Home From Kuwait and Final Thoughts

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My departure from Kuwait began on the morning of May 30^th when I was picked up at Camp Virginia by the 3/297 battalion public affairs staff, Captain Malcolm Brown and SSG Mac Metcalfe, for the ride to Camp Arifjan. They don’t make the trip to Arifjan very often so we ended up taking a “scenic” route that afforded me an opportunity to see a bit more of the countryside and urban areas of Kuwait than I had on my arrival. One impression I still recall were the miles of high voltage power lines strung out across the desert. They were especially thick as we neared urban areas. Once at Camp Arifjan, I was handed back to the care of Major Russo and SSG Buckley of Third Army Public Affairs. After lunch, my overnight accommodations were arranged. I was in the same tent in the same zone of the camp that I occupied when I first arrived. On my own for the rest of the afternoon and evening, I re-packed my duffle bags and gear case and got to sleep early. I began my long trip home on the 31^st with the arrival of SSG Buckley and Major Russo at 5:30am. We loaded my bags into their van and set off on the hour drive to the Kuwait City International Airport. After a short farewell, I was off on my two day trip home.

I was impressed with the level of security at the airport. There are three separate security checkpoints each with an x-ray machine. Passports are checked five times: once when checking in, again at the immigration station where it is stamped, again at the security checkpoint at the departure area entrance, a fourth time at the departure gate and a fifth time in the departure gate prior to boarding the aircraft.

Since my flight departed in the morning I was able to see more of the landscape than I had coming into the country. The flight path took us north over Iraq but, as on my trip into Kuwait two weeks earlier, I only caught a glimpse of the land below before it hid itself beneath the clouds. It was then that exhaustion overtook me and I sank back into my seat to try to sleep for the duration of the five hour flight to London.

The skies over London were clear enough that I could see the Thames river and the city center flying almost directly over Big Ben, London Bridge, that enormous Ferris wheel and the Tower of London as we approached Heathrow airport. Next was the two hour trek by bus from the plane to Terminal 4, through security to another bus to Terminal 3 and on to a four hour layover for my flight to Chicago. I don’t have much of a memory of the trans-Atlantic journey as I tried to sleep for most of those eight hours. From Chicago it was another five hours to Seattle and a night’s rest in a hotel bed. On June first I completed the final leg of the trip back to Alaska. The Chugach Mountains, Mount Susitna and Cook Inlet were a welcome sight as my plane touched down in Anchorage. The Kuskokwim River was even more of a welcome sight as I landed once again at the Bethel Airport. It felt very good to be home. I thought how much more intense those feeling must be for 3/297 soldiers coming home on leave after months in the Kuwaiti desert to see these same sights and how very welcome these same sights will be when they all come home at the end of a long year’s deployment.

I’ve been home from Kuwait for close to two weeks now. I’m recovered from the jet lag following my twenty-eight hour trip home. I’ve had time to reflect on the experience. Over the two weeks I was at Camp Virginia, I recorded 8 hours of video from which to select footage for my documentary project. I produced and filed four radio stories about 3/297 soldiers and their life and work at Camp Virginia and I published a series of commentaries on my blog. So, from the perspective of my work, it was a successful trip.

Although I haven’t been in the combat zones of Iraq or Afghanistan, my experience in the war zone in Kuwait has clarified my view of the war. My admiration for our service men and women and the sacrifices they make on these deployments has grown since I’ve been able to directly observe their work first hand. The soldiers on the ground are doing their best, often under extreme hardship; working hard to fulfill the missions they’ve been assigned. Many people here at home and around the world question the overall objectives of this war. Many believe that this has been a massive effort of misspent blood and treasure for an unclarified objective. However, in no way do these opinions diminish my respect, admiration and gratitude for the dedicated service and devotion to duty of our military men and women. My experiences in Kuwait embedded with the 3/297 have only served to strengthen these feelings.

This will be my final posting on this blog, at least for the near future. I will continue to follow the deployment of the 3/297 and will add more commentary as information becomes available. The battalion is scheduled to redeploy home to Alaska sometime in October, 2007 and I will be present to record their homecoming.

Thanks to everyone who visited this blog and a special thanks to those to took the time to send comments. Stayed tuned for future developments.

Mike Martz

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