[Editor's Note: Jennifer Huntsman is a US Army Reserve Signal Captain stationed at MacDill Air Force Base with Joint Communication Support Element (JCSE). She is currently deployed in Qatar. Jenny will be writing for The Daily Loaf about life in the military.]
I am home. I have been back in Tampa for about a week now, but it feels as though I have never left. Our flight was long and we first arrived in the U.S. through the Baltimore-Maryland International Airport (BWI). A military flight to Maryland is a humbling experience. I smelled very bad and I slept on a toy train at BWI's Observation Deck. There was a large homecoming at the Tampa International Airport. Balloons, banners, friends, families, coworkers, even news crews were all waiting for our arrival. I had so many strangers come up to me to tell me thank you, God Bless, and welcome back home. When I saw my loved one my heart skipped a beat, I missed him so much. Coming home is what we'd wished for throughout the whole deployment.
Just a week ago I remember talking with my coworkers of what we were excited about when we arrived back home.
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2009.