Volume 2 Issue 2
We put our entire luggage in trailers with high sides. They had one guy handing and one guy pushing the stuff to the back. I decided I didn’t
really want to wait that long so I jumped up in the trailer and started helping. Glad I did because it would have taken forever otherwise. To call
these "buses" crowded would be a great understatement. The only to paint a decent picture would be the term I came up with for them and
that is Sardine Seatbelts. You knew you were safe in the even of an accident because we were squeezed 5 across so tight that if we hit anything the
force of all our shoulders together would keep us in place. When I got to the hotel the guy at the front desk told us to find a buddy to share a
room with. If you were on the plane out the next day then you were already assigned a room, so just sign your name and have a good night. Low and
behold I had a room assigned so was I leaving the next day or not? I was so tired I didn’t care I just wanted the sweet release of sleep or death
whichever came first. The buses left for the airport the next day at 7, so instead of waiting 4 or 5 days to catch the next charter (no commercial
flights to Baghdad International right now) I decided to go to the airport and talk to a rep. The worst that would happen would be that they had
changed my location and they’d send me back to the hotel where I could catch up on some sleep. Oops no such luck on that one. I was on the
manifest they had just over looked my name because it was at the top of the sheet.
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Thank You For Flying No Name Airlines
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We went through another security check at the Dubai airport and checked our baggage like any other flight. When we lined up to board the flight
some people not with our group got in our line thinking it was for their plane cause there aren’t many layovers at Baghdad International. They
drove our shuttle bus out to the tarmac and we got to load an unlabeled plane through one of those roll
around stair cases. It was a Russian crew (I think) and the name of the company was Phoenix Airlines. I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or
scared me more. It could mean one of two things: 1) That in the event of a crash the passengers shall raise from the ashes "reborn" and
unharmed like the mythical bird or 2) In the event of a crash the company shall rise from the ashes reborn and unharmed by lawsuits of all the
people who perished. Either way I tried not to think too hard about it. It was a pretty short flight (only 2 hrs) we even got breakfast and I was
running on fumes because the 6 hours sleep I’d gotten in the past 2 days wasn’t cutting it so I crashed. The landing was cool, cool like a roller
coaster is cool. We kind of circled the airport once or twice and then came in hard and fast. You know when you’re on a roller coaster and it does
one of those go low and turns and you stick you hand out thinking you can touch the ground, but you can’t really touch it? Yea that’s what our wing
looked like when we dipped and turned. I swear it was no more than 20 ft off the ground while we were just about perpendicular to the ground. I
guess that’s the best way to avoid ground fire. I hear take-offs are more fun, nose straight up until you get out of range of ground fire. I was a
little disappointing that no one shot at us on the landing made me feel unimportant, but I guess it was all for the best.
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Like Something From Stephen King
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Does anyone remember the Langaleers (sp) by Stephen King? It’s about a plane that passes into yesterday and they land at a deserted airport not
knowing what was going on until these things come to eat the past. Yea that’s about how it felt when we landed at Baghdad International. They
rolled up a stair case and we disembarked the plane. There was some armed security forces, the people stamping our passports, our KBR reps, and
the 60 of us and that was it. It was really eerie and I was halfway waiting for the things to come eat the yesterday. We got all our stuff, put
on our PPE gear, and headed to Bob Hope dining facility for lunch.
