It's funny how the small things get amplified when you're a passenger on a plane. For example, when they bring drinks around, I ask for ginger ale (I only drink ginger ale on an airplane...an old habit from fighting airsickness during navigator training that I carry with me to this day). I get a Canada Dry ginger ale. It's quite refreshing. The guy next to me (who is the guy I'm replacing BTW--another long story that I won't go into here) sees my ginger ale, thinks of how good it would taste, and asks for ginger ale as well. The only problem is that he's in the middle seat which is being served by the other cart. And they've got the generic version of ginger ale. He looked like someone kicked his puppy. Right about then, my Canada Dry ginger ale, with real ginger, tasted pretty damn good.
Unfortunately, I got the short end of the stick later. As they served dinner, the attendants pushed the cart down and stopped it right next to me. The attendant behind me started with the row behind me and the attendant in front of me stopped on the row in front of me and then went to help with the drink cart that was following behind. The middle row was being served by the other cart, as I said earlier. Thus, I was surrounded by rows and rows of people with a warm meal, and all I had was an empty tray. As the attendant walked away from me I felt like a death row inmate headed for the chair who hears the Governor's hotline ringing, but there's no one there to answer the phone. Now I know how the folks who order kosher meals must feel. As the drink cart approached, I asked for, you guessed it, a ginger ale, with a side of chicken if possible.
The in-flight entertainment featured a baby crying contest. There was a little girl with the pitch and volume to pull off the upset but, in the end, a little boy's endurance showed why he was the champ. I'm not sure who his parents are but I'm sure that St. Peter is saving a spot just for them.
The plane eventually landed in Misawa, Japan. There we were treated to more waiting. There's nothing better after a long flight than to sit in a waiting room that you cannot leave. We waited there for three hours, and then were off again.
The flight to Korea took 2 hours and 25 minutes. Unfortunately, it took nearly that long to go from landing to the room in billeting. Physically, we're talking only about a quarter of a mile, and I had a ride. Temporally, you have to make it past Immigrations and Customs. You would think that one of the two would take a while and you would be right but you would probably guess the wrong one. Immigration took about 10 minutes per person, in complete silence looking at your paperwork. Customs took about 10 seconds, and the inspection consisted of asking you if you had any of the 'declaration required' items.
Kudos to the Strategy division for everyone greeting me at the Pax terminal, even on a holiday weekend, with some groceries, patches, and a ride to billeting. Well done for a first impression, even if my name is spelled incorrectly on the patches.
Now on to billeting. Yay, a line!!! I've always said that as an aviator there are few times when I really feel like I'm in the military. One of them is when I'm in a line. If you ever want to know what it's like to be in the military, just go stand in a line, even without a uniform on. It's slightly more realistic if you know why you're in the line but have no idea how long you will be standing in the line.
Billeting also informed me that I had to pay for 30 days up front and then get refunded the days that I don't wind up using. Yeah, that makes much more sense than just charging me for what I use!
Finally, at roughly 1700 Osan time, I made it to my room. For those doing the math, that's roughly 21 and a half hours after I last woke up (0330 Seattle time to 0100 Seattle time). Of course, it would take me another five and a half hours until I would fall asleep, so 27 hours is the final awake time. Now you can see why Mistake #1 (see earlier post) was so costly. Here's a picture of my room and the view from just outside my hallway.
Cheers,
Richard
This is a great read!! Especially enjoying the drink cart section!! On the entertainment, you didn't like the movie featuring the crying kid? It's the most popular one!!
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