Back at the meeting I went to a couple of months ago, the folks at OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council) mentioned the embassy would be staging an “event” in January the week before the inauguration. One event would be a mock attack on the embassy and the other would be an evacuation drill. I signed up for both. I wanted to see what our agencies in action would be like over here (plus it sounded like an adventure). Then I heard nothing about these events…..until two weeks ago. Then I received a short email saying we would meet about the evacuation on the 15th.

The meeting was at the embassy, in one of the conference rooms. Very utilitarian. No one was on time except me and four other people. Eventually –after an hour – roughly 30 volunteers showed. Americans who had lived in the country for a number of years. In fact, I learned that one had been part of the evacuation in the 90s during the first Iraq war. Once everyone was settled, we were given a presentation on what we were supposed to be part of. It started with the Marines. A captain (nice guy) gave us a 45 minute rundown on almost every military acronym he could think of. He was in charge of the 26th MEU (Military Expeditionary Unit), which is a part of the MAGTF (Marine Air-Ground Task Force) that functions out in different parts of the world. There is also a MEF (Military Expeditionary Force) and a MEB (Military Expeditionary Brigade) and he diagramed the functions of each and how they broke apart and came together as was necessary. Each MEU has to perform certain tasks as part of their operations in the part of the world they are stationed and one of those tasks is a NEO (Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation). Eighteen of these have happened in the last 10 years or so, the largest lately being Lebanon in 2006. What was happening in Kuwait was the largest exercise ever in a friendly country. And it will happen today – January 19th.

The drill was that we were supposed to pack one carryon bag with everything you would need for maybe five days. Essentials, papers, pets and children. People would be evacuated from two areas – the base near the Saudi border (known as Chevron) and the embassy. The embassy people were supposed to show up around 7:15am and get processed. [Again – this was mainly an exercise for the Marines. They get the experience and were trying out some new computer systems.] We have our papers checked, our bags checked and our identities checked. Then we would be taken to a shuttle that would take us out to a helicopter. The helicopter would take us to the beach where we would board an LCAC (Landing Craft, Air Cushion) that would swoosh us across the water into the belly of an aircraft carrier. We saw many pictures of the LCAC in action and we given a rundown on all the rules of the ship – right down to where to dispose of our trash. The Chevron people (supposedly 180) would be transported to the ship the Carter Hall and the embassy people (roughly 80) would travel to the Iwo Jima. In a real emergency, we would go to a safe harbor and from there fly home.

HOWEVER – An Arab economic summit is happening on the same day about 1,000 yards from the embassy, so the Kuwaiti government asked that no helicopters be flying in and out of the area. So – no helicopter. No LCAC. No Iwo Jima. The whole experience was filling out a form, getting a bar code and being sent home an hour and a half later. IT TOOK ME LONGER TO PACK! And they didn’t get above 30 people to process at the embassy. All in all – bored in Kuwait again.

One last thing to remember – if the government re-patriates you, they charge you. Costs between $10-20K and it must be paid before you travel outside the States again. What a world…

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