My travels continue…

I made it out no problem on the early morning flight and after a quick hour was safely in Kuwait. Next we had a gathering in a large tent and were told that our brief was at 0900 so we had 3 ½ hours to kill. But there’s more to the story; we couldn’t stay in the big tent, they were using it for another briefing later. So, now what? Nothing like being homeless on a strange base at 0530. I managed to kill time by turning in my body armor for temporary storage (shouldn’t need it back home I hope!), eating breakfast, and wandering around finding out where things were. That last part took about 10 minutes – it’s a small base. But, they do have some nice MWR tents with things to do, some fast food trailers, and a call center.

Eventually 0900 came and we filled out some forms, stood in line to make copies of our orders, were given a tent assignment, and told to either come back at 0730 tomorrow (not my group) or noon tomorrow (my group - cue ominous music). So, not just a morning to kill, but an entire day! At least I had a tent with a bunk (and ten of my closest friends) and was able to catch up on some sleep from the night before. I read a little, wandered around again just in case I’d overlooked some gem I’d missed earlier (nope), had Pizza Hut for lunch for a change of pace, and then went over to the DFAC for dinner.

Dinner was quite a pleasant surprise as I ran into two guys I’d gone through EWO training with when I started this whole adventure. They are assigned to Marine units and it was nice catching up and comparing notes with each other. Turns out, they’d been here since yesterday and were part of the 0730 group for tomorrow. After dinner, I went back to the big tent to see what I could find out.

Well, the 0730 group is flying out tomorrow; the noon group is flying out the next day (23rd – hence the ominous music earlier). So, not only did I have to kill today, but I’ll be here all day tomorrow, and hopefully (stress on the hopefully) will fly out on the evening of the 23rd to arrive in Atlanta on the morning of the 24th. It is a good thing I’ve pretty much finished my Christmas shopping!

I’m sure there will be more to come with this story. I certainly have plenty of time to write!

Cheers, Pearl