Finally. Patrick made it to Dallas last night at 10:30. He was able to go home with to his brother Bill's, shower, eat, sleep in a bed and have a couple of scotches. He got to see both of his brothers, sister and his niece and two nephews... including Austin Wade who was born while he was away.
This morning the kids and I went to church and then straight to the airport to pick up Dad. We got there extra early because military families can get gate passes to meet their family members returning from oversees at the gate. Which means that the kids and I had to stand in the secruity line as if we were going to be flying somewhere. This is the kids seeing Dad's plane pull into the gate.
This is our first site of him. 
Yes I was a little emotional, notice the puffy eyes in the next picture...
It's going to be a GREAT Christmas.
Jerry left the Navy to be home more and help with his daughter. The financial strain of caring for Courtney, has caused them extreme distress. They have remained strong for years trying to do it all on their own, but they are now in extreme financial trouble due to all of the medical bills. These are very good people, just doing what is right and now they need help. If you are looking for someone to help this season, the Lenaburg's are in need. If you would like to know more about this story please go to 
I was able to get on a webcam call 
with them all and see how it was to have a party and consume mass quantities of alcohol. I can almost remember that. 
to Gardez, which is a city East of Kabul, for a meeting.
It was great being able to see other parts of the country. It seems I am constantly writing evaluations and awards as people are leaving and others are coming. We are doing great work, although sometimes it is frustrating trying to get things done with the Afghans as they move at a slower pace than Americans. We also struggle with a society that has a culture of corruption and it is difficult to know who to trust. We press on and make change where we can.
now they have won two in the last four years; Cal Ripkin's 2,632 consecutive games played and then he sat out; (how about basketball?) the longest losing streak in NBA history was the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1982 with a stretch of 24 games without a win and finally for college basketball the dynasty of the UCLA Bruins won 88 games without a loss.
Either way, they played tough and beat the Irish and ended the streak. 
Unfortunately for Rebecca and the other Boston College fans, BC lost a tough one to Florida State ending their own winning streak of 8 games.
and Madigan was an ice cream cone. They both won the costume contest at school.
They got a fair bit of candy from trick-or-treating, but not their biggest haul. Probably a good thing since we have plenty of treats in the house already. We may even have candy leftover from last Halloween. 
is having (Rebecca is a BC graduate so I am glad to see them doing so well). This year the game is December 1st and in preparation for the game, soldiers and sailors overseas prepare commercials from far away places to be shown during breaks in the game. For those who have watched in past years, you may have seen some of these commercials. This year several of us Navy folks in Afghanistan got together and made a short 30 second spot. My small part is a sailor in the barber shop getting a haircut when I see another Navy person enter the shop and exclaim, "Another sailor, here in Afghanistan!" My other line was "Go Navy, Beat Army!" 
Not much in the way of a speaking part, but in all fairness it was a short commercial. In any case, I am hopeful it will be shown some time during the game. I have to say the acting skills of all the Navy folk left something to be desired, but its the thought that counts.
A relatively short ride but the view was great. Much better than flying in a plane or driving. We flew pretty low so you could really see the landscape from the aircraft.
Most importantly, Rebecca and the kids are fine. They did receive the reverse 911 call and did have to evacuate the house. Fortunately our good friends Mark and Annie took them in and they were safe. After two days they were allowed to return home and the house is fine. We are much luckier than so many people in San Diego and Southern CA. It is difficult to be this far away when emergency situations occur at home. I am thankful we have good friends to watch over us. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims of these terrible fires.
I did load all of my old photos, yearbooks and negatives into the car first… memories (and blackmail) first I guess! And then all of the kids artwork that I have saved throughout the years. And then the computers, cameras and a bunch of financial stuff. I left behind my Doug Flutie autographed Charger’s Jersey… and the Beach Boys autographed surfboard. That was hard. The kids packed the craziest stuff… but I let them chose what was important to them. Madigan did have a big moment of apprehension when she realized her 2 American Girl dolls were left behind. I assured her that I would buy new ones if they didn’t make it. We have a lot of work to do to finishing putting things back… and a whole lot of ash to clean up. Hopefully we can get back to normal by Monday when school resumes. Oh and Patrick, everyone asks if Patrick knew what was going on… yes I emailed his .mil account and he called right away. He had to register in Afghanistan that his family had been evacuated… I think that’s why the Navy called to check on us. Apparently if we had lost the house, he would have been sent home to deal with the situation. Hmm… where are those matches?
I hope to get it into the Supply Corps Newsletter. To all of you Navy folks out there, Happy Birthday.
His name was Corporal Adam Quinn and he was a young Army soldier. He was doing his duty here in Afghanistan and was taken too early. The worst part was that his wife was expecting a baby and he will never get to see his child. Terrorist activity during the past month has been heavier than normal. We have all been extra cautious making sure not to go out unless absolutely necessary. I am hopeful that with winter coming soon, activity will slow down.
Rebecca has also volunteered in Madigan's classroom even though she said she wouldn't. Of course she was asked and she couldn't say no. So with work, the kids, and volunteering for school, life is still busy at the Wade household.
We sit in cargo net seats stationed on the walls and down the middle of the aircraft. There is no first class, in fact I don't think this qualifies as coach either. In any case we loaded up and sat on the plane, which by the way did not have any airflow, so we all sat sweating waiting for the pilots to do their preflight checks. After an hour and a half the pilots determined that the plane would not fly. I am thankful they were cautious but I did wish they had figured that out before we all loaded up and were forced to soak our uniforms with sweat.
We both started making calls, fortunately Pat was able to get a hold of crew that was at Bagram and we connected with them a few hours later after collecting all our weapons and gear. We were on our way back to Kabul. Unfortunately the team was going back to Alamo, the FOB where Pat is stationed and so they dropped me off at Camp Phoenix. I started making a calls to get ride back to Eggers and a few hours later, I had a crew pick me up and get me back to Eggers about 4:30 PM. I immediately went back to my room and unpacked and think I passed out soon thereafter.
They also had a visit from a good friend, Patricia Lee, who Rebecca worked with for a long time. 
Pat sent me a note talking about how nice her visit was and how wonderful my kids are. It is nice to know the kids behaved, but also to remind myself how lucky I am.
I did not know the name of the man we were travelling with, but Rebecca did her research and found out his name is Army SFC (Sgt First Class) Matthew D. Blaskowski, 27, Levering, Mich. When we landed, the passengers once again stood at attention as SFC Blaskowski was taken off the plane. 
Everyone immediately started snapping pictures and laughing about the whole incident. I am glad I was not in that vehicle. We arrived at the beach and they had a great set up with cabanas and lunch prepared for us. 
We swam in the warm water of the gulf and sat out in the sun. It was a good beach day. 
Hard to believe I could get excited about going to a mall as if I were a teenager or something but when you have limited access to things of home every little thing helps. The mall was exactly as any mall in the US would be, just a lot of different people wandering around. 
Since it was Ramadan the stores did not open until 7 PM and then it became just like any other mall. We wandered around shops and grabbed a bit to eat. 
There was one interesting thing as we walked we saw a line forming near the middle of mall and we noticed it was a line of children waiting to see some lady sitting in a chair giving out small gifts. It was like the line to Santa Claus, except this lady was giving out toys and not just lollipops.