Travels

Our journey began in Camp Pendleton. Reveille was at 3am. This was followed by camp clean up, continental breakfast, and gear loading. We traveled from Camp Pendleton to March Air Force Base by bus; it was about a 3 hour ride. We waited at March AFB terminal (which was more like a converted hanger bay) for four and a half hours before we boarded our plane. We had stop-overs in Illinois, Newfoundland, and Germany; each lasting about 2 hours.

We arrived in Kuwait on Aug 8 in the wee hours of the morning. We boarded a bus that took us just off the airport grounds and stopped for about an hour. We were able to de-board, get some water, and use the porta-potties. (Note: porta-potties are not a great option in an extremely warm environment. Even at 3am it was 97 degrees.) A working party had been assigned to unload all our gear onto a truck so we were waiting for them to finish and join us. When we were all back together, our buses headed towards Camp Arifjan. I can’t tell you much about Kuwait City, the desert, or even the highway because I didn’t see anything. We were required to keep the window curtains closed.

After going through all the check points, we arrived at tent city. The working party unloaded our massive number of sea bags and equipment into huge piles. Once we identified our belongings, we lugged them to our tent. Thank goodness one of the girls in our hut had bright pink duct tape that we labeled and placed on each of our bags.

We had about 2 hours before Orientation began. My sponsor (the guy I’m replacing) met me at my tent, took me to the DFAC (dining facility) where he introduced me to the “omelette on Sundays” ritual. (Omelettes can actually be ordered every day, but he made the self imposed rule to only eat them on Sundays). We then went to the Starbucks for a coffee before orientation (yes, they have a Starbucks!).

Orientation was somewhat painful. I think the theory is that if they keep us going and don’t allow us to sleep until evening, then the adjustment to the new time zone will be easier. I don’t know if I actually believe this or not, but I managed to stay up until 2030 (8:30pm for the non-military folk). By the end of the day, I was a walking zombie. I fell blissfully asleep and managed to stay that way with the help of some pharmaceutical aids.

Morning arrived at 0500. Started work at 0700. No time for jet lag!