Bus Ride to KCIA

I left the loading dock, with the last of my group and found ourselves in Yet Another Line. This one led through a causeway to another building where, we were told by those ahead of us, we would go through another X ray machine. Once again, we emptied our pockets, walked through the metal detectors, had our carry one bags X-rayed and were admonished once again that we could take such things as hand grenades, war trophies, or switch blades home. Right.

We exited into a court yard where we were instructed to wait in a tent, depending on our intermediate destinations (Atlanta or Dallas). I went to the Dallas tent and found half my group waiting seated on chairs and watching a movie. A stocked refrigerator held water, sodas and sports drinks, along with snacks on the wall. I grabbed a Coke and some potato chips. Shortly, we were instructed to walk to another building where we would pick up our commercial airline tickets and itineraries. We did so, and then gathered once more as an entire group under a wooden roofed structure. We received a blessing from an Air Force Chaplain who gave a gift to one of our soldiers. He gave it to the youngest soldier with a child (the solider was nineteen).

Our push time for the busses was set back one hour to accommodate our Dantean travel through Customs. I was informed by the movement coordinator that we would be okay. Under Gateway personnel supervision we slowly filed onto nine large buses and, under armed escort, proceeded out into the dark Kuwaiti desert.