The Last Journey
#4 Destination Afghanistan
28 July 2010, 2000 hrs Europe Time, in a C-5 Airplane somewhere over Asia….Like most people living in the USA prior to 2001, I did not know very much about a place
called Afghanistan. On September
11 of that same year, I began to hear about this place called Afghanistan and at that time determined that one day I would go
there. Today is that day. It has taken me nearly nine years to get
here. At this very moment, I am in an
Air Force C-5 heading to Kandahar, which oddly enough is not my primary
destination. It is now however the place
I will touch ground on for my first steps into this land where so much has changed
all of our lives. It’s been a very
long and complicated day, and now night, but as is with everything I’ve
ever done in my life, I’m apparently heading to where I did not choose
but where I am ending up for the time being.
I am thankful that I have this opportunity, however, I am worn down
beyond explanation just trying to coordinate this journey. Perhaps I will learn now that many, many
things are completely out of my hands.
The day started out once
again stuck in Ramstein, Germany. It’s a
daily ritual that one has to go to the pax terminal at 0400 hrs every morning
and sign up for what is called the “present” list, meaning you are
present that day to travel. My
destination was and still is Bagram Air Base.
However, for the past several days, every flight that was headed to
Bagram decided not to take passengers, including myself that had been
waiting. One flight did take some
passengers, however, for some unknown reason to me, I ended up down on the bottom
of the list and did not make the cut for the 14-pax that were able to be
taken. Days were beginning to turn into
a week and my time in Germany was costing me a severe amount of money. On Wednesday, today, the 28th,
originally four birds were scheduled for Bagram. By the time I got to the first roll call,
that number had dropped to three. The
first roll call was being delayed, as everything is here in the pax
terminal. Just the way it is. I was being told by civillian workers who
seem to supervise in some cases Air Force personell handling flight
arrangements for passengers, that the flight I was trying to get on was not
going to be taking passengers, again.
And, to top it off, I was also being told that the other two flights
headed for Bagram were also looking like no pax were going to be able to get on
that flight either. This had become a
daily dilema. One of the pax
representatives mentioned that the aircraft going into Kandahar however would be taking passengers. I decided to roll the dice and just get in
country before anymore time got wasted.
Now the problem with this
move is that I had my room at the Air Force Inn Hotel already booked for that
day and paid for as well as the next day because the reservationists at the
front desk for the hotel kept telling me “no rooms are available and that
if I wanted one, I had to make arrangements in advance. It was a real headache and lugging my bags to
and from the pax terminal daily was beginning to wear on me. With the information I had at the time, I had
to make a decision. Once I made a
decision to change destinations I would then immediately drop myself off the
waiting list for Bagram which I had been told was looking like a sure no go
this day. I also had to make the
decision immediately or I would miss the Kandahar flight. I, along
with a guy who works at the Pentagon, who also was trying desperately to get to
Bagram, hooked up for the Kandahar flight. We
rushed our bags through, got checked in, got situated in the holding area and
sure enough all things came to an immediate standstill.
Next thing I know, the
Bagram flight has ten open seats and they get rushed through. Now, I’m in a pretty disappointed mood
to say the least. What I figured out
later was that it seemed like a move to get some of those waiting for Bagram to
go to Kandahar and then, out of nowhere, the seats on the Bagram flight
magically open up, as soon as I agree to go to Kandahar, putting a real kink in
my movement plans. Had I not listend to
the civillian workers at the flight control center of passenger services, I
would have perhaps been on the Bagram flight which I had been waiting for now
for nearly a week. These are the things
that completely wear down a traveler such as myself who knows there is a way to
get to the war zone but is always told bad information. I have been dealing with bad information for
the month prior to my departure and up until today, I still was getting wrong
information. It makes life really difficult
for me because I’m really just a nobody in this big game of how to get
from point A to point B. If I believed
everyone who took my phone calls, answered my emails and spoke to me in person
concerning what I was trying desperately to do, and told me what they did, I
would still be in New Mexico begging and pleading for someone to let me on an
airplane headed into Afghanistan and while I’m waiting to do that, let me
purchase a room in the Air Force Hotel on base at Ramstein, which, my travel
orders clearly state I am allowed to do.
Folks, it is not an easy task and it really is the hardest part of these
journeys. It is the main reason I am
calling this, The Last Journey.
Having said all that, I am
now within the next hour or so headed towards landing in Afghanistan. There is no
telling what in the world awaits me in Kandahar and God only knows how I will get from Kandahar to Bagram and then from there to my first embed
location. What I do know is this: I will be landing in Afghanistan and it took me nine years to get here. I had always put off coming to this
land. I knew it would be tough and I
also knew it would be one of the most challenging things I’ve done in my
days. Iraq was different, and it taught me how the system works
and how to really do this journey one step at a time. I’ve never really ever had the
opportunity to do major events like this the easy way. Is a matter of fact, I have a phrase in my
own household that say, “if everyone else is welcomed through the front
door, I, Jim Spiri, for some unknown reason have to come in through the back
door.”
Well, today is apparently
no exception. In the end, the roll of
the dice was mine. But, I remember being
in casinos in years past and watching what is known as a “shill”. Once in awhile I feel like I got
suckered. I have no one to blame but
myself. Eventually, I’ll get to
where I need to be going. All will be
well. All these things just build
character. I’m quiet a character,
or so I’ve been told.
Jim Spiri
mailto:jimspiri@yahoo.com?subject=The
Last Journey
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