Deploying Is Hard

Over the past 3 days I have internationally hitch hiked over 3 continents. As you all know, I was set to deploy this January, and well, I did. I'm in Egypt right now, boys and girls. And it was not easy by any stretch of the word to get here.

We left Fort Campbell on the morning of January 10th. Our flight was to leave out of Nashville so we were bussed to the airport. We checked all our 50+ pound duffle bags and thought we were good to go. After waiting on our delayed flight to Newark, NJ for a few hours, the flight up and got cancelled from under us! My Commander had to scramble to get all 28 of us on some flight, some way, somehow. 

So we flew to Houston, TX. Our original flight from Newark was supposed to take us to Frankfurt, Germany. Well that was totally out of the picture now, as we had to travel through London, England instead. Of course we waited nearly 8 hours in Houston before we could board the redeye to London.

 

Once in London, which certainly isn't Frankfurt, we had to beg for a flight into Cairo from Egypt Air. They were very displeased with our last minute 28 passenger request. It was hell trying to get our 50+ pound duffle bags transferred from one airline to the next in one country to the next. We waited in London for another 8 hours. 

 

I ate some DELICIOUS fish and chips in London.

When we finally landed in Cairo, Egypt and we deplaned onto the runway, the smell hit me immediately. It was very early in the morning and it was that familiar damp, standing water and garbage smell that Iraq has. I never thought I'd smell that again. 

Immigration and customs were a breeze to get through. Our baggage came around the carousel. Duffle bag after duffle bag. 56 were supposed to come out. Only 53 made it all the way from Nashville to Cairo. It was pretty amazing we didn't lose more, but absolutely devastating to the people who lost an entire duffle. The worst part is, all 56 duffles were tagged wrong. When we had to switch planes to go to Houston, the guys in Nashville who loaded our heavy duffles were pissed and slapped anyone's new tag on any duffle. So the missing bags in Cairo can't really be tracked because the tag for their bag made it to the destination, but not their actual bag. Huge disaster!

We got shuffled to the coldest damn terminal in the Cairo airport where we waited with the remaining duffles for another 4 hours. That's where the Czech Air Force picked us up and brought us to North Sinai, Egypt.
 

I have never had a more tiring trip ever. Ever.  3 days in airports is absolutely bad. But I'm here now, and I'm ready for this adventure to start!