Monday, 23 April 2007

Packed up stuff, met the Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO) and a couple of others for coffee at Green Beans.
Gathered up my stuff, said a couple more goodbyes and headed to passenger terminal at 11 am to check into the flight to Balad.
I would be traveling with the POC from my base, LTC who was finally on his way home after an 18 month tour. I really like LTC , a straight-shooter from Tennessee. He’s straight forward, tells it like he sees it, very practical and doesn’t seem to be impressed too easily. Hopefully he’ll let me know next time he’s in Atlanta so I can repay his hospitality with a nice seafood dinner at Pappadeux (apparently he’s a big fan of that place). He and his two NCO’s were on the same C-130 flight with me and it was nice to have company. When we arrived at the next base I found out I had about 8 hours to kill with no where to go and no idea where anything was. LTC had me accompany them as he settled into his transient lodging and said hi to a couple of his Engineer Brigade colleagues. When we were in the Engineer Brigade building, apparently there was a 3-star Army General there at the same time. It would have been neat to see him or even shake his hand...I guess it’s kind of like a celebrity siting or something. We walked outside and saw his two SUVs with the 3 star emblem in the tinted front windshield. Pretty neat.
LTC and I went to dinner and I had some kind of Indian vegetable curry. LTC had fried fish, mac and cheese, peas and pecan pie. There’s always an interesting variety of foods to choose from. He dropped me off and I said my grateful thank you for helping pass at least 3 hours of my time with company. At that point my night turned into a struggle to snooze sitting up and staying awake until 2 am when we headed out to the bird. It is not fun to sit in a holding tent.