The journey: Part 1 (Niceville, FL to Kyrgyzstan)

The day is actually here, the day to board the plane and head out for Afghanistan.  Everyone that has been on deployments have all told me that the worst part of the deployment was the getting there.  I am about to see exactly why this is.  The best way for me to explain the trip is to show you the timeline of events….so here I go.

NOTE:  Time format is:  CST (Local time) - Of course it is in military time.

7 Sept 11:
Time 0400 (0400) - Wake up for trip to Ft Walton Beach, FL Airport
         0600 (0600) - Board plane for Fayetteville, North Carolina (Stopwatch
                             started)
         1009 (1109) - Arrived Fayetteville, NC
         1109 (1209) - Arrived Ft Bragg Army Base by base taxi (Taxi driver is 
                                from my hometown of Mount Vernon, New York!)

Waiting at Ft Bragg for over 8 hours.

         1930 (2030) - Board plane for Bangor, Maine (Along with 250 Army 
                                Airborne troops.)

Two women from the American Legion Auxiliary hugged every person boarding the plane.

         2115 (2215) - Arrived Bangor, Maine (20 people greeted us upon 
                                arrival...this is at 1015PM on a weeknight!)

In the airport, someone's parents brought a box of homemade lobster rolls (left). One wasn't enough for me, so i bought another one at the airport restaurant (right).

         2305 (0005) - Depart Bangor, Maine for  Leipzig/Halle, Germany

Yes it was a "normal" commercial like plane that I traveled on. It's a special company that the military hires to fly us overseas.

8 September 2011:
         0535 (1235) - Arrive Leipzig/Halle, Germany

Of course I had a beer in Germany!

         0805 (1505) - Board plane for Manas Transit Center, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
                                (go ahead and look it up to see where it is...I had to!)    
         1405 (0135) - Arrived Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (Manas) (Stopwatch stopped)

Stopwatch that was started when I board the plane from Florida and landed in Kyrgyzstan.

So, we get to Manas in the middle of the night, over 32 hours after leaving my house, and we are made to sit through a 1-hour “fire hose” briefing (don’t ask me what they said).  We were then given time to find our sleeping tent and drop off our bags...oh no...it is not time to sleep!  We next have to go get our additional equipment issued to us at 0430 which take us to 0600 when we are finally released back to our beds for sleep.  Now that is a LONG day!