If you haven’t had a chance to visit the snapshots portion I wanted to inform everyone that Chris is officially back in the States! My parents and I drove down Thursday morning to Gulfport to watch him come in and met Lesley, his wife, at their apartment to see their new place. We spent some time talking and hanging out with Lesley’s mom, grandparents and aunt and then around 2ish we all headed to the hanger. Their arrival time was around 3:30-4:30pm but they were expecting it to be closer to 5pm. Turns out, Chris’ plane out of North Carolina had some radar issues and they didn’t get into Gulfport until after 7:30pm! Fortunately, the coordinators of the homecoming had food and drinks available for the patrons waiting, so other than wishing the time away it was pretty stress free.
Once we saw the plane land the excitement started building up! As the plane drove by people were cheering and once the plane stopped they chanted “open the doors!” The lights in the cabin of the plane turned on and you could see all the soldiers looking out the window waiting to get out. The soldiers were let off the plane with the first being any soldiers that had babies while they were deployed and then if anyone got married right before they deployed. There was only one person that had a baby and the family was allowed to cross the barrier line and greet her husband with her two kids first. It was very touching. They had an older daughter that started running and screaming “daddy!” Too sweet! Chris was the 2nd off the plane and I can’t explain how wonderful it was to see him! There were so many emotions. My mom couldn’t take it anymore; she went under the barrier and ran for him. Lesley finally got her hubby home so she was excited, especially since they can now start their lives together.
I think the 24 hour flight and the end of the day was a lot for Chris to handle and he kept a pretty cool face. I guess coming from a place like that you learn to keep your feelings to yourself. Well, that’s a recap of the day, something I’m glad I experienced, just hope to never have to again.