Military Travel

Well, my R&R leave date is here. Unfortunately, I'm typing a blog entry instead of sitting on a plane. Let me bring you up to date starting back when the Earth cooled...

When I first came in the Navy, the USAF airlift command was called MAC - Military Airlift Command (Okay, so not quite as far back as when the Earth cooled). In the 1990s the Air Force went through a reorganization and MAC became AMC. AMC formally is called Air Mobility Command, however those of us in the military know it better as Aircraft Might Come.

The way travel works here is not exactly up to commercial carrier standards, as low as they've fallen in recent years. First, your parent command has to submit your name to be manifested - check. Then you have to show up at 10pm the night before your scheduled flight date to find out what flight you'll be on - check. A little after 10pm a very surly Soldier (or Airman, I couldn't see because we were standing outside in the dark and cold) falls us into formation. Then, we pass our ID cards to him (we being a few hundred of us or so) and he says he'll be back in about 30 minutes. Just under an hour later he comes out and begins calling out the last four digits of our social security number (keeps him from having to guess at pronouncing some of the names) - check. So he starts calling. And calling. And calling. Then, he tells those folks who have come up to claim their ID card, their flight is at 0600, be there at 0300, "And I don't care who you are, what rank you are, what your excuse is, if you're not here we're going to give your seat away."

He starts calling numbers again. And again. And again. Finally, he tells those folks their flight is at 1000, be there three hours prior or (insert previous quote here - he said it verbatim as if we hadn't just heard him a few minutes before). Finally he calls through the rest of us and tells us our flight is at 1400, etc., etc. Okay, that's not so bad. It's about 2330 by now but I get to go back to my room and get a good night's sleep, then a relaxed morning and off to the terminal (three hours prior - or else!). Check.

So, around 1015 I head over to the terminal. We wait around until 1130 for another formation and a much nicer Solider starts calling off names for the manifest (she used real names - like I said, she was much nicer than the guy from last night). So, she starts calling, and calling, and calling. Finally, she gets to the end of her list and there are about 20 of us still standing there - not check! She says the 0600 flight that morning was cancelled, those folks got rolled into the later flights and we were bumped to a new flight.

So, to wrap up an already long story, I now have to be back at 0030 for a 0330 flight to Kuwait.

I hope.

More to follow as the story unfolds, hopefully all written day after tomorrow from either Atlanta (my CONUS gateway) or from my own living room! The good news is the Army takes the R&R system seriously and doesn't start charging us for leave until we are home. So, all of these delays don't impact my 15 days with my family.

Cheers, Pearl