Leave

I went on leave in early July. The process of getting home was a little painful, but worth the effort. First I convoyed up to Bagram and spent the night in a huge "VIP" tent (I am a Sergeant Major ya know). The next morning, I flew out of Bagram, however, not before some little Air Force pogue tried to give me a hard time. The little shit was an E-5 and was given some authority in who gets on the freedom bird and who does not. Well, he thought incorrectly that he was going to muscle me around. So after tightening his shot group, I boarded a C-17 and flew to Kuwait. HOLY CRAP, what a desolate, dirty place 128 degrees!!! Shindand and Shouz did not have squat on this place. We landed in a military airport, Ali al salaam I think and then took buses over to a pseudo military-civilian airport to pick up a charter MD-11. The people of Kuwait drive American SUVs, ya know, Texas limos-Suburbans. We were escorted by some joker with an old M-60 machine on the back of a Taliban Toyota (pick up truck). The other escort was a Kuwaiti police officer driving an American made police car. We had to drive with the curtains closed so that no one knew who we were, HA! Despite the extra ordinary security security pre-cautions, the escort was late and we sat on the side of the road for at least 1/2 an hour. A huge RPG or VBIED magnet. Survive Afghanistan and get wasted on the side of a highway going home on leave.

A hardened hangar destroyed in the first Gulf War.

Scenic Kuwait

From Kuwait we flew to Leipzig, Germany and hung out in the terminal for about an hour. The next leg of the journey was Atlanta, Georgia for me and everyone who had a final destination basically east of the Mississippi River. After about 6 hours in Atlanta I flew home.