July 20-21 2018

Travel Time

We started our day super early today (Friday, July 20, 2018); the instruction was to clear our room and everything has to be out of the door by 500 am. My roommate and I woke up around 415 am, and we both started taking care our hygiene (brushing our teeth) and moving duffel bags out of the room. By 500 am, we were out of the door, ready for inspection.

By 530 am, all the duffel bags were lined up. I did not realize at the time, but each soldier was allowed to have 3 or 4 duffel bags weigh up to 70 lbs per bag. And today we had about 250 soldiers and civilians traveling to the middle east. That means we had  45,000 lbs (or about 22.5 tons) approximately just on our duffel bags (assuming on average each packed 3 bags weigh 60 lbs per bag). Amazing isn't it.

That morning was hot and humid. At 500 am, I think the outside temperature was 81 degrees with 75% humidity. I was sweating as I transported my two duffel bags down the stairs (I was on the top 3rd floor). We had our formation around 630 am and was released to have breakfast and to come back around 845 am. That meant we had over 2 hours to relax.

I spent breakfast time with a group of soldiers deploying to Afghanistan from DC (they are from the aviation unit). 

After breakfast, we had our formation at 845 am, then we are told to load all of our duffel bags into a box truck. Everybody then worked together to load the duffel bags. Once that's done, we were transported to ADACG (Army Departure Arrival Control Group) in Fort Bliss, TX. No photo or video is allowed here.

I was impressed, all of the higher ups showed up to shake our hands and saluted us, and motivational musics were played in the background as we headed to the big Boeing 767 airplane.

Around 11 am, we left the airfield into the unknown.

Unbeknownst to us, we were transported into Portsmouth New Hampshire. There we had the most welcome party I had ever witnessed in my life. I recorded some of the events. I truly felt their love and care the moment I landed.

welcome party line video

These veteran volunteers bought donuts, pies, chocolates, all kinds of soft drinks, bottle waters, and they even knit beanie heads, and many others. Amazing!

I took a photo with one of these amazing volunteers.

They did not stop there, they even organized a formal ceremony for us. They lined up all of the world war 2 veterans, and they saluted us.

From New Hampshire we flew to Germany, location cannot be revealed here.

About 2 hours later, we continued our journey to Kuwait. Finally after more than 1 day journey (from 11 am Ft Bliss time on Friday July 20, 2018 until Saturday July 21, 2018 around 6 pm Kuwait time), we arrived.

And we were welcomed by a sand storm. The sky was orange, sand everywhere, hot 106 degrees dry dessert weather. It's hard to open our eyes without eye glasses. Amazing scene.

About 2 hours later, around 8 pm, we boarded a bus and were transported to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. The in processing took a while. I did not get into my room until after midnight. I remember taking shower and brushing my teeth, and once all that done, it's already 2 am on Sunday July 22.

But I could not fall asleep probably until 4 am. At 6 am, I woke up because I wanted to go to church. Unfortunately, there was no LDS service. What?

To be continued...