I need to vent...

It just occurred to me that the Taliban and Al Queda are not MY enemy. My enemy is the group of individuals responsible for the ISAF (International Security Afghan Forces - which consists of all coalition forces) flight schedule. These people are TRULY my enemy. And I want to kill them. I don't just want to shoot them, I want to hurt them and make them suffer, as they have made me suffer... Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme. Maybe just choke them a little and make them cry... Yeah, that's more like it...



Today we had three out of four passengers not allowed onto an empty plane. Why? Well it just so happens that they showed up between 0600 and 0630 for an 0800 flight. They were informed at the counter that check-in time was 0515. Again, why? "I don't know." Jeff Spicoli said that in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" to which Mr Hand, his teacher replied, "I don't know... I like that. I. Don't. Know. I'm going to put that on the board for all of my students to see - giving you full credit of course..." "Alright.." Sean Penn plays a pretty good stoned surfer dude, if I don't say so myself.



But I'm getting sidetracked here. Point being that there has never been a specific rule or guideline established for showing up prior to a flight. Usually an hour is MORE than sufficient. ESPECIALLY if the flight is F-ing Empty. From what I understand, the one passenger of mine that did make it on the flight - was the ONLY passenger on the flight!!!!! So it was not like these people got bumped, or there wasn't room. This was simply a matter of some A-hole, Son of a Bitch on a power trip that felt like he needed to "make an example" of my people. Never mind that the plane was empty, never mind that they were there an hour early, nevermind that he had plenty of time to get them on the flight. In fact, I've heard of people arriving 15 minutes prior to a flight that was relatively full and the people actually ensured that they got on the flight! So how come my people got turned away



So, the ISAF schedulers put out a schedule from Mon thru Sunday and they do the next two weeks. This has become a COMPLETE waste of time and energy since they CHANGE the schedule the night before about 80% of the time. The "changes" are not posted until sometime between 1800 (6pm for you civilian types) and 2100 (9pm). The other day we had no flights expected, although we did have three people waiting to travel this way. At 2047 the schedule came out, with an added flight, inbound to us. Now normally this schedule comes in NLT (no later than) 1900 (7pm - okay, that's it... I'm not doing anymore math for you people... if it is after NOON, you'll just have to subtract 12 okay? Think you can handle that? This isn't "rocket surgery..." [yes, I did that on purpose. I also use "brain science" on occassion] please try to keep up) My hours are supposed to be 8a-8p. I usually don't get out of here until 2200. Since I'm working for 14 hours a day, seven days a week I don't have a whole lot of time for these venting sessions...



The flight being added caused several problems, given the fact that almost all of our vehicles were tied up for a Four Star Admiral's visit. Now an Admiral is a pretty big deal - that's like a General in the Army or Marines, 'cept I think there are a lot more Generals in the Army. Anyway, as I was saying, an Admiral usually thinks he's "a pretty big deal" and when you make it to FOUR STARS, that pretty much means that you are the $h*T! There are like three or four of them in the Navy and I'm pretty sure this guy is like #2 in ALL of Afghanistan. What I'm trying to say is that you don't just decide to rearrange the vehicle situation to go and pick up one or two guys at an airport that's an hour away cuz the ISAF dopes change the schedule at ten minutes (okay, it was thirteen minutes!) to Nine at night...



A flight has been changed, cancelled, individual legs (that's the term for a portion of a flight that goes to MANY different places - as well as my favorite body part...) have been added, changed, cancelled, re-routed, what have you, EVERY day now, for the last 4 days in a row, and probably 7 out of the last ten and 15 out of the last 30. I mean c'mon, sure if you're a pro baseball player and can hit a ball 30% of the time you can make millions, but this isn't baseball. It's flight schedules. If you can't manage better than 50% accuracy you really should go find a nice quite location to "suck start your 9mm." That's a wonderful Army term I picked up....



This job sucks bad enough without having to dance around on the end of strings controlled by a drunk and retarded marrionette. It's not like it's really that difficult. The same thing happens with our STOL (short take off and landing) flights. This schedule is only put out THREE days in advance. You would think that these people could stick to a three day schedule, at least most of the time. Not a chance. Flights still seem to change, get re-directed, cancelled and in this case there is no warning. Say at 0500 the morning of, when our people "have left the building" and have already started their one hour journey to the airport. Then they arrive only to be told, "Oh, that flight was cancelled" as in "didn't you get the memo??" "No dufus, we don't have fax machines in our HumVees."



Maybe this is what people at the post office feel like, and where the term "going postal" comes from becuase I can definitely see myself fantasizing about going down there and doing bodily harm to all these morons that are making my life utter hell.... Yep, there I go. I can see it now - OOOhhhh, this is not suitable for children, and probably not for most adults for that matter. I better go track down the chaplain...



Have a nice day.