Homecoming 2003 – the end of a war cruise

By lex, on October 24th, 2003

There is nothing in the world quite so sweet as returning home from a long deployment at sea…

This is me and the Hobbit. 2 June, 2003. The ship in the background has just come back from a seven month deployment to the Arabian Gulf. It was nominally seven months, because we’d had a two-day inport after a three week graduation exercise prior to departing, back in November. Felt like eight, fine – call it seven.

Even the Hobbit, who is as strong and determined a Navy wife as they come, had some issues with the two-day inport. We’d been working up since the late Winter of the previous year, and workups involve a lot of comings and goings, with only the promise of more to come. Pack up, say good-bye, get re-acquainted – repeat. It’s very stressful on a marriage, on a family. It takes a real hero to make it work, to keep the home fires burning. She’s that kind of gal, and the smartest thing I’ve ever done was ask her to a dance. The rest, as they say, is history.