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Published: December 29th 2010
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BRRRRRRR!!
Holy Crap it's cold!! So we meet again. I didn't really expect to deploy so soon again, but as things turned out, here I am. I have to try not to sound too salty because I know plenty of people who have deployed way more, and for longer times. The first one was fun, but I can see how this would get really old really fast. Not sure how people with families can cope! Enough lamenting, and on with the story telling!
Our date of deployment was fudged a little at the end. First they give us a window of about 4 days that we might deploy so we can somewhat plan. Then they pick a day (ours happened to be one day BEFORE our window started) -- this usually doesn't happen until a week or two before we leave. And in our case, the day before we were told it was being pushed back 24 hours because of weather. What a nice Christmas gift! I made use of the time by relaxing with the parents, working on a puzzle with mom, and catching up on sleep (when Meem wasn't waking me up with texts....psst!) All in all, a nice white Christmas!
So
Tent
Where I'm sleeping 2 days after Christmas, at around 2:30pm, my parents dropped me off at the squadron. Now, this is my first time going in such a large group. Last time, I was meeting the unit out there, so it was just me, and a small group of ragtag officers who were in the same boat. I did not fully appreciate how nice that was until now. When you're traveling with such a large group of people, there is all kinds of buffer time built into the schedule. We spent a ton of time standing around in the cold. From the squadron, we went to the armory and picked up our weapons. It felt pretty good and comforting to be getting my pistol back. It may be hard to understand if you've never carried a weapon, but there is something really comforting about having it. Makes you feel very safe. Not that I'll need it, but it's nice to know it's there in case I do. It feels so good and natural, that I think when I get home I'm going to get a concealed permit license and buy a pistol. Highly recommend. I've become a convert. I'm sure this is hard for some of my northern friends and family to read and believe, but it's true!
From the armory, we made the treachorous drive up to Cherry Point, NC, where we left from. I say treachorous because of the great storm, but really it wasn't that bad. Once we got there, we sat around for another 4 hours. Lots of waiting! There were some very nice people from the USO up there who had soup and cake and snacks. How nice of them to be there so late during the holidays!
From Cherry Point, we again went through Bangor, Maine. I’m really not sure why, except that we spend money in that airport, so maybe that’s the only explanation needed. I bought myself a couple of scratch-off lottery tickets (my new obsession) and won $3 on one (the price of the ticket – so of course I went and bought another. Lost on that one). They fed us so much food! Every time I turned around we were getting more food. One of the meals was actually good! Haha It was mostly airline food. They charter a flight for us, but it’s with some company that does big charter flights like this, not one of the major airlines.
We stopped in Leipzig, Germany briefly. It was a pretty comfortable 6-hour flight over there. From there we went to Manas, Kyrgyzstan, which is where I sit now writing this. It was another 6 hour flight to get here (which is 2 more meals. Wow! Seriously?) Once we get here, we wait for a military flight to take us to our final destination in Afghanistan.
Manas reminds me a lot of Qatar – there are air force personnel here who run the base and this is considered their deployment. They have alcohol and don’t carry weapons. Doesn’t feel like deployment. Of course, we can’t have any of the alcohol. Bummer. A beer would have been nice. It isn’t too bad here, except for the freezing cold! Words can’t express. I’m using a foot warmer right now – in my tent! I got so chilled from being outside. Holy crap! I hope there are a lot of foot/hand warmers in Afghanistan, or that’s going at the top of my wish list. It looks like it may not be quite as cold there. I’m practically in Russia right now in the heart of winter – not exactly comfortable. It’s so cold that moisture has crystalized – around each tree branch, rope, metal cord, there’s a halo of white fuzz radiating out like the whiskers on those magnetic bearded guys we used to play with when we were little (and someone sent in a care package last time haha)
I took a hot shower, had some ok dinner, and am now on my rack ready to sleep at 7pm. Not bad! Wish I had another day to sit around and do nothing, but holy crap is it cold here! It’ll be nice to be settled in to my can in ghan. More to follow!
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Ann Cassler
non-member comment
Glad to see you got one of those beanies and they let you wear it in uniform. Stay warm as much as you can. Love you.