Air Bear Travel

Admin | December 08, 2011 | Comments Off

Air Bear Travel

Air Bear Travel

You have the contract signed. You have gone or will soon go through either the National Deployment Center (NDC) or one of its equivalents. The doctors have signed off your medical papers and your vaccinations are current. Your company has successfully steered you through getting ready to leave the United States. As you await your flight to Kandahar Air Field (KAF), Afghanistan, you ask yourself "What should I expect when I get there?"

Travel Details

Kandahar is anywhere from seven-and-a-half to ten-and-a-half hours ahead of the United States' time zones. You will likely experience a degree of jet-lag while you acclimate to the new enviroment. Taking along non-habit-forming sleep aids will assist you in combatting the effects of the time difference you will feel in your first few days. Combined with the exceptionally poor atmospheric conditions around KAF, and globally diverse, contantly changing population (read: lots of people with strange germs you have never been exposed to), a huge sleep defecit can literally make you ill. Plus, your sleep aids will come in handy the fourth night in a row of rocket attacks jarring you from your bed. It will happen.

It is more likely than not that you will be flying through a third-party nation to get a flight into KAF. The common exceptions to this are contractors that are flying in and out on the mission aircraft they will operate in theater. If that's you, congratulations. If not, please take a look at not just the visa requirements of the nation you are visiting, but also how long you will be there, where you will sleep and shower if you need to, whether your cell phone will work and how much it will cost, if there are travelers' lounges in the airport you are visiting, and even how you will get from the gate you arrive at to the gate you depart at. In Dubai, U.A.E., it is only possible to get from one terminal to another through some form of ground travel. On the right airline, this will be provided. Otherwise, you will pay a hefty cab fare, baggage fees, and more.