Before you read on, I've made it safe and sound..
The plan was to show up at 1800 pick up our weapons at 1830 and be on the road before 2200. As usual plans change, our flight was 5 and a half hours delayed so we wouldn't be leaving till 2 or 3, sigh. Doc K made this comment "this is probably the best way to keep the enemy from knowing what you're doing, it's hard for them to know when you don't". He has a point there but still.. Well at the 1800 formation they tell us to come back at midnight but not to leave the base. I went for my last enchanting meal at Taco Bell. Okay not the most romantic place but it was easy and cheep.
Back at the office three hours before we have to go, I double checked our gear, making sure everything was in order. It appeared to be, guess we'll find out when we get there. Doc T offered to drive doctor K and I around base (Belly had gone back to her room and crashed out, smart girl). So off we went to the club on base, standing order was we weren't allowed to drink alcohol prior, that blew, so it was cokes for us. Found out the Doc K and I both suck at pool sober plus it isn't as fun.
Back at the hanger we gathered up again and was told we needed to unloaded our bags from the 20 foot container that we had them stashed and had to put our k-bar’s (big knife that they issue us) in our already packed to the brim seabags. Figures it would start raining during this evolution. Afterwards we drew our weapons, the Marines checked out their M16's and us medical people checked out 9mm pistols. And reloaded the bags in the back of a semi trailer and got on to the busses that were to take us down to anther air force base to be picked up and taken overseas. I'm always wondering at this point, why can't they just pick us up where we're at? Not like the runways are any different, The plane we're flying on is chartered, can't we just charter it out of our home base? Just a thought mind you. Had to do the same thing when I was stationed at El Toro (which also has a nice runway). Ended up arriving at the other AFB at 7 in the morning, everyone was tired with only the sleep we had gotten was on the bus. Our platoon was tagged for loading up the plane, damn this is a lot of gear (picture soon coming). Hot sweaty and probably smelly we loaded up for the first leg of our journey. All I saw of that was us taxing down the runway and when they woke me up to eat. Slept all the way till Maine where we had a warm welcome from the locals, free cookies, phone calls, coffee, a gauntlet of hand shaking. Thanks! They sent us off in style. Onward to an airport in Europe, military terminal, layover for an hour then final leg to Kuwait, currently lying in a bed of gravel at a colder welcoming center. Amazing the wonders of technology, I’m out here in the middle of a big desert and can write this. Well this all has already taken place so it will have nothing to do with telling about troop movements till after the fact. No clue what the next step is yet, nor could I tell you. Will write more later.
Later in the day (battery ran dead in the laptop) I'm at an internet cafe, we've gotten to our temp tent till we fly out to the airbase we're going to be staging out of. Doing well despite the lack of good sleep, wait I just slept all the way through 3, 6 hour flights. The only medical problem we've had so far is an ingrown toenail, heading out to get that taken care of right now.
Mom, foods great, people wonderful and all that stuff. Great fun all, I got to get back to work.
