The 365 day countdown has begun...358 to go! Should just cruise right by, I'm sure of it. We left families in Albuquerque at the butt crack of dawn. Because the US Air Farce, well, DoD travel geniuses, think it's better for us to take two flights & over 5 hours of flying, switching planes (with the possibility of our required luggage, like guns...because Delta Airlines never losses luggage in Atlanta, right?), a 7 hour trip to get to Baltimore...instead of the Southwest two and half hour direct flight. Anyway, we got to Baltimore, with our luggage (we even upgraded to First Class for free....so I take back the bad stuff I just said about Delta Airlines).
We got a flight on some made up airline, World Airways or something, at 9:00pm and flew from Baltimore, to Ramstein AFB, Germany, on to Incerlik, Turkey and finally on to Manas, Kyrgystan. It was long...and World Scareways' DC-10, number 3 off the original production line, didn't really have cold air blowing. I guess they were just helping us acclimate to the hot environments we were heading too. Traveling in uniform is fun...& I was pretty sure the plane was going to crash, after my feet spontaneously combusted, catching the interior of the plane on fire. It almost happened, we landed with hot brakes in Manas...so we got an extra 2 hours in the hot, stinky, sweaty airplane on the ground...waiting to get towed in. More acclimating, so really we should have thanked them for leaving us on the jet while deciding if the hot brakes were going to catch on fire, with us all inside.
You can see some of the spectacularlly rugged mountains surrounding Manas.
This is the Bigman and Petunia on the way from our super awesome tent to catch our plane ride to Bahgram. The Marines are funny, they came in at 2:00AM and the gy-rine in charge was yelling at the rest of them to "find a bunk NOW and BE QUIET, PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING!" We were sleeping...until he yelled at his Marines to be quiet. Good job.
This is the same Marines loading into our C-17 to Bahgram. They were part of the first wave of the Afghanistan surge. So they had some business to conduct. If you've ever seen them up close, all loaded up with their combat gear...well, they are a lot tougher than the Air Force dorks! We wish them good luck and pray for their safe return to families.
Arrival in Bahgram, in a thunderstorm...we had to wait to unload because there was lightening within 5 miles so the flightline was closed. At least this time the back of the jet was open and letting in actual nice cool air.
Bahgram is a complete train wreck...total chaos. We had to find a flight down to Kabul through a transportation office...the flight we were scheduled for when we left Manas, didn't actually exist. If you're transient at Bahgram, it's a tent, a cot and not sheets...we wanted to ditch that place ASAP! So we wondered around...and found a different, non Air Force flight down to Kabul. The transportation people said a one star general had to approve us switching flights. yeah right, I'm still waiting to hear from the general. We went with Blackwater Airlines. This is the pilot sporting the obligatory biker goatee...the tactical approach into Kabul was awesome, nosed over and straight down into the runway.
This is a shot of the countryside right out of Bahgram.
So today is Memorial Day...please remember why this is a national holiday. And those Marines, that will be hiking all over 10,000'+ mountains, loaded down with 75+ lbs of gear, looking for and engaging the bad guys on their home turf...keep them in your prayers, they are brave young men.
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