In and Out

Sunday 10 August 2008
1115

I have made it to Qatar and processed in to my new unit, and have already processed out for my transition leave. I am in transit hoping to get home soon. The process has been interesting, with some unexpected twists.

I got up at 0430 on Friday and made the 0600 bus to Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. I was hoping to get on the early flight to Qatar, but it was full so I had to wait until later in the day. I sat around the terminal area all day long while they made announcements for flights to all the familiar places in theater – Balad, Bagram, Kirkuk, Tal Afar, etc. Picture the opening scenes of the movie “The Best Years of Our Lives”, when the servicemen are all waiting around the Air Transport Command terminal trying to catch space-available seats on flights home. It is just like that, with some updated technology.

There was no internet connection available there, so I sat and read my book most of the day, alternating with watching a couple of movies on the big-screen TV and eating bad food.

“Jimmy Dean” meals are free packaged meals they give out. They’re actually not too bad – they are just a shrink-wrapped tray with a bunch of commercially-packaged foods on it. There is a sandwich spread of some kind (ham salad, chicken salad, BBQ beef, etc), some very dense bread, some kind of fruit cup, another can of something (e.g. beef-a-roni), some chips (usually Pringles), a package of cookies, a can of pop, and a condiment and utensil pack. I choked down some of the ham salad but skipped the bread, ate the Pringles, cookies, and fruit cup, and threw the rest in a big box they have there for leftovers you don’t want. They also had some trays of muffins out that were pretty good, so there was no excuse for being hungry.

What I missed was caffeine! There wasn’t a cup of coffee or a pop machine in sight. I didn’t feel like walking across the post in the heat to the concession area, so I stayed put and made due with what they had in the tent.

I finally got a flight out around 1700. It was different than other flights I’ve taken, as it was a military plane. The R&R flights are commercial charter flights from KCIA, but the intra-theater flights are Air Force planes. In this case it was a C-130 Hercules, a Vietnam-era cargo plane that is a real workhorse. The last time I was in a C-130 was at Airborne School at Ft. Benning in 1981. I had a parachute strapped on when we took off, and I did not land with the plane. Of our five qualifying jumps, we did three from C-123’s and two from C-130’s. Now I have three takeoffs in C-130’s, but only one landing. :-)

We palletized our bags, and then got on a bus to the plane. We walked up the ramp and sat in the bare-bones nylon and webbing seats. They gave us earplugs to wear, but I chose to wear my earplug-style ear bugs for my iPod instead. I listened to Handel Recorder Concertos for the 1 ½ hour flight to Qatar.

We landed an Airbase in Qatar (everybody called it IED, which is the luggage tag symbol – I can’t remember what it was really called – Al Udeid or something like that). Then we had to go through the process of registering into the country and go through Qatari customs. This was where I got my introduction to the fact that our relationship with the Qatari government is different than in Kuwait.

Since Qatar is where they run the theater R&R program, most of the people were there for R&R. As we lined up to process through, they said that anybody not there for R&R had to move off to the side. Since I had been told to go with the R&R people, this presented a potential problem. I talked with them about my status, and they said to go inside the building and talk to someone in there. I went in and we made a few phone calls and straightened it out, and they said I could ride the bus. When I went outside, everyone had already gone in through Qatari customs, and was out of sight in another room.

I went ahead and put all my stuff on the conveyer and went through the metal detector when the Qatari guy came back. Then he asked me to open my duffel bag, and the next thing I know he is confiscating the ten Mec-gar magazines that I brought over for my M9 pistol. “No firearms parts allowed into the country”. It turns out that the customs briefing (which I missed because I was inside on the phone) told everybody that they should turn all their weapons and magazines in to the U.S. armory before going through customs. Individuals can’t bring them in their baggage; they have to go in through official channels.

Once you’ve gone through, it’s too late. They wouldn’t let me take them back and go turn them in to the armory to try to get through military channels later. I had to sign some form in Arabic (with no English translation) saying they had taken them. The U.S. customs guy took the report number and gave me his OIC’s number to call about it later. I put my card into the Ziploc bags, and am hopeful (but not optimistic) that I can get them back later. The U.S. M.P. customs guy told me this is a common occurrence, and that the Qatari government is not at all cooperative about it. They have taken hundreds of magazines and never given any back, but the U.S. government is working on it. So - $300 worth of magazines went down the toilet. :-(

After a bit more processing we got on the bus, and then got stuck at the gate because the Qatari Police escort didn’t show up. The bus can’t go on the road with out the escort, so they waited there for quite awhile. Meanwhile somebody came to get me and take me on ahead so I didn’t have to wait. That was nice, but then the Qatari gate guard wanted the paperwork for my bags before letting us off the base. Since my bags were listed on the paperwork for the bus, there was more of a hassle before we finally got out.

Welcome to Qatar.

I guess that answers my question about whether I will be able to find a shooting club to join off post in my free time. Apparently nobody is allowed to own firearms here. So I spent two years in Kuwait where they can own firearms, with gun stores in town and a shooting club nearby, but I wasn’t allowed to go off post. Now that I’m in Qatar and allowed to go off post, no firearms or shooting are allowed. Phooey!

My sponsor is a Captain in the DPW where I will work. He took me over to the housing office where I will stay, and got me a room assigned. It is an interesting building, somewhat different than I’m used to. It is also a converted warehouse, but the rooms inside are made of 20 foot shipping containers converted to living space. I didn’t measure, but it seems to be about seven or eight feet wide by 20 feet long. So I have almost twice as much space as I had before. Actually it is a double room, but I will not be assigned a roommate. It will have plusses and minuses, which I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to talk about later – I’ll focus on the in-processing and out-processing for now.

We agreed that he’d pick me up at 0800. I showered and I got to sleep sometime around 0130 or so. I woke up at 0630, dressed and went to find the DFAC. It is quite a hike over there, and even at that time of morning I was quickly drenched in sweat. The humidity here is very much higher than in Kuwait. I went through Airborne School in Georgia in August, and that’s exactly what it felt like. Whereas in Kuwait the hot wind blasts you like a blow-dryer and you feel very hot but not really too uncomfortable, here it feels very “close”, and you’re just dripping almost instantly. At least that was my reaction – maybe I’ll get used to it. The upside seems to be that with no wind there isn’t as much dust in the air. So I’ll be hot and sweaty but maybe cleaner and less gritty all the time. Not sure yet which form of discomfort I prefer. Could we just have a war someplace with a nice, temperate climate, please? ;-)

I got back and met my sponsor at 0800, and we got started on my in-processing. It started with breakfast, which he had not expected I would already have finished. Once he finished his we went to the DPW building. I saw my new office, which is very nice (more later) and met the people. Then we did the basics – administrative, finance, and intelligence/security so I could get the access badges I need to get in and out. It sounds simple, but due to various issues it took all day to get through those things. But we got through it, and I am now officially signed in to the unit, my pay issues should all be on the way to being resolved, and I am registered in the system so I can get on and off post and into the areas I need to get into. They had originally wanted me to go through a whole lot more, including driver’s training, computer account registration, medical processing, etc., but we convinced the commander that this was unnecessary since I’m just going on leave right away. So the rest of it will be taken care of when I get back in 45 days.

The last step of the day was getting my DA Form 31 (Request and Authorization for Leave) filled out and signed. Even though it was after hours, the S1 NCO stayed late to help us. Since I had processed in, now I needed a completed out-processing checklist to be allowed to leave. I went through the whole thing in Kuwait, but not here, so we did the paperwork drill on their form so I could make it past the checkpoints and get out.

I checked with the Air Force base to see when the flights out to Ali were, and the first one had a “show time” of 0340 on Sunday. That’s the time you have to show up to make the roll call to get on the flight on a space-available basis. Other show times were 0515, 0725, 0745, 1540, and a few more in the evening. These represent various scheduled military flights to the destination I wanted to go to. So we agreed that he would pick me up at 0300 to drive the AFB, and I went back to my room.

I showered and then re-packed my stuff for travel, and went to bed. 0230 came fast, but I was up and out of bed, ready to go. We left at 0300 on the dot, and got to IED around 0330 or so. He dropped me off at the terminal and I went in to start the process of getting out of the country.

I had to go through an airport security screen run by the Air Force, just like a TSA checkpoint at any other airport. They also scanned in my ID and put me on standby for a flight to Ali. Once I got into the terminal, I checked at the desk, and the 0340 flight had been cancelled. So I was immediately relegated to the 0515. But since that was just a C-21 (something like a Gulfstream), and I was number ten on the standby list, I elected to just wait until the 0725. Except it was no longer a 0725, it was 0745. The times are a moving target, it seems – they change constantly and you just have to keep your ear to the ground. I left to find an internet hotspot to kill the four hours I had until then.

A bus ride and a walk got me to the “Desert Eagle”, an area with a lot of tables, a bar, and a free Wi-Fi hotspot. (All the Wi-Fi here is free, which is great). The only thing they didn’t tell me was that it was outdoors. Since the sun wasn’t out yet, it wasn’t too bad. I positioned myself in front of one of the large fans they had blowing through the area, plugged in, sent an email update, and then played Wow for awhile (reached level 67!)

When I got back to the terminal for the 0745 roll call, it was cancelled (meaning the flight was cancelled). I waited for the 0800, but it was cancelled, too. :-( So now the next roll call is at 1540 this afternoon. What this means is that there is no way I can make it out on a flight to the US today. If I get up to Ali today at all, I’ll still have to stay overnight and then wait all day tomorrow for a flight to the US. The processing takes all day, and the flight will leave sometime at night. So the very earliest I can possibly show up at home would be sometime Tuesday night.

With almost eight hours to kill until the next possible flight, I hopped on a bus and came to the main BX (a store run by AAFES, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. The Air Force calls them the “Base Exchange”, or BX, while the Army calls it the “Post Exchange” or PX).

This is a very nice open mall environment with lots of tables and electrical outlets, and is a Wi-Fi hotspot. Writing this has taken until about 1100, and after this I’ll have some lunch (Popeye’s Chicken, I think), read the WSJ, and play Wow for a few hours until it’s time to go back.

So I had it completely in reverse - I was worried I’d have to wait at Ali for a long time to get down here, but I got here very quickly. Now the challenge seems to be getting back out! Oh well. I have my laptop and an internet connection. I just walked around the mall, and there are 54 people sitting at tables (ten of them together in one party eating lunch), and 42 laptops. It beats playing solitaire! :-)

Mood: Resigned to waiting
Music: Starbucks noises