Jack

Left for Ali Al Salem at 0200 this morning, got to Ali around 0330 and began the long and arduous process of getting out of theater. There is only one flight a day out of Kuwait international airport (KCIA) and that was at 0400. Sadly, KCIA is over an hour away so I got to spend an entire day at Ali doing absolutely nothing. I wasn't in any mood to sleep so I spent the day at the MWR watching movies they were playing. Helped pass the time for sure. When I finally was bussed over to KCIA, I went thru their security with no issues....with a 6in titanium dive knife in my bag. Wonder what other people were able to pass thru with...the first leg of my trip was to Abu Dhabi, a short one hour flight.

Walking out of the gate one of the first things I saw...the duty free shops! Heck yea!! Found a nice bottle of wine and handle of Jack Daniels. I found an outlet and plopped down to charge everything while surfing the Internet. While I was doing this, I was constantly being starred at by those walking by. Not sure if this was because I looked foreign or that I was sitting up against a wall with one of those belt walk ways just an arms reach away so everyone had to pass right by me. Who knows. The flight from Abu Dhabi to Sydney was great! Although it was one of the longer flights I have been on, the attendants were very nice and the alcohol was free! Can't beat that. Since I've been deployed I have tried to keep up on movies as they come out of DVD but found that the selection on the personal tv screen had a lot that I have not so I spent the next 10 hours starring at the monitor.

I finally arrived in Sydney around 6am local time and as I was heading through customs, there was Pavarotti lacking photos of someone heading out the terminal. I had no idea who it was though. Oh well. Sydney, here I come!