So my first day was pretty uneventful. Roy picked me up at the butt crack of dawn and carted me down to the San Antonio airport.
i waited. you have to nowadays, let them check your stuff.
i made it to jacksonville no problem. called my hotel and checked in. it was an upscale holiday inn. the hotels near airports even come get you.
so saturday morning came and my odyssey began.
first thing was to check out and get a cab down to jacksonville naval airstation (nas) where i was meeting my next flight. nas jax is way across town from the airport. so my taxi ride was some 50+bucks. not that big of a deal. i’ll get reimbursed.
first new thing. the base at jax let my taxi take me right to the air terminal. they used to not allow taxis on the base. so i was trying to arrange transportation from the front gate to the air terminal and was pleasantly surprised.
i made it to the air terminal and went through security. the navy has the security at the entrance. you want to go in? they scan all of your bags, and you. now you can go inside. i was happy to get inside, it was cold and raining, and i didn’t bring a coat.
then i had to check in on the plane. i got in line and waited around 10 people.
the military has specific requirements for air transport. when i went to spain i was on active duty. i had orders and a military id. off i went.
but i’m a civilian now. true, i’m still contracted out to the army, but i’m a civilian.
to fly on a military flight as a non-military you need orders and one of the three.
1. military id
2. passport
3. birth certificate
i had my military id. i have a passport, but it is expired. i have my birth certificate tucked away somewhere. i did not bring it because i knew my military id was all i needed.
not true on this day. nas jax refused to let me board without orders and 2 forms of id. there was a whole lot of talking going on, but in the end, they had guns, and the boarding passes.
i didn’t get on the plane.
to quote my supe, we were now in ‘crisis action planning mode’.
so i got a hotel, and a rental car and awaited further instructions.
and here’s where it gets good.
i checked into a hotel right off of nas jax. into a low brow holiday inn. didn’t bother me, but no way in hell i would have let a girl stay the night there!
now, my spue was working some alternative methods of getting me down to gitmo. so he needed copies of all of my paperwork. i went to the front desk to have it faxed to him. this is around 10 am.
and there was a young lady there named kelly. who was being a little vocal with the desk clerk. she was locked out of her room and needed back in. and she needed to pay for another night.
kelly was very petite. REAL petite. i like my girls skinny, but she was too skinny for me. probably around 5′ 2″ and 80-90 pounds. looked like she was maybe 16. the whole time she was arguing she could barely keep her eyes open. it looked like her eyes were sticky. i mean she was clean, but the way she was fighting to keep them open, it just seemed like there was something else trying to make them shut. it was kind of funny looking. this little bitty tiny girl issuing orders because she was a paying customer, all the while fighting to keep her eyes open.
the desk clerk lamented and set her up for another night, and radioed the on property security to open her room for her.
then kelly turned her attention to me. she put her hand on my back, smiled real big and informed me that she was in room 150.
i smiled back and said ok.
the desk clerk smiled at me and we had a chuckle.
and NO, i didn’t go.
the day moved on. my supe got me on a little charter flight out of tampa. i was to drive my rental down, and fly out of there on monday. so sunday was a travel day.
i eased in and watched tv.
night fell in my orange park, florida hotel room.
there were several hotels right at the intersection. and there were two gas stations / quickstops / liquor stores right across the street from each other. the vending machines outside of my motel room were beat to hell and did not work. so i wanted to walk the half mile to get a couple of cokes. maybe something to eat too.
but it just didn’t look too safe.
later i heard the sirens.
LOTS of sirens.
i popped outside to see 5 police cars and 2 ambulances at the race trac quick stop, picking some fellas up. and like a bolt, i took advantage of the police presence to make a dash for the exxon quick stop and liquor store. i bought my coke. avoided the three young ladies there. dodged the guy they were apparently with. yep, that’s kind of place i was at. and made it back to my room.
i saw the two gurnies going into the ambulances too.
the rest of the night was uneventful. i slept til about 9 and started to tampa.
i’ve never driven in florida before. but i drove this day. it was coming down in sheets. but that doesn’t matter, i had to get to tampa. so i went i-10 west to i-75 south. it looks a little longer, but i was trying to get away from the coast, hoping to get away from the rain.
then my supe called me. my flight was not in tampa. it was in ft lauderdale. ft lauderdal is a suburb of miami.
sheez.
so i kept 75 south to the florida turnpike and drove this huge extra loop down to miami. i made it there, but it took the whole day. i turned in my car and got the only hotel available that would cart me around the airport.
monday was easy.
hotel took me to the airport and i checked in on my flight.
anyone ever heard of air sunshine?
there were 13 passengers on this little plane. max of 15. i sat in the front, next to the door. there was no bathroom. the flight was three and a half hours. and for refreshments, they had a big cooler with generic brand root beer. the pilots had to climb over the cooler to get into the cockpit. the plane was LOUD. i put on my headphone just to try and decrease the noise.
made it ok, got picked up at the airport by george who gave me a beer first thing. then he told me that air sunshine has lost two planes in the water in the last 5 years. read a little here
gitmo is ok. it’s a lot like rota, when i was stationed in spain. except of course, i DO NOT get to leave base.
yes, yup, that’s part of what i’m doing
You know there had to be an adventure just to get there, right??? Glad you made it in one piece…
MB
So Kelly in Room 150 wasn’t just the pizza delivery girl?
And here I thought all those ubiquitous nasty districts right outside military installations had been cleaned up. Especially since the military wants to make solicitation a crime under the UCMJ.
Last week a contractor was trying to get on base at NAS Pax, when he made the mistake of admitting that he was born in the US Army hospital in Stuttgart. Germany. Now the SP is demanding he bring a copy of his birth certificate and his green card or naturalization papers with him before he’ll be allowed on base. Unfortunately, his US State Department issued birth certificate (his parents were of course US citizens on duty for Uncle Sam) is locked up in a safe deposit box in Florida. And being a US citizen by birth, he has neither green card nor naturlization paperwork.
Just thought I’d let you know that you were fortunate to get on base at NAS Jax.
A classic Mlah pose.