Delay, waiting, more delay and cold

March 18, 2005

I slept in a bathroom last night.

It was the warmest place I could find.

I would have slept in the laundry room if I’d have thought about it, but my mind was cloudy with sleep deprivation when I made the decision to leave the warehouse.

Let me back up a bit.

We aren’t actually supposed to be in Kuwait right now. Our plane was scheduled to leave Tuesday. Then it was delayed.

It was delayed again last night shortly before midnight. They say we may fly tomorrow.

We’ve been up for a day and a half.

First came roll call at 2 a.m. yesterday. We piled out of the warehouse we’ve called home for the last week. Each warehouse bay held an entire company of soldiers — about 130 soldiers — in row upon row of metal bunk beds.

We carried our two duffel bags and one carry-on bag out to the street and waited to hear our names called.

We marched with our bags down the street, around the corner and up the block, finally resting in front of a door marked U.S. Customs. Everything was dumped out onto wooden picnic tables and searched by U.S. Navy customs officials.

Then, we crammed everything back in as best we could. That required a series of pounding the duffel bags on the ground, stepping on the contents with a boot to mash them in and finally sitting on the duffel to get it closed up tight.

The next time we’d see our duffel bags, we’d be in Oklahoma.

So when our plane was delayed again, we had nothing but what was crammed into our carry-on bags and what we wore on our backs.

I have nothing but the boots on my feet, polar fleece and a GORE-TEX rain jacket.

Well, I did remember to put my apricot facial scrub in my carry-on. But that didn’t keep me warm.

Anyway, we finished going through customs about dawn yesterday and headed to a holding area.

It was a room with chairs, a monopoly game and snack food. There was a small area to walk outside, but it was enclosed by a chain link fence and was taken up mostly by the bulk of six port-a-potties.

It was close to midnight when we were told our plane was delayed again. We hiked back across camp and into the bunkbed warehouse.

I curled up on my bed and tried to sleep but the shivering kept me awake.

Some soldiers took the canvas cover off their mattresses and used them as sleeping bags.

I wish I’d thought of that.

Sometime around 2 a.m. I headed to the bathroom. I didn’t have to go, but I was so cold I thought the walk would warm me up.

I opened the door and found the bathroom trailer to be toasty warm. The air conditioner was broken and pumping out hot air.

The bathroom trailer has a row of sinks, bathroom stalls and shower stalls. A wooden bench runs the span of the shower area, providing a place to sit and change clothes.

Yep, I curled up on the bench like a homeless person and fell asleep almost immediately.

I hadn’t slept in more than 24 hours, so I was out cold.

Until reveille blew at dawn.

The bugling startled me.

I fell off the bench.

Just about that time a female soldier walked in and looked at me like I was crazy. I tried to explain why I slept in there, but she just nodded with the look that I was insane.

I went back to the warehouse.

The sun was beginning to warm things up so I wrapped my jacket around my head to keep as much heat in as possible and fell back asleep.

I awoke as a soldier who was smart enough to pack a blanket tossed it over me. After getting a full night’s rest under his blanket, he saw me shivering and snoozing and gave it to me when he got up.

I will never go anywhere without a blanket again.

Posted by Amy at March 18, 2005 03:11 PM