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Monday, 18 October

I was going to write yesterday, but there never was a place of time where I could.

I found out Sunday morning about 4 AM that there would be a flight to Balad the same day. I would have to be ready to leave the place where I was staying at 3:30 PM.

We lined up. It was space available. So, there was a good chance I wouldn't be on that flight. There was another going to the same place two hours later, and I was fairly high up on the list. I figured there was a good chance I would get out yesterday. I was on the list for the first flight.

We got all of our stuff together, and loaded up on buses. It was about an hour long bus ride to the terminal. The Air Force flies out of a Kuwaiti Air Force base for these flights.

We got there and it looked like we were going to have time to grab a bite to eat and get right on the plane. So, I got something to eat quick and headed back.

Just as I was walking in the terminal the guy in charge was explaining to my group that there was a problem with the plane. We would not be flying out on that plane that night. There was, however, another plane that was taking off for Balad sometime that night, and we should expect a call to get ready to board about 2 AM.

I went back to the passenger lounge and settled in. I figured that I had all the time in the world to write my entry for yesterday while I sat and waited. I was about 3/4ths of the way through a book that had really caught my attention, and it was only a little over 100 pages long.

So, I put on the MP3 player and finished my book. Sometimes, serendipitous things happen. My book, and the music I had loaded in the MP3 player ran out at the same time. It was about 8 PM. 6 hours before our call, right? I pulled out the laptop, and loaded the MP3 player with new music. I had just finished and was in the process of shutting down the computer (about 8:20, maybe), when the call came. Another plane had become available, and we needed to get ready to go, now.

I rushed shutting down the laptop, and put it away, and headed out to the gate. We were on a C-130, and it wa explained that we were on a "black out" flight. So, no writing on the flight.

As a side note, there were some interesting moments in the in the pre-flight safety brief. This was a cargo plane. There are no stewardesses, and the only cabin crew is the loadmaster for the cargo, an Air Force NCO. They have a definite way with words. There are no stupid little cards with the silly pictures and there are no choreographed hand gestures to emergency exits. Then again, there are no emergency exits, per se. There is the door the flight crew walks in, and there is the cargo door in the back. That's it. So, the loadmaster tells us, basically, if there is a crash and "ANY OF YOU HAPPEN TO SURVIVE" (that part caught my attention) yellow lights will appear over the exits ... get out any way you can and meet up with any of the survivors from the crew.

Like I said, not exactly the brief you get on any of the big airlines. Actually, the truth of it was refreshing.

Parts of the flight were rather exciting. At times, it was like riding a roller coaster in total darkness. It was cool.

We arrived in Balad about 11 PM. Had to sit through several briefs, most of which (about 90% or better) didn't pertain to me at all. Finally, I had my baggage and was released to go sign for a cot in a tent. I was told to meet back at the 1 ID liaison trailer at 1 PM today, and they would see if they could manifest me on a flight back to where I came from.

By the time I had signed for my cot, and dropped my gear, it was after midnight, and I was starving. Fortunately, the chow halls here serve a midnight meal for people on night shift. There wasn't one close, and I didn't know how to get to them. Luckily, there are shuttle buses that run all over the base that I was on.

I went to the bus stop right by I was. I hooked up with another soldier who knew the base fairly well. He was going near the main chow hall on post, and said to just get off where he got off. So, we got on the shuttle bus. It turned out that chow hall was one of the furthest stops from where we had been. We, finally, got there. it turns out that the chow hall in question did not serve the midnight meal, and was closed. But, the next stop was the PX and it stayed open 24 hours.

I went to the PX.

My wife and I are big Douglas Adams fans. We've read all of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy has two main rules for people that are travelling the Galaxy that don't have their own transportation: 1) Don't Panic, and 2) Always carry a towel. I've done pretty well with #1 on this trip. #2, however ... Well, it turns out that I forgot to pack a towel. Which means in all of this, cleaning up has been no problem, but drying off after I am done has been interesting. I'm really looking forward to getting back to Danger so I can take a proper shower. I haven't had one since right after I got up Friday.

I bought a towel, some munchies, and a couple of big bottles of iced tea. Caught the bus, and headed back to my tent. By this time it was about 2:30 AM. I was pretty tired. They had shut off the lights in my tent. So, I decided to just crash.

I slept a little later than I should have today. (No real surprise to those that know me.) I figured that the chances of getting out on a flight today were not great. So, I would go check in with the office that was supposed to arrange my flight out of here, then go clean up.

I called back to the only contact phone number I had to get in touch with my unit. I was sitting in the office that I needed to be at, waiting for the 1 PM formation to get flight information. As I hung up the phone, a Lieutenant, that was one of my regular customers at work, walks in, and asks me what I was doing there, and if I was heading back to Danger. I told him that I was. He said that he had arranged for transportation for some guys in his unit, and there was still room on the bird, if I was interested.

I've spent time talking to a co-worker, trying to convince this person that being nice to others for no apparent reason pays off. That, unless there is a specific reason, you should never be rude. I am certain that if I had not been nice to this LT when I didn't have to be, that I would still be sitting Balad waiting for a flight.

So, it's about 4 hours after the events that I described above, and I am sitting on Speicher. Speicher is not the post that I am stationed on, but it is right across town from it. Most of the time that has been spent since I wrote the above was spent sitting on a flight line waiting for a helicopter to arrive.

The flight here was quick. Both in time spent in the air, and the speed we were flying. My guess is that we were rarely more than 100 feet off of the ground. Gauging by my experience driving on the autobahn (I've had my BMW up to about 120 miles an hour before), we were doing at least 150 miles an hour, ground speed.

Most of the space between Balad and here is farmland, which amazes me. I have been to Iowa and seen the farmland there. The dirt there is black, not dark brown, black. When you are driving down a country road there, you can smell how fertile the soil is, and I am not talking about any organic or chemical fertilizers, either. Here, the dirt is ... it's not even dirt. It's barely what we recognize as sand. It's, basically, compacted dust. I don't see how they get anything to grow. I flew over and saw the irrigation systems, so I understand how they water it. The ground is what gets me. Where in Iowa you didn't even have to see the dirt, you could smell it driving by and know that it was just made to grow things. Here, you can see and smell the earth and know that maybe sometime in the ancient past it was like Iowa, but now, it is just dead. I don't see how there is anything left in the ground to nourish any plant. But, there it was. Not exactly lush, but there were green fields all over the place, interspersed with tan fields of dust. In places there were what had to be orchards of trees. That they can get anything to grow here simply amazes me.

I sit here on Speicher, the "victim" of more serendipity. We flew in shortly before 5. There was a flight scheduled for Danger at 5:15. If I could get my weapon and ammo, I could hop on that flight and be back on Danger tonight. A day ahead of what my unit is expecting after my phone call today.

I tried several times to get through to the people that were holding my weapon. It looked like I wasn't going to make it. Have to find a way to Danger tomorrow. Maybe hook up with one of the convoys that go back and forth daily. Then two things happened within seconds of each other. First, the crew for the choppers making the flight to Danger decided to go eat before they headed over to Danger, delaying the flight by about 45 minutes. Secondly, the phone line to the people that were holding my weapon quit giving me a busy signal.

I have my weapon and ammo back. It came in a few minutes ago. The flight starts all the pre-flight stuff in about 45 minutes, and it looks like there is plenty of space for me to go. We'll see. This is the Army. I must be missing something. Things are going to well for everything to be right. There's not enough "hurry up and wait" involved in this part of the process.