Over the weekend I officially got permission to post a nice photo and talk about Paul on my blog. He’s my USAF “partner in crime”, we’ve been colleagues for as long as I’ve been a reservist — nearly 4 years! We now work together in SC, although I actually only see him 3-4 times per year on the occasional drill weekend. He’s in a holding pattern waiting to be our unit’s commander — I hope it’s soon for his sake, he’s starting to bounce off the walls wanting to boss us around 😉

Many of the things you see on my blog are inspired by conversations I’ve had with him. Such as the polls. He and I trade ideas about cake decorating, family dinners, what new cars to buy, Wii games, new gadgets, activities to do with the family on weekends, and many many many professional matters. He and his wife introduced me to the Pioneer Woman!

In fact, just today he mailed me this blog to read. I thought I’d share with you an example of the fun stuff we discuss.

All this time I’ve been telling Paul, “Get your own blog” so he can pontificate about his adoration of Costco, GPS units, separate master bedrooms and the true value of your vote in America.

Paul and I are taking a deployment to the Middle East in 2009 — not together. He and I received permission to split a rotation, I’ll take the first half, he’ll take the 2nd. I think this is a wonderful opportunity presented to the two of us — our opportunities to serve the Global War on Terror without being away from home for too long, and a testament of the trust and friendship he and I have for each other that we both said “Okay, we’ll do it”. After all, if one of us bails, the other is held responsible for the ENTIRE trip.

For those who knew this was coming up, I won’t discuss the details here, but I’m leaving sometime after Christmas and should be back in early April. I’m not going to Iraq or Afghanistan, but to another location that supports those locations. Please rest assured that I will be safe in this location, provided the area remains as stable as it has been for the past several years. The job I’ll be performing is quite exciting and I’m sure I’ll be super-busy! Relative to most other military members, this is a very short deployment, although one day away from my boys is a day too many.

Tangent: I’ve promised to Dave that after this trip I will never voluntarily take a deployment for the remaining 6 years of my AF career. He’s going to have a challenge playing single Dad during our first Nebraska winter, and he’s been a great sport at keeping it in perspective. He wants to introduce the boys to skiing while I’m gone!

So here’s to you Paul (I’m raising my cotton boll to you!) — thanks for your personal and professional friendship, and for splitting the trip the desert.

PS: The picture above was taken in May 2008 at a picnic while we were working in SC. At first we were both posing like superheroes and the line “Wondertwin Powers, Activate!” went through my head.