Lately the weather here has been frustrating. Gone are the calm, warm temperatures and blue skies. In their place sit windy, cool, and hazy/dusty skies. Where our minds know we should see a clear blue, we instead see a fuzzy grey. For the three days the convoy has been stranded at a base in Iraq waiting for the conditions to clear enough for medical evacuation flights (Medevacs) to be possible. The convoy does not have any injured or wounded, it is simply a precautionary policy that if the birds can't fly then the trucks can't roll.
Much like the early chapters of the book "Black Hawk Down" the drivers load up their gear each night on their trucks, go through preparations for rolling down the road, then sit waiting to hear their equivalent of "Irene"...only to have the time of no return arrive and be told to stand down.
For truckers to be grounded more than a day is not a good thing. Once sleep has been caught up on and the waiting begins they get antsy, they get grumpy, cabin fever sets in quick, and on a base with high ranking personnel on it...the potential for trouble is higher than usual for some of them. Morale drops slightly. Fortunately the base has expanded over the years and the opportunity to explore it is utilized by some. For others the discovery of wireless internet in the tent is a god-send. Some deal with the situation with retail therapy, exploring the gift shops and stalls of the various market vendors.
The wind changes the morning of the fourth day. Talk among the drivers is hopeful. Whether or not they are able to return to the road remains to be seen. One thing is sure, only time will tell how long it will be before the blue skies return.
Everyone be safe.
~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment