Boots On Ground!!

So, we eventually made it from Columbia, SC to Shannon, Ireland to Kuwait despite baggage trucks hitting the plane, a rodent infestation, AND a leaky fuel line--we were only 36 hours late leaving Columbia, SC. Why those delays couldn't happen in Ireland vice South Carolina is beyond me--would have been much more pleasant, or at the very least, much more interesting.

So, when the plane lands in Shannon the first thing everyone does is line up at the pub--last chance to have a beer (any alcohol for the next 6-12 months depending on the length of your orders)--the Guinness was quite popular!

pic of the line at the bar

About 6 and a half hours later we land at Kuwait International Airport, an airport with an unfortunate acronym--KIA--for those of us about to enter a war zone--even if it is a war of liberation vice occupation...

We land at 0230--early in the morning... take a bus to the middle of nowhere and then get off and stand around for an hour and a half... odd, but it turns out OK because one of my PMO buddies that is working in Kuwait happens to be meeting someone else (new XO) from the plane, so we get to chat for a few minutes--what a small Navy... Now we convoy up to Camp Virginia for "acclimatization and convoy training". We pull in as the sun is coming up and damn if the place doesn't look like every other base in theater--flat, brown, rocky, dirty... entirely uninspiring... I didn't exactly expect the desert to have bloomed in the last two years since I left Iraq, but he desolation deja vu was intense... I won't even mention the port-o-potty and chow-hall deja vu--you will just have to read the previous (2005) posts because they are the exact same too--down to the same toilet paper and the same cabbage (one of the few vegetables that wasn't over-cooked--perhpas because it was/is served raw as a nice cabbage salad).

the good news is this: my orders say that I will spend 210 days with "boots on ground"... BOG time starts when you land in theater--FEB 12th... so, even though I am only in Kuwait, my timer is already going (never mind the last month I just spent away from friends and family, that doesn't count for anything except that you have to do it to get in theater).

209 days left!