About damn time.

Finally something worth writing about. Our mission to Haiti is finally over. What? You thought I cam back with the rest of the other Navy ships a couple weeks ago? Nope. MY ship was one of the very first ones in and the last to leave. Funny how that is. It was a bit frustrating to see the news coverage of the Comfort returning and how the media basically reported the US military's mission in Haiti was finished. We have over 3,000 people here on board, and we just now started dropping stuff off at Gitmo and heading home.

I'm looking forward to our return to Norfolk. We look to be back right before Easter, and I hope to be home that Sunday for the annual family brunch neighborhood get-together. However, i am looking forward to be able to go home and stay home for a couple weeks of leave, starting on the 5th. After my little vacation, I will be headed off to start another school to change my job's specialty and then head to Tampa Bay, Florida.

It turns out Germany wasn't to be. My rate's detailer likes to let multiple people choose the same orders and then feels that she can fix things by changing the orders without telling anyone. After about a month at sea, I got my orders which were totally different from the ones I was promised while I was in Iraq. No phone calls or emails. She emailed my orders to my Chief and that was that. Luckily, in all the ways to get screwed over, this is the best way how. It's not Europe, but I guess I can live with shore duty in sunny Tampa just fine. Plus, the school will give me a better job.

The past two and a half months have been long. The work output from my shop has been pretty minimal and it's honestly been us counting down the days since the beginning. Unfortunately, we never even know when the end was till about four days ago. We've had admirals, generals and other big-wigs onboard, and no one had any idea when we would be able to leave. Hell, we even had the CNO.

That's not to say we didn't accomplish anything. We dilivered an unprecedented amount of supplies, saved hundreds of lives and among other things, deeply touched the people of Haiti. What we thought might have been an opposite reaction, for the most part, the Haitians welcomed us with open arms.

It's just sad that with Haiti's current and past state, instead of truly helping the Haitians, we have simply empowered a culture of dependency. I'm afraid that I will never see or hear of a stable, prosperous Haiti in my lifetime. Unfortunately, I really don't know what could be done to trun it around for them for the long run.

I am looking forward returning to my family and to start school. I will write again once I am home and have a belly full of delicious food.