First of all, I am back in the United States. Yay.
Unfortunately, the return trip home has been awful. My arranged flight from Kabul to Kandahar went flawlessly. It was a quick ride on an Australian C-130, and it worked fine. Unfortunately, the living conditions in Kandahar were pretty terrible. We had to sleep on cots, with no linens or warm things, on sand. The tent sides were made of canvas, and it felt like the ceiling or walls were going to rip off in the wind. We also didn't have anything to do, so we spend about 2 hours in the dining facility at each meal, just to kill time. We froze to death at night and were quite uncomfortable. But surely everything would be better from here, right?
Wrong. We, of course, had to travel in the middle of the night. I don't know why the Navy chooses these flights, but they always seem to take off at 0200 in the morning, which means we have to be up all night long. Anyway, after they changed the departure time twice, we ended up getting picked up from the tent at 2315. A pretty late start to the travels, I'd say. But we eventually took a C-17 to Kuwait. It was about a 4.5 hour ride, if I recall correctly. Very uncomfortable, as we were still wearing our body armor. It was also pretty drafty and cold.
When we got to Kuwait, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the DFAC, but then had to get on buses to drive 2 hours to our camp. We were at Camp Virginia in October, but this time we were at Camp Arifjan. The conditions again didn't fail to disappoint. We were in a tent again, but at least we had mattresses I guess. Still with the flapping of canvas sides and tops though. We thought the conditions would be better on the way out, as a morale thing. But we were wrong.
We were in Kuwait for way too long. We had about a day's worth of activities that we crammed into 5. Oh wait, the plane broke, so we got a whole extra glorious day in Kuwait out of it. Fantastic. I read my Kindle for many hours of each day. I also found the pool and spent a couple hours there one day. No one else seemed that interested in the pool, and it wasn't much fun to go by myself. But there was waaaay too much sitting around. I was actually much more stressed at the end of it than at the beginning.
But after the 23 hour delay, we did leave the camp at around 1830. This is of course, after being awake at 0600 that morning by the obnoxious reveille that plays on the loud speaker. But we went from there to the Customs office, and we had all of our bags pre-screened. Then we hung out there for a while, and then got on the buses for our 2 hour ride back to the airport. At the airport, there was more requisite standing around for no apparent reason, and we seemed to collect many more people that were taking our flight with us.
Flying from Kuwait to Germany was 5 hours 30 minutes. It was pre-dawn, so it was mostly dark. The plane was pretty quiet, and I think I dozed off a couple times. Still not great sleep.
In Germany, we picked up even more people. Including families with small crying kids. Luckily, they weren't seated near me. But the sun had risen, and the plane was pretty light for the 8 hour flight from Germany to BWI. I didn't sleep on that leg, much as I tried. But we landed, and I had a wonderful greeting from Emili. I had a Monster before landing, so I hope I appeared to be awake!
At home, the cats were very curious, but then it was eventually evident that they remembered me, which was nice. Except Hobbes, but we hadn't met yet. That relationship will just take time. Ella was the most affectionate, which was pretty cute. But I had my Chipotle and Coldstone meal, and it was wonderful.
The next day, we slept in a bit, had breakfast at Miss Shirley's, and packed up some stuff for me. We drove down to Richmond and visited with Mom, Dad, and Lauren. There was another little fellow there, though I don't remember his name. John maybe? A foster infant. But we all tried Krispy Kreme S'mores, which were great, and had pasta a la caprice for dinner. It was good to visit, though I've not yet been able to unwind.
After dinner, Emili and I went our separate ways. She headed back to Baltimore to take care of the cat circus, and I went to Norfolk for checking in stuff. Unfortunately, it was a terrible day to drive because it rained so much. Probably not the best conditions for someone who hasn't been driving for the last 8 months. But we each made it to our respective locations. Unfortunately for me, the theme continued, leaving me with much crappier accommodations now than on the way out in September. I am currently in the enlisted barracks. And this is my room. There are two beds in here, I had to put the linens on the bed myself, there are no towels, or anything like that. Oh yes, and my room shares a bathroom with the room next door. Just how I wanted to live when I got home. Seriously, the conditions in Kabul were better.
Today I got through NMPS in 45 minutes for the out-processing. That's great news, except now I'm trying to figure out things at the ECRC, which is where I am technically attached on paper. And we've been going back and forth today because they don't want to write me TAD orders to the Academy. Which means they would have me waste my time living here for a month, showing up at 9:30am each day and then doing nothing else. What the hell is the point of that? I have a couple emails from the Naval Academy to people here asking for me, so hopefully that will help. But I don't have any solid information yet.
So I am tired, stressed, cranky, and quite irritable. I feel like I, and others like me, are not appreciated by the Navy at all. And I wish at least 1 person here would use their brain! So I am home, but not at all home.
