On to Kuwait

Another early morning to get ready to sit around and wait.  First up at 04:30 to get showered and get our bags on the the truck.  Then 06:00 inspection to make sure our barracks were clean.  07:00 breakfast and 07:45 roll call before getting on the buses to go to terminal.  It was a great send off as the VFW and several other groups led us out of the base on their motorcycles with American Flags flying on the back.  We arrived at the private terminal to about 150 local citizens cheering us on.  They brought a lot of good stuff for us to take along - bibles, flags, girl scout cookies, etc.  All our instructors came out on their day off as well to see us off.  As they read off our names to board the plane the people who showed up picked up flags and made a path for us to walk through - I got a lot of handshakes and hugs.  It was awesome!

We got delayed about 30 minutes for a photo op with presidential candidate Newt Gingrich - I got a photo with him and will post later.

The first leg of the flight was short and we stopped in Maine to refuel.  Again when we got off the plane there were a dozen or so volunteer greeters to give us a hand and hugs.  The stop took about 2.5 hours.  Our second stop was in Germany and lasted about 3.5 hours and several other planes from other places were also there.  The final leg was about 5 hours (Total flying time about 14 hours) and we finally arrived at Kuwait International Airport.  However, this was not our final stop yet.  Another 1.5 hour layover before getting on a bus for another 1.5 hour ride to finally arrive at our destination - at least for a few days.  We find ourselves again in a 40 man tent, but this time instead of being 90 degrees outside it is 110!!  There are a few things here to do including a couple of gyms, movie theater and starbucks, but again I just really want to get to my final destination.  The good thing about this stop is that it begins my official 'boots on ground' time!!  179 and a wake up.