Back to Reality

I was almost positive that I would not be spending most of my day 5 in Qatar and when I went to check the departure board it was 0100 hrs on day 5. I had already sorted all my items so I stayed over at the Top Hat and drank the last of my allowed beers for the day and then headed back to pack, turn in my linen and sign out of billeting and make the trek back over to the MWR site for the departure formation. I had thought in advance that we would be flying out relatively soon after that departure formation but I was in for a long night. We arrived and were told that we had a tentative wheels up time of 0600 hours, and I'm saying to myself 5 hours until take off whose on drugs here! We did roll call and then grabbed a last cup of joe and shuffled onto the bus for the ride to the military airbase. The bus ride took about 45 minutes and then it was grab your gear and wait out here. We did that they collected our ID cards and we were then called into the terminal and told to grab a seat and we would get out boarding cards issued to us later.

We must have sat in the waiting area for at least a good two hours, at least the Indians were beating up on the Yankees which made time go by quicker. We finally got our boarding pass and were called to the gate, we then went to another holding area to wait until the buses would take us out to the plane. I was hoping for another C-17 or even a C-141 because they are quicker and more comfortable. As the buses took us out onto the tarmac I watched as we drove by the C-17's and C-141's and when I saw the row of C-130's I knew I was in for a long and uncomfortable flight. As the senior ranking officer I hung in the back until everyone got on and took the last seat which means leg room and a place to lay your ruck instead of having it sit on your lap for a 3 hour flight. We took off at 0515, I fell asleep soon after we took off but it really wasn't a deep sleep, and woke up a little before we were above Baghdad. You knew that you were close when the plane started the corkscrew descent and it made the roller coaster ride at the Boardwalk at Santa Cruz seem real tame, and I think that a few more abrupt turns and the Soldiers would have started puking big time!

We arrived at about 0805 and I went through arrivals, booked me a flight for the next day since there were no seats available that day for Taji and headed to the bus stop to catch the shuttle to Stryker Village across the way from BIAP. I got there and really didn't know what to expect for billeting as I was tired and just wanted a place to rack out. I got off the bus and saw a KBR rep there and asked them where the billeting office was. He looked at me and with a huge smile and southern drawl said Colonel follow me and we'll get you squared away. He told one of the attendants to get me the keys to one of the VIP rooms and off I went with my gear following the attendant. I lucked out big time as instead of being assigned to a large tent where there were 16 cots for officers, being an O-6 I got a small connex sized room with two beds, a desk, mini fridge, wall lockers, AC and TV. It's times like these when it hits home that I'm a really a Colonel and at this rank we do get some upgrades, but damn it took me 25+ years of hard work to finally be able to enjoy these upgrades.

I racked out for about 5 hours and then did the shower and shave drill and took a nice stroll in PT gear around Stryker. This is a huge area and with all the tents looking the same you could easily get lost, especially at night since there are no street lights like back home. I had to laugh at the PX, they had TV's of all sizes from a 14" like the one I have to some 42 " screens, all along I kept thinking who in the hell has that much room in their hootch to store it? I picked up some items that we don't have in Taji and sure enough they had the condom shelve stacked with condoms, let see only 3 beers a day on pass, but all the condoms you could ever want. I love the Army!!

After dinner I went back to the hootch, watched some TV and realized that I didn't miss not having American channels in Taji to watch. At about 2100 hrs I called it a day since I had to get up at 0 Dark hundred (0300 hrs) to shave, pack the few items I took out of the ruck, clean the room, checkout and be at the bus stop by 0400 hrs to catch the ride back to the terminal at BIAP. I got there and the flight show time was pushed back 30 minutes so I figured that I would grab me some java, but the coffee shop was closed so it was back to the outdoor waiting area. Show time came we waited for about 30 minutes since the flight was pushed out some more and finally made our way to the choppers that had been sitting there while the crew and passengers went to the chow hall to pickup breakfast, since they were flying as of 0500 hrs that morning. Once everyone got back they started their pre-checks while we waiting on the tarmac under cloudy and dark skies. It looked like it was going to rain and sure enough you could see lightening to the west and the morning sun rise was undetectable due to the cloud cover. I am not a brain surgeon but knew that lightening and helicopters don't mix and sure enough we got the "weather hold" warning. I wasn't too happy but the good news was this crew was real tired and had to get back home and in order to do that had to fly past Taji so bottom line I was going to get a ride on that bird, the question was when. Some of the passengers on that flight were fellow 104th Soldiers so we laid down on the tarmac with our rucks as back support and shot the breeze and tried to catch some zzz's between lightening, thunder and some rain drops. About one hour later we were cleared and I was back in Taji in a short 13 minute flight. I was gone for 6 days and 9 hours which for those of us having gone on a 4 day pass to Qatar is a record for speed, as most are gone anywhere from 8-10 days! I wouldn't have minded another free day in Qatar but to spend another day at Stryker would have made me gone mad!!

As much as I miss my real home, I sort of missed by home away from home and it was good to be back home and in some familiar surroundings.


The Colonel