Journey from the Middle East to Europe
To leave Iraq to go on R&R is not a easy or simple process, for those of you familiar with the US Military you know to expect 'Murphy's Law', what can go wrong will go wrong, lol.
Day 1 has been a hell of a ride and we weren't in continental Europe yet. Last night we showed up at out 2200 manifestion, sat there for 2 and half hours til we got word of our flight schedule. Our Chalk Commander ( Special Forces type) had good and bad news. Good news was our flight to kuwait was right on time....(little did we know it would take us into a FUBAR, Charlie-foxtrot odyssey that take over 24 hours!) The bad news he had for us was there were 73 passengers (PAX) and our bird had 45 seats. everyone below the grade of E-8 kept their seats, the rest of the officers and like had to be re-scheduled at a later time.
The great adventure began with me and my battle buddy getting on a big C-130 with our bags and wearing our IBA (individual body armor) and Kevlar helmut. We were suppose to be heading south to Kuwait and transfer over to the Kuwait International Airport and travel as civilians. Instead of heading south, our flight took 45 minutes ( which usually is a 2 hr flight when stationed in northen iraq). Most of us knew it was a short flight and was not possible we could be in kuwait. Instead we landed FAR NORTH..Mosul. Apparently the Air Force flight crew thought we were going North...and then the unexpected happened..their mission changed. that mission involved the transport of fallen soldiers. After a hour wait it was decided that we had to fly with the fallen soldier and we would have to get off in Balad and catch another plane.
How eerie I thought, in my entire life i have not been priviledged to attend a funeral, actually i have missed a few by mistakes or due to military work. The body of the soldier that was being transported made me reflect on the price of war and price of freedom. I will not lie...to whoever's son that was..i will never know..whoever that family is I could not hold back the tears that was pouring from my eyes when we had to stand and salute the coffin that was carried with diligent respect onto the plane...
To keep a long story short and with respect to the OPSEC rule known around in the US Military world the body of the american soldier made it safely to kuwait...I will never forgot that
Once we made it to kuwait, changed into regular clothes, went thro the briefings and long waiting time, we had our Tickets for Franfurt, Germany ...a wild ride was about to begin.
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