In Country

Here I am in Djibouti - Camp Lemonnier. I arrived at 0510L – nine hours ahead of Texas time. It’s hot (80°F) in the middle of the night. A complete day has come and gone with little to show for it; 25 hours and 9 minutes from the time we left Norfolk to when we landed in Djibouti (16 ½ hours flying time). We travelled on the same 767 airplane all the way here, but had to deplane in order for it to be refueled and serviced. The stops in Spain, Italy and Bahrain were uneventful, each just over 2 hours. It was good to stretch and breathe in some fresh air. I did manage to get a really good book read, Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a quick 66 page read. Kerry picked it up for herself, on the recommendation from a new friend in Hawaii, and had me read it too; pretty good at getting you to think about relationships and frames of mind . I’ll have lots of time to be mindful and think over the next few months, this will certainly help focus those thoughts. Of course there was a meal every few hours (2 breakfasts, a lunch, and 2 dinners) plus all the onboard movies of which I occasionally glanced at. I watched Looper on my new Android tablet – cool movie. Also read some of Protect and Defend, the10th installment in the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn – a special operative, assassin novel. I’ve been hooked reading all those over the last year or so during my travels teaching the MGRC class, pure fiction – almost as good as James Bond. I have the final three books with me that I’ll be sure to get through quickly; I’ll have to find a new series or perhaps even think about starting a ‘pay your fee’ MBA, something I can bang out in a year. I don’t know I want to do after the Air Force, a management position would be good and an MBA wouldn’t hurt. Working on the Dydyk Family tree will be a good pastime as well. My Great Aunt Marilyn and second cousin Monica provided a lot of good leads – I got to visit both of them for the first time this past year during my travels. I’ll have to find a good way to publish it online if any of ya’ll are interested.