Reunited and it feels so good

Greg has finally been reunited with his luggage! :-)

It was a terrible mess of bags everywhere at the airport.*

We showed up a little early to try and sort out the luggage situation before Greg landed to speed up the process. They wouldn't let us go into the room where these bags (see picture above) were, but there were plenty of bags to check out around the carousel still unclaimed from earlier flights.

We spent a little time searching, but couldn't find his bags (because I forgot to make sure they stood out from the rest of the bags that look just like ours). Lots of "Black/Dark Blue" bags.

Wouldn't you know it, his bags were actually in the above pictured room we couldn't go into unless we had a baggage claim ticket. Not sure what the difference between those in the picture and the ones just lying around for the taking. Good to know Greg's bags were safe.

Still, it was the fastest pick-up at the airport where check-on bags were involved.

He ended up getting on an earlier flight than originally planned today. We weren't expecting him home until after 7 pm, but picked him up shortly after 3 pm. He didn't want to jinx it so he waited until the flight was taxiing from the gate to use the last little bit of charge on his phone.

"Flight 1475, leaving now, not sure when it lands in Vegas. Got to go. See you soon."
Good thing I knew the flight was at least three hours.

Everyone is glad to have Daddy home,
especially Mommy!
I think Greg is happiest to finally be home.

* Las Vegas Airport was closed to incoming and outgoing traffic from about 4 yesterday until sometime this morning. Many stranded fliers (some slept at airport), tons of unclaimed luggage. Crazy SNOW!!

Final drum roll please...

Greg's Medical Evaluation Board convened today and offered him 10% for his knee* with severance and separation from the Air Force. He accepted.** His next step is to go to the Veterans Administration Office locally and they rate him on all his current medical problems/disabilities occurring while in the service of the United States. This will determine how much he will get as a disabled Veteran from the VA. He had an appointment with them last month and they went over his medical history and came up with seven ratable items. His knee injury will carry over with 10%, Sleep Apnea brings in 50%, and then five other things that we don't know the rates yet. If the VA rates him at 100% then he is considered retired which is a good thing (not exactly sure how it all works out but I think it involves paying for additional schooling). HOWEVER, it takes the VA at least six months to get all the paper work done...so we will be glad for the severance package to help out during the upcoming months.

But it ain't over till the fat lady sings... they said not to be surprised if we are still in the Air Force until February because the paperwork from the ME Board still has one more stop to get an official stamp. If there is any one thing we have learned from all this: EVERYTHING in the military takes TIME. Hurry up and wait!! We just hope his commander will be kind enough to allow Greg to fill out the proper paperwork to allow him to work outside the military if a job comes up before he is "officially" separated.

Today has been a long day for both Greg and I, starting with a 4am phone call from him sharing some concerns before the board convened. Then after the decision was made he thought he would try his luck at getting back to Vegas earlier than planned. I'm not sure what lesson he is to learn from all this but his luck was not so good. He did get an earlier flight to Dallas but the connecting flight to Vegas was over booked with 30 people on standby. He got a ticket booked for the next flight which still would have been earlier than the original flight, but it got cancelled from the weather in Vegas***. Then the airport announced that all flights to Vegas had been cancelled until Thursday afternoon. The earliest they can get him home is 7 pm. But we have good news, his bags might have made it to Las Vegas!! Poor guy, what an ordeal.

* The military only rates the disability which causes separation from the military. Sleep Apnea no longer is a kickable disability, therefore there is no rate to offer the service man at separation.

** Greg is a gambling man, but sometimes a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush especially when those birds are already for flight and the mere glance from the hunter. Accepting is a better thing for our family at this time. It might have played out very badly for him if he re-enlisted and got separated without severance. I don't think I'd make it very far on "Deal or No Deal."

*** While we were enjoying the rarely seen beautiful snow falling we did not know it would delay the time we would see Daddy. No need to spoil all the fun!