Flying the Friendly Skies of Air Canada

C-130 rolling down the strip...

Airborne Ranger gonna take a little trip.

Whu? Whhat?!?!? Where am I?

Stand up, buckle up, shuffle to the door ...

Jump right out and count to four.

Just wait a damn minute here, Ethel. I'm not here to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

And then I snapped out of my semi-comatose state. I was sitting in the back of a Canadian Air Force C-130 Tuesday night, winging my way from Kabul to Kandahar. I was armored up, with body armor, Kevlar helmet, and a Sig Sauer M-11 9 mm pistol strapped to my left thigh. Having flown C-130before, I knew the four turbo-prop engines would be loud. Some folks on the plane were stuffing earplugs in their ears. I opted for the high-tech solution, popped in some earbuds, and cranked King Crimson on my iPod. Twenty-first Century Schizoid Man never sounded better!

So it turns out we didn't rate a non-stop flight on Air Canada, we stopped first at Camp Bastion in Kandahar Province, and Kandahar Air Field (KAF) was about another 30 minute flight. As we descended into the "home of the Taliban," maybe it was just luck of the draw, but what should come up next on my playlist but a cut from a 1969 King Crimson live performance at Hyde Park ... their prog rock take on Mars, Bringer of War from Gustav Holst's The Planets.

Okay, enough heavy-handed symbolism. We finally hit KAF around 11PM and headed straight to our transient quarters. I was distressed ... two-man rooms, clean, with beds all made up and standing lockers where you can actually hang clothes up! And a nightstand next to the bed, with a lamp perfect for night-time reading. I live in a tent at Kabul, and have to come down to the heart of the war zone for a decent room. Go figure.

More on this adventure later.