And we are off...

We departed Fort Dix around 4:30pm on Monday, February 20th for the airport on a charter bus. It took us about 4 hours to get there due to heavy traffic, but once we arrived, we began to offload all of our bags onto the luggage carts. We checked in just like any other flight, but this is was an Air Force Air Mobility Command charter.

 They assigned seats as you check in, first come first serve. Thankfully I was able to get an aisle seat since they had been checking people in since around 4pm that day and we did not arrive until just before 9pm. Once through TSA we boarded the World Air MD-11. I have never flown on this model, but the size was somewhere between a 767 and 777, as it was a 3-4-3 seating configuration. There was plenty of leg room, probably since it is not a standard commercial flight.

The first leg of our flight was 7 hours to Germany where we deboarded the plane for about 1.5 hours in the terminal area. We then took off for our second layover in Turkey, which took another 4 hours in the air. We head about a 2 hour layover there before departing for and air base in Kyrgyzstan at 0700 in the morning. We pretty much took the equivalent of two back to back red eye flights to. We stayed there for  just under 3 days before traveling to Afghanistan on a military transport.

To give you an idea of our accommodations while in Kyrgyzstan, which is a transition center for Afghanistan, I took a few pictures of the amenities. The food was better than what we had at Fort Dix and the chow halls are open 24/7. They have all the candy, pop tarts and cliff bars you can eat. I plan to stay away from that stuff though. There is free wi-fi, video games, recreation centers and plenty of goodies for all the soldiers traveling through because all you do here is wait for the next flight into out. 

                                                                                                                    

At the airport with all my gear.

Our accommodations while in Kyrgyzstan awaiting a flight out.
This was a heated tent with 3 rows of bunk beds running the length head to foot.

This is the outside of the bunk tents. There are a lot of them!

Ahh yes, and here are the portable toilets. This is a step up from porta potties.
You actually feel like you are sitting on a throne.

I modeled one for you.

Here is the shower tent. There were about 8 showers inside, and the water was not all that warm.
There are sinks on either side.



This place even had a Beauty Shop with Spa. a 50 min massage was only $20.
I didn't get one here, but the place I am going has the same thing. I am thinking at least once a week.



Me sitting in the holding tent waiting to board our military transport to Afghanistan.

I have actually been in Afghanistan for a week now and am just getting settled in. On my next post I will bring you more up to date. Things are going well though. TTFN!