April 26th, 2010 – Monday
0345hrs, wakeup, grab a shower, do final pack of bags which include 1 incredibly large rucksack, 2 duffle bags and 1 carry.
0500hrs, stage bags, grab some breakfast, be back and ready to go by 0600hrs.
0600hrs, accountability formation, things are moving as planned. We then take a short ride on post via school buses to the final processing facility. Here we get weighed with personal carry on gear and our ID cards scanned to generate the flight manifest.
0700hrs, load on commercial buses for our ride down to Gulfport/Biloxi Regional Airport. After sitting on the bus for about 30 minutes, we find that our plane is still in Shannon, Ireland. Now things begin to go from “as planned” to a more traditional style military exercise; “Hurry Up and Wait”! So wait, we did! Next formation to be 1830hrs. In the meantime, we take up temporary staging at a near by barracks. From here, the team decides to walk back to our original barracks and retrieve our vehicle to get around with. Only to find that the folks at the replacement center turned the vehicle in to post transportation. Dumb asses, or as we call them “Long Ears” or give the sign (peace sign – two fingers up). This is a Huntsville unit vehicle, not a Camp Shelby Vehicle. CPT Floyd keeps his cool, gets a runner to go and retrieve our vehicle. I guess the four duffle bags in the back of the van were not enough to give clues that “oh”, this may not be a Camp Shelby vehicle. Well, we get this squared away, go grab some lunch and then collectively decide, we have to find someone on Camp Shelby reliable enough to leave our vehicle with so it and our bags makes the journey back to Huntsville. We stop by the post transportation office which helped us with our shipping container (ISU 90) and ask for their help. No problem and our confidence is high that they will take care of the van and bags for us. Moving on now!
1830hrs, we actually re-load to the commercial buses and begin our trip to Gulfport. We arrive at 2115hrs. We are thinking, excellent, the trip is back on track and only a few hours behind. Nope! We arrive to the airport only to find that we are in a holding pattern. The wait begins!
April 27th, 2010 – Tuesday (Yes, we’ve moved into another day).
0130hrs, the plane arrives, but we don’t start boarding until 0330hrs and finally get airborne about 0445hrs. What did we do while waiting at Gulfport from 2115hrs to 0330hrs, we enjoyed sitting on the concrete, laying around waiting and watching some stupid horror flick on one of the laptops.
The plane is a 757 small for the number of troops and the amount of baggage to be flown. The soldiers on baggage detail are promised 1st class seating for all their help and effort. Unfortunately, due to the amount of baggage, the excess baggage had to be strapped into the 1st class seats. So these soldiers basically got screwed! Let me explain something about a 757 and soldiers packed on this type of plane. There is literally no room! Take a minute, go grab the smallest chair in your house (make sure it sits straight up, no back leaning), place four imaginary walls all around you (front, sides and back). Sit like that for hours and hours. You’ll get the idea! I sat in the middle, Todd to my right and Martin to my left. Good thing we know each other because, elbows and thighs we did rub. Poor Martin, his legs are linger than ours and the guy in front persisted on leaning his chair back. Martin was not having none of that. He quickly told (asked) the “Long Eared” fellow to “NOT” recline. There is no room! If only I could paint this picture with precise accuracy so you can get an idea of how cramped we were. Onward we go to Bangor, Maine.
0745hrs, the plane arrives to Bangor. We get a chance to get off the plane, stretch our legs and brush our teeth. Hats off to the Bangor, ME USO team. The USO folks really do it up for the incoming and outgoing troops. If you’re reading this, you should take a minute to look these folks up and drop them a thank you note.
0945hrs, we depart Bangor on our way to Shannon, Ireland arriving at 1500hrs. We again are allowed to get off the plane and stretch our legs. An announcement is made that we can enjoy a beer (no more than one) if we like. Our team opted out, but the majority did purchase their one beer (or so)! Uh oh! Word comes back that our replacement flight crew is not willing to fly the plane with bags loaded in first class. The plane in their inspection is overweight! Holy shit! We just flew two legs in an overweight aircraft. This is really no surprise as the landings at both Bangor and Shannon clearly exhibited overweight. What’s the solution? Leave bags behind and allow them to follow. That’s the plan, 53 duffle bags and two soldiers get left behind and will catch the next flight. Also, while we are staged in Shannon, the authorities rummage through the plane and snatch up all knives and Leatherman’s (mine included). What the flip? An airplane full of soldiers going to the same flippin place, carrying M4’s, M16’s, M240B’s and M9 pistols. We can carry guns, but not a knife? Get the flip out of here. I got to tell you, our Shannon friends really pissed a lot of people off with these tactics. However, the root of the problem really traces back to Camp Shelby. CS should have known this and should have taken the steps to inform everyone and to properly handle the overweight issue. Let me put a wrap on things to get us to Kuwait.
1900hrs depart Ireland
2230hrs arrive Romania (we are not allowed to de-board) This sucked!
2345hrs depart Romania
April 28th, 2010 – Wednesday (Yes, we’ve moved into yet another day).
0320hrs arrive Kuwait
1300hrs, we get processed through all the goat races of in-processing, temporary living quarters, briefings, etc. This is about 2100hrs local Kuwait time. The team and other 104 soldiers grab a shower, shave and head to bed for some long overdue and needed sleep.
April 29th, 2010 – Thursday (Now I’ll cover this in local time).
0900hrs wakeup, the rest of the team is still catching some “z’s”. I take off to explore, find a cup of coffee, the internet café, call my sweet loving wife (0130hrs her time), let Renee know, we made it and all is ok. Get over to the PX, pick up a few items and begin my blog write-up. We are now in a holding pattern waiting for the bat phone to ring which is our green light that we will move to staging for the rest of the trip to Afghanistan. This could be a few days!
To my lovely wife, if this “ACER” computer of mine continues to flake, I will be sending for a new one! ACER sucks!!!!!
Lastly, several other picks are available on FB, enjoy!
Love to all, I’ll keep you posted as much as possible.
I love you, Soldier Boy!!
ReplyDeleteI'll be willing to bet that the ride home will be just as bumpy but you won't even notice. Glad you are done with that (typical) fiasco. Be safe...
ReplyDeleteHi Rich! Love the update - man, what a trip! Like Brian said, be safe!
ReplyDeleteLeigh Ann reporting for duty and is now accounted for...SIR!
ReplyDeleteRich, CPT Floyd's email said your trip from Cp Shelby to Kuwait was anything but uneventful; I understand what he meant! Great blog. Stay safe.
ReplyDelete