Up in the air

The soldier I've been waiting on finally arrived night before last, so I can complete the final leg of my journey.  After a brief reunion, I showed him around the airbase.  With the heat and accommodations he was less than impressed, so we immediately went to the passenger terminal to get on the waiting list for a space available flight to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.

I had already put myself on the standby list after I first arrived so my priority was pretty high at this point.  His priority was very low since there were over a hundred people already on the list to that particular destination, and knowing that anyone returning from their two week R&R (Rest and Recuperation) had a higher priority of getting back into that theater of operations than we did.  This made our chances pretty slim of getting any immediate flights together.  Tomorrow there's just one flight flying out, but today's multiple flights out took care of most of the backlog, so our chances are pretty decent of flying out in the afternoon.

Ug, the afternoon.  It's been consistently 120 deg F for the past couple of afternoons.  When you show up for stand-by status roll call, you must have all your bags and all your gear, to include body armor and helmet.  Did I mention that we're flying in a military aircraft and not a contracted commercial carrier?  That means sitting in jump seats, wearing all of your heavy protective equipment, packed in literally like sardines, and NO AIR CONDITIONING!

If given my druthers, I'd prefer a flight during the middle of the night so that the temperature would only be a balmy 95-100 degrees.  But the only flight available will be during the brain boiling hottest part of the day making my trip like flying in a tin can in the sun.  I need to get to Afghanistan soon as my replacement is asking for me, so this is hand I've drawn.  Although there's always a chance we'll get bumped and get rolled onto the next flight if higher priority personnel arrive.  Nothing is certain here.  One way or another tomorrow is up in the air.

More to follow.