Page 171 - 100 Hours to Destiny

All of the Marines started standing up and ran to the chain-link fence
separating us from the runway…. And there it was, as plain as day, a big and
beautiful 747. One of the Marines in the group yelled, “Holy shit, that’s the
same damn plane we came over here on.” Other Marines said, “No F..ing
way!” “It F…ing is!” The plane did a slow 180-degree loop and flew directly
over us and took a left turn and came in for a beautiful landing. And truly,
everybody went wild. Marines were giving high fives and slapping and
hugging each other. As the plane started taxing into our general vicinity,
Marines continued to exclaim that it’s the same plane. How crazy is that?
Now Saudi Airport civilian employees speaking perfect English came out and
told us to start getting in line by twos. Command started giving the orders to
get in our units and line up by twos. There were so many Marines that we
just had to wait till the line started proceeding out to the plane to get into
twos. Marines were standing all over the equipment, on crates and boxes
trying to fall into the line of twos.
Two trucks equipped with the stairwells burst out from inside a
hanger to our left charging towards the FedEx 747 as it came to a halt. The
doors on the front and rear of the plane opened. The stairwells were moved
into position for entry. The Saudi civilians slid a huge chain-link gate to the
side and held the Marines back from entering the tarmac. Suddenly a radio
crackled on one of the male employees, “bring them on.” The Airport
employees turned and began to lead the Marines over to load the aircraft.
Matthew Stuck and I had promised to stick together on the flight
home, and as the line progressed Matt and I became side by side on our
march out to the big bird. It was a surreal feeling to march across and to
arrive at the stairs. Now it was our turn to ascend the stairwell. Only to find
familiar faces in the flight crew. Not only was this the same aircraft that had
brought the LAI Battalion over in the initial buildup during Desert Shield, but
it was also exactly the same pilots and flight crew once again here to take us
home. We hugged them and thanked them. It was an unbelievable reunion.
It took a while for all of us to get seated. The enlisted men stayed on
the bottom deck of the 747. The officers took the top deck. Finally, we were
all in place and seated. The lead female flight attendant stood in front of all
of us and jumped up on a pedestal set up by some of the male flight
attendants. She was wearing a microphone so all of us could hear her.
“Welcome 3rd LAI Battalion. As you well know now, we are the same
crew that took you into this, and we’re honored to be taking you home.”
The Marines went wild cheering and applauding.
The flight attendant started motioning for us to calm down. “Listen, I
want to tell you something. When the ground Invasion began the news went
into a blackout. We were all so worried for you guys, and truly thought the