Aug 13 2008
Waiting in Kuwait
Last week, while Rick was in Kuwait waiting for his flight out of country, he called me in Mosul. He told me that SGM Franz, the NCOIC of the USACE reception station, was expecting my arrival in Kuwait and would take care of me. In fact, he said I would be a VIP. Having been through tent city here at Ali Al Salem Airbase three previous times, I didn’t know what could possibly constitute VIP status. I figured it might mean that my tent would be closer to the latrine than the non-VIP. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that USACE has a separate office building in Kuwait where they allow senior individuals to sleep instead of the tent city accommodations. The building even has male and female latrines, but I still have to walk to the shower. SGM F acquired the building for his use when USACE closed the Resident Office on the airbase.
On my flight down from Mosul, we stopped in Baghdad, dropped of some passengers and picked up a few. COL Pease, COL West, and LTC Roemhildt, all from USACE GRD in Baghdad, joined the flight. I didn’t see them on the bus from the airfield to the reception area. I found out later that SGM F picked them up in a van, and they didn’t have to ride the bus. COL W is going on his R&R, while COL P and LTC R and redeploying home. I figured COL P and LTC R would be waiting with me for the Freedom Flight back to Ft Benning later this week. I was wrong. They flew out last night on a commercial flight and don’t have to outprocess through Ft Benning. They get to outprocess through USACE in Winchester, VA. I think I’d prefer that VIP status!
I’m a bit concerned with how “Very Important” you’ve become: standing ovations, no more sleeping in tents, gifts from foreign countries, etc. While it is true that you are very important to me, your “Very Important Person” status will soon meet reality.
I blame it on Aegis. As a client, I wasn’t even supposed to open my own car door. I told them the first time I’m sitting in the van waiting for my wife to run around and open the door for me, I would have you call them to complain.
Maybe you could retrain yourself to run around and open the door for Mugs?
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 08/14/2008 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
Now let’s not get crazy. According to the Chaplain, the key to reintegration after a deployment is to not change anything right away.
DId you see that Mugs?? He won’t change it ‘right away’. I would take that as a commitment to changing it in the future!!!!! 😛
I won’t hold my breath.
Wise woman!!!
I remember once asking Trudy to do something for me 5-6 years ago, to which she responded with ‘yes master’ whilst lifting her arms up, placing one on top of the other. It was like something out of that TV show ‘I dream of Jeannie’.
I still celebrate that long, distant and never to reoccur memory.