The countdown continues

[aadler]

10:30PM Central Afghan Time

Another few days of relative inactivity, all but one of our field team personnel back here at KAF, and that much closer to leaving country.

Going back home … mixed feelings about that. I miss my kids, and there are all kinds of things I love to do back in “the world”. The thing is, while I’m on orders I have a purpose. Everything is clear and straightforward. Since 1) I’m a Reservist rather than regular Army, and 2) I like the life so much I’m committed to staying on active duty as much as possible for the next eight years, that means time between deployments is time spent trying to get into something else. In other words, a transition period by definition. Rest and relaxation at best. (This time through, of course, R&R includes a stopover at WriterCon.)

I pretty much had my course set. From the start I planned, once this deployment ended, to go to the Defense Language Institute to study Arabic. Now that’s been called into question. There’s discussion of reorganizing my specialty according to affiliation: all active-duty units will stay with the Special Operations Command, whereas Reserve units will be officially filed in with the rest of the Army Reserve. If that’s carried through, it could signally affect our priority when it comes to getting into premier schools … like DLI.

I’ve been wanting to go there for years. I passed up a DLI slot in order to be with my unit on this Afghanistan tour, and theoretically a demonstrated willingness to serve out on the sharp end should factor to my credit when it comes to getting schools. But I don’t know. These things are so frequently in someone else’s hands.

I’ve continued to write while I wait for the flight to BAF (and eventually home). I’m at 7,500 words on “Learning Curve”; right now it looks like it will end up between 10,000 and 12,000 words, and I’m gaining momentum. At 1,000 to 1,500 words a day, I should definitely finish before we leave the country; maybe (hopefully) before time for us to transition to second-class citizenship at BAF.

Once we leave here, Internet access may be more chancy. That means that, even with the story finished, I might or might not be able to get it posted before we return to the States. I’ll just have to see how that works out.