Home Again (sort of)

Ok, so the Bucksnort Saloon isn't really home, but it sure feels that way after a week on the road.

The Air Force sought out their revenge on me starting at 2:50 A.M. yesterday when they curtly announced that I would not be able to fly directly from K2 to Salerno. The aircraft was full of cargo.
"Are you telling me you can't get one person with only a carry-on bag onto that aircraft?"

"It would throw the weight and balance of the aircraft off Sir."

"I've worked as aircrew before and I am certified by the Air Force to do load planning, I'm sure I can work that out for you."

"Unless you are on orders as Mission Essential Ground Crew, it would be against regulations to manifest you on this flight Sir."

"Can that regulation be waived by the air crew?"

"Yes Sir."

"Can I speak to the air crew please."

"They're still on crew rest for another hour and can't be disturbed."

Needless to say, I lost this battle, but I was finally able to manifest on another flight that left 4 hours later that was scheduled to go to Salerno...eventually. Our first stop was in Herat near the Iranian border where we picked up a group from the Montana National Guard and a couple of their vehicles, then it was off to Bagram. During the hour and a half here, the Montana people disembarked. the plane was reconfigured with pallets and we finally took off for Salerno with 3 pallets of cargo and 25 more people mostly from the Texas National Guard.

After a 4 hour delay getting out of Uzbekistan, 6 hours of flight time and 2 hours of ground time, we finally descended in a cloud of dust onto Salerno's little dirt runway. Cleared up a few hot issues, finally got to chow (my entire diet up until that point had consisted of 4 nutrigrain bars and an Otis Spunkmeyer Muffin) then back to the Bucksnort.

Craig and I struggled through a viewing of a bootlegged copy of "Open Water" and then having had only 4 hours of sleep in the past 3 days, I decided to try out the pillow that was in the package from Pam that was waiting me. It works like a charm, not even the new Apaches from 2-6 Cav firing their rockets at 1 A.M. stirred me from my slumber, and Jimminyhad still remains silent.