' Donuts in the morning.

New Year's Eve - December 31, 2008

We enjoyed staying at home on New Year's Eve this year. The weather would have made it difficult to go anywhere, even if we did want to be out and about. Even more so, we enjoyed going to bed early and not feeling the pressure to see the ball drop. Our treat was chips and salsa!

New Year's Day - January 1, 2009

As some of you know, the downstairs was one surprise and then there was another in the works. The second surprise ended up coming 30 days early, as I had wanted to wait until January 31, the last official day of Josh's six year enlistment in the National Guard. However, I could not wait any longer. I kept it a secret for 3 months and 5 days and New Year's Day seemed like the next best time if I was going to spill the beans early.

I told Josh I had a surprise and I was thinking of a date, a 6 year date. He guessed the 31st and then I told him I was thinking about another date or range of dates. Immediately, he asked where we were going!! You can't keep much from him! So, I ran into one room where I had a shirt hidden. I gave him the shirt and he opened it, holding it five inches from his face. He first words were, "Oh my, I can't read it, it's in another language." He then realized he was just holding it too close to his face as he read "Aloha Hawaii"!!!! We are going to Hawaii!!!! After it sank in (he later told me that he thought I booked somewhere in the Caribbean), I then pulled out the folder with all of the reservations and clips from the travel brochures to show him it was for real!

Other happenings...

Since New Year's, we have laid low for the most part. We have enjoyed the movie theater twice in the past week, bought Josh some new clothes and have visited some my family. We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with the Contri side in the near future. We are trying to visit each individual family first before the big gathering, as 17 of us is a large group to bring together all at once.

We are looking forward to spending more time together, as I am working from home and vacationing while we adjust to our new life together. Josh made a list this morning of things we should tackle this week and we will take each item one at a time. We have discovered how "odd" some things seem to Josh when he has been away for a year. Life's little conveniences that we take for granted/that he was without or how busy the grocery store can really seem.

And for those of you who are wondering... Yes, Josh has had coke since he arrived home and... I even restocked our supply today!!

Deployable Entertainment featuring "This Old B-Hut"

First and foremost... He's Fine... You may see some news appearing at some point today or later this weekend, but I have heard from Josh both via e-mail and phone (at 4 a.m. this morning) and he is fine. That is the extent of what he could tell me.

And now onto the "Deployable Entertainment" portion of this post - This Old B-Hut! Josh sent me the following in an e-mail overnight. This Old B-Hut is a video on YouTube that was created by some very entertaining soldiers in Afghanistan. Some might think they had a little extra time or too much time on their hands, but as Josh says below, it is for real... those are his living conditions. The following is Josh's take on the video.

"I think they say they are from Nebraska, that would have been a few rotations before us. It is so funny. It was actually filmed at Camp Alamo right down the street, but we live in exactly the same hut, right down to the paint color, plastic windows, and the crappy a/c units. It is hilarious. I love the part about the linoelum. A b-hut is supposed to last 24 months and I am sure that most of the huts we live in have been around since 2002. So you can imagine how crappy ours is. haha. It is so funny. You have to watch it. Ilove the part about the wall lockers how they were offered to the afghanis and they refused them so they put them back in our huts. haha I would not be surprised if that was true. We finance all the building of all the ANP and ANA barracks and they are mcmansions compared to what we live in. haha. I have found about eight million places where we could cut costs and easily bail out the economy without further cost to us, and I would start with their mcmansions. haha."

Although it was the middle of the night, I had a nice conversation with Josh. As he mentioned on the phone and in an e-mail to me, "it is finally October and yet it still feels like we have so much longer to go. boo. It is like it is Thursday, close but not close enough."

More from Afghanistan

As Brian Williams said tonight, "it's too often called the other war or the forgotten war." Brian Williams had an exclusive interview last week with new United States commander on the ground in Afghanistan, four-star U.S. Army General David McKiernan. There is also a full transcript of the interview, if you are unable to load the video.

There was another segment of the interview available only on the web called Leading the Troops in Afghanistan. This seems to be an extended version of the first video, minus the introduction and closing by Brian Williams.

As General McKiernan stated, the average age is less than 20 years, the average life expectancy is 43 and they have been in a war-torn state for over 30 years, which all contribute to the complexity of the war in Afghanistan.

The news from October 7, 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began.

I will post throughout the week as they show additional reports from the trip to Afghanistan.

Day 3 of NBC in Afghanistan

Here is a link to Images of Afghanistan that I found on the MSNBC site (from AP Photographers). There are several that show the sand storms and one that shows the "caves" we often hear about.

Brian William's June 13 post to the Daily Nightly.

Unfortunately, due to the passing of Tim Russert, there were no video clips to post from this evenings segment in Afghanistan. I contemplated posting this from Josh, but I think it speaks so greatly to why I have posted for three nights to the blog about Brian William's being in Afghanistan... "I think it is good that Brian Williams is here, at least somebody is reminding people that we are here."

Night 2 of Brian Williams in Afghanistan

Tonight's featured videos are linked below:

Making Afgan Loyalists, military-style

"Outside the Wire" - Brian's Day

In Afghanistan, A Road Less Traveled - The truck featured at the end of the video is the jingle trucks that Josh refers from time to time.

Closing Remarks

Brian William's Blog posting for June 12.

They are headed to Baghram Air Base tomorrow.

NBC Nightly News in Kabul

Brian Williams (NBC) is spending some time in Afghanistan. Here are some clips from his June 11 evening news, where he is currently located in Kabul.

Fighting to Eat in War-torn Afghanistan

School A Welcome Novelty for Afghan Girls

He also has a blog called the Daily Nightly where he discusses the unannounced trip, as well as the security aspect that they face and that they are there to check on the U.S. military effort.

Task Force Phoenix VII - Take Two!

I heard that the previous YouTube video that I posted was no longer working. Here is another link to the same video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhrDYPEhymg

There were two versions of it, but it was the same video. I am wondering if this person is the actual owner of the video and the link I previously gave was a copy cat?

Task Force Phoenix VII

I was on YouTube tonight and found this video that was just added of the 27th BCT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZEv4J8iAKM&feature=related

If you click on More Info in the gray box to the right of the video, there is a pretty detailed description of the video and Task Force Phoenix.

As noted in the above mentioned description, there are weekly updates on the NY Army National Guard site. (*Note: the link provided here is correct.)

The Task Force Phoenix site has also been updated to reflect the deployment of the NY National Guard.

ABC's Person of the Week

For those of you who watch ABC World News with Charles Gibson, you may have seen these clips already in the Person of the Week. The following two links take you to videos of two individuals who were recognized for their efforts in honoring our soldiers.

This one might help explain the blue star flags that you see in people's windows...
Person of the Week: Rod Robeson

This one is very touching and has been circulating through several e-mails recently...
Person of the Week: Bert Brady

27th Brigade Combat Team

Trisha sent me some You Tube links that feature the 27th Brigade Combat Team.

This video is of the Send-Off Ceremony at Ft. Bragg. Don't look too closely for Josh - he was on traffic duty for the ceremony. Captain Merrill, the unit's CO (Commanding Officer), speaks at the end of the video.

This video is a photo montage of the 27th BCT while at the Patriot FOB during training. Quite moving, to say the least! Just to forewarn you - a lot of the photos are of training missions on the range and therefore show a lot of weapons.