Left Newark at 1110 on 07MAR04 and arrived in El Paso, TX, via Denver around 1700.  I waited for about 30 minutes at the airport for the appropriate number of people to arrive before a bus was sent to drive us the 1/2 mile across the street to our new home for the next week.  The offices and barracks are in "historical" building, which of course means that they are old, and not in great shape.  I think ours dates back to the Spanish-American war era.  Once there, we waited on the veranda, in line, for another hour and a half just to have someone type in our name, SS#, unit, etc into the computer.  Of course, during that time we did get to have our first of countless MREs in which we will partake in the coming days.  By the time we were finished with the computer sign in, we once again waited for a bus to take us to our little welcome brief.  Why exactly is it called a brief when it takes so damned long to do? 

When we walked into the auditorium, we were greeted by the other 430 people who are in our 460-person mobilization exercise.  This is only interesting when you understand that they can only facilitate about 320 people per week here. By the time we finished with our "brief", where we were assured that we were doing the right thing and were true patriots, we were again packed on buses for the quick trip back to the barracks.  Unfortunately for me, or maybe not, there were no longer bunks available, since they could only accommodate the afore mentioned 320 people, so we struck out across the compound, carrying our 200 lbs of gear, up to the third floor of what is and was the German Air force US Headquarters.  What exactly the German Luftwaffe is doing on the corner of Texas, New Mexico and Mexico is anybodies guess. 

When I walked into my rather large room, with two very springy WWI beds, I was rather disappointed.  Not until the next day, when I realized that most other people were sharing an open bay with their closest 319 snoring, talking, coughing, sneezing, and flatulent friends was I somewhat comforted.