Nostalgia

This has been an interesting experience, and it's crazy how much has changed here in just the month since my last visit. The residents (local nationals and militaries) have been very welcoming, indeed! I have been privileged with several entertaining conversations with the Aussies, and have become a frequent flier at one of the shops here, walking away with several free treasures. The gem garnet, the scarf, a scorpion in amber, two bracelets, and a rather nice knife.... All free, due to my purchases of the eggs, my bayonet, and a couple other things. We are in a 40-man bay, ATM, and the atmosphere is that of good friends. This group has been an enjoyable bunch, and has made the journey rather interesting. I met up with a Navy medical person here, one who I hadn't seen since my first deployment. It brought up a lot of memories, good and bad, about the people we'd served with, and the friends we'd lost almost 10 years ago. So much has changed since then...
He has age a bit, as I'm sure I have, too. His kids, just ankle biters when we had deployed, are almost all teenagers. His wife has fought, and beat, breast cancer, too.
He has moved up in rank, and his experience from those days is put to good use, saving the lives of soldiers who come through the trauma bays here....their first stop on a long road of recovery. We were just a couple of punks back then. I was early 20s, he was late 20s. Underneath it all, we haven't changed much, but the world has aged us, wished us up, and chewed us up a bit. Responsibility has taken hold, but it has yet to get the better of us!
He is actually set to change to a duty station a short distance from where wife and the kids are, now. We are making plans to get the families together when I get back from deployment. Maybe one of our other guys, now stationed in DC can come down for it....make it a mini reunion...

It'll be good.