Anybody who has been on a deployment will tell you that the slowest part is the last month, and in particular the last week.  This especially rings true in a community where your departure is contingent on another squadron relieving you on time, with weary aircraft, and (in this case) returning over the Easter weekend.

The crew buzzes with a quiet excitement, tempered by slight superstition, as if the plane would sense the eagerness and fail mechanically during engine starts.  Gone are the 12 hour conversations about buying land in Texas, investing in precious metals, the best places to eat in Hawaii; instead conversations on a repositioning flight (repo) are more reflective.  The family this crew has built over the past months is all too rapidly making all haste home, leading to a jovial atmosphere of enjoying the final days of camaraderie.

The following gallery of photos is from a roll of film I shot on our last flights back to Hawaii.