What an adventure it has been since leaving Ft. Jackson. The day of departure was 9/11 I'm not a superstitious person but my friend Sean tweeted and it did put a little perspective on me leaving for AFG on this date. The day was a whole lot of waiting around till departure time. Cleaned the barracks waited around in the USO made final phone calls to home and it was go time around 1700. We bussed it over to Shaw AFB and the process was quicker than I imagined. We were the first on the 777 so we had the whole plane to ourselves for a good 40 minutes since our first stop was in.....Norfolk, VA! Where this deployment began we were right back in the same city. Good 2 hour layover here but this time well over 200 air force personnel joined the ride. Being the first on the flight here we got first dibs so luckily I got my window seat close to the restroom. It's a charted commercial flight so we had all the amenities of our own screen, selection of movies and music.
Next stop 1.5 hour flight to Bangor, Maine. By this time it was 1AM and what do we see as we get off the plane....A welcoming party of Veterans and dependants. I mean wow, to volunteer your time to welcome military personnel like that that early in the morning was unreal. We were all half a sleep so it caught us off guard but not without much appreciation. With this stop we were actually at the Bangor airport not a military air base. The layover was brutal here, about 7 hours bodies all over the airport trying to get some rest on the chairs, on the floor, and against the walls. I tried to do the chair but ended up going to the floor.
7AM on 12SEP14 we continued our journey to Shannon, Ireland. A good 4 hour flight here and unfortunately the layover was only 1.5 hours. Would've been nice if this was the longer layover because we could have drank some Irish beers here. After our quick turn around next stop Romania! We landed in the middle of night here so we got a quick MRE meal in then back on the plane again. Romania to Qatar was a 4.5 hour flight. All in all I watched Godzilla, The Fault of our stars, and Chef again for my in flight entertainment. No more than 1.5 hours of sleep on the plane for each leg so maybe benadryl will be used on the way back. I've lost track of the travel time but it was a minimum, of 25 hours max 32 hours.
We arrived in Qatar exhausted from the travel and processing like anywhere else was long and arduous but in my opinion fairly organized. After taking care of business it was free time! Instead of showering and going to bed I took advantage of this "vacation." This base is a vacation as most of us would agree. Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar ran by the Air Force is a breath of fresh air especially after all the traveling. The chow hall has an array of food selection which has restaurant quality not 5 star quality but TGI Fridays quality. They have a taco bell, Arby's, pizza hut, green bean coffee, burger king, and Baskin Robbins here. Got a $6.00 haircut with a mini neck and cranial massage which was paradise and much needed.
Instead of going to the gym I elected for the pool! Yes, a pool! I went for a night swim laid in the floatie and had my "stop for a minute or two and take in the moment" type of situations looking up at the dark sky gazing at the stars and just took it all in. Thought to myself I'm somewhere in the middle east right now half way across the world from home and I'm enjoying the freakin pool. It felt like a beer commercial where the actor has his "ahhhhhh" moment right after sipping the beer that was me in the pool. Finally got my shower in and headed back out for some drinks. Yes they serve alcohol here the catch is 3 drinks maximum in 18 hours. Your id is scanned so it is well documented but still that was unreal to me to see alcohol served. Started at the fox sports bar and even checked out the British pub. They have a little plaza here too where you can take your drinks out to enjoy the night scene. They had comedians perform on stage and again I was in amazement that this is considered a deployment for AF personnel. Our group of navy personnel was enjoying every moment of our time here and one said maybe this is the calm before the storm. Hopefully not but just grateful we got to stop here after the e grueling travel to get here. Hopefully we stop here on the way back there would be no complaints here.
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