Mama I'm coming home

Wow this is weird. I am actually typing on a real keyboard! I am sitting in the USO at the Atlanta airport waiting on my flight to come back to Ohio. It has been one of the biggest ordeals I have ever had to go thru in my life. Well ok basic was bigger but this still sucks all the same. First of all, my company has been giving us the run around about going home and when we could leave for Memorial Day weekend. No you can't sign out till this time and no you can't leave because you got a FTR to a formation 3 weeks ago, stuff like that. None of us knew that our passes got approved by the company commander till 3 days ago. Hardly enough time to buy a plane ticket at a reasonable price. Most of the guys bought one a week or so ago and just been crossing their fingers. I on the other hand was trying to get a ticket from a guy I went to basic with. He used to work at Delta before he joined and he had some buddy passes he was going to give to us so we could get super discounted tickets. Well he ran out of passes by the time he got to me and Zupo so he called his friend and he aggreeed to let us buy the passes. so we sent him $60 each for the passes and he was going to let us know how much the tickets would be and how to get the money to him. My ticket, round trip, from Augusta Regional to Akron/Canton Regional was going to be $49. Thats it! I was thrilled. and then it all went down hill. We have been trying to get together with this guy all week to set up the pass and last night, litterally hours before we could fly, he texts Swoope, my battle from basic and tells him that he isnt going to give us the passes. Instead he is going to give them to a family of 3 because they want to go over seas and he could get more money for the passes off of them. I dont think I Have ever seen Zupo that mad before. You could of sharpened steel blades on his face of stone. I almost lost it when he told me about what had happened. I had to keep my military bearing because we were in a formation at the time but I felt like screaming my lungs out till I was too hoarse to swear. I just hope we dont find out where this guy is becuase if i can read Zupo right, and I like to think I can, he will find this guy and beat the $60 out of him penny by penny. Anyways we decided at 1 in the morning that we would leave and go to the airport, wear our ACU's and give the ladies at the desk our best puppy dog face. So we did and our plan went down in a blaze of fire. It looked like Fort Benning there were so many soldier there. We tried and tried our best but to no avail. Our lowest ticket price we could find was $900 roundtrip. Everybody looked like you just killed their first born sons. We had been planning and anticipating this weekend for months now, since basic, and now it was slowly slipping thru our fingers. Finally we went to the USO and got on the internet to look at prices and I got a ticket back home for $450 roundtrip. Not bad considering i had to buy it the day of the flight but still I will be coming back to Ohio without my arm and my leg. But you know what, I would have paid 4x that much just to get back to reality. I want so much to leave the Army behind for a few days and get away from these guys for a few two. Ilove them all and would do anything for them but I have been around them 24/7 for 5 months now. You can only eat steak so many days in a row. One day you are gonna want a pizza. So to conclude this ridicously long post I AM COMING HOME!!!!

Can't wait to see all my Ohio people if only for a few days. Get ready Ohio because the Nock of WAR is coming!