<<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>

Traveling halfway around the world from <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> to the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> takes time, about <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> hours to be exact. Add to that <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> hours of layovers and <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> hours lost to time difference because we were travelling <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> and the figure comes to significantly more, which explains why I felt a measure of fatigue as I made my way down the airstairs to the vast, snowcovered airfield ramp at <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> Air Force Base near <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. The sting of the air at <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> degrees Farenheit felt akin to stepping inside a blast freezer, and the sharp gasps and intakes of breath from the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> other <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> personnel with whom I'd shared the journey were met with only the bleak, muted sounds of the lucky 'volunteer' cargo loaders and the transit vehicles waiting to transport us to the main base. Plenty of questions floated around in (or stuck frozen to the sides of) my head but one of the great things about this stage of a military outing as compared to the preparation stage was that there wasn't a need to feel stress or actively seek answers to any of them - everything important would be explained eventually and everything else wasn't important - and this left me free to relax and only ponder seriously the mystery of why we hadn't flown <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> around the world instead of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, gaining <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> hours instead of losing them and thereby effectively eliminating a <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> of travel from our schedule.
A few droning briefings about things like rules and orders and reporting instructions and equipment issue were interspersed with the occasional useful view of a base map or explanation as to where the food and bathrooms could be found, after which we spent an incredibly unforgiving half hour trying to find our personal gear (conveniently packed in <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>) in a pile of <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> other people's personal gear (conveniently packaged in exactly the same <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>). Anyone who has ever had to do this outside in a fenced mobility yard in subzero temperatures and icy slush will definitely gain a newfound appreciation for all those tedious conveyor belts, roofs, walls and central heating systems they build at airports. I know I did. Following this we picked through our bags for all the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> gear we'd decided was too heavy or bulky for our <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, restacked our bags on a pallet, hurried through linen issue and then hiked across base to <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, which was our assigned home for the next few days. A quick summation by or element commander (who'd been through <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> before), however, resulted in us heading next door to <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> which had nicer bunks and was immediately adjacent to the showers and bathrooms, since apparently nobody would be the wiser if the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> of us slept there instead.
Life at <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> isn't bad at all. Hot food, hot showers, mattresses, decent food, all the <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> we can drink, phone and internet access and even a bar in one of the tents with some good <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> beer. We get to meet plenty of folks from <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, and today I even ran into a good friend of mine from pilot training who I hadn't seen in years who just finished up in <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> and is on his way back to <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. Our only responsibilities while here are to check the passenger terminal a few times each day for the status of our airlift to <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> and turn in our linens when we leave - other than that it's been nothing but taking the occasional photo and relaxing with a book all day long. Sadly of course it was never meant to last, and just now we learned that if the current weather holds our airlift should leave sometime between <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>> and <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>. After a short flight we'll arrive at <<CENSORED FOR OPSEC>>, and then (unless I'm way off the mark) we'll probably sit for a few droning briefings about things like rules and orders and reporting instructions insterspersed with the occasional useful view of a base map or explanation as to where the food and bathrooms can be found.