Hometown Heroes Salute

The first Friday in November Eric's unit had a special awards night, honoring all of those who just returned, or have recently been deployed. They called it a "Hometown Heroes Salute". It was really neat. They served dinner, and had a couple speakers.

The coolest part was they invited the employers of those who had served and honored them as well. One of the owners of the company Eric works for came with his wife! We thought it was awesome they would come all the way to Salt Lake for it. (They and only 1 other employer came.) I guess they only gave them like 4 days notice! It was definately a feel good moment for Eric when they walked in. They had to walk through the line up and receive a special plaque. We took a picture, but it somehow must have got deleted. :(

Here is the "line-up". Kind of intimidating. Each of us (wives and families included) had to go through the line-up and receive awards. Eric received a very nice plaque, I received a medal, and a nice pen/pencil set and all the kids got dog tags. It was really nice.

This is a picture of Eric's boss getting her award. She is retiring here in a couple weeks, and they are really going to miss her up there!

This event was extra special for their unit also, because they were eliminating their specific unit, and combining with another one giving it a brand new name/title. It was kind of sad for a lot of them. Here is a picture of them retiring the unit flag.

All in all it was a great night, and everyone had a good time. We had a guy take pictures while we were getting our awards, and have yet to see them. Maybe someday.

It's Official! Orders have been cut!

Several months ago we heard that Eric was going to have to go overseas with his Air Guard unit. We heard all sorts of rumors about dates and times. May, June, 4 months, etc.

Well, this past week his orders were officially cut! He is set to leave the first part of June, and return home just before Thanksgiving!

He is going back to Qatar, exactly where he was before. In the above map it is the little peninsula right in the middle. In the top left of the map is Iraq, most people know where that is, so here it is in comparison.

While this is a standard deployment, and I highly doubt a dangerous one, it will still be hard to have him gone that long. I hope we can stay busy during the summer, as I think that will be the hardest part.