Trying to catch a military flight into Iraq from Kuwait is a ’round-the-clock endeavor. After arriving in Kuwait on Monday morning, I waited out the day on an air base as I was issued a visa and tried to catch a British embassy flight to Baghdad.
When I was bumped from the flight, appropriately by British forces needing to reach Baghdad, I went to another air base. I was able to catch a few hours sleep before reporting at 4 a.m. for a roll call on another flight to Baghdad.
To pass time waiting for flights in a large tent, the Air Force Network was broadcasting the Monday Night Football game between Green Bay and Philadelphia on a big screen.
In the next few hours, as the fiery orange sun began rising over the desert horizon, the Packers were whomped by Philly. Watching NFL football in the wee morning hours kept it a more subdued affair among soldiers, but with each Philly interception of a Brett Favre pass, applause or groans went up from the crowd.
A few hours later, I scored a seat on a C-130 flight to Kuwait. As I, along with two other reporters, some troops from the country of Georgia, and U.S. soldiers, including a few new incoming soldiers to the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team waited on the tarmac, we grew restless about the holdup. After about 45 minutes, the culprits of the wait arrived in the form of U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R–Tenn., and Sen. Mel Martinez, R–Fla.