well several days of no sleep and basically hitchhiking rides on airplanes has left me pretty tired. i sat on fob falcon for an hour waiting for my helicopter flight to baghdad international. sat on the blackhawk for an hour since ours was the last stop. when i arrived there at about 1100pm i came to find out that the extent of my travel plan was to get me to the airport. oh joy.
“i’m trying to get to landstuhl germany.”
bored air force guy “so what in the world are you doing here? nothing here flies to germany.”
“……..groan”
so i caught a flight to kuwait which does fly to germany. i caught up with two guys from my unit that were going on leave that had left 36 hours before i did so i thought i was doing good. i got to kuwait at about 0230 and was sent to the large tent for guys that aren’t going on leave.
“i’m trying to get to landstuhl germany.”
bored fat lazy army guy “where are you coming from?”
“fob falcon, south baghdad”
bored fat lazy army guy “so what in the world are you doing here? why didn’t you fly to balad [which is north of baghdad]? you don’t even have the paperwork required to get you out of iraq.”
“………..groan”
so i had to go find the medic to see if they could square me away. no they don’t do that. you need to go to the rock. oooohhh the rock. so back to the lazy army guy to give me a lift to whatever the rock is. this guy makes me sit there while he goes to the latrine to freshen up on his reading of sports illustrated. about 0300 we finally go to the rock which turns out to be the air force section of town.
“wow guy you are jacked up. your unit didn’t give you jack. here have this nice bed we will sort this out.” in the morning i found another guy from my unit here who got stuck in the vortex of retardation. i can not say enough about how great the air force has it in kuwait. it is like being back in the states. no weapons. no humvees. no barriers. no threat of violence. it is so quiet and peaceful. and these schlubs only deploy for 4 or 6 months. wow. so the following morning we were awoken at 0330 and caught a flight back to iraq to balad and then to rammstein.
i feel like a total waste of space here. we flew on a huge c-5 with litter patients and people with real problems. we get here and they want to give us all this free stuff and keep saying “thanks for serving.” my buddy and me haven’t done anything. on top of this my problem (bloody stool) and his problem (he can’t bend his trigger finger) are pretty pathetic compared to what is going on here. i really hope i am here a week and can go back to iraq. i can’t believe i am saying that but it is true. for one if i don’t go back it means i got some serious issue. more importantly how can i sit here shamming out while my guys are running patrols. my military loyalty extends to the guys in my company and no further. but it is fierce. plus i hate the garrison army.
so tomorrow i go to the doctor to find out the next step.
