I decided to set up a blog to keep everyone that wants to know updated with Erika's travels through Iraq over the next five weeks. I hope this is a convenient way to keep everyone posted, but if you have any trouble accessing the site or whatever, leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I will try to fix it.
I will try to post something approximately once a week on here while she is gone and probably not more frequently than that since there really shouldn't be that much interesting information to pass on. I will, however, post everything of interest that I know on here, so, as a favor to me and also to avoid the kinds of things that happened on her first trip to Afghanistan, please do not call me and ask me if I have heard from her since the latest bombing that you just heard about on the news. Yes, there is a war going on in Iraq, but those kinds of phone calls really don't help anything, so please just keep them to yourself.
I am actually very optimistic about this trip. Erika will be surrounded by the best trained, best equipped, and all around best men and women on the planet ,and she will not be out and about in the countryside, but will be well within the boundaries of coalition controlled areas. In addition, she has additional, personal security guards dedicated solely to her and her group. There will be some travel between BIAP and the green zone, and also some helicopter travel between bases, but that is all (no personal vehicles or humvees).
But anyway, enough about that, let me update you on the details of the trip so far. So, after months of preparation, project delays, contractual issues, security clearances, vaccinations, staffing issues, praying, some last-minute frantic packing, and so on, Erika left the Atlanta airport at 7:20 pm Eastern on 1/30/07. After a short flight and an even shorter layover, she left Washington-Dulles on a direct flight to Kuwait and arrived at 9:40 am Eastern time this morning 1/31. (Kuwait is 8 hours ahead, so that made it 5:40 in the evening.)
She said the flight from DC was comfortable and fine and has had no problems so far other than she REALLY wants a shower, which she was told she may get to have tomorrow. Anyway, she is at an Army base for the night and will leave for the Air Force base, Ali Al-Saleem (sp?), first thing on Thursday (tomorrow) morning (after some much needed rest).
She should be taking a flight that leaves at 1:50 pm local time (5:50 am Eastern) to Baghdad Internation Airport (BIAP), which will put her in Baghdad sometime early tomorrow morning. There is a chance that they won't get on that flight and they do have an alternate later flight lined up, so I really won't know if she's made it to Baghdad probably until Friday sometime.
Anyway, that's all I got for now. Stay warm.
M
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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