passport

Passport application. C was already buying plane tickets to Turkey so we had to hustle to get things done in time. Lucky San Francisco is big enough so Kirk could go in person.

Things get frozen into relics sometimes, things that aren't important or valuable in themselves, physical moments in time. After we moved I found a dark blue folder - the simple kind, matte, with pockets inside. There were a handful of Air Force documents - officer evaluations I think, and a copy of his discharge papers. Actually I think none of those are useful for the application. And there was a mapquest printout of the directions to the passport office. I didn't empty out that folder and it still sits in the file cabinet intact - a snapshot of that moment.

The only thing I don't have is the passport itself. That was never recovered. I wonder what the picture was like. I've seen the one for the ID that got him onto bases in Iraq, and it was horrible. He looked like a dazed, 20-years-too-old frat boy after a two week bender.

I didn't ask to see it at the time - too many other things to do, too many to think about. I just remember that he got it with only a day or two to spare. One more essential checked off before he left.