10-year-old Monique Abeyta waves goodbye to her father Staff Sgt. Henry Abeyta Jr. for the last time while he boarded the 747 jet that would take him to the Persian Gulf.
Members of the California Army National Guard unit, the 1113th Transportation Company and the Fresno based 2668th Transportation Company, huddle together before getting on the plane.
With the help of a curb, Stephanie Dragics gives her fiancee E-4 Specialist Charles Malloy a hug good-bye moments before his departure for the Middle East.
A tourist pauses to catch her breath while making her way up a spiral staircase which eventually took her to the Vatican Museum in Vatican City, Italy.