Eli asked me to submit a write up of my favorite flight. That's a tough one because so many flights were memorable and still bring smiles to me. This is one of the more memorable flights.
I was a PAX in the flight I chose to tell you about, and originated from Ali Asa'Leem Air Force Base in Kuwait with destination Baghdad Air Base. We assembled at the waiting area in a large Tent while we each checked in. It was late at night in March the desert was chilly. We finally carried our gear to an outside waiting area; several hundred yards away were 3 C-130s running their engines up while the crew made final checks. We were guided to our aircraft and were told it would be a 2 hour flight. You could smell fear and discomfort in the aircraft, it was noisy as heck and the Crew briefed us on safety procedures.
Near the rear of the plane 2 crewman were strapped in to viewing ports. Their job was to fire flares at incoming missiles. An hour or so into the flight, we were told to hold on and to expect a lot of steep turns, sudden altitude changes and to hold on to our dinner. The Air Force pilots were doing a tactical landing because in 2005 the threat of being shot down was still realistic. We were all happy to land safely (Thank you US Air Force) and most of us, mostly Army Troops, bedded down for a few hours with some heating up an MRE. In the early morning our sponsors picked us up, by now there were hundreds of people standing outside waiting for rides to our destinations.
Jeff