Although I’m back in LSAA, it’s only temporary. At least it was meant to be just temporary. I had less than 24 hours before it was time for another flight. The best course of action for the time I had was to catch up on sleep and office work. The latter took much longer than I intended. I had a 1930 show time for the next flight. That put me in a race against time. All the while I was reading e-mail, replying to e-mail, and completing paperwork from the latest mission to Warhorse. I barely made it out of the office in time to workout. It all came together though. By 1930 I was walking into Catfish Air.
When I walked in I noticed that all of my team designated for this mission was present. We had two additional personnel flying – the First Sergeant of our parent unit in Kuwait and the new XO of our unit in Balad. The new XO was all excited about going with us. She was all smiles and happy. It didn’t last long. She soon found out the reality of flying in Iraq. Shortly after I arrived we loaded the bus that was to take us to the helicopters. It was no surprise to most of us when we learned we were on weather hold. They drove us back to the terminal to wait. We had been so tantalizingly close to flying. Now we were just sprawled out all over the floor of the pax terminal. Flight after flight ahead of ours cancelled. Hour after hour went by. Our flight remained on weather hold. As long as there was a possibility of flying we had to wait. This is old hat to my team. It proved hard for the XO to deal with. Her enthusiasm quickly waned. By midnight she was asleep on the floor and looked as though she had aged ten years. The rest of us walked to “midnight chow” at the DFAC.
Around 0200 I had moved closer to the TV and was watching “The Dead Zone” (the early 80’s movie, not the series). The XO came and sat down next to me and said, “ummm, the lady in the back said the latest update is weather hold.” “I know,” I replied. “Well, it looks like we’re not going to fly,” she mumbled. I looked at her and said, “we probably won’t. However, we can’t leave until we know for certain.” Then she asked me if I had my truck with me. When I replied yes she asked if I’d give a ride back to her hooch. I said I would, not realizing that she meant right then. I went back to watching the movie. A short time later she came back with all her gear and a hurt look. She said, “Sir, I’m going to take the bus that’s outside.” I looked back incredulously and said, “you’re leaving?” I already knew the answer. She bailed on us! I thought to myself, “welcome to my world.” My team deals with waiting on flights practically every mission.
At 0300 the inevitable happened. Our flight cancelled. I woke up my team and we loaded up and went back to the hooch. We’ll do it all over again within 24 hours. Only this time we’ll be fighting the “space-A” battle. Manifests of cancelled flights don’t roll over to the next available flight. You see why I can’t get stressed about flights around here? Shit happens.
When I walked in I noticed that all of my team designated for this mission was present. We had two additional personnel flying – the First Sergeant of our parent unit in Kuwait and the new XO of our unit in Balad. The new XO was all excited about going with us. She was all smiles and happy. It didn’t last long. She soon found out the reality of flying in Iraq. Shortly after I arrived we loaded the bus that was to take us to the helicopters. It was no surprise to most of us when we learned we were on weather hold. They drove us back to the terminal to wait. We had been so tantalizingly close to flying. Now we were just sprawled out all over the floor of the pax terminal. Flight after flight ahead of ours cancelled. Hour after hour went by. Our flight remained on weather hold. As long as there was a possibility of flying we had to wait. This is old hat to my team. It proved hard for the XO to deal with. Her enthusiasm quickly waned. By midnight she was asleep on the floor and looked as though she had aged ten years. The rest of us walked to “midnight chow” at the DFAC.
Around 0200 I had moved closer to the TV and was watching “The Dead Zone” (the early 80’s movie, not the series). The XO came and sat down next to me and said, “ummm, the lady in the back said the latest update is weather hold.” “I know,” I replied. “Well, it looks like we’re not going to fly,” she mumbled. I looked at her and said, “we probably won’t. However, we can’t leave until we know for certain.” Then she asked me if I had my truck with me. When I replied yes she asked if I’d give a ride back to her hooch. I said I would, not realizing that she meant right then. I went back to watching the movie. A short time later she came back with all her gear and a hurt look. She said, “Sir, I’m going to take the bus that’s outside.” I looked back incredulously and said, “you’re leaving?” I already knew the answer. She bailed on us! I thought to myself, “welcome to my world.” My team deals with waiting on flights practically every mission.
At 0300 the inevitable happened. Our flight cancelled. I woke up my team and we loaded up and went back to the hooch. We’ll do it all over again within 24 hours. Only this time we’ll be fighting the “space-A” battle. Manifests of cancelled flights don’t roll over to the next available flight. You see why I can’t get stressed about flights around here? Shit happens.
2 comments:
Love the pic, your guys are sleeping like lambs. You would think they were sleeping on feather beds not concrete. The princess and the pea they are not.
She's just not used to "hurry up and wait".....Nice job LTC....Nice job on all the updates and pictures too. We are very proud of you back in the states! Keep up the good work and don't get stressed!
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