01 Oct 08 R&R Day 1

01 Oct 08 R&R Day 1
Contractors generally get a break about every six months. When I was
with KBR I got a break every 4 months. Soldiers (on a 12-15 month
tour) will also get a break at six months where they can travel home
for R&R. In addition, soldiers usually get a 4 day pass to Doha Qatar
where you can drink and hang. So soldiers don't have it that bad.
The process to get IN and OUT of Iraq is tough though. And as a civ
'puke' I'm at the bottom of any priority list. The process starts by
putting in a request to get manifested on a flight out of Iraq about 4
days prior to my commercial flight out of Qatar, Kuwait or Frankfurt
(we have the option to depart from various locations.) Now you would
think that a flight to/from the states is cheapest out of Europe, it
isn't. For me, for this trip, the cheapest flight was out of Qatar.
On Monday, I got bumped. On Tuesday, I got bumped. On Wednesday, I got
bumped, BUT there was 'space A' flight available so after waiting at
the APOD (passenger terminal) for about 4 hours, I got on a C-17
flight bound for Qatar along with about 120 other guys (see pic). Now
embarking and debarking a military aircraft with over 120 soldiers and
a smattering of contractors is a lesson in 'herd psychology.' The
'one' person directly us just cannot be heard by everyone so he simply
yells out what to do to about the dozen or so people withing
hearing/yelling range. Once those dozen start to move, the 'herd'
seems to sense this action to also move and like a massive amoeba we
surge forward (on the bus, off the bus, on the plane, etc.). I never
did hear that 'one' guy, I simply followed the guy in front of me.
Amazingly enough, the process works and after a two hour flight I
landed in Qatar only to then start the 3 hour process to get 'into'
Qatar. Basically this consists of filling out some forms and then
turning in my passport to some Qatari clerk who checks whether or not
I paid my visa (no not the credit card Visa.) Once I get my passport
back I'm free to then go
through Qatari customs and then catch a buss to transient housing.
Now customs in the 'third world' is just about the opposite of customs
in the US. In the US, the agents give one a hard time and seem to act
like there's a bomb somewhere in your luggage or on your person and
they're going to find it!! And if they do catch you with a half
bottle of water they'll ask you 'what is this clear liquid' ("uh, it's
water in a fricken water bottle!") They'll then ask you to toss the
water bottle which you'll do. They have no teeth. In Qatar, they scare
the hell out of you by telling you all the NOs! No swearing, no pork,
no knives, no porn (yes Muscle and Fitness is considered porn by
Qatari agents), no porn on computers (unless you've encrypeted with
256 bit encryption and then renamed the zipped files 'puppies' - so
I've heard....LOL) But the actual process (Qatar and Kuwait) involves
tossing my bags through the x-ray scanners while the agents seem to
continue to blather on about Madonna or something. They barely look
at the screen. I DO know not to give these guys a hard time though
since if you piss them off they can really screw you. They DO have
teeth.
R/Chris