A lot has happened in the last 15-20 days so let me fill you in. I am now in Afghanistan & officially on day 6 of my deployment. However, getting to this point was a comedy of errors followed by repeated tests on my patience and willpower to function without good quality sleep. I weathered the storm but let me share some of my high/low-lights with you.
My flight out of California was delayed. The travel agency had recently lost the contract for our base, so they didn’t finalize payment for my flight. So while I was booked on the flight, I hadn’t paid for it. So I paid at the ticket counter for the flight so they could transfer me to another airline so I could make it to Norfolk that same day.
At Norfolk I find out my flight left in 2 days (not 1). So I sat around for two days. The good news is that I got a lot of work done during those two days. I find out I had the wrong type of orders and was able to get that fixed. I went to the mall, did some shopping & watched a movie (Mr. Popper’s Penguins, which I recommend. It was funny, light-hearted & a nice G-rated comedy).
My last night at Norfolk I was almost booted out of my hotel room but they moved some folks around so I could stay in the same room.
The day of the flight it was delayed by 12 hours. However, I still had to be out of my room by 11 a.m. So I spent all day hanging out in the hotel lobby, which thankfully had pretty good WiFi.
That evening I caught the flight out and managed to snag a seat in first class. (The DoD contracts out airlines to fly us to & from the US. I flew out on a 757) Our first stop was in Shannon, Ireland for almost 2 hours. Many folks got Guiness but for me it felt like 6 a.m., so I ate breakfast & passed on the beer.
The next leg took us to Germany. At this layover we weren’t allowed off the plane or to turn on any electronics. So… we sat there for about 3 hours. We picked up 11 passengers. Here’s the kicker; they didn’t have room in the baggage compartment for their bags, so they had to go in the first class cabin. Meaning, I was kicked out and booted into the back of the plane. We ended up all squished together – it was terrible.
The last leg of the flight was to Manas, Kyrgystan. I should have spent less than 24 hours there but my first flight was canceled and I ended up leaving 3 days later for a flight to Bagram. The good news is that the second you land in Manas your hazardous/combat duty pay starts. YEAH!
I'll post more photos of Kabul shortly.
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