Day 415: From Kabul to Bagram

Today was the second leg of my journey back home. After spending nearly all afternoon waiting for a ride to take us from Kabul to Bagram, our transportation finally arrived. We were flown in a chinook helicopter--my second helicopter ride of this deployment. This was a different kind of bird than the one I flew in last September. I wasn’t able to take a picture of the actual helicopter I flew in, but posted here is a picture of a similar Italian helicopter. It was a pretty fun ride...although somewhat nauseating. Our pilot was definitely trying to keep things interesting. At times it felt like we were on a roller coaster as we would dive then quickly ascend back up again. The guy in front of me threw up all over the bags lying at his feet. I thought for sure he had gotten my bags dirty. However, when we landed I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had missed mine and hit someone else’s bags.

After about thirty minutes we were back on the ground at Bagram airfield. It was a fun experience and I was glad to have one last helicopter ride to add to my list of unique deployment moments. Most importantly it got me one step closer to leaving Afghanistan and being reunited with my Susie and my kids again. I will be here in Bagram for a few days to outprocess and then will be heading to Kuwait.