Originally Posted by
Seamonkey
W00T!!! Made it to Qatar!!!! Weee haaa only took 36 hours to make a total of 2.5 hours of flight time...
I was on a FOB, Forward Operating Base and as a scum bag civilian I never left the base nor carried weapons but I did take care of the wives while the husbands were away... opps, wrong branch.. those were my Navy days... I was part of the team that did take care of the networks that allowed people to email or call home when they came back from outside the wire as well as their work stuff.
I'm end of contract so I left for the last time, as opposed to leaving on vacation and coming back to the FOB after a couple weeks R&R. Direct flights to a base in Kuwait or Qatar are rare so I hopped on a plane to Balad, an air base near Baghdad. The place keeps building up so it went from a tent city to solid structure complete with cyber cafe and phones. Last time the snack place (to get some crappy sandwiches) was in the terminal, now it's close by in a newer building. There's a new USO building next to it and they had a TV showing movies all the time, a couple gaming consoles and some computers so you can check email and such. Sounds great unless you're here. Used to be the transient tents were a bus ride away so I never bothered, like everyone else I slept on the floor at the PAX terminal. This time, the tents are right there so you can hop over, sleep a couple hours on a mattress and even have the option to shower before your next flight.
So then, back to the PAX to wait for a flight to Qatar... that was fun. Finally made it though!
Nothing like a Muslim country in Ramadan, had to make a huge take out order since all the food service stores will be closed all day tomorrow for fasting. Sucks.
As with any post I make while over here, I am fully aware that many have passed before me in much worse conditions. I'm not posting this to brag or complain about the air travel around the AOR. Those who have been here know and I'm not trying to build myself up in front of those who haven't been here. I never went outside the wire, never was Rambo but did what I could to maintain the networks they real people use to do their job, connect home or call home. At the end of the day.. or in the middle of it, when you're sitting on a plane, in full armor, can't even imagine how much you are sweating and hot fracking hot it is, going on a couple hours sleep in a couple days, and look over.. and there the real ... I hate to use this word since it's so warped today, but the real "hero". It's someone who's doing their job, doing it the best they can in some pretty shitty conditions with no hope of reward in regards to money or promotion. Those are the people who have my respect regardless of if they push a desk, punch down 110 blocks, refuel, or go outside the wire time after time.
I can't even imagine how my grandparents did it in WWII much less those who went before them.