Transcript
So this little unit, it was set up to attach various logistic or trades background people to various units within SOCOM and this was about the time that... So this was 2006 and Special Forces were still in Afghanistan but they had rotated out at some point during late 2006 perhaps and then there was these rumours that we'd be going back in.
So they stood us up and they prepared us to go into Afghanistan or into Kuwait originally, to help set up some infrastructure. And we used to have this running joke at that unit that it was any given Tuesday because every week, we'd be leaving on a Tuesday but we'd never leave. So we'd say goodbye to our wives or families, take our bags, go to the unit and we'd sit and wait. And that happened for, I think it must've been two or three months we went through this cycle, just every week. And it became quite draining because sometimes, you were sure you were going to go and then you'd just go home and just get on with your life. So it was a slow process to get there.
So one particular Tuesday, I turned up to work and said goodbye to our wives and partners or whatever and I think we were just complacent at that point, that "Oh, we'll just be home tonight" but sure enough, we found ourselves on a plane and heading up to Darwin. And we landed in Darwin, the plane broke down, which is probably pretty common, it was an old A320, Strategic Airlines, it was something that they'd rented to get us over there and it was clunky, you could hear the brakes kicking in and out and we were laughing about it.
Anyway, it broke down in Darwin, so we had to do an overnighter, so we found some beer and we all got on the beers that night up in Darwin. And then the next day or a day or two later, we got back on the plane and into... I think it was... Oh no, a little island somewhere and from there, we bounced into Ali Al Salem, into Kuwait.
