Greetings from Kuwait

Here we are, day 4 of 270 here in VERY SUNNY Kuwait. Today's temps topped out at 115 with plenty of summer yet to come. I learned an interesting fact today; last summer temps soared to a staggering 150+ breaking previous records in Kuwait! Um...I didn't know it could get that hot on planet earth! I have melted a good pair of boots on a tarmac in Dijibouti, Africa, but it was a mere 130 that day.

So last time I posted we were just about to leave Ft Jackson, SC. The USO and several local vets showed up at the airport to see us off in true patriotic fashion. We were given everything from toothbrush to toilet paper to girl scout cookies...which reminds me, I have some melted Samoa's that need eating in my tent:) Anyways, it was incredibly humbling to have vets there who were amputee's just waiting to send us off. It's true what they say about the bond that develops among service members. After a while, it doesn't matter which branch you served in, what your job was, or what war you did or didn't participate in, there is a very special and unique comaraderie that develops when you serve in uniform.

This past week has been quite a whirlwind, let me try to briefly explain. We began loading buses at Ft Jackson around 0500 on Friday. From there we went straight to the airport where we left around 1100. After a brief layover in Maine, we hopped the pond and landed in Germany where we took on more fuel and hung out for a few hours. We landed in Kuwait around 2pm and by the time we get to our base and got turned loose it was around 630pm. After it was all over we had flown for over 12 hours, traveled by bus another 4 and had another 20 hours of layover, waiting, loading, unloading, and trying to catch some kind of sleep throughout. Yeah, I was jacked up for the first 72hrs in Kuwait.

The base I'm at now, Camp Arifjan, is pretty sweet. You should Google it. We have a Subway, Baskin Robins, KFC, a stinkin Harley Dealer, and OF COURSE my favorite- the Starbizz that I'm sitting in right now as I post this blog! Yeah, deployments have changed quite a bit since I was here in 2003. I definitely had visions of fasting in the wilderness, or at least some elaborate deployment weight loss program, but I was forced to rethink things after my second bag of heavily buttered popcorn which I thoroughly enjoyed during tonights showing of Pirates of the Carribean at the local base theatre. I can do this for 9 months.

This week I'm supposed to start working. As I type, we are receiving folks from both Iraq and Afghanistan who are on their way home from deployment. We'll take them through a series of briefs, workshops, and decompression techniques before they leave for the States. It sounds like a good opportunity to just love on some service members who have been through God knows what, and send them off with their heads held high. I'll definitely have to post this weekend and let you know how it all goes, so stay tuned.