Journey's End

GOING HOME!!! Yes, it has been a long 18 months and very exciting, but I am finally heading home.... Soon. I am within a week of heading back to America and my "Real" life.

I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve my country and the chance to lead troops on a peace keeping mission. I am also thankful for all of the support from home that I received while I have been here. The many packages and letters that I received really helped me to get through some of the rougher times here.

During the course of this year, my platoon and I have done various missions from cordon and search operations to Air drops. It has been fun and challenging, but I am SOOOO ready to get home and go back to my real life.

I am within a week of leaving here and Angelea and I will be taking a vacation down to FL once I finally get back. That will be great and I am looking forward to just vacationing and not having to think about Army stuff.

This will probably be the last post here, so once again. Thank you all for your support.

I love you all


Billy

Pictures From The Top Of The World!!

Pictures from our climb up "Big Duke", the mountain outside of Camp Bondsteel. Over 8200 feet at it's peek!!




Me at the Top














Are we there yet?






















Taking a photo break









Getting to the "Fun" part













It was an awesome day for a climb













Almost there!!














This was by far the most amazing thing that I've done in Kosovo thus far. It was a hard climb, but the views were simple breath taking.

Pics From Greece!

Hotel we stayed at!







DRINKING!!!!













Picture coming into Greece



GYROS!! (In Greece, they put Fries in with the meat)

August

August is nearly over and this is my first post this month. We have been very busy the last couple of months. That is good though, makes time fly. We are almost done here and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I did get to take a 4 day pass to Greece, that was pretty cool. Angelea has been traveling all over the country it seems.. :-)

Well, that's all for now. I'll post pics from Greece.

Billy

UPDATE

It's been a while since I last posted anything here. I'd like to say that I've been busy, and I have, but the truth is that this just got on the back burner. So, I'll try and update everyone on what's been going on. Here goes...

I went back to Germany for another two week period to take part II of the COMSEC class I took in April. It was nice to get out of the area for a bit. I didn't go anywhere exciting like Prague this time though.

Angelea and I own a new home in Little Rock. It is weird, I own a home that I have never seen. Makes it exciting I guess, it's still new to me...

We have been extremely busy this summer here. Missions have been coming down at us with regularity. It make the time pass quickly, so I don't mind. We are only about 4 months from being done at this point, which is awesome.

I am getting closer to going home on leave and getting excited. I desperately want to see Angelea and my family.

I have started having meeting to discuss the loading of our equipment for transportation home. That is cool. It sounds like it is going to be a lot of work for me, but I will gladly do it since it is a step closer to coming home.

I'm going to Greece for 4 days on the 18th and I'm looking forward to that. Anything that gets me out of here for a little while is well worth it.

Ok, I think that catches this up and I'll try and stay on top of it. :-)

Bottom Line... I'm doing well, ready to come home, but doing well. We are all doing well here. I appreciate the packages and letters that I get. It really is awesome to get mail, something from home I guess.

That's all for now.

I love you all!!

Billy

Prague

As you know, I have been in Germany attending a school. This offered me a unique opportunity to visit Europe. And on Sunday, I did just that. I got to go to Prague. This is one of the older cities in Europe and one that was not destroyed during World War II, so everything is still original. It was a beautiful city and I took lots of pictures. I'll post those later.

Prague is the capitol of the Czech Republic and is "covered up" with tourists. Some of the people there spoke better English than many people in America. Many movies, including Mission Impossible, were filmed there. As nice as it was, it would have been really good had Angie been there with me. It is hard sometime to see people having a normal life when I am so far away from home. However, I only have a few months left and then I get to go home and see my family.

Well, I need to go. Talk with you all later.

Germany

Well, I'm in Germany. I'll be here until the 9th of May. Then I have to return to Kosovo. That's the bad news. The good news is that I get to come back here in June for another 19 days. Anything I can do to pass the time until Sept. I get to go home in Sept for a little while and I am VERY excited about that.

The deployment is half over and it hasn't been that bad. I am anxious to get back to my life though. I feel like I've been away forever.

That's all for now.

Billy

Pictures from the BBQ

SFC Harold "BO" Roberts. My Platoon SGT.
"The Platoon Daddy Commeth"













SSG Easton, SSG Carnes, SGT Jernigan and SPC Masters enjoying the day









Burgers on the Grill
















My platoon enjoying each others company















Arrival of the masses













SPC Beller enjoys his burger

SPRING!!!!!!

It appears that Spring has finally sprung here at Camp Bondsteel. The weather the last couple of days has been in the 60s and 70s it has been great. I am always in such a better mood when the weather is nice.

It has been so good here that my Platoon SGT and I decided to have a BBQ for the guys. I went and bought hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought all the fixings. It was great! This was the first time we have all been together as a platoon since we left Fort Hood. It was a lot of fun. So much so that I think we'll have to do it more often.

I hope all is well back home. The deployment is half over now and I can't wait to get back.

Love,

Billy