Day 37

Today we received the following message from our son, Col. James Reed II who has been serving in Afghanistan for the past year. He is in charge of all the Airman serving in Afghanistan. His 1 year tour of duty is coming to an end within the coming weeks.

All is going well. The staff held a going away luncheon for me on Wed; the wing commander stopped by and presented me with the Bronze Star medal. Normally, the decoration would be presented at the Change of Command ceremony, but my replacement will arrive here at Bagram after I leave. It bothers me not to have a change of command ceremony, but it is really more for the new guy then the old guy. We have made arrangements for an Assumption of Command ceremony for him on Monday, 6 July.

The going away luncheon was very nice and heart-felt words spoken by all. I will miss the men and women of the 755 AEG, I will miss the mission and the responsibility...but at the same time, I recognize it is time for me to stand down. I am tired, I can not keep up the pace and of course, I miss Jane, Ryan, Chelsea and Ashley.

Col. James Reed II (JR / Smokey)

As you can see, we are very proud of our son.

On a lighter note, yesterday Don & I completed the conversion of his RO system from just drinking water to RO water throughout the coach. Electronically, all checked out well, the next step is to leak test it and see that it actually works. We should get around to the final test tomorrow.

Today was somewhat of a rest day except for cleaning the windows on the coach and H3.