March 10

Some random events of the last 4 days

* My lower back is feeling tweeky, not good. We have the FTF tomorrow. I don't know what I did to it. I did myP90X Kempo and cut it short with 15 minutes to go, then I went to jog and it was acting up but mellowed out after a mile. I really want to get it out of the way here and not have to take it back at March. I feel like a pro athelete, how they go through, "doubtfull" to "questionable" to "probable"

* I raised my voice at sergeant "right". I was not wrong being angry, I was wrong acting angry. Honestly, it felt very good going off, it was a great adreniline rush. but I know as an NCO I always have to show restraint. He/she came in and at first I thought he/she was complaining about the baggage gate door being left open, to be honest I wasn't really paying attention to what he/she was saying, just another complaint in a long series of little things. We hadn't been guilty of that since the week I got here. He/she comes back 20 minutes later and starts complaining that it happened again, I bolt up out of my chair and start walking toward the gates. H/she then re-directs me to the baggage temporary holding bin where guys are looking for their bags. He/she believes we have to watch it until those guys have closed the gate since it is in her opinion, a secured location. This is what he/she was complaining about, oh heck no!! I went from 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds (I used to say that to my kids when I'm about to get upset). So I proceeded to explain in a raised tone of voice how we aren't reponsible, that's why there is a sign posted on the gate that says we are not responsible for anything missing or stolen, and proceeded to tell him/her there was nowhere in the LOI that states we need to have someone out there when they are in the holding bin. I have that Irish temper, it's rare but when it comes out, watch out. The last time that happened was when a certain Combs football player disrespected me at half-time of one of our games in 2009. Luckily I didn't use any profanity when talking to him/her, he/she walked away, came back two minutes later and said he/she didn't appreciate me yelling at him/her and it was disrespectfull. I knew I better do some damage control being he/she is a higher rank, so I apologized. I still know that my facts were correct so I will not change how we do not watch the gate while people are in there. I guess it's ok between us, I still need to keep standing up for what I believe is right, just not yell.

*Tuesday i was so physically drained by the time I got off of shift, but not really mentally. It was a wierd feeling, but I just knew there was no way I would be able to work-out. I had this intense desire to crawl into my bed and sleep, which I did at 12:30pm. I thought I would take a nap and get up to go work out. forget it, I slept till 12:05 am checked to see if they needed me (it was my on-call day)and then felt too wierd to try to work out at 1oo am so I went to bed again till 400am. I slept 14 total hours, unbelievable. When I woke up, I felt more awake then I have since I go here. Very wierd, I had a lot of bizarre dreams, but I guess my body just slowly grew more fatigued until my body said "need a break"

* As an NCOIC I have this amazing power to allow or not allow people on a plane. We have civilians that want to board our planes and in order to fly in Iraq you need a passport, which is wierd because usually you need a passport to fly from one country to another, not to fly within a country. I had this lady, oh my gosh what a mess. she's telling me all this jibberish and all I can think of is we got in trouble last week for allowing someone on the plane that their passport did not match their LOA (letter of authorization)from their employer. I'm telling her this, we cannot allow her to fly, they don't match, she keeps insisting,everything coming from her mouth still sounds like gibberish. Man is she annoying me, she just isn't taking no for an answer, I'm now quoting the foreign clearance guide, I'm printing it out for her, but then I see a little section about paperwork for non-u.s. citizens. I did see some wierd document she had, for non-u.s. citizens. So I ask her, "this says you are not a u.s. citizen?" Then she says, correct but she got married now she is she now has a passport but the passport number isn't the same as on the LOA. Her company put in to have it fixed three weeks ago and no response. Now it's starting to make sense, it's not so much jibberish anymore. Do I really want to have her stuck here for who knows how long before they can fix her LOA? Of course not, I put myself in her shoes. How can we get around this, I don't want to get in trouble. Maybe a verbal confirmation from her employer? that's it, so I tell her, she calls him and he tells me, I enter it into the system and we get her on the plane. She was going right to Kuwait Int. so she would be out of our hair in no time. If she was going to land in another Iraqi destination, there would be no way. So it felt really cool when I went to Airman Foley, and said "airman foley...sign her up!" She had the hugest look of relief on her face, it felt good. This is an example of some of the decisions I have to make. We have to be very carefull allowing citizens on planes because if they have jacked up paperwork and land in another location, they may be stuck until they can fix their paperwork. A huge responsibility, but good experience if I ever want to work at an airport, which I don't, teaching is much more fun.