TDY Day 2

Major Sanders and I on the C-17 enroute to Amman Jordan

We arrived at BIAP at 0645 and got into line to show our docs at the counter and met Seinfelds Soup Nazi counterpart here in Iraq, at the check in counter. Everything he looked at was not up to his standards, we had our entire packet prepared by one of our LNO's and thanks to him it was a quick 2 minutes while he was going over our paperwork. But some of the folks in front of us were getting beaten down by the Checkin Nazi and for a while I marveled as a contractor could literally bring a GS 12 or Colonel to their knees while scrutinizing their paperwork, country clearance, passports, orders etc.

After that mess I was glad to get the hell out of there and ran into one of the O-5's from our J-4 shop LTC Sower who was at BIAP awaiting transportation to Kuwait on his way home for good. He was part of the first cycle of our folks who had already completed their left seat/right seat and RIPTOA with the crew that replaced them. He was out there smoking a nice cigar and I was able to get caught up on the latest stories of what was going on in the IZ, since we are usually left in the dark up at Taji when it comes to our counterparts in the IZ. We grabbed chow at the DFAC then it was briefing time, turn in your gear that needs to be palletized and wait around for the aircraft to arrive. Once that happened it was grab your gear, go inside the waiting area and finally board the aircraft. We were lucky in that we were flying on a C-17 which means not getting squished by other folks and having plenty of leg room. Off we went and arrived in Amman Jordan about 90 minutes later. Then it was customs, buy a visa and off to the hotel where we checked in and linked up with some of the folks we were traveling with families. In our group it was three officers Maj. Sanders from the J-4 shop, Col Alberto and I. We had a cultural affairs rep with us and one secretary who was heading to Amman for a conference.

Our cultural affairs reps wife works and lives in Amman and his cousin works here also so they picked us up at the hotel and took us to eat and get some sight seeing. We ate at this Iraqi restaurant and I swear I gained at least a kilo. It was 5-6 courses with salads, beef, lamb, chicken, hummus, eggplant, pickles, dessert, chai, coffee and God knows what else to include beer which was great!! All throughout the meal they were doing the hookha.

We then headed downtown where we stopped and hit some of the local shops, then headed to the Roman Theater/Citadel which was constructed in 100 AD, then they took us up to the top of one of the hills here in Amman where there were more Roman ruins plus a great view of the city itself.
Standing outside the Roman Theater in Amman

Major Sanders and I pumping some iron in Amman

We got dropped off at the hotel around 1800 hrs so I hit the gym and then the indoor pool for a nice relaxing swim and later that evening we hit an Indian restaurant at the hotel and after I got back did some emails, chatted with Carmen on line and hit the sack getting ready for day three and our planned visit to the Dead Sea. We are expecting our Iraqi Military counterparts to arrive sometime today and will link up with them tomorrow at the airport when we fly to the US.
Sunset in Amman from my hotel