- Aug 18, 2002
- 9,421
- 16
- 38
my epic journey over the last couple days.
this all started nearly 5 months ago, when i first "immigrated" into the country. now fast forward to a couple days ago. we get to the terminal at 0130 to check in and start getting the required stuff. well, 2 out of the 3 of us were not on the manifest. so after some phone calls, we ended up going into work to try and sort out the issue with our DO. then we went back to the terminal and we figured out a solution. so ok, we're on a flight. no we have to rush and get all of our chem gear and body armor, weapon, etc... both take forever, especially the armory part (dont know why either). we get that taken care of and we head to the terminal to drop everything off, and one of the guys goes to persco to immigrate out. while he was gone they announced they were looking for us. appearantly, we were about to be taken off the manifest. not good! they gave us 5 minutes to get persco taken care off and get back there. they volunteered to watch the weapons. so as the one guy gets back, me and the other guy hurry over there. we get to immigration and the local working the desk is no where to be found. we knock on the window, call for help, and nothing. eventually he gets there. he takes my ID, says i'm not int he system, and walks off again before i can ask him what happened. so great. i'm not immigrated in the country. i send my friend to tell the other guy and i try and figure it out with the americans. they say i need a letter of some kind. but no one there could do that, so they had to call someone in. ok, my chances of getting on the plane are shot. i got back to the terminal, found my friends talking to the DO again. then i talk to him and tell him theres no way i'm getting on the plane. he tells the other 2 guys to get on the plane and i'll catch up. so they leave, i go back to the armory, turn in my weapon (cuz i cant take it into persco), and go to persco to get my letter. everything is taken care of. so now i'm immigrated out of the country, but with no garauntee i'm gonna have a flight anywhere (so i may have immigrated in, then back out for no reason). after alot of phone calls, we figure that going to kuwait (where the other guys had to stop as well) will be the best bet to get to baghdad ASAP. so, i wait for rollcall (which was about 1.5 hours from when we figured out the plan) i get my boarding pass, go back to the armory (wasnt going to arm up until i was certain i had a ticket), try and get the weapon they set aside for me, but they couldnt find it (which took a while), so they give me a new one and then i wait. the cool part is i ran into a guy i work with at schriever, so we bullshitted for a while. ok, so fast forward to me actually getting on the plane. great, i'm on my way. ive got contact numbers so i can contact people when i get to baghdad (eventually).
ok, so now i'm in kuwait. i run around with all my gear (this consists of me wearing my body armor, my backpack and m-16 on my back and my 2 huge C bags with gear. one for chem and stuff, the other is clothes and the other chem gear that i had to bring with me from schriever. why they still issued me a 2nd bag with EVERYTHING was beyond me. but they did and i didnt have a choice). so i run around between the 2 tents. i got my space- required letter (space-R) and took it to the main tent and got on a list. ok, this shouldnt be a problem. i'm on the roll call list and i should be leaving on the next flight. well, i run into my travel companions. i guess there first flight got cancelled. which isnt so bad for me, cuz now i dont have to worry about finding them when i get to baghdad. but ultimately, it was a bad omen... so we're all on the list, but they tell us that chances are only 2 of the 3 of us will actually get on the flight. we call work to tell em whats going on and they tell us that all 3 of us must be on the same flight to baghdad (yes, thats different than what we were first told). so we wait it out, until the roll call. only 1 of us was on the list for the flight. then they come on 15 minutes later (while we were trying to figure out a plan) saying they have more seats and call all our names off. great! we're on the manifest and we're going to baghdad. about 2 hours later they say our flight was delayed. ok, shit happens. an hour after that they cancel that flight and there were no more flights top baghdad for the day. better luck next time! we decided that all these people who actually needed to get to baghdad would bump us from the next couple flights (since we were basically going for tourism hehehe). so we decide that our chances were shot and we best just go back to al udeid. now, there was a flight leaving for al udeid when we still thought we had a seat going to baghdad. but before they told us about the delays, that flight left. so we put our names on the list for the next flight to al udeid, which has a 2115 roll call. we've got a few hours so we hit up the chow hall and the BX. just to check out the base. we get back well before we needed to, and we wait for our roll call. well, it got pushed back until 22somthing. but in reality, it didnt happen until after 2300. but we finally have our roll call, then 30 minutes later we load our gear up and then we wait for the bus which wasnt coming until about 0130. so we sat around some more. we finally get on the plane and we get back to al udeid! success! we actually got to our intended location! well, our intended location after we scrubbed baghdad.
and in the meantime (ya know, between roll calls and what not), we try (with no success) and catch some sleep on these rock hard chairs and watch whatever movie they had playing. we watched superman 3 times, the recruit twice, and that weird comic book movie with nicholas cage. well, those are the movies i got to see, the other guys had been there longer than me and saw even more. so now, i'm back here at work (day off? no way!), sore as hell from all the sitting/laying on these chairs, and i have been traumatized by seeing superman (which was terrible) 3 times. and they have the nerve to ask me if i want to try again monday!
FUCK THAT!
~gR~
this all started nearly 5 months ago, when i first "immigrated" into the country. now fast forward to a couple days ago. we get to the terminal at 0130 to check in and start getting the required stuff. well, 2 out of the 3 of us were not on the manifest. so after some phone calls, we ended up going into work to try and sort out the issue with our DO. then we went back to the terminal and we figured out a solution. so ok, we're on a flight. no we have to rush and get all of our chem gear and body armor, weapon, etc... both take forever, especially the armory part (dont know why either). we get that taken care of and we head to the terminal to drop everything off, and one of the guys goes to persco to immigrate out. while he was gone they announced they were looking for us. appearantly, we were about to be taken off the manifest. not good! they gave us 5 minutes to get persco taken care off and get back there. they volunteered to watch the weapons. so as the one guy gets back, me and the other guy hurry over there. we get to immigration and the local working the desk is no where to be found. we knock on the window, call for help, and nothing. eventually he gets there. he takes my ID, says i'm not int he system, and walks off again before i can ask him what happened. so great. i'm not immigrated in the country. i send my friend to tell the other guy and i try and figure it out with the americans. they say i need a letter of some kind. but no one there could do that, so they had to call someone in. ok, my chances of getting on the plane are shot. i got back to the terminal, found my friends talking to the DO again. then i talk to him and tell him theres no way i'm getting on the plane. he tells the other 2 guys to get on the plane and i'll catch up. so they leave, i go back to the armory, turn in my weapon (cuz i cant take it into persco), and go to persco to get my letter. everything is taken care of. so now i'm immigrated out of the country, but with no garauntee i'm gonna have a flight anywhere (so i may have immigrated in, then back out for no reason). after alot of phone calls, we figure that going to kuwait (where the other guys had to stop as well) will be the best bet to get to baghdad ASAP. so, i wait for rollcall (which was about 1.5 hours from when we figured out the plan) i get my boarding pass, go back to the armory (wasnt going to arm up until i was certain i had a ticket), try and get the weapon they set aside for me, but they couldnt find it (which took a while), so they give me a new one and then i wait. the cool part is i ran into a guy i work with at schriever, so we bullshitted for a while. ok, so fast forward to me actually getting on the plane. great, i'm on my way. ive got contact numbers so i can contact people when i get to baghdad (eventually).
ok, so now i'm in kuwait. i run around with all my gear (this consists of me wearing my body armor, my backpack and m-16 on my back and my 2 huge C bags with gear. one for chem and stuff, the other is clothes and the other chem gear that i had to bring with me from schriever. why they still issued me a 2nd bag with EVERYTHING was beyond me. but they did and i didnt have a choice). so i run around between the 2 tents. i got my space- required letter (space-R) and took it to the main tent and got on a list. ok, this shouldnt be a problem. i'm on the roll call list and i should be leaving on the next flight. well, i run into my travel companions. i guess there first flight got cancelled. which isnt so bad for me, cuz now i dont have to worry about finding them when i get to baghdad. but ultimately, it was a bad omen... so we're all on the list, but they tell us that chances are only 2 of the 3 of us will actually get on the flight. we call work to tell em whats going on and they tell us that all 3 of us must be on the same flight to baghdad (yes, thats different than what we were first told). so we wait it out, until the roll call. only 1 of us was on the list for the flight. then they come on 15 minutes later (while we were trying to figure out a plan) saying they have more seats and call all our names off. great! we're on the manifest and we're going to baghdad. about 2 hours later they say our flight was delayed. ok, shit happens. an hour after that they cancel that flight and there were no more flights top baghdad for the day. better luck next time! we decided that all these people who actually needed to get to baghdad would bump us from the next couple flights (since we were basically going for tourism hehehe). so we decide that our chances were shot and we best just go back to al udeid. now, there was a flight leaving for al udeid when we still thought we had a seat going to baghdad. but before they told us about the delays, that flight left. so we put our names on the list for the next flight to al udeid, which has a 2115 roll call. we've got a few hours so we hit up the chow hall and the BX. just to check out the base. we get back well before we needed to, and we wait for our roll call. well, it got pushed back until 22somthing. but in reality, it didnt happen until after 2300. but we finally have our roll call, then 30 minutes later we load our gear up and then we wait for the bus which wasnt coming until about 0130. so we sat around some more. we finally get on the plane and we get back to al udeid! success! we actually got to our intended location! well, our intended location after we scrubbed baghdad.
and in the meantime (ya know, between roll calls and what not), we try (with no success) and catch some sleep on these rock hard chairs and watch whatever movie they had playing. we watched superman 3 times, the recruit twice, and that weird comic book movie with nicholas cage. well, those are the movies i got to see, the other guys had been there longer than me and saw even more. so now, i'm back here at work (day off? no way!), sore as hell from all the sitting/laying on these chairs, and i have been traumatized by seeing superman (which was terrible) 3 times. and they have the nerve to ask me if i want to try again monday!
FUCK THAT!
~gR~
