21 Feb 2019 - Visit to Historic Market Square, Lunch with Iraq War Comrade

21 Feb 2019
Overcast and chilly morning but no rain.  We drove downtown San Antonio to the Historic Market Square to do some shopping plus this is the destination for lunch today.

The Historic Market Square encompasses a three block area with over 100 old Mexico-style shops and restaurants.  It is a very colorful place and a must-see if you are in the San Antonio area.  We were lucky enough to find a parking spot right outside the main entrance on the street, so as we shopped I ran the items out to the truck so we would not have to carry them around.

Trying to figure out how I would mount one of these longhorns on my truck!

Colorful ceramics and other items

Pitcher and glass sets

Shop after shop after shop here

Sombrero anyone?

Mexican sugar skulls

Doreen purse shopping

Her new purses

Daughter Jennifer wanted some vanilla for baking and ice cream, so we got her two quarts!

After shopping we met up with Command Sergeant Major (retired) Frank Leota.  Frank and I both served at Kirkuk Iraq at the same time in 2006-2007 and I had not seen him since then.  He was the senior enlisted on the Army side and I was the senior enlisted on the Air Force side.  Frank was a career soldier, serving 35 years before retiring in 2015 the same year I retired.  When we were in Iraq, he was deployed from Scholfield Barracks Army Base on Oahu HI. 

Some of the Air Force Chiefs and Army Sergeants Major at Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq

Frank had arrived at Kirkuk a few weeks before I did, and I was briefed by my outgoing counterpart on many things including the issues between the Army Soldiers and Air Force Airmen.  I jumped on that as my first and biggest challenge by engaging Frank right out of the chute.  We hit it off immediately and both worked the issue.  I think a lot of it boiled down to a lack of understanding between our Airmen's mission on the Air side and the Soldiers mission on the Army side.  Our time there was during lead up to the 'surge', and it was the wild, wild west over there.  Our Soldiers were taking heavy casualties and the stress level for everyone was very high.  As we said, "The Iraqi's were trying their best to kill us outside the wire, we don't need to be trying to kill each other inside the wire."  In a very short time we had eliminated most of the issues and were "One Team, One Fight"!  The Army's tour was longer than ours and when we were getting ready to depart they were basically begging us to stay.  We were operating as a 'well oiled machine' and taking care of our Soldiers and Airmen.  It was, without a doubt, the best, most fulfilling  deployment of my career. 

So we had a great lunch and got caught up on our adventures for the past twelve years!  I think Doreen enjoyed our stories, but she heard a few more 'details' from CSM Leota than I had ever told her.  Frank is now doing a lot of bow hunting leveraging the space-available travel benefit we have as military retirees, and he has been traveling all over the place.  Similarly, Doreen and I have been traveling all over the place, but with our RV.  I gave Frank one of my retirement coins and we vowed to stay in touch and get together again.  It was great to hook-up with CSM Leota again!

We returned to the RV park and Doreen did a couple loads of laundry.  Tomorrow we will drive down the 'Mission Trail' and visit the many missions here in San Antonio.