{"id":33762,"date":"2013-01-26T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-01-26T10:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=33762"},"modified":"2013-01-26T11:11:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T15:11:47","slug":"memory-lane-rr-fun-with-mac-and-sato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=33762","title":{"rendered":"Memory Lane: R&R Fun With MAC and SATO"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the \u201cbennies\u201d you get while deployed to an existing, established theater\u00a0 is something called \u201cR&R Leave\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Vietnam had it; so did today’s GWOT.\u00a0 Formally, it\u2019s \u201cRest and Recuperation Leave\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019ll spare everyone the older, very<\/em> politically-incorrect \u201cinformal\u201d names.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s rules may be a bit different than the Vietnam era.\u00a0 So for the benefit of those who\u2019re unfamiliar with today\u2019s policies and rules I thought I\u2019d write this to describe those policies, circa late 2007.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure the policies and procedures are pretty much the same today.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re indeed a sterling example military bureaucracy at its finest.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

The bennies associated with R&R in 2007 \u2013 and, presumably, today – were twofold.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a complete \u201cfreebie\u201d; you did have to use accrued (or advanced) leave.\u00a0 However, the US Government paid for your round-trip transportation to your R&R leave destination.\u00a0 You could go to Australia or Spain if you wanted to (I know folks who went to each location on R&R).\u00a0 But Uncle Sam only paid for your ticket; if others joined you there, that was on your nickel. (My spouse and I met in Munich and spent my R&R at the Eidelweiss AFRC in Garmish.)<\/p>\n

The second bennie was that only the time spent at your R&R location was counted as leave.\u00a0 Travel time to\/from that destination was not.\u00a0 The net result is that you got to spend all of your leave time at your R&R destination.<\/p>\n

Of course, some would say that the simple fact that you\u2019re allowed to spend some time outside of a combat zone is a third bennie in its own right.\u00a0 To some extent they have a point – but that\u2019s not entirely an unalloyed good thing.\u00a0 Some folks found coming back in-theater rougher than deploying in the first place.<\/p>\n

Did I mention that this is all governed by numerous rules, regulations, policies and the like?\u00a0 Leave it to military bureaucracy to make something like going on R&R just \u201coh so much fun\u201d, and damn near more trouble than it was worth.<\/p>\n

Policies<\/span><\/p>\n

First:\u00a0 your tour of duty in the CENTCOM AOR had to be long enough to qualify for you to get R&R leave.\u00a0 A year qualified.\u00a0 As I recall, six months did not; I seem to remember the “breakpoint” being 270 days, but I could be wrong.<\/p>\n

Second:\u00a0 R&R couldn’t be too early or too late in one’s tour.\u00a0 My recollection is not before the 3rd month or after the 9th month of a one-year tour.<\/p>\n

Third:\u00a0 although formally policy in 2007 stated that R&R was at the unit commander\u2019s discretion, the reality was that R&R was pretty much mandatory for all.\u00a0 However, flexibility was NOT exactly encouraged.\u00a0 Taking less than the normal amount (15 days) took rather high-level approval.\u00a0 Think stars.\u00a0 Literally.<\/p>\n

Fourth:\u00a0 you could not<\/em> take your R&R anywhere in a rather lengthy list of countries, most of which are in the Middle East.\u00a0 The reason for that restriction should be pretty obvious.<\/p>\n

Fifth:\u00a0 it was mandatory<\/em> to go through the R&R processing center in Kuwait when going on R&R, even if there were more direct and faster ways to get from your deployed location to your R&R destination.\u00a0 Kuwait is not my favorite place on earth.<\/p>\n

Sixth:\u00a0 to go on R&R, someone had to get you a flight on “yer standard USAF-operated in-theater air transportation system” to get from your duty station to Kuwait.\u00a0 (You got to skip this step if you were one of those \u201clucky souls\u201d deployed to Kuwait – but in that case, IMO you really<\/i> deserve sympathy.)\u00a0 This was often not an easy thing to arrange.\u00a0 Also, depending on where and how lucky you were this was almost always either a C130 or a C17.\u00a0 If you got the latter, you were lucky \u2013 a C17 is a much more comfortable flight than a C130.\u00a0 However, depending on overall mission needs the flight might or might not be on the date you expected.\u00a0 So you (and anyone seeing you during R&R) had to be somewhat flexible.<\/p>\n

Seventh:\u00a0 only a limited number of people in any unit could go on R&R at any one time.\u00a0 You might or might not get to go on R&R when you wanted to go.<\/p>\n

I’ve probably forgotten a couple of other R&R rules\/policies, but I think you get the idea.\u00a0 You will have fun – by the numbers!<\/p>\n

Lastly:\u00a0 you got to deal with the bureaucracy that had developed over time at the R&R processing center in Kuwait.\u00a0 That bureaucracy in Kuwait was, to be charitable, excessive and at least partially nonsensical.\u00a0 It did work \u2013 and, in their defense they were processing literally thousands of folks monthly in 2007-2008, if not tens of thousands.\u00a0 But the fact that it worked is really the best that can be said about it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it worked.<\/p>\n

Getting Started<\/span><\/p>\n

At your in-theater \u201chome station\u201d, someone (usually your unit’s air movements officer) made arrangements for you to fly from an in-theater airfield into the airfield supporting R&R operations.\u00a0 This in itself was usually \u201ctons o’ fun\u201d – and a foreshadowing of the fun that awaited you in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

After you arrived in Kuwait, you then caught a bus to the R&R processing area.\u00a0 Before you could even leave your duty station to go on R&R, you had to arrange to get a number of briefings prior to departing.\u00a0 But as soon as you got to the R&R processing center \u2013 even if it was 0300 when you arrived \u2013 you got yet another similar briefing or two. \u00a0 These briefings were pretty standard stuff; why these weren\u2019t also among those given at your duty station prior to departure I don\u2019t know. Then you turned in some gear (e.g., your helmet and body armor – your weapon and ammo were stored by your unit while you were gone) and, depending on the time of day, went to transient billeting and got assigned temp quarters for the night or went directly to more admin processing.<\/p>\n

These temporary quarters were a tent, air conditioned to a temperature seemingly just slightly above freezing.\u00a0 (Yes, it is<\/em> possible to freeze your butt off in Kuwait.)\u00a0 You got assigned a bunk and a wall-locker, but only those who qualified for a VIP tent got a pillow and bedding.\u00a0 Hopefully someone at your unit forewarned you and you brought a blanket or poncho liner \u2013 or you like things really<\/em> cold when you sleep.<\/p>\n

Then began the fun of getting from Kuwait to your R&R location.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t seem to be able to send word ahead from the originating station to the R&R control point of who was going on R&R on a particular day, so scheduling flights wasn’t done ahead of time.\u00a0 So you had to do that\u00a0 at the R&R processing center after arrival.<\/p>\n

CONUS<\/span><\/p>\n

If you were going to CONUS for R&R, the folks at R&R control point took your name and manifested you for a stateside R&R flight.\u00a0 If you were lucky, you got an flight right away and could fly the same evening you got there.\u00a0 If not you\u2019d stay in Kuwait a while – maybe a couple of days – \u201cenjoying\u201d scenic sunny Kuwait while waiting for a flight.\u00a0 Joy, joy.\u00a0 But you’d eventually get your R&R flight assignment.<\/p>\n

If you were going to CONUS, you also got to go through customs inspection too.\u00a0 This meant you got to lay out all<\/em> your baggage for customs inspectors to go through looking for contraband.\u00a0 While Kuwait has more sand than the parts of Iraq and Afghanistan I saw while deployed, it also has quite a bit of fine powdery dust too \u2013 mixed in with the sand.\u00a0 The end result is that your bags and everything in them end up looking like they\u2019ve been lightly powdered with talc. Or maybe not so lightly powdered if it happened to be a dustier than usual day.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve started strip-searching folks at customs \u2013 yet.\u00a0 But DHS might be doing the R&R customs inspections these days, so you never know.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

Seriously, the customs inspection was (and is) actually needed.\u00a0 In spite of repeated a priori<\/em> warnings and numerous Amnesty Boxes in the R&R processing area, every once in a while some numbnuts tries to take home something they really<\/em> shouldn’t.<\/p>\n

In either case, sooner or later you showed up at the designated time and place for your flight\u2019s manifest call.\u00a0 Then you waited around for a while, caught a bus to the flight line, boarded the R&R bird, and flew stateside.\u00a0 On arrival stateside, you reported to another group at the stateside end who arranged the stateside leg of your trip to your R&R destination.<\/p>\n

OCONUS<\/span><\/p>\n

If you were going OCONUS for R&R, the process was a bit different.\u00a0 You were spared customs – but you had a different type of \u201cfun\u201d in store for you at the start of your trip.\u00a0 Going OCONUS you flew commercial.\u00a0 So instead of getting manifested for a CONUS R&R bird, you went to SATO to get ticketed for a commercial flight.<\/p>\n

This could be a bit disconcerting.\u00a0 This was also the same SATO office that handled transportation for emergency leaves.\u00a0 There was usually a mix of R&R and emergency leave folks in the SATO office at the same time trying to arrange for tickets; that kinda put a damper on things.<\/p>\n

To get your commercial ticket, you went to SATO and showed them your R&R leave paperwork \u2013 which of course had your leave dates on it.\u00a0 They made a copy, gave you back the original, and then gave you a time to come back (either later that day or the next day) to pick up your ticket.<\/p>\n

SATO issued e-tickets in 2007, so I don\u2019t really understand why a ticket wasn\u2019t issued on the spot while you waited.\u00a0 My guess is that someone at another location had to approve payment for the ticket first.\u00a0 But given the volume of tickets issued, I also don\u2019t understand why that individual wasn\u2019t at the SATO office during normal duty hours to approve payment immediately.<\/p>\n

I really can\u2019t say I was particularly impressed with that SATO office, either.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just say that getting return flights on the correct dates wasn\u2019t something you wanted to take for granted.\u00a0 Nor was their fixing such a problem before you departed, even if you brought it to their attention and they told you it was \u201ctaken care of\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yeah, the check\u2019s in the mail too.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

I guess you get what you pay for.\u00a0 But as much as Uncle Sam pays for commercial airline tickets, I really don\u2019t think that SATO getting it right before you depart is too much to ask.<\/p>\n

After you got your ticket, when the time came you took a bus to the civilian airport to catch your flight.\u00a0 That part was actually fairly painless, though also a bit disconcerting (more later) \u2013 even though some ended up doing it VERY late at night.<\/p>\n

Coming Back Part I – the Kuwaiti Part<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting back from either CONUS or OCONUS was pretty much just commercial air travel (or so close as to be effectively that on the R&R return flight), so I won’t discuss that.\u00a0 But once you got to Kuwait . . .<\/p>\n

On your return from R&R in Kuwait, more of the same “fun” awaited.<\/p>\n

If you flew in from CONUS, after you landed you took a bus from the flight line over to the R&R processing center and signed in.\u00a0 You then got told to come back for accountability roll call, at which time you would also (hopefully) get further info regarding when you\u2019d fly back to your duty station.\u00a0 Those roll calls were conducted at 0500 and 1900 daily.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter if you got there at 0300 or at 2000 the previous day \u2013 you were still required to be there at 0500 for accountability roll call with all your bags packed.<\/p>\n

This meant you had to go draw the equipment (helmet, body armor) you turned in on initial arrival before that 0500 roll call.<\/p>\n

After the 0500 accountability roll call, a lucky group got told to proceed directly to an early flight.\u00a0 Those who had been manifested for a specific flight yet were told to check back at various times during the day to see if you’d made one of the later flights for that day.\u00a0 If you hadn\u2019t yet been manifested by the last of those “show times”, you were told to show up at 1900 for evening accountability and to receive further info.\u00a0 At some point in the process, if you weren’t going that day you’d be told that and you’d go get another set of transient quarters. Then you waited for the next day so you could go “back, Jack, and do it again”. (smile)<\/p>\n

This cycle continued until you got your flight assignment back to your duty station.<\/p>\n

Of course, you had to check out of quarters each day before you showed up at 0500 with all your baggage \u2013 yes, that was indeed somewhat of a goat-rope \u2013 because you might fly out immediately afterwards.\u00a0 Or you might not.<\/p>\n

See, I told you this was going to be tons o’ fun.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

If you flew back from R&R\u00a0 on a commercial flight (generally from an OCONUS location), the process was the same \u2013 except for your bus ride from the airport back to the R&R processing center, which traveled on Kuwaiti highways.\u00a0 (As I recall, CONUS R&R and rotation flights landed at the airbase.)\u00a0 Kuwaiti drivers are . . . well, let\u2019s just say that Kuwait drivers have somewhat different standards regarding acceptable risk and staying in lanes while driving than do most Americans.<\/p>\n

Traveling on Kuwaiti highways was the most dangerous thing I ever did while in Kuwait, hands down.\u00a0 And you just ain’t lived until you’ve hit a speedbump\/speedhump on a Kuwaiti road while riding in one of those buses.\u00a0 Ride-em, Cowboy! (smile)<\/p>\n

Coming Back Part II – From Kuwait to Your Duty Station<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019d done all of that – and maybe stayed a night or two in Kuwait awaiting transport, going through the same daily accountability calls and check-in\/check-out drill with transient billeting that you did previously when going on R&R – you caught your flight back to the airfield nearest your unit.\u00a0 This was sometimes the most fun part of the whole trip.<\/p>\n

When I traveled back from Kuwait after R&R, it was really a hoot.<\/p>\n

As I recall, I was stuck there a day or two awaiting a flight.\u00a0 Did I already mention that Kuwait isn’t my favorite place on earth?\u00a0 I did already?\u00a0 OK; just wanted to be sure. (smile)<\/p>\n

Manifest call for my flight coming back was at 2000 – not long after the evening accountability call.\u00a0 Flight time was at midnight.\u00a0 Why 4 hrs in advance?\u00a0 I don\u2019t really know.\u00a0 The bus ride over to the flight line from the R&R control point was fairly short – less than 20 min.\u00a0 Seems to me a manifest call 2 hrs prior would have been plenty early.<\/p>\n

Of course, that’s assuming the flight time doesn\u2019t get moved up.\u00a0 Ours did. We got the call to get on the buses about 45 min earlier than originally expected.\u00a0 We grabbed our gear, got on the bus, and proceeded to our plane (a C130).<\/p>\n

Then we waited.<\/p>\n

Seems we got there too early.\u00a0 Plus, there was also a maintenance problem with the bird.\u00a0 They told us the problem would take about 30 or 45 min to fix.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the bus drivers saw this often enough to have a ready backup plan.\u00a0 The drivers took us over to the flightline\u2019s small dining facility, which served midnight chow; that killed about 45 min.\u00a0 Then we returned and in reasonably short order loaded the plane.\u00a0 We got on board, stowed our gear, packed in tight, sat down, strapped in, got our safety briefing, got ready to take off . . . .<\/p>\n

Then the crew chief announced to us that “the plane is officially broken.\u201d\u00a0 And he told us that we\u2019d be taking another aircraft instead.<\/p>\n

So we all unstrapped, got up, grabbed our gear, got off the first bird, and walked over to the vicinity of the other one.\u00a0\u00a0 We then grounded our gear and stood\/sat around for about 1 1\/2 hours while they prepped and pre-flighted the new bird.<\/p>\n

Then we got the word to load up.\u00a0 We grabbed our gear, got on board, stowed gear, packed in tight, sat down, strapped in, got our safety briefing (again), got ready to take off . . .\u00a0 .<\/p>\n

And then the crew chief announced that there was a maintenance problem with the new<\/em> bird, and it would take about 30 or 45 minutes to fix it.<\/p>\n

As Yogi Berra put it:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cD\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.\u201d\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

By now, it was somewhere after 0200, or maybe closer to 0300.\u00a0 Everyone was getting a bit punchy \u2013 most of us had been at the 0500 accountability call, remember \u2013 but everyone was also taking things surprisingly well.<\/p>\n

It was interesting to watch, though.\u00a0 One side of the plane seemed to be in absolutely raucous high spirits, laughing and joking and apparently having a pretty good time \u201crolling with it\u201d. The other side of the bird was pretty dead.\u00a0 Maybe all the really sleepy folks just ended up on that side of the plane \u2013 though how anyone could sleep thru the noise coming from the rowdy bunch is beyond me.<\/p>\n

This time the bird was indeed fixed in about 30 minutes or so.\u00a0 The rest of the trip – including landing at BIAP – was uneventful, and we were only delayed around 3 hours or so total.<\/p>\n

Since it was getting pretty late in the year, I think I even got back to my hooch before sunrise. (smile)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author’s note:\u00a0 yes, zoomies – I know its now “AMC” vice “MAC” and that MAC hasn’t existed since 1992.\u00a0 Tough.\u00a0 I grew up referring to it as MAC as a kid, and for many years thereafter.\u00a0 To me, it will always be “mother MAC” – or in a few cases, “those mothers at MAC”.\u00a0 (smile)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the \u201cbennies\u201d you get while deployed to an existing, established theater\u00a0 is something called … Memory Lane: R&R Fun With MAC and SATO<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blather","category-war-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}