Kuwait!

After a one-day delay, we left Kabul for Kuwait on the 15th. I was up around 1 in the morning unable to sleep even though our show-up time was 6 AM. Makes for a very long day. As is typical, the loading and convoy was delay a couple of hours, but that still left lots of time for the 2 PM boarding. The airport is only 10 minutes from Camp Phoenix. So, we waited 2 hours at Phoenix, then another 6 at Kabul International Airport. Temps were upper 80's and dry so not bad. We took a C17, the big 4 engine cargo jet for a 4 hour trip. The pilot informed us about 20 minutes after takeoff that we had exited Afghanistan airspace. Hoorah!

We landed in Kuwait about 6:00 PM local just before sunset with the temp about 115. We boarded buses for the 2 hour ride to Camp Arifjan where we do all our check-out. Most of us were pretty beat by this time but we still had to unload all of our bags, about 1000 of them. So we spent 2 hours in the dark 100 degree heat sorting sea bags, frame packs and back packs, then hauling them to our hot and dusty tents. I finally hit the rack after midnight local, over 24 hours after I got up. Still a bit loopy, but only 5 days to go! We are safe as well; no shooting is going on here.