The stress of getting there

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kimberly Moore Limrick
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  Preparations begin as 14 Airmen learn they will travel to the Czech Republic in support of Ellsworth's B-1 as it participates for the first time in the Czech air show, Czech International Air Fest 2007. 

Finding out I was one of those 14 was both exciting and nerve-wrecking. 

I'd never traveled outside the country and had no idea what to do. I figured everyone has to have a first-time story, and I wanted to share mine. 

There were a few steps to take toward this trip which included research, a briefing and processing. 

My first step toward this trip was research. Where is the Czech Republic, what language do they speak, are there customs and courtesies I should be aware of, what type of money do they use, what is the exchange rate? All of these questions and more were easily answered online. Yeay Internet! 

Next it was time for the mass briefing. Here we learned the planned itinerary (where to be and when to be there), what type of weather is expected (so we could pack accordingly), safety measures to keep in mind, and where to get our orders. 

After a long evening of packing and a half-day of work, it was time to take the third step toward our trip -- processing. 

Here, we all hauled our luggage in to be weighed, palleted and secured in the aircraft. We waited a couple hours in the secure area to make sure everything was good-to-go then loaded up on a bus and were off to our ride, a C-17 Globemaster III from March Air Reserve Base, Calif. 

This was my first ride in a C-17 so I was pretty surprised by the enormity of the inside. Strapped to the center of the floor was all the equipment our maintainers brought, just in case, and along the sides were our seats. 

Not only did the size surprise me, so did the sound. It was loud; a constant, vibrating, high-pitch humm-earplugs were a definite must! 

We all sat quietly, in anticipation for take off when down came the flight commander asking who the lowest ranking member on the trip was. Great, I thought, I'm an Airman 1st Class, I'm sure it's me; what crap-detail are they going to make me do? Much to my surprise and total excitement, once he located me, he asked if I would like to ride in the flight deck for take off. Umm, yes I would! 

Wow! For once being a low-ranking Airman paid off. I climbed up, met the crew and fastened in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

There are no words to describe how awesome it was or how appreciative I am for being given the opportunity to fly up front and witness all the switch-flipping, tower-communicating, coordinate-marking behind-the-scenes action that goes into a flight.
I hung out with the aircrew for a couple hours then climbed back down, crawled into my sleeping bag and slept the rest of the trip away. Although it was loud and cold and I did wake up a time or two to some pretty frightening turbulence, you really can't beat traveling like that. It's amazing that we boarded an aircraft and 10 hours later landed safely on the other side of the world. 

And we did, we landed safely in the Czech Republic where we were warmly greeted by our hosts. Most people at this point would think, "Now it's time to get to work." But for me, at this point the real work, the stress of getting there was finally over.