Retrospective

In hindsight, I probably should not have complained about the cold weather in yesterday's post, since my mother and lots of other family members are digging out from the second snowstorm in a week in Colorado. I certainly have nothing to complain about compared to them! It's more the contrast I was noticing between 120-degree Summer days and 12-degree Winter nights that was interesting.

Speaking of hindsight, as the year draws to a close, it's appropriate to think back this year to what I've accomplished. And while I've spent 9 months of 2006 deployed and sometimes feel a bit useless in my day-to-day staff duties, I was reading our commander's letter on the JCCS-1 webpage and was reminded just how important our group, in the aggregate, has been:

"Although I can’t talk about the details, the heroics they perform each and every day never cease to amaze me. The Commanding General of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, General Casey, told our Secretary of the Navy that JCCS-1 was the greatest force multiplier in the Iraqi Theater of Operations. The Commanding General of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, Lieutenant General Chiarelli, told his soldiers that our command was responsible for saving more lives than any other command in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. All I can add to that tremendous support is that it has been the most personally rewarding tour of my military career and my great pleasure to have served with each and every member of this team."

I have to share my commander's assessment that my time here has been the most personally rewarding of my entire Navy career. You just can't beat the job satisfaction of "saving more lives than any other command."

Not that I'd want to spend all of 2007 doing the same job. It's time to let someone else have that job satisfaction!