"Please wait to deplane"

As our flight descends to 20,000 ft above a region of the world I have never been to, the thoughts that consume my mind seem askew. It’s not the fear of being in a new place, that subsided years ago. It isn’t the fear of death, uncertainty, insanity, exhaustion or killing that are so commonly associated with this year long trip that plague my mind, you’d be surprised how infrequently those thoughts even arise. And it isn’t the longing for loved ones, incredible friends, home, the cityscape views that cover my computer backdrop, or the thought of old cars, boro bridges or authentic Italian food I think of now with the landing gear lowered and the ice on the landing strip in view. Instead daunted, I think that just because this is my first time in this region for the past ten years this exact same flight has been made almost constantly. The exact same route algorithms have been in use for the exact same planes to carry the same amount of soldiers into this country. Our wheels touch down in a city called Frunze, when I ask the people sitting around me what country we’re in no one has a clue, the only thing close to an answer I get is “One of the ‘Stans that likes us”. I wonder how many times that answer has been given in the past decade. It is 0630 in the morning and dark here in cold frigid Kyrgyzstan but the mood is much warmer. The strain and anticipation of leaving has lifted from everyone and the attitude of the crazy leadership and the many affected by those nut cases is downright jovial. We’re well rested and well fed; there are no tedious duties to fulfill, no paperwork to chase down, and no time constraints to submit to. Even as our tent becomes over crowded by the many others following us, and the internet gets slower and slower no one is tense, despite even the inevitability of the next 12 months staring us in the face. In my three years in the Army this is the most relaxed I have ever seen people. Though, it still weighs heavily on me even now, as we over sleep and over eat in the comfort of this Air Force base outside of the combat zone (think the first episode of Band of Brothers) waiting to leave for our outpost in Afghanistan, that for the majority of us every experience we have here will be brand new. Yet for the past ten years innumerable others have gone through it exactly as we are. And just because this will be my first combat experience the country we are headed to has known little outside of constant war.