An Early Christmas Present

Something happened that came straight out of left field. I didn’t see it coming, nor did my subordinates. It was met with very mixed feelings that ranged from surprise to disappointment. But in the end I came to regard it with a feeling of relief. I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. My replacement, or “backfill” as we call them here, was scheduled to arrive at the end of August. That changed. About a week ago I was in a routine meeting with my Commanding General covering a variety of Garrison-related topics. Towards the end of our discussion we got on the topic of future manning for the Garrison. I was in the process of assuring the CG that although we were going through a period of high turnover (a bunch of my staff have reached completion of their tours), there was a backfill for everyone scheduled to depart over the next few months. Then I even brought up the backfills for CSM and me. That’s when he said, “Well, actually your backfill is coming earlier than planned.” I sat back for a moment in almost shock and said straight up that I found that to be disappointing news. He acknowledged and understood why I would say that but assured me that it was in no way a performance-related issue. Instead, it was simply due to the fact that the new sourcing command for my position got their signals crossed on when my backfill was supposed to be here. Once the orders were cut, my CG elected to let it ride since it was so close to the end of my tour. As it stands, I’ll be at eleven months out of twelve when I hand the guidon to my replacement.  So my early Christmas present is that I’ll be leaving Afghanistan sooner than expected. Towards the end of next month we will hold a change-of-command ceremony and I will exit Bagram stage right. It’s a bittersweet thought, as I love command so much and we have such momentum right now on so many different priorities. But I also understand that these kinds of things happen in the military all the time and that it is just business, never personal. The more I’ve thought about this since I got the news the more at peace I’ve become. I’ve been doing my ‘round-the-world combat tour stuff for years now and, quite frankly, I’m growing as weary as our military is of war. I’ve seen the United States all of seven months over the past three years, with six and a half of those months coming all at one time. I’m cool with going home – finally – and getting on with normalizing my life, living without the gnawing in my gut that the IDF alarm is about to sound or the fear of having to witness another event like what happened last Thanksgiving. I miss my family back in the beautiful mountains of Avery County North Carolina.

Later that day I gathered my primary staff around and told them the news. They were shocked. Every face was very long. I could feel their disappointment and took it for what it genuinely was – a sincere show of their loyalty and love for me as their commander. It is a mutual feeling we all share. I’ll miss my team when I leave. I will have a cold beer for all of them soon and we’ll make that talk of a reunion a reality.