Does the Air Force Have More than One Plane - Come on!

My son is in the army and has spent the last year in Afghanistan with his EOD unit, looking for and disposing of IED's. Their deployment is over and they are in transit heading back to Washington State. The thing is that they have been sitting at Dover Air Base in Delaware for nearly 4 days waiting for the air force to get their act together and get them home. Probably three times a day they're told to report with the hope that they'll get on a plane, only to be told to come back later. One time they even flew for an hour, only to turn around and head back because a warning light came on. Does the air force not have more than one plane and two pilots? Or do they just not care enough to get these men home to their families? Sorry for the rant. We are definitely thankful to have our loved ones safely back in the country but let's go the extra mile to get them home to their families.

Its wonderful news that your son is back from Afghanistan safe and sound. Congratulations.

And it is outrageous that they can't get them home - hell, put them on the Amtrak, he'd be home by now. This is so typical of the way we treat soldiers, during and after their service. Spend billions on the war machinery, but underfund the care of the soldiers.

He'll be home soon, congratulations on his safe return.

Amtrak or commercial airline or rent a van and have a road trip. They showed up at 11:00 this morning only to be told to come back at 3:00. If the air force would just cancel their flight instead of continually postponing it then the guys could fly commercial. They looked into it and $200 each would get them home. Not that this is about my wife and I but we drove to Washington from Montana and sat with our daughter in-law and their kids all weekend participating in this emotional roller coaster. What a bunch of crap.

On the bright side, and let me try to go there and stay, we did get a chance to stop at the Iron Horse Brewery in Ellensburg, and the Yakima Craft Brewery and enjoy some pretty fine IPA's. We'll be back there later this week (USAF willing) and hope to add a few more breweries to the list. Thanks for listening.

Hey hoppy, give your son a big hug for the rest of us here on HBT and tell him thank you. Not all of us support those wars or the choices that Washington makes but we all love our troops. No doubt, his job with the military is definitely one of the toughest. I'm jealous of the size of your son's cahones. The scariest thing I did recently was search for a black widow that disappeared somewhere on the handle of my lawnmower. Your son was probably disarming an IED with the trigger a few inches from his face. I can't imagine his mental toughness for doing this in the sandbox. Lets just say that I didn't mow the lawn that day.

gregger said:

I'm jealous of the size of your son's cahones. I can't imagine his mental toughness for doing this in the sandbox.

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You can definitely hear the clank when those guys walk into a room......

hoppysailor said:

My son is in the army and has spent the last year in Afghanistan with his EOD unit, looking for and disposing of IED's. Their deployment is over and they are in transit heading back to Washington State. The thing is that they have been sitting at Dover Air Base in Delaware for nearly 4 days waiting for the air force to get their act together and get them home. Probably three times a day they're told to report with the hope that they'll get on a plane, only to be told to come back later. One time they even flew for an hour, only to turn around and head back because a warning light came on. Does the air force not have more than one plane and two pilots? Or do they just not care enough to get these men home to their families? Sorry for the rant. We are definitely thankful to have our loved ones safely back in the country but let's go the extra mile to get them home to their families.

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That is really weird. I am pretty damn close to DAFB and they have planes coming and going pretty much constantly. I am surprised they didn't just toss them on a commercial flight. I know they will do that pretty often.

I know it's not much consolation, but the military is pretty much outta schlitz right about now. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, plus sustainment of all the other crap (bases in England, Italy, Germany, etc...). Add in looming (and current) budget cuts. I don't know EXACTLY how the Air Force runs the show (I'm a Marine, and every time I returned from deployment it was via a US Navy ship or a contract airplane), but I'd bet that priority right now is to get everything in place for Libya. Your son is probably a Pri 2 pax, vice a Pri 1. Pri 1 is usually reserved for stuff & people going into theatre. The only "coming home" Pri 1s that I know of are emergency leave & Angels.

I know it doesn't help, but at least he's in the states!

Glad to hear he made it back!

I got stuck at Dover once and Maguire another time. Being from NYC, I wanted to go home to see my family so bad, but they wouldn't let me. Luckily, Dover was only 6 hours (coming back from Kosovo) and Maguire was a little more than 24 (going to Bosnia), so it wasn't too bad.

"Hurry up and Wait" - always applied, always will.

hoppysailor said:

Amtrak or commercial airline or rent a van and have a road trip. They showed up at 11:00 this morning only to be told to come back at 3:00. If the air force would just cancel their flight instead of continually postponing it then the guys could fly commercial. They looked into it and $200 each would get them home. Not that this is about my wife and I but we drove to Washington from Montana and sat with our daughter in-law and their kids all weekend participating in this emotional roller coaster. What a bunch of crap.

On the bright side, and let me try to go there and stay, we did get a chance to stop at the Iron Horse Brewery in Ellensburg, and the Yakima Craft Brewery and enjoy some pretty fine IPA's. We'll be back there later this week (USAF willing) and hope to add a few more breweries to the list. Thanks for listening.

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Not that it'll do your son much good now, but you really should fire off an email/letter to Max Baucus, John Tester, Denny Rehberg & even Brian Schwitzer. You, your son & your family, not to mention all the rest of the servicemen & women & their families shouldn't have to put up with that crap & we all know it. Make some waves. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. BTW, please convey my thanks to your son for his service to our country. Regards, GF.

That letter (email) to the Montana delegation is going out this morning. I talked to my son this morning and they've been delayed again. This time they were told to show up at 2:00 tomorrow morning. What a bunch of crap. If anyone knows an air force general, please get them to release the army's 53rd EOD from Dover Air Force Base.

Sorry he's been delayed. I'll be heading home from Afghanistan in a couple weeks myself, and trust me, the trip home always sucks. Phrogpilot is correct though, people heading into theatre are a higher priority than those going home (except deceased & wounded). If he's EOD and is stuck in Dover (the black hole IMO) it sounds like they are traveling with their cargo and/or weapons on a C-5, which is known to break every time they land. I've been in that boat before, you have to stay with the cargo and the FAA doesn't like it when we walk through an airport with automatic weapons

We keep reminding ourselves that he's home (almost) and out of harms way and we are truly thankful for that. I just got off the phone with my son and they're trying again tonight. Apparently they've been authorized to fly commercial if that doesn't work out. That ought to be a riot when they have the TSA guys screening for explosive residue. These EOD guys have been handling explosives on a daily basis for a year.

Thank you WTF Brewing for your service. We all appreciate the sacrifices that you make. Will you be home on leave or is your deployment over?

I fly for the Air Force and believe me, there is no aviator in the Air Force that doesn't care. I just returned home from flying missions over Afghanistan myself. The Air Force as well as the rest of the Military, is over extended. We have too much to do and not enough people to do it. Not many people know this, but the Military is forcing a LOT of people out right now so that the government can save money. But that's not an interesting news story I guess. Also, if they turned around for a warning light, it was legit. I seriously doubt your son really knew what was going on with the plane. But if they return to where they took off from, it's for a good reason. Honestly, I have no idea why they are still sitting there. If I had to stop through Dover and stay for more than a day, the Air Force would just pay to fly me home commercially. Matter of fact, when I returned from my recent deployment, we got dropped off at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. My unit paid to fly myself and 20 other people back to Alaska. Took less than 24 hours. So, maybe you should be blaming the Army instead of the Air Force. $200 to fly him home? That's nothing. The plane I fly on, the E-3, would burn through $200 worth of gas in less than 5 minutes. But don't blame the Air Force. Blame the Army if you want. But who you should really blame, is the US Government. I'm sure if the press did a story about how the Government really treats returning troops, they'd stop doing it.

EOD guys are hardcore. Thank your son for his service.

My father was 24 years EOD, even a instructor at the Navy EOD school in Maryland.

It sucks but I've been there too. Moron airbase in Spain kept us for two days after leaving Iraq in 04, we kept getting delayed too. The worst part is that you're so close and every minute seems like an hour. It won't last forever though and I hope your son's home by now. Good luck.

hoppysailor said:

Thank you WTF Brewing for your service. We all appreciate the sacrifices that you make. Will you be home on leave or is your deployment over?

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This deployment is about over. I'm glad its my last...I'll be retiring soon:rockin:

So I'll go from here to Kyrgyzstan (google it LOL) for a couple days, then hopefully stop in Shannon Ireland for a few hours. They have nice pub there in the airport and I always get a couple pints of Guinness Then usually pick up a bottle of single malt in the duty free shop next to it. Makes for a much better flight home