Day 28

Wow, what a couple days.  I'm writing this a day later because we've been in transit for so long!

So Saturday night we were escorted to the airport in SC by veterans on motorcycles, and we had local police escort us as well.  Needless to say, with flashing police lights allowing us to avoid stopping at lights and stop signs, we made it to the airport pretty quickly.  We arrived to quite the send-off!

Boy scouts, girl scouts, veteran groups, etc. had all gathered in a hanger to talk to us, feed us, and give us little gifts.  We each ended up with a bag of snacks and a full belly.  Of course, this was nearing midnight, so I didn't know how it was going to settle.

So then they called out different groups to board the plane.  First was O-5s and O-4s.  Ok, rank has its privileges.  Then they called Senior Chiefs.  Ok, most of them have had more time in the service than me, even though they're enlisted.  Not too much heartburn yet.  Then they called the E6 and below to head to the back of the plane.  Getting antsy.  Then the Chiefs were called.  I have a problem with this!  I have been in longer than many Chiefs, and I certainly outrank a Chief.  I was tired and cranky and wasn't a happy camper. The O-3's were the absolute last to board the plane.  And it was alphabetical to some degree.  I ended up boarding the plane 3rd to last.  Out of 120 passengers.  Luckily, the flight to Norfolk was just us, so I sat next to a window, and no one was next to me.  That was the peak of the trip.

We had to deplane in Norfolk for 3.5 hours.  There were chairs, but nothing other than the floor to stretch out on.  So I stretched out on the floor and fell asleep for a while.  Not comfortable, but I was tired.  Oh yes, and the Air Force people we had to pick up were waiting.  Except instead of the 20 people we were told to expect, it was at least 60.  Needless to say, I no longer had a free seat next to me.  No real complaints, because he wasn't overweight and he didn't snore.  But the Bose sound cancelling headphones were fantastic!

The flight to Germany took about 7.5 hours, and we were moving.  We were making about 615 mph over the ground, thanks to a 100 knot tailwind!  Not too bad.  During that time, Delta played 3 movies.  While I didn't plug into the audio jacks, I saw most of them, meaning I didn't sleep too well.  Sigh.  I listed to music on my phone and read some Frank Herbert.  But we landed in Frankfurt around 6pm local time, if I recall correctly. We were shuttled off to a special building just for us.  There were a few vendors in there, and I did have a beer.  It wasn't really as good as Resurrection, but I wanted to try it for the experience.  I think we'll have better luck (and beer) on the way home.

We left Germany and the sun had set.  So we were in for a 5.5 hour flight to Kuwait.  I actually watched and listened to the newest X-men movie, First Class, maybe?  It was ok.  I think the actor that played Charles Xavier was the Last King of Scotland.  Sigh.