From San Antonio to Fort George Meade
03 November 2008
San Antonio International Airport
SAN ANTONIO — Four a.m. ticks slowly closer as we wait in line for the ticket agent from American Airlines to arrive. We’re from a few flights in a few training squadrons in the 737th Training Wing from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. We’re all en route to the next leg of our training adventure, tech school. We graduated Basic Military Training Friday and were gone from Lackland in the unmentioned hours of the morning Sunday. The weekend was spent either packing or with families or discovering parts of the base previously off limits, such as the bowling alley. As we walked around, the Blue Angels practiced in the skies above San Antonio for their performance in the big air show on Sunday. That weekend we became officially airmen — no longer “trainees”.
The last night in basic Military Training was spent in the quiet calm of anticipation of where this journey will take us. Those who were able to sleep in flight 665 did so on the grey, hard linoleum floor of the dayroom in dormitory B-10 — our home for the past 6 and a half weeks. Some in the flight decided to stay awake talking or watching movies on laptop computers set on a desk or the floor. I remember seeing parts of a movie as I slipped in and out of consciousness, worrying about oversleeping and missing the bus.
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