Mood:  irritated
Topic: The US Military
Sigh . . . sometime working in Iraq really stinks.

All I wanted to do was get from the Green Zone to Amman, Jordan to do some site visits and then take a short rest break in Rome. Sadly, things proved way more difficult than I expected.

I took a very late Rhino run (I left around 2am) from the Green Zone to Camp Stryker near the Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). I slept for a few hours, skipped off to the camp’s dining facility, and then convinced someone from KBR to drive me the airport terminal. As soon as I arrive at the airport, the winds began to pick up. Then, sand started to dance in the air. When a sandstorm starts, generally the airport closes down.

I frantically called coworkers back at my compound to find out if my flight had been cancelled. Sadly, no one knew anything. Eventually, I gave up all hope of catching my original flight. I began work on option 2 – taking a military flight to Amman.

Getting from the "civilian" side of the airport to the "military" side of the airport is nearly impossible. I can’t just jump into a taxi. I need someone connected with the U.S. government to move me around because of the security risks of going with anyone else. However, I had a very hard time finding anyone who could take me to the military side of the airport. All the phone numbers that I was given were useless. Eventually I found someone from KBR who called one of his buddies, who agreed to take me to the military air terminal.

The military terminal, referred to as the PAX, is a dusty barren strip of land next to the BIAP runway. When I arrived, I technically showed up too late to ride on the flight, but I convinced them to put me on the manifest. Then, I waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. There was no where to go. I had to wait near the runway because the flight could leave at any minute.

There were two white "waiting room" tents, which technically were air conditioned, but sitting inside the dusty tent with 100 other sweating soldiers, I didn't feel like it was air conditioned. The tent was very hot, and I felt miserable. To make things worse, the chairs in the waiting room tents were small and unforgiving. Many soldiers decided to simply sleep on the floor.

The dust storm never let up, and after six hours, the military officially cancelled the flight. I had to spend another night on a cot at Camp Stryker in hopes that the dust storm would die off in time for Thursday's flight.