We have been beset with wind and dust since Saturday night, which has resulted in a few of my friends from the departing Combat Surgical Hospital extending their stay here beyond their planned Sunday departure time. During the last few weeks that a particular unit is here, the new unit usually arrives, so that the handoff goes smoothly. The tradition is that as soon as the new unit arrives, they get the cans for their people, which means that the departing folks end up in tents, sleeping on cots, and with really no good place to put their stuff. In Kuwait, I slept in a tent for a few nights, and always felt pretty sheepish about leaving my laptop in there during the day. I would make rather lame attempts to hide it, but the reality is, anyone inclined to steal stuff could have wandered into one of those tents and done the deed pretty easily. In spite of this, things don’t tend to walk very much around this place.

So the CSH folks are getting a little extra “quality time” in Tent City as they await a decline in the wind and dust, so that their flight can get out. By the way: there has been no mail for the past four days, so if you have sent me something, it’s probably still on its way. I will do a Rupard Mailbag segment when the mail resumes (assuming I get something).

Got some info today which was welcome, but still very tentative: the big spreadsheet at the Brigade has my replacement named on it, and he is scheduled to hit CRC on 09 August, which means he should arrive here a couple of weeks later, and I would be able to get out to Kuwait and catch my “freedom flight” (I love that name) around the end of August, which is right on schedule. As always, I will not place my trust in the Army getting me home on a certain date until I am physically on the plane, but it’s nice to know that someone is in that slot. The thought of having completed my tour, and climbing onto a massive MD-11 leaving Kuwait is almost magical to me right now, and makes a certain late 70s bass line reverberate in my brain.

If you arrive and don’t see me
I’m gonna be with my baby
I am free
Flying in her arms
Over the sea