Best laid plans...

We've been delayed.

Before we left home station we were told we would get here on July 12th, start flying on the 15th, our replacements would arrive by August 12th, and we would depart on a rotator home on the 15th to fly right into PIT. Sound too good to be true??? It was.

As soon as we got here, we found that NO arrangements had been made for our return. None. The interesting thing about that is that you have to make all such arrangments 30 days out, or suffer of being an afterthought in the aircraft rotation planning. So we hit the ground with almost exactly 30 days to go, and no plans or reservations had been submitted. It took our orderly room people about two days to get up to speed on the maze of buearacracy that goes into Transportation managment in the Air Force, and by the time we got all our info in and verified, we were slipped to the 18th.

Naturally that caused a bit of heartburn with that always present 10% who always have to have something to complain about, and the 1 % who have legitimate gripes. However, the 18th was covered by a plane that would take us from here directly to Pittsburgh with only a fuel stop, no intermediate stops to unload and load passengers. Quick and dirty. Much better than getting dumped off in Baltimore and having to get all our gear slepped though a commercial airport twice..

Then yesterday we got the word that the 18th was slipped to the 21st! Oh my, the screaming and howling that arose???!! All from one guy!! Incredible. It sucks, but c'mon.. you have to expect that things are not gonna go smoothly and be ready for it. He has no real reason or need to get home, other than he's tired of being here (who isn't?). The poor active duty guys are here for three or four months... how can we complain too loudly after one?

Anyway, so the bad news is we're leaving here on the 21st, instead of the 15th. The good news is we'll be flying directly into PIT, something that is almost unheard of. Almost all rotators go to Baltimore or Norfolk, VA, and dump their passengers there. We'll get into Pittsburgh at 2:30 pm. and be home for dinner, with just one fuel stop. Most of the time the rotators take 24 hours to get to the States, then you still have to do a commercial flight to your home. Ours will take 15 hours. I don't think we can get home faster than that.

So... we have to find things to do for three extra days. Most guys have a lot of time to kill. My replacement comes in on the 16th, will be ready to take over for me on the 18th, so I'll have about 4 days to kill. Not ideal, but then there's a pool here I've never visited.....