Oh Baby, I Hate to Go

Dream about the days to come when I won’t have to leave alone, about the times that I won’t have to say, “Kiss me and smile for me. Tell me that you’ll wait for me. Hold me like you’ll never let me go.”

Every time he comes home it’s a countdown to when he leaves again. The night before Chris left, we had a meeting at Isaac’s school where Chris got to meet Isaac’s teacher. Then we went home for roasted garlic salmon on a sesame salad.

“We’re having champagne,” I told Chris. “To the beginning of the end.”

“The beginning of the end,” he smiled. “I like that.”

After this deployment, Chris should be on home guard at the squadron, and after that we should rotate to a shore tour (typically not a deploying tour, but with our luck you never know).

We dropped Chris off at the squadron hanger and headed to a squadron hail and farewell out at the beach for newly checked in and departing pilots. Chris happened to launch in the middle of it and flew overhead to a chorus of cheers and raised glasses.

And off he flew over the horizon, to far shores and foreign waters. Fair winds and following seas, Krueger! A hui hou!