This is the third installment chronicling my 2003 deployment with VFA-97 aboard USS Nimitz, as told through emails from the time.

It is now late July and I am a couple weeks back aboard the ship following an eventful period as a liaison at the shore-based theater air operations center. Aviators are most valuable when flying missions, to be sure, but sometimes one or two are needed to take a timeout from flying in order to help facilitate the operations for everyone else.

This is my story of doing just that, and how I ended up on the ground in Iraq on July 4, 2003.