Bittersweet Farewell

With less than a week left "in country", I've been face with the bittersweet task of saying farewell to my fellow soldiers and co-workers. You may think it would be easy to say goodbye to Iraq, and that may very well be true, but I can assure you that it is not at all easy to say goodbye with the good people that have become my friends over the past year.

Two days ago, my office put together a farewell ceremony for me that included a slide show entitled "The Story of Bill". A civilian co-worker of mine named Anne narrated this entire presentation from memory and based it mainly off of my blog. Everyone got a big laugh when my "half moustache" was projected onto the big screen.

As Anne went through all the highlights of my year over year, I started to realize just how many significant events have occurred while I've been deployed. I have worked so many great professionals (military, DoD civilians, contractors, and local nationals) and have found the work to be equally challenging and rewarding. Its hard for me to put to words how much I appreciated the fact that Anne and the rest of my office forced me to sit down and realized how much I have grown in the past year.

After Anne was done, several people got up and presented me with tokens of their appreciation and humbled me with their praise. The event was capped off when my lieutenant presented me with a beautifully engraved Iraqi knife mounted on a plaque to cormenerate my time here. The knive has a handle made of camel bone and silver and will be proudly displayed in my office back in Atlanta.

Like I said...its hard to put into words how appreciated these people made me feel.