Back in Baghdad

Well, Clerie's back in Baghdad. (For those who keep tabs on the news, she's not really in Baghdad, she's actually at our base outside Baghdad. She's pretty darn safe. I'm the one with car keys and a V8.)
So she spent 12 days in Qatar, thanks to the windy season and the corresponding dust storms keeping her on the ground. She had a good time, but she was glad to be back, to see her friend Danelle, and to get back on a regular schedule, and feel a little closer to home with daily chats.
Tonight, we have an interview with Clerie Staten. Here is her trip back, described...[dramatic news-magazine-show style pause]...in her own words.

"HI HANDSOME!"

Oh, wait, let's fast forward a bit. That's sappy. you really wouldn't want to hear all that. Ah, here we are. Now, a quick note, if you know Clerie well, you'll recognize her cheerful tone in all of this. I asked her to describe her trip in detail, so she did, and we laughed as she told it. If you ask me, it's pretty incredible that we can wage a war and still take care of individual solders who've gone on leave for a few days!

"The trip was long! We had to be at role call at midnight. They told us there that our flight was delayed, so the next role call would be at 0300. We all crashed all over, wherever we could find a corner to curl up in.

"We got on a bus and drove to the airport, and stood in different lines till we got on a plane around 5 or 0530. Then we squished like sardines onto the C130, and waited for the plane to take off an hour later.

"Then we landed in Kuwait. We sat on the plane for an hour, waiting for them to offload the cargo...then we all got on a bus and drove a half hour to the holding tend. We got in a formation and waited about an hour for security. Then we waited for them to bring the pallet of bags from the airport...standing in a for about a half hour. Once we got our bags, we hauled them off and waited.

"Our next flight was scheduled for 0300 again. But then they announced that there were 40 empty seats on a C130 to Baghdad. So we hauled our stuff and waited in a line (about a half hour), where they told us that we actually needed to walk a couple tents down and have someone stamp a piece of paper that said they could help us at the "Space A" counter. So we hauled our stuff down there, waited in line (half hour-ish again), then hauled our stuff back to the "Space A" tent, and waited for security some more.

"We found a seat. Then about an hour later we stood in line to hear them announce the names of those who are going to be selected to fly "Space A." We were lucky to be chosen (didn't have to wait till 0300). We then went and sat in some bleachers to receive a brief about my luggage.

"Then we hauled our stuff over to put our luggage back on the pallets. We dropped our stuff off, went back to the waiting tent...then about an hour later we have another roll call. They put us on busses. We drove the half hour back to the airport, and we were about an hour and a half early for the flight. We had to sit in the busses and wait....by this time it was about 1800 or 1900…

"So we got on the plane (squished again, but more so this leg) and about an hour later we were in the air. We arrived at Baghdad, sat and waited for them to unload the cargo again. We waited in a formation for them to scan our ID cards again (for accountability again ) and then waited for them to bring the pallet of bags around (again) Then I caught the bus from the airport to Stryker. It’s about a 10-minute ruck march from the bus stop to my SHU...and I arrived back about 2200-2300.

"Not too bad!"

So there you have it. That's how you transport a soldier safely from a foreign country to a war zone. You put 'em on one plane, then on a bus, then on a bus, a plane, a bus, a bus...or was it a bus, a plane, a...nevermind.

And if you're wondering about R&R leave dates, this demonstrates why the ARMY has such a hard time giving solid dates to family members. First off, if it had flight iteneraries for it's soldiers from the moment they left their post, it would endanger them. Second, the ARMY's gotta put the mission before the R&R leave. They work hard to get the soldiers back to their families for a while, but it's a logistics nightmare to send hundreds of soldiers back and forth each day. Kudos to all those who make it possible! Sometimes it's tough having to contort your schedule around the ARMY's stiff-adjusting timelines, but you've gotta be grateful for all the contact you can have with your deployed soldier.

In other news, I posted pictures.