Gateway

Last May, I made the same trip here when I went on leave so I knew what to expect: a twenty minute bus ride to Gateway Station and in-processing. Upon arrival, our group was separated into those who were going on leave and those, like me, where going TDY. I checked with the Navy LNO and presented my orders. He looked at them and said they were issued by the army (MNF-I) and that I had to go to the army LNO desk. I presented the orders once again to an army sergeant who pronounced them valid and started making phone calls to SATO, the government travel agent. I had hoped to get ticketed on that evening’s midnight flight to Washington from Kuwait City International Airport (KCIA) but it was too late. In a way, I was relieved; I didn’t relish more travel at that point. I was assigned a VIP tent as rank actually means something down here in Kuwait. I grabbed dinner and a much needed shower. I slept well.

The next morning, I checked in with the Army LNO who said I had an approved travel itinerary. I picked it up, got it stamped and had a lot of time to kill before my late afternoon bus to KCIA. I went to the MWR tent where I typed up the last few blog entries. Unfortunately, a loud movie was playing projected onto a very large screen. Between the size of the screen and volume it was impossible not to be aware of it.

(The movie was called “The Ruins” and was a variant of the teen age horror flick genre involving two young couples vacationing in Mexico who visit a remote Mayan pyramid. They are tormented and slowly killed by some kind of semi-intelligent carnivorous plant which covers the entire pyramid. If someone ever says, “Hey, let’s watch ‘The Ruins’, run, don’t walk away. I think I actually lost a few IQ points watching it while I typed.)