DAY 53: Willkommen to Deutschland

Tue, 18 October 2005

0400L. I’m about to head out when someone knocks on my door. One of the emergency leave pax informs me that the 3 individuals that went carousing last night are not waking up. I stop over at one of the individual’s room – no matter what we tried, the soldier was COMPLETELY passed out drunk. Okay, things are looking bad. The other two have their doors locked. So, I head to the front desk and get the keys. First, we tried to wake each one up – NOT working. I then decide that we’ll bring their luggage down to save time. Next is the tough part – waking up a drunk who may punch. I soak the bathroom towels in cold water and then smother each of their faces. One finally awakens and after a few minutes he is semi-coherent enough that we move on. Second individual is in very bad shape. Eyes open, but no one’s home upstairs. Third individual has key in right hand and is cuddling the blankets. We roll him over and strip the blanket. After a few minutes, he’s also semi-coherent. Back to the second individual…he starts moving, so I lead him down the hall and ensure he’s going for the front door – a total stupor, but in the direction that I need. We finally get on the military transportation at 0435L and depart back for Spangdahlem AB.

Flight Delay
After being in hot Afghanistan for 6 weeks, I forgot that this was October and fall season in the rest of the northern hemisphere. It’s definitely cool and windy here in Germany and this morning proved it. As we arrive back to the Pax Terminal we are informed there is an 8-hour delay due to aircrew non-availability. Basically, we have our plane, our cargo, and our pax – just need someone to drive the plane. So we wait and wait. After 8 hours, the aircrew finally arrives and now Engine #2 has a problem. A part is ordered from Ramstein AB (90 miles away) and is being transferred over for the fix. As the day wears on, we are informed there is a 2200L flying curfew. At 2100L, with no part in sight I recommend that we call it a night. We had waited 16 hours in the Pax Terminal and with one hour left until curfew the likelihood of this plane taking off was about nil – a good call. We are then bused back to the same hotel – only this time the rowdy folks get some needed rest and I make a call to find out the latest status. We are notified that our departure window varies from 0600L tomorrow morning thru two days – we supposedly lost the aircrew and they are now scouring for one to replace them – ugh! An 0400L call is necessary to confirm and I instruct all that I would knock on doors if we need to leave early.