Time to go home. It is Tuesday at 3:45am here in Iraq. In Honolulu, it's 2:45pm on Monday, the Memorial Day holiday. If I closed my eyes and sat still, I would be able to see the movie in my head -  I would see all the pop-up tents, the family picnics and the barbeques going 2-40.  Ala Moana Park would smell like one big, delicious, tender piece of teri beef.

It's interesting that we've spent our Memorial Day here in Iraq, where according to the Mideast edition of  Stars and Stripes (a daily newspaper on base), more than 4,000 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since 2003. I hope you will join Carole Kai and our Great Aloha Run Team in honoring them each and every day, while you hold a prayer in your heart for the safe return of those who are still here.

We'd all like to thank Carole for asking us to be a part of the Great Aloha Run's  "Mission of Aloha." I'll be honest - it's really been a physically tough trip. I doubt any of us got more than 5 hours of sleep each night, but somehow during the course of each day's events, we managed to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and made sure each soldier knew how much America was thinking about them, and how much our family and friends in Hawaii loved and missed them so much. But yes, we had fun! We had a blast! Thank you MG Caslen, BG Brown and CSM Leota. Mahalo to the Fun Factory, Princess Ka'iulani Fashions, the Rotary Club of Kapolei/R. Baird Company, Menehune MAC, United Airlines and Dr. Lawrence Tseu for your donations. SFC Rick "Sunshine" Maine, Kenne "Pop Tart" Sjoberg, the MWR staff and Jeff from Lonewolf Productions...YOU ROCK! Donna, Randy, Jay, Nohe, Lori, Krista, Jasmine and Radasha..."I love you, maaaan!"

Nohe said she would definately come back again if they asked her to. Her life has changed big time, and she's been humbled by living our soldiers' life - how they do what they have to do, without a single complaint.

Earlier today, Jay and I were wondering what we would do differently - what we would bring our troops if we ever came back for another tour. A donation of phone cards? No...More mochi crunch for the local boys? No...Caps embroidered with our company's logo? No...We sat there staring into the dust for a few minutes, wracking our sleep- deprived brains for a "feel good" answer. Suddenly I looked at him and said, "Nothing...we don't need to bring anything else different. Just us. Our smiles, our personalities, our messages of aloha...and our hugs and kisses... in person."

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