Farewell

Shawn left for a 6 month deployment in Afghanistan yesterday.

At 6:00pm yesterday, Kiley and I took Shawn to his unit's office building where all the marines and families met to say goodbye. Turns out, there were only a total of 5 marines leaving at the same time as Shawn. All 5 guys were traveling with the cargo and therefore left at a different time then most of the other marines with this unit.

The unit gave all the kids teddy bears to squeeze when they miss their daddies. Kiley loves her bear and the 1st thing she said when she woke up this morning was that she made sure to hug her bear last night because she missed dad already.

Shawn was supposed to leave at midnight and head to Spain and then to Afghanistan, but after the flight plans changed about 4 times, he finally left N. Carolina and went straight to Germany. He should only be in Germany a day or two and then he'll head right in to Afghanistan.

Shawn took a few pictures last night while he was waiting around for his flight (which didn't end up leaving until 2am) Shawn put some of the pictures up on Facebook already, but there's a few more here.

His flight accommodations were nothing short of uncomfortable! At least they were able to move around during the flight, but as far as seats go, what you see is what you get. He said he would probably end up sleeping in one of the hummers or on top of luggage during the flight.

I was so proud of Kiley last night. She cried for just a minute on the drive home from dropping Shawn off. She said she was sad, but that she would be OK. She's a pretty brave little girl.

PS: Shawn texted me this morning and let me know that he made it safely to Germany and that they were planning to stay at some sort of hotel this evening. He hopes to be able to get off base and get some real food tonight. I'm not sure how he's texting me because his phone service was cancelled while he's deployed, but maybe he's figured out how to text from his ipad. Who knows.

If anyone would like to send him mail, he is at Camp Edin Burgh. Address the letter like this:

SSgt R.S. Sundquist

VMU 2 DET D Scan Eagle

Unit 78103

FPO AE 09510-8103

Just a regular 44 cent stamp on any letters.

I've been told mail takes about 10 days to arrive, packages take a bit longer. If you plan to send a package, let me know because there are some restrictions on what you can send. And you need to make sure to follow a few guidelines that they have already talked to me about.

Shawn can also get emails, so that's always a good way to contact him.

The seat he sat in on his flight to Germany.

Shawn in his seat...oh yeah, they weren't supposed to have been issued their guns until they got into Afghanistan, but they found out they were going to have to carry their guns the whole flight. Bummer. Shawn carries the gun you see in the picture and a small pistol on his hip.

You can kind of see more of what's being transported. The plane is filled with vehicles and luggage.

Here's the plane that they took. That's how to enter and exit the plane.