A 41 hour birthday is a neat concept...
The reality of it was not as nice as you might think...
Let me start at the beginning. I woke up on April 7th at about 7 in the morning in Phonsavan, Laos. I took a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast at the hotel dining room just like every other morning for the previous month. We were scheduled to fly from Phonsavan to Vietntaine at 9. Unfortuunately the weather was bad, so we waited around until about noon when we boarded the helicopters and made the 1 hour flight. Shortly after we arrived in Vientiane the C-130 cargo plane left for Utapao, Thailand with all of our gear. It was supposed to make a quick turn around and return to pick up all of us (The plane is not beg enough for the gear and 50 people at the same time. The plane should have been back by 4:30 or 5:00 at the latest. This of course did not occur. The plane broke down in Utapao.
The detachment staff in Laos immediately got to work. Eventually they arranged for us to board buses and drive to Utapao. We ended up boarding a 45 seat bus (there were 50 total personnel on our trip) in Vientiane at about 7 pm for the one hour drive to the border with Thailand. Crossing the border took about an hour. On the Thailand side we acquired another bus, split the people between the two buses and headed out into the night at 9:00 pm. My birthday started at midnight. I had already been up for 17 hours. After a 10 hour ride we arrived in Utapao at about 7 in the morning. While I can sleep on a bus, it is not good sleep. I think I got about 4 hours total. Please note that at this point we have been traveling for 24 hours.
When we arrived in Utapao, the terminal was open but none of the shops were, which meant that we were unable to get any water. We waited in the airport in Utapao for about 3 hours until we could board the C-17 cargo aircraft. This plane is big enough to accommodate the gear and the people at the same time. Unfortunately, the C-17 was extremely loaded down with gear so there was very little room to lay down on the floor like usual. It was a six hour flight to Guam where we got off of the plain and waited in the Anderson AFB terminal for two hours while the plane was refueled. More gear was put on the plane so there was even less room on the next leg of the journey which was an 8 hour flight to Honolulu. Due to all of the time/day change of going from west to east across the international date line our plane landed at about 9 am Hawaii time. Yes, after fourteen hours of flying a a two hour layover between legs we had gone backwards in time.
Upon return to Hickam AFB, my first stop was work. I had to turn in my evidence. Then I was finally free! I drove home and discovered that my kitchen and downstairs bathroom are half way through a massive remodeling project that is expected to take another three weeks. This is of course exactly how long I have until I go out on my next mission...
The reality of it was not as nice as you might think...
Let me start at the beginning. I woke up on April 7th at about 7 in the morning in Phonsavan, Laos. I took a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast at the hotel dining room just like every other morning for the previous month. We were scheduled to fly from Phonsavan to Vietntaine at 9. Unfortuunately the weather was bad, so we waited around until about noon when we boarded the helicopters and made the 1 hour flight. Shortly after we arrived in Vientiane the C-130 cargo plane left for Utapao, Thailand with all of our gear. It was supposed to make a quick turn around and return to pick up all of us (The plane is not beg enough for the gear and 50 people at the same time. The plane should have been back by 4:30 or 5:00 at the latest. This of course did not occur. The plane broke down in Utapao.
The detachment staff in Laos immediately got to work. Eventually they arranged for us to board buses and drive to Utapao. We ended up boarding a 45 seat bus (there were 50 total personnel on our trip) in Vientiane at about 7 pm for the one hour drive to the border with Thailand. Crossing the border took about an hour. On the Thailand side we acquired another bus, split the people between the two buses and headed out into the night at 9:00 pm. My birthday started at midnight. I had already been up for 17 hours. After a 10 hour ride we arrived in Utapao at about 7 in the morning. While I can sleep on a bus, it is not good sleep. I think I got about 4 hours total. Please note that at this point we have been traveling for 24 hours.
When we arrived in Utapao, the terminal was open but none of the shops were, which meant that we were unable to get any water. We waited in the airport in Utapao for about 3 hours until we could board the C-17 cargo aircraft. This plane is big enough to accommodate the gear and the people at the same time. Unfortunately, the C-17 was extremely loaded down with gear so there was very little room to lay down on the floor like usual. It was a six hour flight to Guam where we got off of the plain and waited in the Anderson AFB terminal for two hours while the plane was refueled. More gear was put on the plane so there was even less room on the next leg of the journey which was an 8 hour flight to Honolulu. Due to all of the time/day change of going from west to east across the international date line our plane landed at about 9 am Hawaii time. Yes, after fourteen hours of flying a a two hour layover between legs we had gone backwards in time.
Upon return to Hickam AFB, my first stop was work. I had to turn in my evidence. Then I was finally free! I drove home and discovered that my kitchen and downstairs bathroom are half way through a massive remodeling project that is expected to take another three weeks. This is of course exactly how long I have until I go out on my next mission...
If you have been paying close attention you will notice that no where in the narrative is there anything about sleeping in a bed or taking a shower until getting back to Hawaii. It ended up being about two days (48 continuous hours) of straight travel without decent sleep or a chance to clean ourselves... Eeeww...
Ok, so I am sure that you are saying: "But it must have been about noon, you still had 12 hours of your birthday left". If you are saying that you have clearly never pulled a two day non-stop travel haul. I was barely able to put coherent sentences together, much less go out and party it up. Fortunately there were presents waiting from my family and a special someone here in Hawaii who took that day off of work so that she could spend my birthday with me.
Ok, so I am sure that you are saying: "But it must have been about noon, you still had 12 hours of your birthday left". If you are saying that you have clearly never pulled a two day non-stop travel haul. I was barely able to put coherent sentences together, much less go out and party it up. Fortunately there were presents waiting from my family and a special someone here in Hawaii who took that day off of work so that she could spend my birthday with me.
3 comments:
Welcome back! Sorry to hear about your travel ordeals. We need to go to lunch one of these days. May 1 is my last day of work....ever.
Sorry your 30th birthday was so....long and tiresom!. Hopefully once you caught up on sleep you were able to party it up. Happy birthday wishes to you always! Would love to catch up sometime.
Well, I can't really wish you a happy birthday since it sounds like you had a long and dragged out one instead, but hey, make it a good year.
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