Mark has been working on getting home to St. George from Afghanistan for almost a week now. Traveling within the country is difficult since you can not merely put your thumb out for the next taxi to pull up! Mark left his base by armored vehicle to travel to FOB Apache. From there he had to catch a helicopter ride to Kandahar. In Kandahar, he was met by a buddy whom he has met since being in country on base. He had to stay in Kandahar until he could get his plane ride to Dubai. He was scheduled to leave Kandahar on Wednesday, the 16th and would not be flying out of Dubai until the 18th around midnight.
When Mark was leaving the base in Kandahar, the guards reviewed his travel orders and said to him, since you do not have a Dubai Visa ... you will have to stay in the airport for two days until your flight is ready to go. Hmmm ... this would have been good to know ... since who likes to hang out in airports for 2 days??? But, Mark says, ok. I'll stay in the airport. I believe once Mark got to Dubai and entered the airport, you must go through airport security immediately vs. waiting until you go to the gate, like here in the states. So, traveling with just a backpack, Mark then lost his toothpaste, facewash, shampoo and razor ... hmmm thus begin the stink at the airport. Poor Mark is now sleeping on the airport benches talking to complete strangers (not one of his strong points) and waiting as patiently as he can for his 15 hour flight to leave. Finally the 18th comes and he checks in for his flight with his paperwork from the travel agency. The polite check-in desk attendant from United then informs Mark, "I'm sorry you are NOT on this flight!". Thus you can see where the panic / heart-attach begins! After HOURS of trying to call out from the airport and being unsuccessful ... Mark is back in line at the United desk and calmly requests .... HELP! Turns out the travel agency had put him on the same flight that left the night before (17th) which Mark was at the airport for and could have gotten on ... but, typed up his travel orders for the 18th! Talk about stress! All he was thinking was, I have not seen my family for 4 months and I could be stuck in this airport for 21 days until I have my travel orders to come back! Ughh. Thankfully, and seriously, I know the Lord was watching over him, the agent at United worked with him and was able to get him on the flight stand-by for which he had been waiting on. The flight was full... it was a miracle!
Mark arrives in Washington today, the 18th at 6:30 am. I got his call and helped him find his way to the shuttle that would then take him to the Marriott for the day / night. Thankfully, the Marriott let Mark check in early and finally, Mark has a bed, shower, shampoo, clean running water and all the comforts of American lifestyle.
Later this morning ... I got a call from United Airlines. Mark's flight for tomorrow that brings him from Dulles to Las Vegas is now cancelled due to the potential for 12" of snow! UGHHH! We can not get through to the customer service agents because United is ringing busy and busy, so I called Mark back and had him go back to the airport to stand in the reservation line. He is now booked on a 4 o'clock flight that goes through Chicago and should arrive in Vegas at 11:04 PM!
TO BE CONTINUED ...
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