This morning we began by drawing our weapons out of the Arms Room. We carry our M4 and M9s with us on the plane; in fact, we'll rarely be without them for the next year. With our weapons secured, we stacked all of our bags next to the road outside our billets, separated by type: duffle bags, rucksacks, and TAT boxes. TAT stands for To Accompany Troops, and it simply means a box that will travel on the same aircraft we will. MiTT teams don't get any shipping containers to carry their gear: because we're so small, giving us one would be a waste of space, but that means we end up with a lot more gear than most individuals are permitted to carry: up to five duffle bags and a rucksack. This became an issue today, but I'll get to that later.

Much of the morning was spent waiting. Amanda and my parents waited with us, as did a few other family members, but for the most part it was just soldiers standing by as we waited for our transportation to arrive. Finally the truck for the bags showed up, and contracted civilians loaded all of our baggage into the back of the truck for transportation to Topeka. Once that was complete we moved to the buses and loaded up, which meant saying goodbye to our families. The less said about that, the better.

The buses took us to Custer Hill, where we went through the manifest process. The Army has simplified that process wonderfully; all we had to do was ensure that our carryon bags were the right size, swipe our ID cards to check us onto the flight, and that was about it. We had to wait at the gym for about an hour before we got a brief speech from COL Ingram, the 1st Brigade commander. He spoke about the fact we are a military at war, if not a nation at war, and wished us luck on our mission. With that we loaded up onto buses for the trip to Forbes Field in Topeka.

It took longer to get out of Topeka than I would have expected, but that was probably due to the number of bags that had to be loaded. While I'm travelling relatively light, some soldiers are carrying close to the maximum allowable baggage, and that adds up quickly. By about four we were off to Indianapolis, where we would finish filling the plane with a National Guard unit also heading to Kuwait.

As I said, our number of bags is unusual, and apparently whoever planned our flight didn't count on it. So when they tried to load the aircraft in Indianapolis, they couldn't fit all the bags in the cargo hold, so they ended up having to stuff a number of bags into the passenger compartment, which meant things got a little cozier on the aircraft than I would have liked, although I still have an empty seat next to me, so I cannot complain. The National Guard, on the other hand, are crammed in the back of the aircraft and will spend an ugly trip from here to Germany and on to Kuwait.

It's late here, so I'm going to hop back on the plane and try to get some sleep en route to Germany. Thanks to everyone for the comments; I'm sorry I haven't been able to get involved in the threads, but I am reading and enjoying them. Hopefully I'll be back online soon.

READER COMMENTS

Heard about you on the OTB blog. Just wanted to say, God bless you and your brothers and here's to the D.O.D. letting up on the blog ban. Maybe in lieu of that you can get in Stars and Stripes. Thank you for being one of the half percenters.

Good luck in your march towards victory and be sure to get them before they get you (and us). I will pray for it. M. Ducharme (U.S.A.F. -'79 to '83)

All the best, Andrew.

Andy,
I added your name to the prayer list at church. It was posted in this Sunday's program. I'm sending Amanda a copy. Take care and God speed.

Love, Mum

Hi Andy,

Trust that your trip will be tolerable, and we will keep praying for you and your men's safety.
Uncle Dave and Aunt Pat

Our prayers are with your family. We care.