Day 344: A Travelogue

Well I finally completed my journey from Utah back to Herat last night. It was a long four day trip. I thought some might be interested in the travelogue.

On Tuesday, the 28th I left Salt Lake and flew to Dallas. The Army likes us to be in uniform for these trips which actually ended up helping me in two ways. First, the airlines, upon seeing my uniform, automatically upgraded me to a first class seat. The comfy seat and the warm breakfast on the plane were definitely a bonus. Second, because I was military and deploying, my family was able to go through security with me and say goodbye at the gate. It was fun to have them close for a few minutes longer and reminded me of how nice it was pre 9/11 to be able to join people up at the gate.

The flight to Dallas was only a few hours long and upon arrival I checked in along with about 250 other service members at the military terminal. Our bags were checked and we were given boarding passes for the next leg of the journey--Germany. The flight from the States back to “theater” is always done on chartered planes rather than regular commercial flights. They are actually pretty nice flights. They feed you well and show you lots of movies. The major downside to the flight is that it is long. Our flight from Dallas to Germany was just over 10 hours long. The picture below is taken as the sun is about to rise somewhere over the Atlantic.

Once we landed in Germany we had a few hour layover before our chartered plane again took off and we headed to Kuwait. This flight was a short one--only six hours. Flying into Kuwait City was actually pretty interesting and I was impressed by the size and modern appearance of this city. I guess that is what you get when you put a whole bunch of oil in a small little country. Once in Kuwait, we were put on buses and moved from the civilian airport to a military airport about an hour away.

When we finally made it to the military base in Kuwait, we were subjected to a few briefings, given back our body armor, and then told that our flight to Bagram (the main base in Afghanistan) was going to leave in a few hours. So instead of jumping into bed for a little rest, we had to wait around for another flight.

The flight from Kuwait to Bagram was on a military plane called a C-17. This is a large jet engine cargo plane. Some regular type airline seats were placed in the cargo bay allowing us to have a place to sit. Because we were entering back into the battle space on this flight, we were required to wear our body armor. Now I have a hard enough time sleeping on planes in regular clothes. So adding in body armor didn’t help me much in my attempt to catch up on some sleep during this four hour flight

Finally, after 48 hours of travel, we finally had reached Afghanistan as we landed in Bagram. I was anticipating at this point that I would be taking a day or two rest while awaiting a flight back to Herat. However, after learning that no flights to Herat were available out of Bagram for several days, a few of us decided to catch a flight down to the south of the country in hopes that we would make it home quicker. So we waited 2 hours and then caught a flight down to Taliban country--Kandahar.

Kandahar was actually quite nice. I was traveling with four other officers and we were lucky enough to be given temporary lodging in the “distinguished visitor” section. This basically meant that I only had to share a room with 3 other people instead of a tent with 100 people. I also had access to indoor bathroom facilities which is always a plus out here. It was finally in Kandahar that I was able to lay down in a bed and get some rest. Once I finally laid down I slept for over 12 straight hours. It felt good.

We were stuck in Kandahar for only two days and it ended up being a good chance to catch up on some sleep and relax a little. The base was like most out here--dusty and crowded. However, overall it was a relatively nice place and turned out to be a good pit stop prior to our final push home.

Yesterday afternoon, the journey neared completion as we boarded an Italian flight that was to take us back to Herat. This final flight was perhaps the most exciting of the whole trip due to all of the turbulence. One Italian guy got a little sick after hitting one to many bumps and threw up. This subsequently caused a chain reaction of people vomiting on the plane. It was pretty exciting. Luckily I was able to keep my lunch down.

Finally, last night around 7PM I arrived back in Herat and after a short 7 mile convoy I was back at Camp Stone. After four days of travel, which took me half way across the world, I was finally back “home”. It was an interesting journey and luckily one I only have to repeat one more time.