text and photos © Robert A. Crimmins

While in Iraq and Afghanistan I was allowed time off every four months. I was in Baghdad for five months before I took my first R&R. Judi and I met in Greece. The second vacation was in Paris. At the end of the first year I went home. To get the tax break for working outside the United States you have to be off U.S. soil for three-hundred-and-thirty days out of three-hundred-and-sixty-five, which is why I didn’t come home more than once. The first R&R of my second year was to Spain and Portugal.