Checkpoint

We drove for about ten or fifteen minutes when we pulled over into what appeared to be a check point. Sitting in the front of the lead bus I could see Kuwaiti police vehicles parked next to a few ramshackle buildings. Several Kuwaitis, police I assumed, walked out of the building and made their way to the lead HUMVEE escort. This, I was told, would be our police escort to KCIA, still some twenty or so minutes away. We waited. And waited.

One of the soldiers on our bus had a radio which I periodically asked him to use to find out what was going on. Every time he radioed the HUMVEE they replied that the Kuwaitis were told they would be escorting two convoys, not one. All I could think of was the other group of soldiers from Afghanistan we had spent the entire day behind in customs. I knew for a fact that we had left before them, presumably because our flight left before theirs.

After an hour went by, new civilian vehicles arrived. Uniformed personnel got out and joined the growing conference of Kuwaitis and US military at the head of our convoy. I asked my Marine Corps master sergeant, who was my assistant flight commander, to accompany me out of the bus to see what was going on. As we approached the outdoor conference, I saw that one of the recent arrivals was a Kuwaiti police colonel. The other Kuwaitis were paying him much deference. The US military personnel involved in the conference were senior enlisted. One of them saw our approach and asked what he could do for us. He looked stressed and our arrival likely was adding to the stress. Nevertheless, I owed it to the 348 personnel in the buses behind me to find out what was going on.

“Can I help you, sir?” he asked. “Yeah,” I replied, “we’re less than two hours from our scheduled departure. Why are we still stuck here?” “Sir,” he said moving slightly between me and the ensuing discussion not far away, “we’re just about to get moving, don’t worry.”
Right.

I knew the flight was chartered, and we were the only passengers, so it’s not like the plane was going anywhere without us. We walked back to the bus. Not long after, another convoy of four buses plus a baggage truck arrived and positioned themselves in front of us. This was the second convoy the Kuwaitis were waiting for. Slowly, the Kuwaitis and the US military personnel previously engaged in the discussions got back in their vehicles and we started moving.

After some twenty to thirty minutes, we arrived at KCIA and vectored off to a closed section of the airport. We went through some more check points and were told we would be driven directly to the flight line. The convoy that was ahead of us drove off to a parking lot. As we passed by, we saw them getting off their buses to smoke.

We drove on for a minute or two and found ourselves on the flight line. A large chartered plane was waiting for us. Our volunteer baggage handlers, where were on the first bus with me, got off and started to load our bags on the plane. I got off the bus and presented our official manifest to the plane’s crew. Some more signatures were made and our group got onto the plane. Every seat was taken.