R&R in Qatar

Well after 5+ months in the box it was time to take some well deserved Rest and Relaxation in Qatar. The US has a base here called Camp As Sayllyah (CAS) and I had put in my pass during the first week I was in theater for 1-4 October.

This is perfect timing for my R&R, we graduated the first class of Iraqi Soldiers that will be working in the Depot on the 27th. The Australians had taught the first phase of training (23 day training cycle) and we had a nice ceremony, gave out diplomas, honor graduate and some other awards. The Iraqi Deputy Commander spoke, as did the Aussie Senior Officer and myself. The Soldiers were happy to have finished phase one and to then have 10 days of vacation. With them being gone, these next 10 days were more a refit for the Aussies and to prepare the OJT instruction and materials, take care of paperwork and for us finalize some logistics issues, and continue to get the Depot ready in terms of life support and the upcoming refurbishments.

In order to get you to Qatar the Army has to get you to the closest AF Base. Although I am closer to Balad, since I was in Baghdad when I filled out my pass form, they listed BIAP as my departure point. I booked a chopper flight early in the week for a flight on the 29th towards evening since it's cooler and safer to fly at night. The night before I go and check on flight times and the SGT says I am good to go but on the manifest they have me going to Liberty not BIAP. I told him nicely that I had checked BAIP, he goes and looks at the paperwork which did say BIAP. Unfortunately Thiele-Sardina means "Murphy" in andaluz and there were no seats going to BAIP since that was the 6th stop and that leg was full. But he would see if I could get on the later flight and for me to check the next morning. Ditto same problem and there are no seats on the later flight, but Victory has a shuttle that will take you to BIAP Pax terminal so I figured that was better than not flying last night.

At church yesterday right before I had to go to the pax terminal Father John's sermon was about our guardian angel and that we need to constantly communicate with them so that they can help us out when we need them. That was probably a good sermon to have to right before my pass. I checked in for the flight to Liberty and once we got on the tarmac we were told that the chopper had mechanical issues, so we spent about 45 minutes laying down on the ruck sack looking at the gorgeous moon and stars above. It's somewhat strange that here out in the middle of Iraq that for 45 minutes you can forget where you are and just admire how peaceful this world is. I finally got going and I arrived with no problem to Liberty. After waiting for almost an hour the shuttle bus arrived and took me to BIAP. While driving between the two bases which are connected, we must have passed numerous fuel and supply convoys that were waiting to pull out with much needed supplies. The road network is perfect for women who are at full term in their pregancy and want to go into labor, there are more pot holes and ruts than in all of San Jose (which was rated this year as the worst city in the US in this category) on that stretch of road.

When I check I was expecting the usual you have to come by tomorrow at 2100 or 2200 hours for your checkin since my pass started on 1 October and they try to get you their late the day before or on your actual start day. Instead the Sergeant says there are no scheduled flights but there may be one that leaves at 0200 so stop by at 0100 and will let you know. So with the temps in the mid 80's it felt great sitting out in the screen covered waiting area until 0100 hrs. I stopped by the desk and she told us that we were lucky that the flight was a go, but they had to unload cargo, refuel and load additional cargo. At 0200 we were on the C-17 which is the first time I flew on this plane, it is huge and unlike the C-5 where the seating compartment is above the belly of the plane here you sit in the belly but the fold down seats are much more comfortable than a C-130 or C-141. We had to help the crew roll back a ways a 13 ton 750KW generator that had been loaded too far forward. The four of us Soldiers besides the two generators had the plane to ourselves. It was a quick and quiet 2.5 hour flight to Qatar as we all fell asleeps right away.

We arrived in Qatar, went through customs, waited for our LNO to come pick us up and after the mandatory briefing, linen pickup, the sun had come out (0545 hrs) I hit the sack at 0600.

All in all I was happy to have avoided staying an extra day in BIAP, today the 30th is then my 0 day which means tomorrow is the start of my first day of R&R. I guess I can thank my guardian angel for squaring me away last night and early this morning.

The Colonel