The Globemaster

I made this a separate entry because the flight to Kandahar was unlike any other flight I’d ever been on.

First of all, as I said, Michel and I were flying with our flak jackets and helmets. Which was, let’s say, unusual.

As we boarded the plane it felt like we’d walked into the middle of a military movie. We were suddenly in the middle of that long line of soldiers, walking two-by-two, all helmeted and uniformed, all with guns slung over their shoulders, all walking into the wide open cargo bay. It was really strange to be walking just a foot or two away from weapons that are designed to kill. I couldn’t help hearing that children’s song “one of these things is not like the others…”

For those of you aviation people, you’ve probably already guessed that we were on a Globemaster. For those of you non-aviation people like me, this is the kind of plane you see in military movies, where the whole back opens so it can be loaded with cargo (for example, a tank - that’s how big this plane is!). What you usually don’t get to see was that there’s no inner wall - so you can see all the pipes and wires that are normally behind the scenes. It felt like we’d walked in the maintenance entrance to the Starship Enterprise.

The middle of the plane had been set up with rows of seats - cushioned but with barely enough legroom for me, let alone Tall Man Michel, and the walls were also lined with seats. And this time all the seats were full. And not just full of soldiers, but full of soldiers wearing full gear and carrying weapons.

Wow. Reality check.

See what I mean about it looking like the maintenance entrance of the Starship Enterprise?

(More pics of the Globemaster here and here. We have a couple more but Wordpress doesn’t seem to want to let me upload them - check again in a day or two to see the pics of soldiers surrounding us!))

After our initial “shock and awe”, I think we both fell asleep (not The Most Comfortable Thing To Do In A Flak Jacket And Helmet!)… and woke up in Kandahar.

And there we had our second Real Military Experience, when we got in the back of an army truck. It was the kind of truck where the seats are all in a row down the middle facing outwards (for better shooting??) and where they can drop army cloth down over the top and sides for cover.  I was sure we were heading off to the front lines in the movie “Good Morning Vietnam”.

But we weren’t. Actually, we were headed to a drop-off area where we were greeted by the Kandahar Press Officer who escorted us to a hot bacon, eggs, and sausages breakfast… <happy sigh> and then on to the plane to TK - the final leg of our journey <tired sigh>.

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