Transient

Once I landed in Baltimore, I rode the shuttle to my hotel for the night, checked in, then went wandering amongst the endless rows of hotels and restaurants in the area, eventually finding a tasty hibachi lunch – yum! I spent the rest of the night relaxing and triple-checking my luggage, making sure everything was ready for all the upcoming travel. The night wrapped up with an overpriced (but tasty!) falafel and portobello burger from the hotel restaurant, the Packers on the bar TV, and finally a luxurious night of sleep.

I woke up at 6am for one last decent shower, and to do some more exploring around the hotel before it was time to go. I found myself in the National Electronics Museum, spent a few hours strolling amongst the vacuum tubes and gadgets. A bunch of hands-on exhibits, Jacob’s ladder, laptops with built-in printers (dubbed “typewriters,”) and some great military tech too. Imagine the tech that goes into a ship’s anti-missile defense system: all the sensors and calculations that cumulate into shooting the missile right out of the sky - very impressive! Nice museum if you’re in the area, and definitely worth a few bucks, especially if you’re a nerd type.

Running out of options within walking distance, I decided it was time to get to the airport. I got there around 2pm, checked in quickly and easily, but it was too early to check bags, so I killed some hours at the USO before heading back upstairs at 4pm, to stand in a giant line with other military folks to get our luggage checked. (You’ll notice waiting as a recurring theme in this post, it might be what we do best!) After getting our luggage checked, we all waited in lines to get through TSA, then went to our gate, where our jet would be departing around 10pm… so we waited a bunch more. I found a Beyond Burger at a restaurant hotel (these things are spreading like crazy) and found a quiet corner to do some computing.

We finally departed around 11pm, it’s a Boeing 767 with two aisles and seven seats per row, and was very full when we left. It’s like an airborne bus, which stops at a few places along the way to drop people off, and pick others up. The majority departed in Rammstein Germany, giving us much better elbow room from that point onward. Some folks had entire rows to themselves, so they could lay down and sleep. I don’t sleep well on jets, but got a few naps in. We also got fed some pretty decent hot meals along the way, and warm towels, which I didn’t know what to do with. This was the longest flight of my life, eventually landing in Qatar at 2am on the 19^th … that’s 20 hours from boarding to departing for me. [new country for the pine!]

Qatar is a nuisance to get into, there seems to be a tense relationship between our governments. Our base is in their country, we’re their guests, so we follow their rules. Their customs agents have been known to deport US military personnel trying to report for duty for seemingly minor offenses: Handing over papers using the incorrect hand, or going through the wrong door at the wrong time. A few of us inbound folks volunteered to help offload luggage from the jet, so we were separated from the rest of the group and the normal inbound processes… instead, we were escorted through customs by US military members who work with the Qatari customs folks, it made the whole process easily and way more friendly. We weren’t just another pile of nameless 200+ people coming into their country, we were friends of their friends.

Qatar is the same as it was when I was there last in 2013. The same smell hit me as soon as we stepped off the jet onto the airfield, and the moist heat which instantly made my palms wet. It was high 80s even at 2 in the morning, and uncomfortable. We are considered “transient” personnel, since we’re just here temporarily and passing through to where we’ll eventually be stationed. As such, there’s nobody to greet us once we’re through customs, or directions on where to go or what to do. Of the luggage-hauling volunteers, I was the only one who had been here before, so I helped navigate us to lodging where we picked up our linens, and found the barracks we’d be staying in for now. Transient lodging is pretty basic: Open-bay barracks, dozens of bunk beds all in a row, and foot locker chests to hold our stuff. It’s dark and quiet in there at all hours due to people being on different shifts, so I stumbled my way around until I found an empty bed, made minimum efforts to make it sleepable, brushed my teeth, and passed out. Other than a few jet naps, I had been up nearly 40 hours at this point.

I woke up around 11am to take care of some business in Qatar. I had my first dining facility meal – a mountain of veggies, beans, and a sign of good things to come: Pineapple upside-down cake! What are the odds!? On the top of my to-do list was securing my next flight into Afghanistan – a surprisingly inexact and uncertain process. Some folks I spoke with had been stuck in Qatar for a week or more, still with no idea of when they’d be leaving, struggling to survive out of their “72-hour” bags (checked bags are unavailable to transients since they don’t go through Qatari customs.) By some miracle, I found myself scheduled for a flight the following morning. Fantastic news, I think the pine was pulling strings for me! This escalated my prep schedule, but I was able to get everything done by 11pm – a short but very busy day.

The next day started at 5:30am, to get some out-processing done, grab a quick breakfast, and report to the terminal by 7am for roll call. And then, we waited. We got bussed to another building and waited some more. We went to customs to emigrate Qatar, and waited some more. Finally, at 2pm, we were loaded on a USAF C-17 and hit the skies! This flight didn’t have any creature comforts, was noisy, and the jumpseats eat into your legs… but it had a familiar military comfort to it, and felt good to be on the way. We had a short stop in Kuwait [new country for the pine!] to load up some cargo. (I swiped a rock from the airfield while nobody was looking for Mom’s collection!)

We touched down in Afghanistan around 2am [new country for the pine!] and the cargo doors opened, giving me my first glimpse of my new home. I’d describe it as dark, cold, and vast. The airfield here is massive, and there is a lot of really cool USAF hardware and operations to be seen. From the various aircraft parked and ready, to the jets actively taking off as we made our way off the flightline, to the surveillance blimps hovering overhead. No doubt about it, this is an active combat zone, the first time in my eight years enlisted that I’ve seen anything like it!

All the inbound folks were tired from yet another long day of travel, but we had to press through some security briefings and initial in-processing before being released. My squadron leadership showed up to greet me and a few other folks that’d be working in the same unit. They really rolled out the red carpet, helping to carry bags, drive us to our rooms, and show us around a bit. By 4am, I had gotten somewhat organized in my new room, and enjoyed a pretty decent night’s sleep, my first in Afghanistan!