Best Laid Plans

My plans for exiting Iraq are experiencing a hiccup. (Shocking … and so unexpected …) The culprit is not bureaucratic but meteorological. Dust. Baghdad is having one of its routine dustings. Instead of blistering sunshine, the morning brought reddish grim air and the taste of dirt in your mouth. The dust stops fixed wing air operations. That impacts me because I am scheduled to helicopter from the Embassy to Baghdad International (known here as BIAP) in order to connect with a military flight to Kuwait. With the dust, no flight to BIAP; no flight to BIAP, means no flight to Kuwait; and, no flight to Kuwait, scratches the flight to DC.

I do have a back-up. I signed up to ride the Rhino out to BIAP late this afternoon. Getting to the airport takes on a whole new meaning in Iraq. You don’t have a buddy swing by to pick you up and drop you at the terminal. Taxis are not an option. There are only two options for getting to BIAP from the Embassy: helicopter or Rhino. (In the annals of motor vehicle history, only the Oscar Mayer Weiner-mobile and the Citron match the Rhino in absurdity. It is a mega-ton, armor reinforced bus.) The Rhino runs regardless of the dust. The plan, then, is to motor out to BIAP and wait there in hopes that the fixed-wing flight to Kuwait flies.

Thanks, Iraq. I appreciate another opportunity to learn humility and practice patience.