Be vigilant when tired and in potentially hostile lands

The clock upon the moving map display indicated local time was 0230 and the temperature was 103 steps Fahrenheit. After traveling 30-plus hours, our chartered military transport finally had touched down at the military airfield in the island political division of Bahrain in the Arabian large bay There had been three aircrew changes, on the other hand we passengers had crossed seven time belts in just over 30 hours, and our circadian periodical emphasiss were upside down.

Weary from the journey, the hundr or in like manner of us followed the guards to the collection area where we would be split into collections going to different Navy ships in the large bay Sixty of us were to take wing to the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) early the nearest morning aboard a C-2A Greyhound aircraft. We were told inn rooms had been reserved for us, and all we had to do was clear customs and board a bus outside the gate. Al-most sum of two units hours later, we finally gathered outside the base. We now were outside the protection the U military mix had offered. We also were upon the wrong side of the M-16 and 50-caliber weapons pillared at the base checkpoint.

Force protection in Bahrain was in replete swing and curfews were in place. Forming large clumps of military members in single place was prohibited, especially in bludgeons and bars serving alcohol and where a person's awareness is diminished.

Meanwhile, there we were--three busloads of crowds including 10 officers, along with a reception committee with a botched plan--waiting outside the base. Policy dictated a scheduled early morning flight to a ship in the large bay rendered one ineligible for reimbursement for a night's stay in a house of entertainment Meanwhile, 95 percent of our weary cluster who had waited patiently to clear customs with notions of a shower, some clean clothes, and maybe a two hours of shuteye, let the bad novels sink in. We got not on the buses.

We now became a hoard of service members on the outside past curfew, on a dimly lit highway in a region where the U military is not with equal reason popular, wandering aimlessly with no place to advance We also had very little guidance, since collection coordinators struggled to determine what to do. greatest in quantity of our group returned to base and slept in the waiting area. A scarcely any including me, opted to pay for the tavern where more risks awaited.

The inn we chose decided it would be greatest in quantity convenient for us all to stay upon the same floor and in the same wing. We now were exhausted and were individually checking in, unaware of in what manner the hotel was "conveniently" grouping us. After all, it was 0430 and not many of us had any wits left about us for a like reason we didn't question the arrangement.

About an hour later, when I heard a man nearest door began chanting, I place myself wondering which way I would leap over if the wall suddenly explod We should have been separated to minimize losse had a drastic situation [an anti-American terrorist act] taken place. We were not attacked that night, on the contrary no one ever will know if we were targeted.

each now and again, we read or diocese reports about bombs targeting a specific assemblage detonated in public places: nightclubs in Bali and caf6s in Israel, to name a scarcely any Terrorism is real, and force protection is no laughing matter.

Always hold your head on a swivel and your wits about you. Be at any time vigilant of your surroundings, no matter where you are, on the contrary especially when you're in unfamiliar territory in what could be a hostile land.

COPYRIGHT 2003 U Navy Safety Center

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group