Your weekly Sunday Deployment newsletter….(yah I know this is the first one but I’m gonna try and update weekly.)

The closer that I get to the midway point, the more excited and nervous I get. I know that the mid-way point is a milestone that everyone looks forward to.  If I were on a 120 day rotation like all those that deployed last year, I would already have hit that milestone.  However the 179’s can be counted in months and weeks and still you feel like it’s taking forever.

Some good news rumors are flying around about mid-tour R&R.  They would probably send us out of country for a few days where they have beer and a nice pool area so that we could “Reast and Recoup” for the next 3 month length.  I don’t know how true that is so I won’t hold my breath waiting for it.

This week we got some new (new to us) A/C units installed in our shelters.  The temperature was 71 degrees when I left for work.  That has never happened in the summer according to our contractors who’ve been here since forever.  So the days of a 97 degree server room seem to be over.  Thank goodness.

Every Saturday we have movie night on the roof of our building.  We have a pretty good setup up there.  Here’s a stitched picture. (Click for a larger size)

Last night we watched “The Boondock Saints”.  It was actually the first time I went up there and stayed.  Normally they have horrible movies playing but last night was the exception.  It was pretty cool outside too unusually.  The leadership also bought free pizza so all in all it was a good time.

I love the fact that I get to talk to everyone constantly.  I think I would go nuts not knowing what was going on at home or with my family.  Communication is important when you are right next to them, and it’s even more important when you are thousands of miles away.  Another thing that helps is care packages.  My baby is sending me one today or tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it.  I also talked to my dad and he said he was gonna send me some of my favorite candies…. Dewar’s Chews from B-Town.  I got some surprises for some people yesterday but I won’t discuss that here as some of them might be reading….

Well other than all that I find myself stepping out of myself sometimes and see that I’m used to this place.  Complacency seems to set in every once in awhile and then the militant in me tells me to wake up and be vigilant because the shit can hit the fan at any time.

I will try and post some more pictures of my deployment but for now here are some I posted on Facebook. They are just random pictures I picked in about 5 min.  When I get home I will upload every picture I took to my photos site.

Remember…. drink one or two for me, because I can’t! ! ! !

–Cheers

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in
or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’

The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten
years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

‘Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give
you a twenty-year life span.’

The monkey said: ‘Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long
time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?’

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer
under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s
family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.’

The cow said: ‘That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for
sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?’

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said:

‘Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you
twenty years.’

But the human said: ‘Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my
twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and
the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said God, ‘You asked for it.’

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and
enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to
support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to
entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the
front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

As you will see byt the following pictures….

It’s Dirty Here

For the past few days it’s been really windy and hot.  The dust started to come in on Thursday, but mostly it just looked like fog.

The today… 4th of July… we get this! ! !

OMGZ! ! ! !

It looks like MARS out there.  Totally not good for 4th of July festivities.  We were supposed to have Pizza and movie night but that’s off since we got this handed to us instead.  YAY! ! !

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

You gotta love this guy’s explanation of hell…….

The following is an actual question given on a University of
Washington chemistry mid-term.

The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared
it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now
have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic
(absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law
(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some
variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we
need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate
at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once
a soul  gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are
leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the
different religions  that exist in the world today Most of these
religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you
will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and
since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project
that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we
can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now,
we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s
Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to
stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as
souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls
enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase
until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in
Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes
over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman
year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,”
and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then
number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic
and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that
since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any
more souls and is therefore, extinct……leaving only Heaven, thereby
proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last
night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A.”

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been keeping quiet about this subject due to it being in everyone’s face all day since it happened. I’ve kinda been dealing with this in my own way. I have heard tons of negative things from people and it makes me sad for them that they didn’t see Michael Jackson the way that most of us did.  A lot has happened with his life and I’ve kinda just been having my own personal memorial for him. I have all his music on my computer and I’ve been listening to his albums on random. Each song takes me to a different time in music history as well as a different time in my own life. I mean when Thriller came out I remember them showing the video in the classrooms at my Elementary school.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

It just fucking figures you know! ! ! !

I’ve been sitting here waiting to talk to my baby for 3 1/2 hours. No
problems with the internet at all. I’ve been surfing, playing games
on Facebook, and wouldn’t you know it. As soon as she comes online,
the whole FUCKING THING GOES TO SHIT. WHAT THE FUCK INTERNETS! ! ! !

I mean seriously, what …. the…. FUCK! ! ! 5 people just walked
in, got connected and are talking on their headsets with people. But
I can’t even fucking connect. HATE is the only damn word that comes
to mind. What the hell is going on.

It makes me “want” to go spend $60 a month for shitty internet that I
can access in my room. At least then I will have intermittent
connections that I can maybe see once in a while my baby online!

I would love to blame the dust storm, or the sun spots, or whatever
else people love to come up with here. But the fact is, people ARE
getting online and ARE able to chat so why can’t I? ? ? ? ?

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

1. You run in terror from a controlled detonation your first week,
then stand in the open to watch real mortars landing, a month later

2. The most intimate contact you’ve had in months is with the shower curtain

3. Your most successful pick-up line is “I’ve got a vehicle”

4. All the Air Force people look like glow-in-the-dark Power Rangers
and you can’t see the Army Folks

5. Your 6:00 am wake-up call is “BOOM” Alarm Red, Alarm Red, Alarm Red”

6. They actually give weapons to the Air Force personnel

7. You give directions using T-Wall & Bunker murals

8. You realize AAFES is their own country, and can print their own money

9. The amount of sand in your boots is only surpassed by the amount in your nose

10. Something as simple as taking a shower or going to the bathroom at
2:00 in the morning requires preparation equal to the Apollo moon
landing

11. The Texas Style Brisket is not from Texas, is not brisket, and has no style

12. You are watching a “chick-flick” with 300 guys with machine guns

13. Your internet connection is twice as slow as your old dial-up
connection back home, and you’re paying twice as much

14. Your lying under your bed in your IBA writing to your spouse, “No,
nothing exciting happened today” and you mean it

15. You can buy a car or truck from the on post AAFES, but paper
towels are nowhere to be found

16. You live in a gated community, but your home is still a trailer

17. You are caught way over the speed limit and you are only going 22 MPH

18. During Alarm Red someone jumps out of the bunker to tell you to
get your hands out of your pockets

19. Your idea of a night on the town is going to another DFAC

20. The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but you still
wouldn’t want to be on that side of the fence

21. Dusting the furniture has a whole new meaning

22. “Pimp my Ride” means putting doors on your Hummer

23. U2 is hitting the charts again

24. The local community holds fireworks displays every night in your honor

25. Driving over the curb seems totally natural

26. The outcome of the war hinges on how you wear your reflective belt

27. You see a guy in full battle rattle driving a Humvee trying not to
spill his latte’

28. It feels normal to dry your hands at the DFAC with toilet paper

29. Your idea of a clear day is when you can see the perimeter of the
base from where you’re at

30. The dust on the dashboard of your vehicle is an inch think, but
you don’t even notice it

31. You don’t even notice T-walls anymore

32. Cold water from the shower is only possible after 1 Oct

33. Getting your laundry back from the contractor is a big deal

34. A 105-degree day in the summer actually feels cool

35. You don’t even notice an F-16 taking off anymore

36. You don’t stop what you’re doing anymore, when you hear automatic
gun fire coming from the perimeter

37. You used to think that F-16’s, doing afterburner take-offs, were
cool. Now it just pisses you off

38. Without even looking outside, you know that the weather sucks,
because you weren’t woke up all night from the roar of the F-16’s

Legend:

Controlled detonation= Our guys blow up captured ammunition & explosives
AAFES = PX (store) (gives cardboard chip money, instead of coins for change)
IBA= Individual Body Armor
T-Walls= Cement barriers around buildings
DFAC= Dining Facility (MessHall) (the DFAC paper towels is toilet paper thin)
Full battle rattle= Wearing your body armor, helmet, etc.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

When me and Jenn first got together, this is the song I imagined playing at our wedding during our first dance.

I was in Vicenza Italy and she was thousands of miles away in Houston TX.  I sent her a single of this song to show her my affections towards “us”.

Today this song popped up no my random playlist and instantly took me back to that time.  It’s great to see that those feelings are still felt even after all this time has passed.  And it still pertains to this day.

I love you babe.  You will always be the most important thing in my life.

F.I.L.E.

More tag used due to cross-posting issues in LJ.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

This was too funny not to pass on. I did not write this, and may not
agree with the contents, but it’s really funny to me still. They
spelled Humor with a “U” in the subject so I’m assuming this came out
of the U.K.

Enjoy
–Charlie

——————————————————————–

I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women differ
so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing.
I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with
their heart.

FOR EXAMPLE:
One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.
Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, ‘I don’t
feel like it, I just want you to hold me.’

I said, ‘WHAT??!! What was that?!’

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear…

‘You’re just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough
for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man.’

She responded to my puzzled look by saying, ‘Can’t you just love me
for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?’

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time
with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big,
big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried
on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn’t decide which
one to take, so I told her we’d just buy them all. She wanted new
shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, ‘Lets get a pair for
each outfit.’

We went on to the jewellery department where she picked out a pair of
diamond earrings. Let me tell you… She was so excited. She must have
thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she
was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she
doesn’t even know how to play tennis.

I think I threw her for a loop when I said, ‘That’s fine, honey.’ She
was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement.
Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, ‘I think this is
all Dear, let’s go to the cashier.’

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, ‘No honey, I don’t
feel like it.’

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled, ‘WHAT?’

I then said, ‘Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while.
You’re just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for
me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman.’

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I
added, ‘Why can’t you just love me for who I am and not for the things
I buy you?’

Apparently I’m not having sex tonight either….but at least that
bitch knows I’m smarter than her.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on Random Topics In My Life. You can comment here or there.

Background:
My daughter read the books last summer. While she was reading them
she was going on and on about them and I was giving her nothing but a
hard time about it. One because I knew it was a love story and I
didn’t want to think that my little girl was growing up, and two did I
mention they reminded me that she was growing up. So I did all I
can to try and poke fun at the story, mainly the writer and how I was
arguing with my daughter on how Vampires are “supposed” to be. It was
pointless I knew since she didn’t falter on reading the books, and was
still staying enthralled with the stories.

Then my wife decided to read them as well. So we had another Twilight
fan in the house. Chattering on every so often about the character
plot points and how things are going to turn out.

Finally when the movie was coming out in theaters, the soundtrack came
out, and we bought the CD for her. She loved it, further proving to
me that she’s growing up since it’s filled with songs of forbidden
romance and mysterious lyrics of love and situations of growing up and
falling in love. It fits really well with the tone of the book. Then
Jenn went to see the movie with her. They didn’t ask me at all
because “obviously” I had no intentions of going to see that movie.

Then after the movie came out to DVD we watched it at home. I gave it
a try and didn’t think it was that bad. Not great, but not all that
bad either. My daughter and wife instantly told me that the movie
didn’t even compare to the book. I knew this to be true of most books
that make it to a screenplay but they insisted this was so different
it didn’t come close.

So when I found out I was coming here, I promised her that I would
read the books and give my own opinion on them to her.

Present Day:
So far I’ve read the first book up to chapter 12. I have to say that
I found myself liking the story more and more the further I read. I
totally got why my daughter loved the books. She’s really close to
being just like Bella (minus the whole woe is me/angsty attitude).
She doesn’t fit in normal crowds, loves books, and is nice to almost
everyone.

And reading the books I totally get the intrigue and fascination
people have with this story. It’s completely captivating through each
chapter. The author writes with so much detail, but not too much to
distract you from what is going on. And NOW I get why the movie
didn’t do so well with those that loved the books. The screenplay was
horribly adapted from the book. I understand they can’t put
EVERYTHING from the book into the movie, but certain things were left
out or rearranged that didn’t make the movie flow right.

Needless to say I’m a fan (although not as big as most) of the story.
It’s fascinating and intriguing and I can’t wait to see what happens,
even though I’ve already seen the movie.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

What is it bout a good cup of coffee in the morning that I never
realized until I was about 30 years old?

Oh I know…. I’m getting old.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

So I’ve reached the 1 Month mark. How are things going you might ask?
Well not as well as I would have hoped, but also not as bad as I
expected.

The Base:
The base is pretty neat and has A LOT of ameneties that I didn’t
expect to see in a deployed location in Iraq. It’s the best location
to be if you are deployed to Iraq because of everything that you have
available to you. (From what I’m told)
The base DFAC (Dining Facilities) are HUGE and have tons of things to
eat. For instance, last night we had the choice of any one of these.
(Steak, Shrimp, Lobster Tails, Crab Legs) All very good but I went
with the Steak and Shrimp. And they don’t go skimpy on the portion
sizes either. They asked me if I wanted TWO steaks and I passed. I
asked for a little bit of shrimp and I felt like I got a full portions
worth. The other night we had Mongolian BBQ. You picked out all the
meats, veggies, and other stuff you wanted on your plate and they
would grill it up and put whatever sauces and spices you wanted. It
was really good.
So we are deffinetly are not starving over here.

My Room:
My room is pretty nice. We have an AC unit that works VERY well. I
wake up freezing sometimes because my roomate turned it down a bit too
low not knowing. However, on those nights I seem to sleep better…
go figure!

Work:
My work is a whole nother bag of mess. I am extremely bored from one
day to the next. People seem to “say” that rules need to be followed
however, when we (my shop) want to enforce them, there seems to be so
much red tape in getting anything done, that it NEVER gets done.
There are double standards all over the place. People seem miserable
here at work but on Fridays we have Roll Call, and it seems that
things are much better in peoples faces.
I do NOT like one of the guys in my shop. I’m about to give him some
fist-to-face counseling if he doesn’t stop complaining about
everything. He literally complains about EVERYTHING. He complained
last night about the steak. When we got back to the shop to eat, he
said “this is gonna taste horrible”. I asked him “Then why the fuck
did you get it then”. He just sewed on E5 and I think it’s going to
his head. Me and the other NCO in the shop are gonna have a little
welcome to the club meeting tomorrow (Friday’s Roll Call) to let him
know his place. I have been waiting until Friday to tack his stripes
on (Or punch him as hard as I can).

Family:
I am so fortunate for where I work. I literally get to talk to my
wife via Google Chat, twice a day (start and end of my shift). It
takes up a very large amount of her time, but it really has been great
to get to utilize that. I say fortunate because I know that other
services and even other places in the AF don’t get to do that. Hell
even people in MY squadron don’t get to do that.
I miss my family very much but I’m glad that they are doing well.

Well that’s all for now. I’ll try to update again soon.

Cheers

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

These photos say it all!

More tag used because of crossposting issues with LiveJournal

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

Here in the 332 Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW), and under the Expeditionary Mission Support Group (EMSG), is the 332 Expeditionary Communications Squadron.

Click for larger picture

The 332 AEW is based on the original fighter squadron of the Tuskegee airman.  The first ever African American squadron of fighter pilots.  I found out yesterday that they actually came here to visit last year.  I also found out that the training grounds they had in Tuskegee (Tuskegee Air Corps Advanced Flying School ) were visited by Elenor Roosevelt who after recieving a joy ride from one of the trainees, pushed congress and her husband to support the military establishment of African American fighter pilots.  If you want some insight to their story, watch “The Tuskegee Airman”.  The squadron and spirit of the “Red Tail Flyers” lives on here at this base each and every day.

So far, I have already seen how much this base appreciates the ECS.  Usually at a stateside base, the comm squadron is usually put on the back burner, thankless, and only noticed when something goes wrong.  I heard an analogy once that stated, “Communications and computers are like air to us, we only notice it when it’s not there.”  That is a true statement as ever in the states however, here the squadrons realize they depend on us for almost everything.  We just had a squadron roll call (weekly event).  This event is located on the roof of our squadron.  We have the greatest view from the top, if you don’t believe me then check this out.

Click for larger picture

I think with views like these and the fact that we have many squadron events that happen here, it should make the time go by pretty quickly. I’ve got into a routine and that too will make time go by. It will help at least “make the days count”.

Safety is paramount here and at any time there can be an attack here. The attacks aren’t as frequent as in previous years but in no way is this base complacent. Matter of fact they tell you quite frequently when you first get here how to respond to alarm codes. Also they have constant drills to ensure people know what to do. Besides, if a mortar or rocket decides to come anywhere near us, these bad boys shoot them out of the sky with a barrage of bullets. Here is one that is right across the street from where I work.  To see one in action check out my about page!

Click for larger picture

This base really isn’t that bad for being in the middle of nowhere. They have everything we could possibly need or want. I mean seriously, they have a ton of things I didn’t expect like:

Pizza Hut
Subway
24hr coffee shop (Good coffee too)
Popeyes Chicken
3 Dining facilities with all kinds of food that I didn’t expect
Massage parlor
24hr gym with nice equipment (Nicer than some stateside ones)
Permanent showers
14 TV channels (two UAE channels that show american tv shows)
And much more I haven’t even discovered

To say the least, the 332 AEW really is a base that people should be glad they are going to deploy to.  At first I didn’t know what to expect, but after being here only a week, I can tell things are much better than in other parts of the AOR.

I will try and post some more pictures when I can get over to the Airport terminal.  They  have free internet there and I can go and use my laptop to upload some recent pics.

Cheers and stay safe

–Charlie

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

Well I found out today that I didn’t make E-7. I missed it by about 15 points. That just means that I will have to try and study harder for next year.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

It is now Saturday and I’m still in Qatar. I’ve been traveling since Tuesday early morning trying to get to my final destination. That’s the military air travel system for ya! >:(

Sleep has improved since being in a bed obviously. But when we got here it was sometime around 2am. Instead of going to sleep, I decided staying up would be best so that I could rest and sleep through the night. It’s a good thing I did. Some of these fools in our chalk were sleeping through the day and they were up all night. It’s almost 7am and some are still sleeping. I took a shower this morning in a permanent Cadillac. Cadillac’s are what they call the shower trailers here. However the permanent Cadillac is a building. The showers are similar to those you would find in a nice gym. Much better than the trailers. However right as I got out of the shower, dressed and went to the sink, I had just put some shaving cream on my face and one of the cleaning crew escorts came in and said 5 min warning to vacate. Uhg. So I went to the closes trailer Cadillac and shaved there.

We might be leaving today. We had a meeting last night and they told us that we have a tentative showtime this morning but they were not sure when. We were told to vacate the tents after eating breakfast and to meet at the terminal. To me that is a good sign because there is a guy here who has been waiting for a plane to Balad for about 5 days now.

It still amazes me how early the sun rises here.

I’ll write again when I get settled in Balad.

P.S. These posts are written ahead of time and then posted once I get connected to the internet.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

So we made it to Al Udeid this morning. Really REALLY early I might add. It was the typical hurry and wait that I expected. What I didn’t expect was that I almost got deported due to a failure by my home station.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

I’m in Shannon Ireland and I can’t have even one pint of Guinness.  WTF!

I don’t know what that’s all about.  We were drinking before we boarded in St. Louis so who knows what their reasoning is.

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

Wow what a ride so far.  First off my day started at 3am on Tuesday.  I couldn’t sleep so I got up and got showered and ready.  I headed out at 0630 out of Colorado Springs.  Went to Denver from there (very short plane ride).  From Denver we were headed to St. Louis after about an hour wait.  Not bad at all right.

First off the planes today are not made for giants.  The plane going from CoSprings to Denver was bigger and more roomy than the one going from Denver to St. Louis.  I had to duck just to walk down the isle.

Second, my reporting instructions said to go immediately to the USO when we got our luggage.  Well the USO was closed.  Had big signs on where to go to get to the temp location.  After much searching me and this other guys crew found it.  We went up to the counter and asked what we needed to do next and he said to go to the  East terminal.  St. Louis is so messed up it has two terminals that are completely separated.  You have to take a 5-10 shuttle ride to get to one side or the other.  After heading to the “East Southwest” terminal like the guy said, he said to look for a Starbucks.  There wasn’t a Starbucks anywhere in the terminal where we were at.  What he failed to tell us is that the terminal has two levels and on the second level is where Starbucks is.

So fine, we find the terminal and nobody is there and all the other military members are deployees and have no idea what is going on.  Finally someone from TSA comes by and hands us these huge luggage carts and tells us to load our bags on so they can be moved.  Moved to the opposite end of the entryway over by their desks.  WTF!

So after moving the bags and getting as much (little) information we could, we found that our original reporting time of 1300 was moved to 2000 and to show up at that time and that our flight wouldn’t be leaving until 0100 the next day.

So here I am on the airplane with very little sleep and I’m trying to type this stuff and it’s just not working.  I know that the military is full of hurry up and wait but this is rediculous.  Everyone I’ve talked to about this says that this is the worst AMC rotator that they have ever seen.  It was so unorganized.

So we are in the air right now and on our way to Shannon Ireland.  We will probably be stopping there for an hour or two and hopefuflly I can get some internet access to post this and chat to the wife.  (St. Louis you had to pay for internet…WTF!)

All this and the fun hasn’t even started.  It is supposed to get better (phblblblttltltttttt) once we get to Al Udeid. We’ll see.

Best thing so far has been the outpouring of support from all the locals here.  One lady walked up to three of us and handed us each $20 bills.  While we were waiting for our check-in the lady who manages Chili’s in the airport asked if anyone was hungry and that they would stay open for us.  Almost all 200 people raised their hands.  I handed the manager my $20 bill I recieved earlier and said please give this to your folks.  Many others in uniform followed suit.

I’m tired and running on empty while writing this.  Please disregard any spelling or grammar errors.

I’ll write more as I move on to my final destination.

Cheers

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.

Today is a sad day in the Basta household here in CoSprings.  I’m currently sitting in the Denver airport waiting on my plane to be fixed.  We were supposed to be boarding the plane about 15 min ago but they were waiting on a mechanic.  The mechanic is now here and now we are waiting for him/her to replace a component on the flight deck according to the lady at the counter.  Some of these folks here are pissed.  I have tons of time so it’s no biggie to me.

I already miss my family so much.  The goodbye at the airport sucked.  It wasn’t anything I wanted it to be.  I wanted them to see me off at the gate and didn’t know they could go back there with me.  So we went back and got them passes.  However, by the time we made it through security (Uhhg), we got the gate at the end of the terminal and I had to board immediatly.  I got to hug all them goodbye but it seemed rushed and too quick.  I didn’t like it at all.  But who does like goodbyes right?!?!

Security took my deodorant so I’m going to be stinky by the time I get. there.  I haven’t flown since the new TSA regulations.

I’ve been up since 2:30 in the morning and I’m sure I’ll get some sleep on the plane.  I’m going to try and get adjusted a little bit before I get over there.  Currently it is 8am here at MST and 6pm there at Balad.  Maybe in a few hours I’ll take a nap at St. Louis.

Well they are boarding so I gotta go.  I’ll post again in St. Louis.

Cheers

Originally published at My Stupid Thoughts© on 30 Something Topics. You can comment here or there.