Arrival in Kuwait

Howdy folks!

Arrived in Kuwait yesterday after a really long couple of flights, including one that was cancelled and resulted in a completely wasted day in the Atlanta Airport. AT&T screwed up and cancelled my phone a day earlier, so I didn’t even get to call people during that time.

I had four huge duffle bags, my backpack and my weapons case, so I was pretty loaded up. Here is a photo of some (though not all) of my gear:

Flew through Shannon, Ireland and had a couple of hours on the ground there. Enough time to read the previews of the football games and brush my teeth. Then we were off to Kuwait. The flight took us through all of Iraq – from North to South – but you couldn’t see much at 35,000 feet.

When we arrived at the Kuwait airport, it was about 95 degrees – and it was already 7 p.m.

The heat here is incredible – right now it’s up to 120 or so outside. It’s like when you’re walking down the street and a bus passes you and the engine blows an oven-like blast right in your face – only it is like this all day long. My tent is airconditioned, but the AC has to run constantly and only barely keeps up. As of now, I’m the only person in the tent, but I understand that will change soon.

I do finally get a break from the training routine. The training class that I need to go to doesn’t start until next week, though there is a slight chance they can squeeze me in on this week’s class at the last minute. I almost want to get the earlier class so I can get the hell out of this inferno and get to the relative cooler temperatures of Iraq.

Every now and then, we do get a wind, but it doesn’t cool things down, just blows sand everywhere. I’ve been coughing like Bill the Cat all day.

Drove up last night to an Air Force base in the North. They put me in “transient housing” – hope that wasn’t a personal statement about my hygiene. The tent was pitch black, and my flashlight was at the bottom of one of my bags. I only got a couple of hours of sleep. I got up at 3 to go get something at the 24 Hour Subway on base, and then, my hunger quenched, went to a building that had television and watched some college football games, which were live. Once I saw the A&M score on the ticker, I went back to bed for about an hour – since I had to be up at 6 a.m.

This morning, I was driven by a Navy liaison to Camp Virginia, which is very close to the Iraqi border. As we drove, we passed the “Highway of Death” from the 1991 Gulf War, where hundreds of Iraqi troops, riding in stolen cars, busses and ambulances, were caught in the open by U.S. aircraft and obliterated. Here’s a picture I took:

And here’s one of me at the base here, doing my impression of a cookie in an oven:

That’s my M-16 rifle, of course, and also I’ve got my M-9 pistol strapped to my leg.

Hope things are going well with y’all. Will write more soon. In the meantime, I’m going to take advantage of the downtime and get some reading done.