Sunday, September 1, 2013

Month 13 Day 1

This morning was approximately as fun as a heart attack.  I took all
of my bags over to get scanned along with the rest of the guys from
the RCT.  When they put one of my big bags on the Robert Burns they said that
they saw a round under one of the armor plates that go in my vest.
The colonel had just promised to use non-judicial punishment to
restrict anyone’s leave and generally make anyone’s life harder if
they were found with a round.  I thought it was bullshit, and that
remains to be seen, but I was like, oh shit.

They tore apart my bag and couldn’t find this round.  Then they put my
stuff on the conveyer and came back.  When the guy came back I asked
him
“Where was it.”
“I’m not sure, I did not find it with the scanner, but it was rolling
around on the ground by the scanner.”

Awesome, so they tore apart my gear because there was a round on the
Robert Burns but not in my gear.  I put my shit back together and headed out.

I pounded four melatonin and slept through the day until 8PM.  I woke
up, had a shower, chow, I was feeling great, mostly because I was
going home.  Then we had to march out to the search facility again
with all of our carry-on luggage at 10:30.  We did the same stupid
procedure as this morning and were informed that we were going to have
even more stringent search criterion on us than in a regular airport.
I threw out my shave gel and squired a bunch into a plastic bag so I
could meet Suzan clean-shaven.  We’ll see if that works.  This is more
than a little bit stupid because I have my rifle and pistol on me.  We
all get through the search facility and then march all of the way back
across the base to another holding facility.  We are told if any of us
get out of line we will have broken quarantine and will al have to go
through the process again.  Then when we get to our destination or
guards all bug out and leave us standing in the middle of base.  What
the hell was the point?

So I’m sitting here waiting to board my flight that leaves at 04:20 in
the morning.  I have been prepping for the move since 08:30 this
morning.   The efficiency of this is just amazing.  The really stupid
part is that the whole point of this base is to do just what we are
doing, transit to and from America.  The way the USAF has set this
place up you’d think that is the secondary goal and that the real
point is to live in giant sheet-metal buildings with air conditioners,
drink beer at night, and stuff your face during the day.  They don’t
even maintain the base themselves. They’ve got contractors in the Chow
hall, picking up trash, and dummies in the guard posts.  We did see
USAF personnel working on trash pickup, one guy rode around with the
contractor and watched him work, they also supervised the chow hall
contractors.  The Army did all of the searching.  The USAF did weigh
us before we got on the plane.  They are really in-the-shit to be
getting their combat pay.