April Showers/May Flowers

May 1^st- What a wonderful day. What a wonderful week! Let me count the ways. First of all, I was awake and bushy tailed for the Royal Wedding on April 29. We watched the whole event live and I frequently checked the internet for updated photos of the dress, guests and those hats. Why don't we wear hats? Hats are so stylish and sophisticated and we only wear them to horse races. Such a waste.  When I say we, I subjected the boys to hours of live coverage and I do not have the least amount of guilt over it. I have listened to numerous hours over the past few weeks of idiotic sitcoms and movies and I enjoyed every last minute of their torture. MSgt Riegel came over from TMO and we conducted our own commentary as the wedding progressed. I’m not usually a sucker for weddings, but I was definitely caught up in the excitement over this one. I could not get enough  details and even googled “lip reading royal wedding.”  The tid bits we could not hear were even better and made the day all that romantic. Of course I believe every word I read as the internet does not lie.

Second of all, two words- TOBY KEITH, that man is just plain yummy. We knew he was coming for several weeks, but when his arrival date hit, I was beside myself with excitement. I looked over our planned flights for the day and passenger manifests for his name; I saw a Toby Covel and wondered if that was him. Later in the day Protocol called and confirmed his inbound flight. Part of our everyday job is to meet every inbound aircraft and also send off every outbound aircraft. I figured this was my opportunity the meet Toby and he wouldn’t be able to escape me.

Toby was due to arrive just before my shift started and I planned on coming in early to meet the plane. I asked the other shift if there were any changes to the arrival time to call my CHU. The next morning my alarm went off and I hit the snooze button. An hour or so later, I woke up. I was on time for work, but had missed my Toby. All was not lost I told myself as he still had to leave which gave me plenty of time.

His concert was later that night and TSgt Dixon was planning on going. I was on the fence if I should go or not. You know by now I really like Toby Keith and I do enjoy concerts, but I do not like the concert area that is set up for the USO shows. It’s a dirt/gravel area just outside the Exchange on the Liberty side and the concerts get filled with personnel shoulder to shoulder. If you have to get there early to stake claim to your square of dirt and if you can, bring your own chair. For me, this did not sound like fun. It really was the crowd part and being a part of a huge target. I told Dixon I would go and be his battle buddy since we are not allowed to go any where solo. At the last moment I bailed on him, but there were two others going and they all went together. Dixon came back and said the show great and I missed a good concert. As Toby was taking stage, the VBC took three IDF’s. Toby kept walking and said “Fuck them.” I would have enjoyed that part of the concert, but I don’t have any regrets. In my mind, I knew I still had the next day to see his plane off.  

As I left work, I again asked to be called if his departure time changed. He was scheduled to leave during my shift and I was not going to miss this last chance. I was just waking up when SrA Manriquez called me and said his plane was arriving early and this would mean the departure time would also be pushed earlier. I flew out of bed, dressed and was at work in less than thirty minutes. Dixon and I waited about an hour and half at the plane. We chatted with the C-130 crew as they were held hostage and were also waiting for their passengers. Protocol had an outbound manifest and we looked over the names and Toby Covel was listed again. We had much debate on if this was his real name or pseudo name. Dixon went with real and I went with pseudo. I later googled it and I was wrong, Toby Keith Covel is his legal name. Who knew? After his band equipment and baggage pallets were uploaded, I knew my patience would pay off and he would arrive shortly.

Remember those blacked out SUV’s I talked about previously? Well a long line of them rolled through the check point and stopped at our plane. There he was with his road crew carrying his own Harley Davidson bag. Before he arrived, Dixon and I swapped cameras and explained how each of our cameras worked so we wouldn’t be fumbling and wasting time. As he approached the plane, Dixon snapped my picture and I was able to get a picture of Dixon and Toby together. We left happy campers as he climbed the short stairs to the C-130 and buckled into the same red net seats we also sit in. 

I spoke to our First Sergeant, MSgt Paton later in the day and she mentioned how she was able to meet him also.  Prior to him driving up, he had been in what we call the Glass House and had met a few people in a brief meet and greet. As she spoke with him, she gave him a squadron t-shirt and coin and asked if he would display it in his Oklahoma bar. According to MSgt Patton, Toby will display items given to him while on tour. Toby took the items from her and said he would. He then turned to his manager and instructed him to do this as the manger placed a note on it and took the items from him. One of the entourage later told MSgt Patton, that Toby had done her right and it would be done. I almost want to go to Oklahoma just to see the t-shirt displayed. We both think the back side is the side he will choose as it’s a picture of a camel standing up carrying various items depicting the Logistical Readiness Squadron and related functions with the caption “You Can’t Make This Shit Up!” It seems Toby does this tour every year and this marks the ninth tour. You have to admire that.

Toby Day as it will now be known was actually my day off and I headed to my CHU to share with the world my picture taken with him. I cannot explain what I felt as I hit browse to upload on Face Book and saw there was no picture. How can this be? I saw the picture on my camera screen. I clicked browse again and still no picture. I clicked my computer, removable drive, DCIM folder, thumbnail, scroll, scroll and there it was- not a picture, but rather a video. I quickly looked at the camera setting and it was still on video. I’m not sure how it was toggled from auto to video, but somehow in the exchange of cameras, video was selected. I was not to be undone by this and I knew there would be several people in FB world who would know how to help me. Within a few hours my friends came to the rescue and were able to turn my video into a picture. Thank you! Thank you Thank you! Toby Day was saved.

Third of all, this was my last day off before coming home. I used this time to sort and pack up my worldly possessions. How many t-shirts did I really need and how many could I pack? Did I really need to keep the socks the laundry turned pink? Should I send a heavy bag home US Postal and pay the weight or trade it out for something lighter, but same size in the suitcase; all very important questions. I found my space bags squirreled away under my bed and filled them up with long sleeved t-shirts, a sweatshirt, those lovely PT pants, one uniform, various t-shirts I collected and traded plus some miscellaneous items. It looks like everything will fit and I am living off of the basics. This is better than packing for vacation.

And if three reasons were not enough for a happy May 1^st, I confirmed on the manifest today our inbounds are in Al Udeid (IUD) and inbound to us shortly. And that my friends mean I am that much closer to being on the manifest out! If everything goes to plan and nothing ever does, once we leave, it will take us about 6 days to make the trek to California. We will have a long layover in IUD for several days and then we will catch our rotator home. When we hit the East Coast, I will have an overnight layover, but then it’s straight home. Well, straight to March to in process for a few days then home. If you count staying at March, it will be closer to 9 days from when I leave Bagdad to home sweet home.


I didn’t think the week could get much better; then it did. Most of our group had to move out of our CHU’s and into the transient tents to make room for our inbound replacements. I was fortunate enough not to move and was able to stay in place. When I learned Julie was one of the ones moving, I offered my extra bed up so she wouldn’t have to make the drag bag over to the tents. We had been roommates in Baghdad and this was a great reunion. We are on opposite shifts and do not see much of each other, but it’s nice looking over on the other side and seeing her stuff. It makes me wonder what I missed out by not having a roommate this time around. The best part is we both remember each other’s quirks and there is no adjustment period required. I came home early the other night and did some emailing and I remembered she liked to hear the clicking of the keys as it makes her sleepy. I typed away knowing I wasn’t disturbing her. Today, when I told her she laughed and couldn’t believe I had remembered. On a previous night, she came home early as I was getting ready and she had a cup of coffee for me. We make a good team.

Then there is the death of Bid Laden and as a Toby Keith song goes… “justice will be done”… and so it was.

A friend back home (Todd) has a brother stationed here and I was able to meet him. As luck would have it, Brian has been here the whole time and still has two months to go. I regret not meeting him earlier as he was fascinating to listen to. Brian is on the VBC side and works with the major players. His exposure and take on the bigure picture was captivating.

Everything is coming to a close as we have now transitioned the port smoothly over to the new group. I have left work early these past two days as TSgt Dixon has taken over the reins and is proving to be a capable Duty Officer. I have let go with a happy sigh. Today I sent a few emails to friends I have made asking to keep in touch. I have bequeathed my Sea Monkeys to Robin. I attended my last Top III meeting and watched a new person be voted in as the new Secretary. TSgt Duenas is putting the finishing touches on our unit “T” wall. All is well.


All that is left are a few last minute out processing items and our farewell pizza party. My bags are packed and we are forecasted to leave shortly with a very odd route to IUD. Let’s just say, I’ll be seeing some locations I saw on the last trip. This will be last post from Bagdad, but as we navigate home through a series of frog jumps, I’ll keep writing and post when I can.


                                                      Peace out Bagdad!