OPNS DESERT SHIELD STORM DIARY 807TH MASH

File: 970815_sep96_decls54_0009.txt
Page: 0009
Total Pages: 44

Subject = OPNS DESERT SHIELD STORM DIARY 807TH MASH

Parent Organization = ARCENT

Unit = VII CORPS

Folder Title = SUBORDINATE COMMAND HISTORICAL REPORTS-2D COSCOM-332D MED-341ST MED-912TH MED

Document Number = 3

Box ID = BX000308

Our first stop is Boston, Massachusetts for fuel and a fresh
crew. An area in the terminal is cordoned off for our use, and to
prevent the possibility that we might leave without someone.
Refreshments are waiting for us as we arrive, and as we walk
hesitantly into the terminal we hear applause. A sign saying
"Welcome 807th MASH" in red, white, and blue was being held by one
of the stewardesses, and the people in the airport are clapping
for us! one wag jokes that this is a pretty good response for
just flying from Kentucky to Boston, but we all are touched, and
this simple display goes a long way in alleviating the anxiety and
loss we just experienced some two and a half hours earlier.

Soon it is back into the plane and a fond farewell to the
United States of America. We prayed we would be back there soon.
Racing through the darkness, our next stop is Rome. Everyone had
visions of Italian food and hospitality, but our plane taxis to an
obscure part of the field, where we are refueled and
replenished with food and drink. Terrorist concerns kept us from
the main airport terminal, but the hospitality of the American
Airlines crews more than made up for this. on each leg of the
flight, successive crews seem to be trying to outdo one another
with kindness and courtesy. From the tours of the cockpit with
the flight crew, to the steak dinners, to the ready smiles, to
the seeming inability of the flight attendants to say the word