What day is it now?

We finally managed to leave Camp Doha and drive out to the airfield (amid constant rumors the flight was being canceled again). We arrived at the airfield around 7 pm. Once we arrived we were told our flight was indeed leaving, but it had been pushed back to 3:00 am. No biggie, this is why god made iPods and paperback books, right?

The time to load up and head out to the airfield arrived and we all bundled onto the cramped little Korean made buses to drive out the plane. There it was! A real live C130 in the flesh! Certainly nothing can go wrong this time, right? All we have to do is get off the bus, walk the 20 yards over the plane, get in and take off!

3:00 am came and went, and we still weren't on a plane. "There's a problem with the hydraulic system on the plane, so we may end up sending you back to Doha." And as if on cue, a combination of heavy sighs and incredulous giggling rippled through the bus. You could hear the eyes rolling.

An hour later (still on the bus) they came around and told us we were switching planes. WOOHOO!! Lets get on and go!

Between the delays getting going and the time change (Iraq is an hour ahead of Kuwait) it was 7:00 am by the time we touched down in Iraq at BIAP. What do we do now? Why, we wait for a flight out of BIAP to take us to Numaniyah. And we waited, and we talked, and we made phone calls, and I had the following conversation several times:

Me: "We need to go to Numaniyah."
Them: "Huh?"
Me: "Numaniyah."
Them: "What? Numa-what?"
Me: "Numa . . . NI . . . yah. Numaniyah."
Them: "Where's that?"
Me: "Near Al Kut. South of Baghdad."
Them: "Oh. Never heard of that. We don't fly there."

So, long story short I worked out a plan with a Major I work with at Numaniyah to fly to Taji and catch a bird from there to Numaniyah. The BIAP people had helicopters flying to Taji later in the evening around 8:00 pm, so everything looked good. I went into the tent near the terminal and fell asleep since I had been up close to 24 hours.

At about 7:00 pm, the word sounded through the speakers surrounding the waiting area. "The flight to Taji has been cancelled because of weather." Ok, enough is enough. I'm done playing the game!

So now I'm back at Camp Victory, in the same tent I stayed in before I left to come home on leave. I'm jet lagged, I've been kept up and woken up and herded all over Kuwait. I smell and I probably need to shave. I'm getting some sleep and I'll find a trip home at my leisure.