Goodbye, Middle East!

I’ve just arrived in Georgia after many, many arduous hours of waiting, preparing, flying, and loading. It’s been a long 96 hours since I began the process, but the whole process has been surprisingly smooth so far.

Check-in at Bagram for the flight to Kuwait was at 1500, and we ultimately took off around 1845. Our bird was a C17 full to the brim with passengers and equipment. C17s are equipped with “middle” seats that look like commercial airplane seats, as well as middle-facing “jump” seats on the sides (see picture, above). There are no walls, no carpet, no yucky airplane food, no stewardesses. However, a few minutes into the flight, the passengers are able to lay on the floor wherever they see fit – and there is a lot of floor space to enjoy. So my friends and I went to the back of the plane (near the cargo ramp) with our pillows and took a little nap, and following our siesta started the movie “Fight Club”. The ride was smooth but loud (which is normal for a C17), and we arrived in Kuwait at around midnight Bagram time. We made quick work of checking in, getting our billets, checking on our outbound flight, having our first McDonald’s meal in six months, and using a gator to get our multiple, multiple duffel bags. I checked email at the MWR before going to sleep around sunrise.

I was assigned to a tent with 15 other women, so sleep was difficult overnight. I had all night and all day to sleep, but ultimately ended up exhausted from all of the interruptions. I got up around 1100, had lunch, checked email again, talked with my friends, went to the gym, did some laundry, ate dinner, packed up my bags, staged my bags, and ate midnight chow. It wasn’t supposed to be a busy day, but it was.

We began to get into formation around 0100. Now, if you think that customs when returning to the US for vacation is bad …. Try customs after a 6-month deployment. I had to dump out all 4 of my duffel bags as well as my single carry on, have it all inspected, then repack (see picture). I finished with customs around 0730, passed my two metal detector checks on the way to the terminal, and settled in for a long day of hurrying up to wait.

The lockdown waiting area had about 10 tents as well as sundry amenities like Pizza Hut, a coffee shop, bathrooms, etc. We were moved from tent to tent all day with roll calls in between. I managed to take a little nap, watch an episode of Army Wives, and start the first “Lord of the Rings” movie. The pizza was terrible, but the espresso chai latte was fabulous. We got into formation again around 1600 to prepare for our flight to Europe.

I was traveling with two friends – well, one good friend, a SFC who had worked in the admin section of the hospital, and one of his soldiers. The SFC volunteered to help with the baggage loading, and the other two of us basically stuck with him. There was an ulterior motive to this madness: those that help with the loading tend to get the choice seats on the plane. And when the flight is 6-7 hours long … seating makes a big difference.

Quick tangent: while waiting for umpteen dozen hours in the terminal, I encountered two soldiers who were wearing James’ unit patch. (For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Army uniform, here’s the down and dirty: on the left shoulder sleeve soldiers wear the patch of the unit to which they are assigned, and on the right shoulder sleeve they wear the patch of the unit to which they were assigned during deployment. These two patches may be the same, or they may be different, depending on the number of times the soldier has deployed and the unit(s) to which he was assigned during the deployment. Left and right shoulder sleeves identify the soldier’s unit and combat status.) These two soldiers were members of James’ unit who were redeploying a week or so earlier than the rest of the unit! In fact, the chief warrant officer I spoke with was the person who processed James’ request for assignment to the active component of the Army. We had a great talk about their deployment, their reintegration plans, their homecoming ceremony (which, by the way, is scheduled for the 30th but is subject to change), and about the military ball in November. It was a small slice of normalcy and reminded me that the Army is a small, small place.

I was yet again reminded of the small world of the Army when we stopped briefly prior to arriving on the flight line. I stepped off the bus and was greeted by an exuberant, “Autumn! Autumn!” It was a friend of mine from residency (she was a neonatology fellow during my residency) who is deploying to Iraq for a tour as a general medical officer. She was traveling with a few other doctors (mostly pediatricians) and although I only had a brief period to talk with them, I was astonished at their innocent and oblivious questions. They asked, for example, “Did you ever get attacked?” and “Did you feel prepared to deploy?” (First of all, I just spent 6 months in a war zone – of course we were attacked! – and second of all, is anyone ever really prepared to see the types of things I have seen?!) I am so different – in good and bad ways - than my peers who have not deployed. I’m going to have to come to terms with that as I reintegrate.

We ended up loading the plane at 1830, and taking off from Kuwait at 2100. Let’s do the math here: it took 20 hours to prepare and load ~250 military passengers and their ~ 750 bags onto the commercial DC-10 which would fly us out of the theater of operations. Painful, but tolerable. Almost anything would be tolerable when the ultimate outcome is arrival in the states!

We landed in Shannon, Ireland, for an hour or two layover. The amenities were impressive – a duty-free shop, a real European bar (of which we are forbidden from partaking, although the Air Force servicemembers with layovers in Shannon are allotted 2 beers….?), and showers. It was a 10-hour flight across the Atlantic - most of which I spent sleeping - and a crazy rush to turn in our gear once we arrived at Fort Benning. We were released around lunchtime, and I went to the Benning Army lodging facility to get a room that I wouldn't have to share with 5 other women. :) I then went for filet mignon at a real restaurant and saw a movie, like a regular person might on a Sunday afternoon. It was perfect.

I have this unreal - perhaps surreal - feeling that I just can’t shake. It’s as if I went through the Stargate on February 28th and it fast-forwarded me to September 13th. So much has happened in the interim, but like a dream, time seemed to alternately stop and fly during my deployment. At this moment, it feels like I blinked on February 28th, and when I opened my eyes again, I found myself in the same terminal in Shannon 6 months later. It feels bizarre to be headed home, to know that in a few short days I will see my mother and my son again. I have described my anxiety regarding homecoming in prior blog posts, but luckily my anxiety has been replaced with untainted euphoria and jubilation.