14th Deployment Return

The next day, James and I both grabbed a camera and went out to the squadron to welcome home the 8 pilots flying a jet home from the desert. Deployment return photos are some of my favorites to take because they are so emotionally charged! Below are some of my favorite snapshots from a joyful weekend!

Here they come!

Below are photos of my friend Carie welcoming her fiancee back from the desert. They'd been apart for 114 days and are looking forward to their wedding later this year. It was fun being out there with her and capturing this extra special reunion on camera.

Love the matching shoes

Two of the pilots who came back are a married couple. The Lady Samurai were glad to be there to welcome them home. We also had some laughs when Katie (the female pilot) said she wanted a foot-popping deployment return photo too. They are such a fun couple. Glad to have them home.

Watching fathers reunite with their babies is always precious. Roman Widmer (below) has grown a lot since his daddy left so I'm sure this was a bitter sweet moment. So cute!

Who is that, Roman?

The next day my friend Lindsay Denton's husband returned on a military plane that came back through Singapore. She was the one we threw a baby shower for. I know she felt extremely relieved to have him home. Now she is clear to have that baby!

Lindsay spotted him first

The final few people to come home came back commercially to the Misawa airport. James and I missed the folks who came back main body because we were on our way to southern Japan. But soon after we returned, a guy who had been gone on a 6 month MC-12 deployment to Afghanistan returned. He'd been gone FOREVER, so almost the whole squadron came out to welcome him back. This was a very emotional return because his wife Kristen had a baby while he was gone. So we got to watch as he met his little girl for the first time. PRECIOUS!

It feels great to have the whole squadron back together again after months and months of having people deployed or TDY all of the time. Celebrating the holiays as a squadron will be extra sweet this year. We are all so thankful for our spouses' service and for their safe return home!