As the Davies Herd prepares to head north to Alaska, it’s hard not to look back on the last four years and marvel at everything that happened between arrival and departure.
Four years ago, we arrived in the National Capital Region from what we still consider one of the most incredible assignments of our careers: four years in the Netherlands.
Like many families returning from overseas, we spent our first year reintroducing ourselves to American culture. Some things came back quickly. Other things, like remembering that bread doesn’t need to be purchased daily and that driving more than a few hours is considered normal, took a little longer.
We settled into Maryland while Sam worked at the Pentagon managing policy for the Air Force’s newest officers and Zed learned to fly a new airframe. It was a year of transition, learning, and finding our footing after life overseas.
Then came another move.
For the next three years, the family called Virginia home while Sam attended Marine Corps University in Quantico, earning a Master of Arts in Military Studies before moving across the river to command the 11th Force Support Squadron at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
For the kids, it meant another new school.
As military parents, there’s always a little anxiety that comes with walking kids into a new building and hoping they find their people. Fortunately, they did. The friendships formed during those years became some of the strongest of their lives, and we’re confident many of those friendships will continue long after this move.
Those Virginia years also marked the beginning of competitive sports for the Davies kids.
At first, it seemed manageable.
There was football.
There was lacrosse.
There was gymnastics.
Then Zoe asked if she could try hockey.
That simple question changed everything.
Gymnastics quickly disappeared from the family schedule and hockey took over.
Soon Ana and Dax decided hockey looked pretty fun too, and before long the family found itself spending weekends at rinks, learning a whole new language of offsides, penalties, tournaments, travel teams, and early morning ice times.
Somewhere along the way, we realized our kids’ athletic pursuits had quietly become our social lives.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
As the years passed, life became busier.
The mission became bigger.
The calendar became fuller.
Mia entered middle school and discovered a love for theater and the performing arts.
The younger three continued to grow as athletes, teammates, and competitors.
The family continued doing what military families do best: adapting.
The final year in the NCR taught perhaps the most important lesson of all.
The importance of a village.
There were times when missions pulled both Sam and Zed in different directions simultaneously. During those moments, friends and neighbors stepped in without hesitation.
A neighbor caught a kid getting off the bus.
A teammate drove someone to practice.
Family who traveled in at a moments notice when the mission became too much.
Another family made room for one more kid in the car.
None of those moments were large enough to make headlines.
Every one of them mattered.
Military families often talk about community, but this assignment showed us what community truly looks like.
It looks like people showing up.
Again and again.
We leave the National Capital Region with tremendous gratitude.
We are grateful for the friends who became family.
Grateful for the teachers, coaches, teammates, neighbors, mentors, and coworkers who shaped these years.
Grateful for the opportunities our kids had access to in a region filled with museums, monuments, history, culture, and professional sports.
We’ll miss driving past the monuments on the way to work.
We’ll miss watching our kids thrive in opportunities unique to this area.
We will not miss the traffic.
Not even a little.
As we point the herd toward Alaska, we do so knowing that this chapter has left its mark on all of us.
Four years.
Two homes.
Multiple schools.
Countless teammates, friends, and memories.
The Davies Herd 
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