Day Two--We Finally Board!

We returned to Dover at 0900 Saturday, eager to finally fly to Europe. Our plan was to fly to Rota, then on to Sigonella, Sicily and Souda Bay, Crete, from whence we would have a short flight to Tel Aviv. That was the plan, anyway...

We waited patiently--ok, not so patiently, for the 1440 anticipated show time, when the AF guys would hand us our coveted boarding passes, based upon our category (we, as retirees, are in Category VI of 6--bottom of the priority list) and sign up time. Luckily, I had shotgunned an e-mail sign up to any and all bases from which we might fly back on 8 April, so we had 3 weeks "seniority" on our side, in case too many people wanted to compete for too few seats. About 1300, however, our friendly terminal attendant silently changed the coveted seat count from 19 tentative to zero firm seats, meaning that the plane would go to Rota without passengers, or "pax" in AF jargon.

Several couples waiting for the Rota flight were as upset as we were. One couple, Bob and Kate, a father-daughter duo, were making a Spanish-language immersion trip as a college graduation present for Kate. Another couple, Dave and Judy, were trying to catch a cruise ship in Barcelona on Sunday for a tour of the Med. They had left Travis a week earlier, and had several flights fall through and were in danger of missing their ship. In the Navy, missing ship's movement was a Captain's Mast offense--they could be reduced in rank and forfeit half a month's pay!

There was a glimmer of hope, though: there was a C-5 flight to Charleston leaving that night, and there was a tentative flight to Rota late Saturday night from Charleston. We crossed our fingers, changed our flight requests to Charleston, and boarded the busses to the flight line... oops--flight delayed 30 minutes--back to the terminal!

Once again we boarded the standard issue military busses (meaning "no frills" like A/C--it was 90 F), and weaved our way through the various plane types on the flight line: C-5s, C-17s, KC-135s, C-130s, and contract 747s. We boarded and strapped in for the 90 minute flight to Charleston. The crew, a reserve outfit recalled to active duty for the third time in 8 years, was great, and we arrived in Charleston without incident.

After processing through the terminal for our flight to Rota, we visited with our other "special category" travelers in the "special category" lounge, complete with 4 inch cockroaches. These lounges used to be called "VIP" lounges, then "distinguished visitor" lounges for E-9 and O-6 and above travelers, but someone must have been offended--twice--so the name was changed to protect the guilty. Kate and Bob were there, as were Dave and Judy, and "Doc" Ramon, going to visit his son in Spain. A great bunch, all things considered.

At 0100 we boarded the same C-5 that carried us to Charleston, with the same affable sergeant in charge of the pax, for the flight to Rota. We each grabbed a row of seats, and were soon sleeping our way across the Atlantic. We awoke about 30 minutes prior to landing, for the 1500 Sunday touchdown in Rota. We made it to Europe!