Travel Into Theater

The trip of Afghanistan started very early. Midnight of April 12th or the morning of the 13th, an early travel especially when I could not sleep the night prior of the travel. Anxiety is the reason for not sleeping. Fear of flying is starting to set in and butterflies are slowly releasing in my stomach. Finally, the time has arrive to leave. Luckily I did not have to travel all by myself, there were four of us traveling from our class. "To run To run", "Dagarman" and "Jagran___ Ast" are the three guys going with me.

The first trip required us to travel to Houston, Texas which took about three and half hours. The flight from Houston to Charlotte is about two and half hours. While boarding sometime thing amazing happened at the gate at Houston airport, instead of regular coach sitting on the plane my group were upgraded to business class and at this moment I felt proud serving the United States of America. This type of gesture sure does have impact on a person, it made me realized that the sacrifices and service to my country are not forgotten.

Then when we arrived at Charlotte, off we had to go to Baltimore Washington International airport. The long seven hours wait ended as we boarded to go to Germany. "Mob station" is what a stranger describe some of his deployment travels and I did not understand it in the beginning but I saw it first hand and it was an "aha" moment. My trip to Germany is a "Mob station" moment, I almost forgot how it felt like to travel in a huge groups, especially military personnel. In the hundreds I may add, you could not distinguished which one were the Army from the Air Force, but might as well. One team one fight and if you think of it, the Army and Air Force were known to be one entity. I can sense some unity. Air Force personnel spoke to the Army personnel and vice-versa. I can remember talks about the difference of the two branches but today it was not the case, it was about a common goal. Everybody has stories about their family or family backgrounds. Some of the common questions asked were, What jobs they are doing? What base they came? and other endless stories.

Upon arrival in Germany, we deplaned the aircraft, waited at the lobby and then loaded back on the plane. Then off we flew to Incirlik, Turkey and conducted the same routine. Next stop, Aludeid AB. Qatar and because of diplomatic reason we could not go from Turkey to Kuwait, instead we were diverted to Qatar. We stayed on the plane for an hour while in Qatar, and then finally left for Kuwait City, Kuwait.

We arrived Kuwait on April 15, 2010 at 0300 in the morning, disappointment grew as we waited for direction on what to do. We sat in an open tent until 0530 waiting for transportation and billeting accommodation. I wondered who organized this processes because it sure a horrible way to treat deploying troops. Finally at 0600 we are given direction to move to a location and here the chaos begins. If I thought Baltimore Washington is a mob station, Kuwait is the worst. Hundred of people, who has been traveling for almost 48 hours, waiting for in-processing. I think the process could have been better and I cannot wait until this day is over. At the mean time were stuck at Ali A Asalem Air Base.