Leah and I had a very good experience on this embed assignment to Afghanistan with the good men and women of the 133rd Airlift Wing of the Minnesota Air National Guard.

Our sincere thanks to Colonel Greg Haase for inviting us to tag along and having the foresight of providing a way to profile members of the Wing under his command, Captain Shannon Purvis for organizing this trip and making all our arrangements, Senior Master Staff Sargent Moss for helping us with stories on the base, 1st Lt. Greg Hawkins for getting us equipped with all our chemical and kevlar gear and transportation and Captain Savage who traveled to and from Bagram Base with Leah and I and who worked very long hours without rest helping us get what we needed.

Also our sincere thanks to the Public Affairs Office and staff in the JOC at Bagram who helped us in Afghanistan, the North Carolina Air National Guard in Charlotte who flew us back to the States after our orders were changed to stay in the country a couple extra days and to all the members of the Air National Guard in Supply and Operations who helped us along the way - you know who you are - we are grateful.

Meeting the Airmen of the 133rd Airlift Wing of the Minnesota Air National Guard we were embedded with was everything I thought it would be. It's always uncertain at first how we, as media embeds, will be received. After all we were civilian outsiders moving in with a family of Military men and women.

They are a very tight-knit unit and we were the news people, what were we going to report? But after attempting to earn trust of the unit and by filing stories which profiled the good work they are doing in the war effort by attempting to report on the sacrifice these Airmen of the Air Force make on a continual basis, those barriers broke down pretty fast.

These are the assignments I personally will always remember and not for the events we cover, but for the kindness we were shown by the Wing and the professionalism they showed, along with their sense of duty to our country. Thank you very much and thank you for your service. Come home safe.