Holy vegetation, Batman!

Fort Riley is so large and things are so spread out that we have to take busses everywhere we go to out-process. I have been reading on the 20 minute bus rides just to pass the time. I finally looked up from my Kindle (see previous Kindle post) and said to myself, "holy crap, I see grass and trees!"

By the way, today was chilly in the mid fifties to low sixties. It makes for an unpleasant wait in line when the line is outside. I really wish that I was returning to the U.S. coming into the summer months.

More waiting

Today was filled with waiting in line. Waiting in line loading personal duffel bags on a truck, waiting for a TB test with medical, waiting to turn in our weapons, and waiting to participate in a "welcome home ceremony."

A whole lot of time was spent doing a whole lot of nothing.

Tomorrow we'll have more of the same. Waiting on this end of the deployment is tiresome and annoying since we all just want to go home!

Vices I have no proclivity for

Smoking, tatoos, and alcohol. I saw all three last night. When we arrived at Ft. Riley, some of us took a late night trip to the Shopette (Army speak for the on-post convenience store). One soldier went straight for the cigarettes and picked up a carton, another soldier went straight for the alcohol, lots of it! A third soldier (not with our group) had his arms covered in tatoos. All three of these vices I have avoided and have never desired. My vices seem to be stuff like computer games, ice cream, and buying books. I must be a completely different breed of soldier because I've never smoked a cigarette. I also have no tatoos. This is a strange one because I seem like I'm the only soldier without a tatoo. It's amazing the number of tatoos some people have on their bodies. Of course, it's now in vogue to have tatoos, or "tats" as some people call them. Everyone has them including officers. Don't people know that their tatoos will bleed together and become unrecognizable, and that they are going to look like idiots at around 60 years old? Frankly, I'm glad that "tats" have never appealed to me. Finally, the funniest of all. The alcohol. For those who don't know, all deployed soldiers are under what is called "General Order 1B." What this means is basically, "no fun allowed." The main tenant of the GO1B is that we are not allowed to drink. That being said, the soldier whom I saw getting the alcohol has been under BO1B for at least a year. Boy was he making up for lost time. He bought A LOT of alcohol. It was unclear whether he was going to share, or just party alone.

It's always dark.

Why is it that whenever I travel anywhere with the Army it is always dark upon arrival? Well, my arrival at Ft Riley, KS was no different. We arrived at the airport at about 2230 which wasn't so bad, but we were about 1.5 hours away from Ft. Riley by bus. As I had posted earlier, I was supposed to have follow-on travel to Ft. McCoy, WI from the Topeka airport. The only problem was that no one had arranged my follow-on travel as I was told it would be. Actually it is much better because I should be on a flight home on Wednesday morning. It would have been at least Thursday or Friday had I gone to Ft. McCoy, and it would probably be dark when I arrived in Omaha, NE.

One step closer

I'm sitting in Leipzig, Germany waiting on the plane to refuel and resupply with food and water for the final leg to the U.S. It's good to get of the plane for a few moments. As I'm writing this, I realized that this is the best internet connection I've had in the past year. I love civilization. Fast internet, reliable cell phones, book stores, and Best Buy! I can't wait to get home! I'm now one step closer to my extended vacation!

I miss the TSA

I got out of Kuwait today. Painful! If anyone believes that TSA puts up roadblocks and delays to travel has never tried to fly with the military.

0100 (Thats 1:00 AM!): Assemble for pre-flight briefings
0200: weighing of passengers with carry-on bags and manifest
0200-0300: wait unneccesarily
0300: go through customs. Actually wait in line for a long time.

The wait at Customs

0345: Empty out all five of my bags and 5 gazillion pounds of gear that took me two days to pack for inspectors to ensure that I have no contraband.
0415: Try to repack everything so it fits in five bags in less than 15 minutes. I actually did accomplish this one.
0430-0700: Wait unnecessarily for a 0700 movement time to the Kuwait airport
0700-0800: Wait until the airline can figure out what to do about the excess wait of all of our baggage
0800: board commercial busses for transport to the southern part of the country to the airport
0815-0930: Travel to the airport
0930-1130: Load 175+ personnel on the plane
1145: Take off

That's right, I was required to show up almost 11 hours early for an international flight. And you thought 2 hours prior(domestic)/4 hours (international) was excessive!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

I'm waiting on my flight to the U.S. It's been a very boring day, but at least I now have clean clothes! It's amazing how much your feet will start hurting when you've worn the same socks for three days. I was actually able to find some socks at the PX that fit me yesterday afternoon. It was like a gift from God himself to have clean socks.

Rows and rows of tents for soldiers waiting on flights

Kuwait is actually kind of nice because they have a lot of stuff for soldiers to do while waiting for flights. It's almost the U.S., but not quite.

Notice that the golden arches don't say "McDonalds." Well, it does but it's in squgglies. Some things are recognizable anywhere.

Hopefully, I will fly out early morning for the marathon flight across Europe and then over the Atlantic. I hate such long flights. At least this one will be going in the right direction.

My Hero

Sergeant First Class Baumgardner is my hero! He got me on a flight to Kuwait that I otherwise could have not got on. SFC Baumgardner is one of the NCOs that worked for me over the past 2.5 months. He was the chalk commander for the R&R flight for his leave back to the U.S. A chalk commander basically takes charge of all passengers on an Air Force flight conducting roll call, baggage loading, and hearding the cats (passengers). All flights leaving Afghanistan for Kuwait have a priority list. Emergency leave it top priority followed by personnel going on R&R, then there is everyone else. Since I was "everyone else," I was on a space available list. 81 on that list, to be specific. That created a hopeless situation since most flights only have 2-15 seats for "everyone else." I had already been delayed four days.

Then comes SFC Baumgardner to the rescue! According to him, five people did not show up for their brief and roll call for the flight that was completely full. H worked his NCO magic and somehow got me on the flight. Because of him I will now leave on time and not have to sit for a week in Kuwait before coming home. I think the reason that he was so motivated to help me is because I made sure that his performance evaluation reflected what he actually did in Afghanistan. His rater (who hasn't seen him in six months) was going to give him a mediocre rating that made SFC Baumgardner look like a poor NCO. I think he truly appreciated what I had done for him and was looking to return the favor. I've never done something for someone in expectation of a future benefit, but it sure is nice when it happens.

Thanks again SFC Baumgardner!

I've been caught

Yes, my growing old post was not an original thought. I took it from a conversation with my friend Matthew. I was feeling particularly lonely when I went to Camp Phoenix because that's when I usually got to visit with Matthew because that is where he served his time and he has since re-deployed. I didn't have anyone to visit while at Phoenix and it reminded me of the "growing old" conversation. He has since read the post and villified me for stealing his idea.

Oh Lord I wanna go...

...But they won't let me go. I have been waiting three days to fly from Bagram Airfield to Kuwait. Flights were backed up for four days prior to me needing a flight on Tuesday. That means that 5 gazillion people needed a fligt to Kuwait. I've been so far down the list that I might as well not even go to the terminal. All R&R soldiers (people going on leave) have priority over me, an individual re-deployer. Today over 100 new R&R people showed up that were not here yesterday, so of course I did not get on. I was three names away when all seats were filled. Two nights ago, I got on the list, loaded my bags, and waited in the terminal for over an hour only to have the flight cancelled. I'm hoping to get on a plane tomorrow. If I don't I'll be stuck over here for at least another week because I can only fly out of Kuwait on Saturdays because I have weapons. If I can't get to Kuwait before Saturday morning, I will not get to fly to the U.S. until the 10th.

Life is not too pleasant right now. I haven't had clean clothes in a week because there is no self-service laundry and the laundry service takes three days. Because of the uncertainty of flights, I don't dare turn in my laundry. I've had to double and tripple wear my underclothes and socks. I went to the px today to buy some more socks, and they didn't have my size. I can't even buy clean clothes!