The Lady in Black

Nothing exciting to report from Dubai.  I'd like to say that I hit all the hot spots and partied like a rich oil Arab.  But, actually all I did was e-mail Katy and made a video for the kids.  I sat down to watch TV and woke up a couple hours later, turned everything off and went to bed.  Overall I am handling the time change pretty well (8.5 hours ahead of est) and am able to sleep at night.  Tonight might be a different story with all the planes and helicopters constantly taking off at Bagram.

So, I get up early this morning and take a taxi to the airport.  I walked in to the terminal and everyone and their brother was in the line for Bagram.  After about an hour and a half I got my bag checked in and had to go through passport clearance so I could get to my gate.  One guy had people flying through his line so I figured I'd go there, no problems.  At the last minute they called in "The Lady in Black".  She was wearing the traditional abaya and looked all business.  She called me over to her station and asked for my passport and boarding pass.  At this point I figured she stamp it and send me on through.  NOOO, she looks at me, then at my passport, me, passport, me, passport.  I smiled and thought that she was doing a thorough job.  Well, my smile, charm and good looks had no affect on her.  She looked at me again and said, "Take off your glasses!".  Now, my tourist passport picture is a couple of years old and I have a beard now but not in that picture, but, surely she can still tell that it's me.  Next she holds up the passport and looks at me, passport, me, passport.  So now I'm reaching in my pocket to pull out my other passport so I can prove that I am me when she slams it down on the counter and sent me on my way.  It sure would be a tough explanation to call the Corps to tell them I'm in custody because I don't look like my passport picture.

Flying into bagram we had to fly around a mountain range and come over the top of it to hit the runway.  I don't think the pilot decreased his airspeed until we were half way down the runway.  It was one of those hold on to your seat and brace yourself stops.  Bagram is in a flat plain surrounded by mountains.  It's desert"ish" with scrub plants and lots of really fine sand.  The mountains still have snow at the top of them.  When we were flying in I could see villages and houses.  All the houses and fields were surrounded by walls. 

Bagram is a pretty busy place.  Plenty of people from all countries.  Constant movement of armored vehicles going out on patrol and planes, jets and helicopters always moving. 

I'll be flying to Kabul in the morning.  It's supposed to be like a 10 minute flight.  Shouldn't be to bad.  Well, I'm off to hit the shower and climb into bed with the 7 other guys sharing our little hut.  OUT.