The Last Month

Well, January was eventful, to say the least. Aside from the normal everyday grind of work, I occupied my off-time with my roommate making a rap video about our jobs. It was funny, but perhaps not the brightest idea, as it ended up getting us both in trouble, and delayed my departure from Iraq while I was awaiting punishment.

A few days ago, I finally got cleared to leave, and the race was on to find a flight home. Since I had missed my scheduled return flight, I couldn't be booked on a flight until I was cleared to leave. But by that time, the flights for the next 2 weeks had be filled. So I was scheduled to leave the AOR almost at the end of the month! Not good. Thankfully I was able to get orders written for me allowing me to an "additional crew member" on a C-130 that was heading down al Udeid. I went to their squadron, put all my stuff in the van that they use to drive to their plane, and got ready to brief. As we were about to brief the flight, we got a call saying our mission had changed, and we were no longer going to al Udeid. Crap! So I called my squadron and had them pick me up to take me to the PAX terminal. There I was able to get myself onto a space-available flight down to al Udeid. That is where I am now, but I still am not booked on a flight out of here for another 2 weeks! So I put my name on the list for another space-available flight back to the US that leaves tomorrow sometime, I think. I will have to go there and hope that someone didn't make it here to get onto that flight and then can take their spot. Wish me luck!

The New Year

We finished our shift at 10:30 last night, so afterwards we went to the rec center for the New Years "Party." It was basically the same rec center, but with ridiculously loud music and free sparkling grape juice. We played cards for a bit to pass the time until midnight, then did the countdown and drank the juice. It's crazy that a whole year has already passed. It seems like it was just recently that I was back in Vegas for New Years last year. This year has gone by very quickly. But I suppose that is a good thing. I am ready to get '08 behind me, and hopefully '09 will be better.