Finally in the Sandbox

Well it's Thursday 19 April and this is my first morning here in the Sandbox. We arrived at the Kuwait airport at 1600 hrs yesterday after a 20 hour flight from Kansas. (Great way to spend a birthday) Right now I am at Camp Buehring which is the main reception area for inbound Soldiers.

Tuesday was deployment day so after clearing out our rooms and stacking our bags outside for pickup (4 duffle bags and a rucksack) we headed to the chow hall and meet with our BG Regua our Assistant Division Commander.

After chow I headed to the gym where the manifest was to take place, I was the Chalk Commander and wanted to make sure everything was set up for when the troops came in. Manifesting was quick, your carry on bag was checked to see if it would fit under your seat, you were weighed with all your gear you were wearing to include flack vest, weapons and carry on bag. I weighed almost 100 pounds more with my gear. After that they swiped our card and we sat in the bleachers. They had food and coffee that volunteers had baked and provided. We changed patches from the 1st ID to our 104th Timberwolf patch. Colonel Alexander said a few words and then our chaplain said a prayer. We then filed onto the buses for our ride to the airport at Forbes Airfield in Topeka Kansas. We were originally flying to Indy to pickup troops there then to Labrador NF, Budapest Hungary and finally to Kuwait. We flew a 757-300 so it wasn't too bad.

After picking up troops in Indy we then were told that with the Nor'Easter hitting the east coast that the Labrador stop was cancelled and we would fly to Shannon Ireland. We stopped off in Shannon for one hour and they let us get off at 0230 hrs to hit duty free. Back on and off to Budapest Hungary where we were not allowed to get off and they changed flight crews. From above Budapest reminded me a lot of Germany. Finally arrived here at 1600 hrs. After transferring via bus to a holding area while the bags were removed, we got water and then onto Camp Buehring a 2 hour bus ride out in the middle of the desert. After arriving we got our inbrief, did the ID card swipe which starts our taxfree and combat pay status and then to our tent where we will be staying.

I called Carmen last night to let her know I arrived and hit the sack. Ran 6 miles this morning in the small dust storm, today's high to hit 90. Will write later today, since I am up on 30 minute time limit.