Wednesday
Today was our longest day. I guess it was to make up for how easy yesterday was supposed to be. We also figured out that instead of four days. This is a five-day trip – the schedule is written screwy, and if you analyze what they have us doing, we decided we couldn’t/wouldn’t get everything done. They talked us into going on Thursday. We called the European office center and sure enough five days!
Today’s mission was to haul cargo and passengers to Souda Bay, Crete, return to Sigonella, and then go up to Naples to spend the night.
Nothing is easy flying in the Med. No one has radar coverage down there; they only know where you are by the time you report over a point and when you estimate you’ll be at your next point, so they will not let you go anywhere straight – you have to fly established Airways even if it means going miles out of your way to get on there. We had to fly halfway up the shoe of Italy before we could head down to the southeast towards Crete.
Souda Bay is in the northwest corner of Crete – looks like an airfield carved out of the moon and transplanted into the poorest section of Central America. Really backwards. I guess the Navy has P3 operations out of there – but what a hole to live in. Hopefully the living areas are better than the airfield itself. Souda was cold and rainy, so we didn’t spend much time on the ground.
Going back in to Sigonella, the Italian controller went spastic on us – we had 6000 rounds of 9 mm ammo, and he refused us permission to land. We went into the holding pattern for about 10 minutes while the Navy worked out the wrinkles and then we landed. We taxied over to the hot cargo ramp to offload the ammo. That’s when the Pax got their first clue they had been sitting next to high explosives the past 2 1/2 hours. Raised a few eyebrows!
After a long cappuccino break, we headed up to Naples again – our takeoff delayed by Rome, being unable to accept us into their flow for another hour!
Once again, we took off late in the afternoon, and flew into Naples just after the sun went down. Beautiful city with all its lights reflecting on the water, though the sky was a bit hazy from either pollution or a temperature inversion.
We stayed again at the Jolly Hotel, but this time decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. What a huge mistake – the serving team was openly hostile to our showing up, and took so long to service and provide our bills that I, for one, was ready for breakfast.
Dinner did provide one true highlight of the trip…
One of the guys knew that a girl he worked with back home was going to be in Naples visiting her fiancé.
Apparently, the fiancé would be out of town this night, so he was really looking forward to hooking up for a wild night. The anticipation had built up all day, reaching its’ peak when we got to the hotel.
So, while all the rest of us went upstairs to suffer through dinner, he called this girl and gave her directions to our hotel (he had found the address in a brochure of all the Jolly Hotels he picked up from the front counter). Then he proceeded to wait … and wait … and wait.
It took about two hours before the light went on in the big head where the blood circulation was slowly returning. With sickening trepidation, he checked the address he had given this girl who was certain to provide him a “sure-fire good time all night long.” To his horror, he discovered the address he had given her was to the Jolly Hotel in Milan, not Naples - only 600 miles off!
He practically lunged for the phone to call her and hopefully salvage something for the evening, but to no avail – the ‘sure thing’ was still out driving around the streets of Naples searching for a non-existent street. Completely chagrined, he left a message and waited. About 45 minutes later he got a steamed phone call. She was NOT a happy camper! The evening was ruined, and he was miserable when he found us at the hotel bar.
It was classic! Naturally, we thought it was hilarious, and everyone on the crew just rubbed it in – salt in the wounds of a whipped dog! We offered to chip in and pay for a couple of porn flicks to tide him through his tragedy, but he could not be consoled: even though we would be back to Naples Thursday night, her boyfriend would be too!
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