I am now on a bus (Toyota Pajero, which we see a lot of here), and headed back to Base XX (remember that one?), where I will catch a flight to my destination. As I sit here in the dark, I am thinking back on these few days in Kuwait. They have been memorable, and generally (dare I say it?) fun. The people I have bunked with, eaten with, and generally hung out with since CRC have been a big part of what has made this portion of my trip enjoyable. This is how it has always been for me in the Army—whenever I have had to stay in a tent, or in a dirty bungalow somewhere, my companions have been funny, intelligent and remarkably selfless people, and I have come to believe that the Nursing, Medical, and Mental Health Corps of the Army are made up of this kind of people. It makes some sense—we are in the Army, each of us, either because we couldn’t afford medical school (i.e., no filthy rich parents) or out of patriotism and a desire to serve, or both. Regardless, the seven of us got along swimmingly.

On one occasion, we hiked all the way across post in stifling heat to go the the better mess hall for lunch, only to remember once we got there that COL Neville, the sole female amongst us, was still back in her tent. In our haste, we had forgotten to pick her up. Without hesitating, COL Vigersky turned around to make the hike back and back again to get her, and asked us to save them a spot at our table. A typical example of what happens when you start to see each other less as colleagues and more as teammates. I don’t always naturally incline in that direction—I’m happy, as my wife will attest, to sit in a chair off in a corner somewhere reading the Wall Street Journal. But when am pushed off of that comfort plateau, I find that I am opened up to new and valuable experiences.

So on to the events of the day.

We did not have training until 0750 today, which was beautiful. Up at 0700 after an excellent night’s sleep (7 hours), and we made it to mess and off to class. The training this AM was on semi-classified material so I will not mention specifics here, but it was interesting, informative, and potentially lifesaving. The first briefing was given by a witty British chap, who was full of self-effacing jokes about his country’s relatively small force. On one slide, he pointed out the numbers of troops that each country had supplied, all the way down to Slovenia, who have 4 soldiers in Iraq. “But before you get down on Slovenia,” he said, “remember: that’s 4 more soldiers than France sent here.”

He then deadpanned the following, without giving himself away a bit: “Actually, back home we had a French soldier serving in a multinational unit with a Brit and a Jamaican. It turns out that all three of them got their wives pregnant at the same time, and the three wives delivered on the same day. There was a bit of a mixup at the hospital, and the babies lost their nametags, so when they brought the fathers in to pick out their kids, the British soldier saw a beautiful brown-skinned baby and said ‘I’ll take this one.’ The Jamaican soldier pointed out that that baby was pretty obviously his, and the British soldier replied ‘Yes, but if I pick one of the other ones, I’ll have a 50% chance of getting the French one. No thanks!’” The big crowd of Yanks, Brits, and Aussies roared in laughter for a good 5 minutes.

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for our flights out tomorrow, though we did not get the final info on that until dinnertime. My flight would be some time overnight (again, purposely not giving specifics here), so I had to get my stuff together pretty quickly. COL Vigersky is travelling with me, the rest are leaving a bit later. It was sad saying goodbye to the others, but good to be moving, however slowly, toward my assigned unit.

We are arriving at Base XX now, going over a truly amazing number of speedbumps as we approach the entrance gate.

———-

In now, and got my flight info, will be out in the morning. Called the fam, but poor lines made the call pretty unsatisfactory. Instant messaging to the rescue!

I am getting a bit tired of being a transient, but just one more night to go and I’ll be at my actual duty station. Gonna sign off now, but I will have a new adventure to write about tomorrow.

P.S. My internet access is very sporadic right now, due to my transient situation. If you have left a comment or sent me an e-mail and have not gotten a response, please do not think I am being rude, or that I don’t like you. When I get on a computer here, there is always a line of people behind me, waiting, so I can never get done everything I’d like to. I believe that will improve when I have a room of my own. (Can’t wait…)