Going on R&R

I've finally left for R&R. It was a somewhat drawn-out process. Here is the low-down.

I took an MRAP convoy from Eggers to Bagram. It took longer than I remembered. about 2.5 hours. You leave sometime early in the morning. The MRAPs don't convoy every day so you have to pick the convoy closest to your leave day.

Once you get to Bagram you drop off your weapon at the armory and your IBA/ACH in a conex. I actually left my weapon at Eggers because I heard the armory was a pain. They are only open a few hours per day so you can be delayed returning while you wait for the armory to open. Then you take your luggage to the terminal drop-off area and they scan your ID to process for leave. That's all until the R&R brief at midnight. There is a tent you can go to if you want. I went a took a nap. The rest of the time I spent at the MWR Dragon watching movies, or at the USO. I never got the internet at the USO to work - it was probably too crowded. I used the MWR computers at the dragon though.

The midnight brief was packed. About 500 people I think. Fortunately they had two C-17's leaving that morning. I was mustered on the second one fortunately. I found out that the first one was delayed and they actually arrived in Kuwait a day after me. Once you go to the midnight brief, if you are scheduled on a plane, you go into "lockdown" either in the terminal or tent 2. The earlier plane got the terminal so we had to go to the tent. The scheduling folks are a bit screwed up I think because they came back to verify the name list three times. There isn't much to do in the tent. They have steel folding chairs and you can watch TV. I laid down on the ground using my backpack as a pillow and dozed for a couple of hours. I was freezing. I wish I'd brought a coat or a blanket. I had a sleeping back in my checked baggage but that wasn't useful here.

Finally, an hour before our flight, they marched us back to the terminal to palettize our bags and board the plane:



The flight to Kuwait wasn't bad - slightly less than 4 hours. Without body armor the flight was much more pleasant. Once you arrive at the airbase they drive you over to the processing area in buses. This base is Ali Al Salem. Kuwait was pretty hot. I'm sure not as bad as July, but pretty damn hot. I'd heard that before, but what I didn't realize is that they muster you outside in formation a lot. There was a group of several hundred ahead of us using the tent so we mustered outside. There's the initial muster when you arrive where they take your ID to process. Then you come back at 1400 to get a billeting assignment and 1800 to fill out some paperwork. Somehow they screwed up my billeting and put me in a VIP tent with only one other guy (an Army LTC). I neglected to complain.



After you fill out a few forms you are free until 0600. There are a few things on base. A McDonalds, Subway, Green Been, PX etc. I just used the DFAC which has a 24/7 sandwich bar (not as nice as Eggers though). At 0600 they tell you if you are on the Dallas or the Atlanta flight and when the lockdown time is. Then you leave and come back will all your gear and you are in lockdown until you depart. Lockdown lasts a long time - maybe 10 hours. You don't do much except go through roll calls which seems to take a half hour. You do go through customs where they look into you bags and make sure you don't have any ammo, porn or war trophies. My flight had about 330 people. Mostly Army - so there were many formations. The gave us our itineraries a couple of hours before we boarded the bus to leave for Kuwait International. However since you are in lockdown you can't contact your family to tell them when you are finally arriving.

My plane had a layover in Shannon Ireland for about an 1.5 hours. However it took 30 minutes to get through security and another 30 minutes to stand in line for the bathroom. The wifi was excruciatingly slow but I managed to get one email off before we had to go back on the plane. Another 8 hours after that I landed in Atlanta.

They couldn't get me to my final destination on the same day that I arrived in Atlanta. I went to the US Army office in the airport and they scheduled me a room (with a roommate) at a nearby hotel. It was nice to take a shower finally. I fly out early tomorrow morning and return back to Atlanta in 15 days.

In summary, I left Eggers on Tuesday and I'll arrive in Victoria Saturday. Leave officially starts on Sunday and I fly back to Atlanta two weeks from Monday.