The Long Journey

So after reading a book to each of my boys, I headed for the gate. Just made it by the 3pm timeline they told us. Evidently there was an issue with the plane, because we didn't start boarding until 4:15. They started the boarding by calling out ranks, starting with the highest first. To my surprise, by the time they had gotten to CW3's, not many people had boarded. I was actually seated in Business Class! I was looking around, checking out my "new home" for the next 20 or so hours, and the person seating the soldiers came up to me. He told me and another guy to "rock, paper, scissors". The other guy said no, go ahead. So he moved me up the the last FIRST CLASS SEAT! My prayers for fairly painless flight were definitely answered!

The flight seemed a lot quicker than the last deployment. Took us right at 10 hours to get to Germany. They played 5 movies in a row, and I watched the first 4. I guess I fell asleep for number 5. We were able to deplane in Germany and stretch our legs for a while. Two hours after we landed we were back in the air. Six more hours and we landed in Kuwait City. There we loaded on buses, traveled an hour and a quarter, then filed off the buses. Got into formations to be told to be back in formation in half an hour. The old Army "hurry up and wait." After a couple of briefings we were assigned our tents. Tents with air conditioning, that is. Which is good, since it was still about 105 degrees at 0100 in the morning.

So we finally get settled in our tents at about 2 am. We had to be up by 6 to be at another formation. You get the picture. Every couple of hours we had to be somewhere. At the 6:30 formation they said be back at 8:40 to be manifested on our next flight. So when do we come back? That's right, at 8:35. Evidently, they moved up the time to 8:00 and we missed the flight. Maybe tomorrow, they told us. You really shouldn't leave the manifest test. Silly us. So, we did the only thing we could. Set up a rotating duty to sit in the manifest tent. I head back to my tent to catch a few Zzzs. At 10:30 my commander woke me to tell me that they got 2 C-12s (my airplane) and I was on one of them. I had 5 minutes to get my stuff together.

For any of you who have ridden on a C-12 (King Air) and a C-130, you know you will always opt for the C-12 when given the chance. Loaded our gear, got a quick lunch with the pilots, and an hour and a half later, we were home. Our First Sergeant picked us up at the aircraft and took us to our CHUs. A CHU is a Containerized Housing Unit. Basically a 20' by 12' container with a window, door, and electricity. Kind of like a trailer home. Darryl was again assigned as my roommate, which is good. He is a good roomie. Top (affectionate name for First Sergeants) took us all to our CHUs and gave us our keys. All except for one. He couldn't find my key. No problem, I'm sure it will turn up. So I ride around with him for another 2 hours trying to find a key for my room. We finally give up and just have KBR (billeting people) use a master key to open the room so I can at least get in it. And what do I see hanging inside the locked room? Two sets of keys. So, I start unpacking, then decide I had better start cleaning first. Not that it was too dusty, I just wanted to start with everything clean. Worked on cleaning/unpacking till dinner, then bedtime. I was able to stay up till 10pm, trying to adjust to the 7 time zone change my body has gone through.

Here are a few pictures of how my CHU looks today. Really not a bad setup.

Here is the outside of our half of the CHU (there are 2 rooms in each CHU). Notice our nice porch. Not every CHU has one.

The other end of porch. That's our neighbor's door you see.

Here's inside of our porch. One air conditioner per room.

Looking in from our door. That is a narrow wall locker facing you. The left side is Darryl's, right side is mine.

Here is a shot from just inside the door looking at my half.

Here is my desk area. Very organized.

Looking back at the door from my bed.

And finally, my wall lockers. Not a bad setup at all. We'll discuss the chow hall and sandstorms next time.

Mobilization

Ok, here is the look I received when I told my little guy that I was going to go away for a looong time to do my job in a far away place. I guess he was none too pleased.

Our orders had us reporting to Fort Hood, TX on 25 May. Yep, Memorial Day. But, as I usually try to do, I looked for the positive. Since I had to change planes in Dallas, I was able to attend the DFW National Cemetery's Memorial Day Service with our God-mom, Donna. The service was an excellent reminder for me to remember and honor all those who have given everything for this country.

When I finally arrived in Killeen, I learned that my bags had not. I met a few of the other guys going over with me at the airport and we found our unit liaison. They suggested we go sign for our rooms and come back in an hour, when the next flight was scheduled to arrive. Sure enough, my bags were on the next flight. I was assigned to a room with Darryl, who is also from the Ft. Knox unit. The barracks room was actually very nice. We spent the next two weeks going through Army training. Tuesday was the SRP (Soldier Readiness Processing) where you get all of your paperwork, medical, dental, and shots up to date. I only needed 2 shots. Yeah! Wednesday was CIF and RFI (Central Issue Facility and Rapid Fielding Initiative) where we received all of our issued clothes and field gear. After that, it was classroom training. We did get the weekend off, followed by some classes in the field. Nobody told us about the Ft Hood Chiggers, though. Most of us received about 2 dozen bites each, with the highest count at about 50 bites. He was hurting.

Spent the next week and a half completing those classes, some in the field, some in a theater. Finished all of our running around by Wednesday the 10th. We had Thursday off to get everything washed and packed. Friday morning we loaded up the vans and headed for DFW. The South had some good storms roll through on Thursday, so they thought that our flight might be full from all of the soldiers who were delayed trying to return from R&R leave (Rest & Recuperation). We were told that until they were all checked in that we might not even be able to deploy today. Of course, I started to make reservations for us all at the Embassy Suites! But after sitting around for a couple of hours while the other soldiers checked in, we were told that there was in fact room for us on the plane.

So we checked in and went made our way thru security. A couple of us headed over to the USO. What a spread they put on for the military. We received sandwiches, chips, drinks,and even ice cream, if we wanted. I also stopped by the reading room. The USO has set up a room where soldiers can go pick out a book or two, take them into a private room, and read the book to their children via a camcorder. The volunteers then burn the video to a DVD and mail it, along with the books you read, to your children. It was a really awesome thing for a deploying father to be able to send a little personal something home to the boys left behind. THANK YOU USO!!

Greetings from "Somewhere, Iraq"

Hello, all of my loyal followers (ie Tiffany), and welcome to my new blog. For those of you who have been following Tiff's blog for years, let me first explain that she got all the brains in our marriage. So don't expect quite the same level of posting from my blog. As for the title, I did not choose it. I believe most of my fellow soldiers would agree with me when I say that I am just doing my job. But since my lovely wife did choose it, I will happily keep it. Thanks Baby.

Been a great couple of weeks so far, to include chiggars, dust storms, and first class seating, but I will get into that in my next post. Welcome all, and I will try to have the next (longer) post up tonight.