The Trip Home….

The trip home was high drama. It is interesting that you can know you are going home, but have no idea when you are actually going to fly—government transportation is an interesting beast. Recall that when we deployed out of San Diego we flew on Southwest airlines… Well, we were scheduled to fly on military aircraft from Al Asad to Kuwait to Bahrain and then switch to commercial flights… But, I am getting ahead of myself… “Scheduled” is too strong of a word. We planned on flying those routes with the military, but as we are a small team we don’t quite merit a reservation, so we were going to have to fly “space available” to Kuwait—we had some kind of semi-reservation to fly from there to Bahrain and, of course, the commercial tickets from then on were no problem—as long as we made it to Bahrain in time flying “space-A”.

We had the Change of Command/Trasnfer of Authority ceremony (see last post) and then had a flight that was scheduled for later that evening—what luck—if we could get on the flight. Turns out, that we did get on the flight—things were going swimmingly! When we landed in Kuwait, the landscape was eerie, odd and mostly, foggy—some of the other folks on the plane with us were bummed because they were supposed to be catching another flight to Qatar but no flights were coming in our out of Kuwait after ours because of the thick fog… So, we hop on this bus that takes us over to the passenger waiting area and they herd us (literally) into this nasty old tent with a bunch of cots in it and we are told that no one is going anywhere until at least 0830 the next morning—arrrgh! We had had dreams of good food and maybe even beer—but, instead we got a cot, no blanket and an MRE—pura vida….

Turns out, after wandering around the next morning, that there was a nice chow hall only a 5 or ten minute walk away, but we didn’t know it—and no one had told us. We found this out after speaking with the good folks at the air terminal who told us that our flight was scheduled to arrive at 1830 that night. So, we were able to go to the chow hall and have a nice breakfast, and then a nice lunch and then a nice afternoon snack.—and that was our undoing…
The showtime for our 1830 flight was 1530—no problem. We were all there (12 of us on the team) and checked in and waiting around. Around 1630 we check with the staff and they tell us that we are on schedule and that it would be fine to go to the chow hall—just be back in the terminal by 1730. And this chow hall is worth the walk—maybe not today, but that day it was…

About 9 or ten of us go over to eat. After about half an hour two people want to go over to the coffee shop and say that they will meet us back over at the terminal at 1730. We start to head back to the terminal at 1710—timing is everything! About half way back HMC (she had stayed at the terminal) comes running up to us saying that the plane is about to take off and that the bus is waiting in the parking lot to take us out to the plane—MOVE!!!

So, we start moving. But then we find out that the two guys that left early are NOT already back at the terminal or ahead of us—they are somewhere behind us—ooops. So, I run back over to the coffee shop, and the gym, and the exchange, and the cafeteria, and every other place I could think of… No luck, no sight of them…
I run back to the terminal (in boots and utilities—not the best way to run)…the bus with the rest of my team is already gone—it is 1725… I get the manager to grab a bus and driver and take me out to the plane—about a 6-minute ride. Interestingly, when we get there the bus with my team on it is sitting on the runway and has yet to disgorge its passengers. This is because the plane is already full of space A passengers (we had a reservation for this portion of the trip). Much talk back and forth on the radio—the passengers that are on this plane are to be taken off and we are to get on—no sign of our two missing team members—arrghh!?!?!?
After about ten minutes we get on the plane with our stuff. We convince to plane to wait for our guys and they do so… But, by 1810 the4 guys still hadn’t shown up!??! Weird. And we have to take off or get off. I figure that it is easier for two guys to fly to Bahrain space A than for twelve—so, we take off…

Eventually, the two lost souls made it to Bahrain, but it was a few hours AFTER we flew out on the rest of our journey. But, they made it home (one on time and the other just 24 hours behind us) eventually. According to their side of the story they were at the terminal at 1730, but were told that our plane had already taken off…imagine their surprise!!! Luckily, they were resourceful and able to fly from Kuwait to Qatar to Bahrain to home…

Once we got to Bahrain, even though we were missing two team members, we made our way to the hotel bar and made up for the lack of beer in Kuwait (and drank one for the missing guys that had to spend the night in the tent again, but without any of their gear because it had got on the plane with us!). There was a bad band in the bar, but that didn’t stop us from dancing and having a good time. It was only when we got on the plane to Amsterdam the next evening and the stewardess says to our microbiologist “You must be tired for all that dancing last night!” that I realized how good of a time we had!!! This was followed by her pointing us out to several other flight attendants who all gave us knowing smiles—I am not sure what they knew…but there it was

So, that is the story of our trip home, complete with lost team members and a lasting impression on our flight crew before we ever got on the plane!!!