Kuwait City (Kuwait)

Since our mission was supposed to be an "out and in" to the Middle East, we didn't check out of our rooms at NSA Souda Bay Billeting (just packed and took all our stuff, just in case).  By the time we took off this morning, it was with the knowledge that one of the biggest thunderstorms I have ever seen was stuck right over southern Iraq and part of Kuwait. Still, we had no weather at all until right before we were supposed to land. We couldn't make it in to our primary airport (ceiling too low), so we diverted to Kuwait City. It was pouring there, but we landed uneventfully. Unfortunately, the ramp was so clobbered with other aircraft that we ended up having to move a few times. During the second move, I felt a big bump as we were taxiing. When I got out of the plane, I discovered that they had taxied me within four inches of a huge hole on the ramp! My nose wheel track went right along the edge of the hole (WHEW!). In the end, the rain stopped and we left. On our way back to Crete we felt pretty good about how everything had gone. When we landed at Souda Bay Air Base, however, we learned that some of the passengers' bags hadn't been unloaded before we left! This was kind of embarrassing (for everyone in the crew). Chip and I spent several hours working on a solution - and I think we have one. We'll fly up to Germany tomorrow to drop them off for another aircraft to take back to Kuwait. Hope "Plan B" works...  [Spent the night again at NSA Souda Bay Billeting.]