I'm Home.

I write this from my living room at home, in a very quiet, very comfortable late night stillness. There are no pumps humming, no fans buzzing, no catapults shaking me out of the rack. No bells, no whistles, no 1MC announcements to "Heave out". I don't even know what that means! Good thing I either slept or flew through that one most days.

I am home.

Homecoming was awesome. We'll get some pictures on line soon. Nana has several online already. We lifted seven helicopters from the deck of JCS at 0730 and flew them all in together. Six of them were in a beautiful formation. My aircraft, the seventh, was all by itself, making a bee-line from the ship to the the runway at North Island. The aircraft has a severe structural crack and was cleared by engineers for a one-time flight to get it off the ship. Nothing fancy. Minimal weight, minimum time, minimum crew. That was OK with me. We were on deck, waiting for the rest by the time the six-helo v-shaped formation flew over the famous double-domed hangars at North Island at 200 feet. They looked awesome.

We all taxied into the line together, and shut down simultaneously (well, almost simultaneously). A huge crowd of families and friends was there to welcome us. By the time I got all my flight gear off, I had my own small crowd of family running at me across the flight line. I quickly had two little girls in my arms, with tears coming down all our faces. Each of my ladies received a red rose that I had picked up from a strategically placed flower "vendor" while we taxied in.

After a chance to sit at the hangar and relax for a few minutes, we caught sight of the STENNIS pulling into San Diego Bay and hurried over to the pier (also at North Island) to greet our two Tigers who were now all "alone" on the ship. Fortunately, HS-8 and their Tigers were among the first to get off the ship; so after a painful 40 minute wait as the Port Ops guys set up the brow, Nana and Katelynn were soon reunited with the rest of us.

I haven't written during the last few days, as we've spent just about every waking moment reuniting as a family. I've tried my best to stay away from the computer (not always successfully). Janell has made some great changes around the house that I continue to get used to. Homecoming is awesome, but there are always adjustments. So far, it's been awesome. I'm off work until the 4th, then I go back for about a week and a half. Then I'm taking about 12 days of leave. Definitely time that I need to take off.

Tomorrow, we're going for bike rides and a run (that's me) at Rhor Park then I'll take one of the girls out for lunch. I'm going to spend a little one-on-one time with each of the girls over the next few days. We've had some great family time together so far, though. We'll all to Flyball practice together on Sunday afternoon. This week is flying by.

As thoughts occur to me during our transition back to normal life, I'll use this forum to reflect on them. It's an often humorous, sometimes frustrating process. As much as life at sea, often more so, life around here is an adventure! Thanks for sticking around.