The trip home took a LONG TIME. It was ridiculous. After catching a C-130 ride from Baghdad International Aiport to Kuwait, I spent a day scrambling to get a paperwork error corrected on my leave form. A missing signature threatened to keep me in Kuwait for up to five days, but my unit got the problem corrected and I was able to catch my charter flight from Kuwait to Atlanta, with a stopover in Germany.
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The process is one that seems interminable. In Kuwait, you’re put into a tent with a group of other soldiers going on R&R and you spend your time sleeping or drinking coffee or in the PX in the middle of a tent city in the desert. You have to attend several briefings in which you are shuffled through lines having your paperwork copied over and over. Reminders of the rules for leave are constant. Once you’ve had your travel papers processed, you are put in “lockdown.” This is basically a self-run customs facility which is fenced in with concertina wire. Everyone is searched and all belongings are scanned by humans and machines to ensure that no one makes it home with any contraband. The list of contraband is ridiculous and includes items such as sand, soil and of course grenades, bullets, weapons and war trophies.
What is most disturbing about this process is that the government doesn’t trust its own employees to be honest or responsible. I suppose that some bad apples must be serving in the military. It is inevitable in such a large cross sample of humanity. It’s the dehumanization factor that I don’t like. In ten years of military service, I’ve never once been in any trouble. If the government can trust me with a rifle, pistol or machine gun and some ammo as well as the lives of those around me when armed, I can’t understand why I’m suddenly treated like a criminal when it’s time to go home. The whole mentality of treating everyone like a herd animal that is so prevelant in government is highly discouraging. With all the technology available to us, you’d think they would be able to profile people individually and only single out those who have various risk factors such as a history of not following the rules, etc for the sort of negative treatment we received in customs. More importantly, what does it say about our system that we are trusted with the power of life and death and then suddenly a magic switch is supposed to turn us all back into the sort of moo cows we seem to be in 21st century U.S. airports.
Ironically, the tents we were kept in during lockdown were named Freedom Tent 1, 2 and 3.
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The bus ride from our desert tent city to the airport seemed to stretch on forever. The plane ride from Kuwait to Germany to Atlanta caused my mental faculties to go into hibernationa mode. All I remember is alternately eating, drowsing, reading and watching movies punctuated by trips to the bathroom and a couple glances out the window as we passed over tundra that might have been Greenland.
It is good to be home with my wife. It is good to be in a place where the sound of explosions and war are not part of the background noise. I’ve been enjoying the bliss of domesticity and I’m looking forward to pursuing one of my favorite activities – exploring the North Georgia countryside.