Home Again, Home Again, Lickety-Split

Well, I have returned!

The US Army Central Command Chaplain authorized me to depart Kuwait on 15 May. The US Army Central liaison at the Gateway (the airfield administrative area) said that due to the volcano erupting in Iceland, the weather in Kuwait and/or the rush of people going on rest and recreation leave (R&R) there was a backlog of people who had higher travel priority than I and I could not count on getting out of Kuwait until 22 May.

There's a policy in US Army Central that when you have been stuck in Kuwait awaiting a military flight for three days, you can request a commercial ticket; there's no guarantee you'll GET one, but you can't ask for it until you've been stuck three days. However the personnel office has the ability to look at the availability of seats on the military flights a few days in advance.

If I could get a memo from them that there would be no seats available for three days, then I thought perhaps I could get my commercial ticket authorized without going to hang out at the Gateway with no work to do for three days. Even if I did have to wait three days, better to wait three days in my OFFICE, where there's always productive work for me to do. So on the 15th, I went to the personnel office and asked the warrant officer who does such things to check on the availability of seats.

"Oh, we're not booked up," she says, "In fact, there's a flight leaving today at 2130 with plenty of available seats." (That's 9:30 pm, for you civilians.)

"What's show-time for that flight?" says I, meaning, "What time to I have to sign in at the airfield in order to be able to get on that flight?"

"12:00," says she.

I looked at my watch and and got an adrenaline rush as I noticed that the time was 9:30 am. The trip from Camp Arifjan to the airfield takes an hour and a half. That meant I had an hour to get my chaplain assistants back to the office, get my luggage loaded into the SUV and depart for the airfield. Fortunately, I had already packed - except for a few items that needed to be stashed in various corners of my luggage - and had my room inspected and completed all the administrative out-processing required.

My assistants grasped my sense of urgency, and drove with enthusiasm and focus. I won't say that we were speeding... but I won't say that we weren't either. So we made it to the airfield at about 11:25. I signed in and the sergeant at the liaison desk gave me a memo authorizing me to get a space-available seat on the flight, and told me to be in the departure briefing tent by 11:45!

From there, things went relatively smoothly - for me. Not so much for the staff at the Gateway, as we lost power in the briefing and administration tent twice, which created significant challenges for the staff, as well as making the travelers and staff alike very hot and cranky as we sat in the dark with no air conditioning while the tent rapidly approached the outdoor temperature of about 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, by about 3:15 pm we were through Customs. By the way, that involves unpacking EVERY bag and having EVERY item visually and manually inspected to ensure we're not smuggling anything dangerous onto the plane, or anything illegal into the US. Since I was not merely going on leave, but actually going home, I had two large duffel bags and a rucksack as checked luggage, and a day-pack and a laptop case to carry on the flight.

To keep the customs process more manageable, I had already mailed a footlocker and two boxes home. That stuff gets inspected at the Post Office before mailing, and reduces the amount of luggage you have to lug around the airfield and unpack and re-pack at Customs. There was a bit of an admin mixup, as the Customs inspector inadvertently gave me the customs form belonging to the Soldier to my right, and gave him mine, but that was resolved with a minimum of fuss and inconvenience. He discovered the problem and reclaimed his form from me, but somehow mine was mislaid and I had to fill out a new one.

Anyway, we made it through customs with time to relax for a little while. I phoned home to tell Becky that I did make it onto a flight on the 15th after all, but I did not know what time I would arrive in Atlanta. We ended up having to manually generate a passenger manifest, because of the power problems in the administrative tent, but other than that, everything went pretty smoothly. The flight was pretty uneventful, except for a philosophical discussion with the young agnostic who sat beside me on the aircraft.

After the plane landed in Atlanta on Sunday morning, we had to go through Immigration, Baggage Claim and Customs, then those of us whose final destination was Atlanta had to plop our bags BACK on a conveyor belt on which they traveled to the baggage claim at the terminal. I meant to phone my wife as soon as I got off the plane, thinking that in the time it took for her to get to the airport, I'd get through to the final baggage claim and have only a short wait for her to pick me up.

Strangely, I passed NO pay phones anywhere between the concourse where I deplaned, and the final baggage claim. I could have borrowed another Soldier's cell phone as soon as we got off the plane, but I didn't, because I thought I'd see a pay phone any minute and I didn't want to impose. Ironically, when I finally did get to the final baggage claim, and found a pay phone, I could not make my prepaid calling card work, and ended up borrowing a cell phone from a co-worker of mine - a Major who works in the Aviation section at US Army Central - who came in on the same flight from Kuwait... so if I were going to borrow a phone, I'd have been better off to just do so as soon as I got off the plane.

Anyway, put my luggage on a cart and went to hang out at the USO until the family came. Instead of going home, we went straight to church - with me still in the uniform I had been wearing for over 24 hours and smelling something less than daisy-fresh. We arrived about half an hour late for the start of the second service, walking in just as the children were blessed and sent out to Children's Church and the praise music began that immediately precedes the sermon.

Anyway, enough for now. The main thing is, I'm home, safe and sound, with my beloved family. I'll be on leave for a month, then go back to work briefly before signing out on travel leave, to move to a new assignment at Ft. Carson, Colorado.

Thanks for all of you who prayed for me and for my family while I was away. There is no doubt in my mind that your prayers brought me the spiritual help I needed to handle the challenges of separation from my family and the high pace of wartime military operations.