Willow Grove, PA (USA)

Up at 0800 and immediately learned that our flight had been moved up to an earlier departure time (without much prior notice).  Fortunately, this wasn't too much of a stressful situation.  After finishing some packing and checking out of the NAS Jacksonville Navy Gateway Inn, I picked up some food at Subway. Next (1000L), I went over to the hangar to meet the guys [from VR-58] who were going to be taking me to Italy. I spent the next hour working on email and visiting with my old friend, Rob (see JUL 2010) again. We departed Jacksonville [onboard a C-40] at 1200L - our first leg was to Willow Grove. After arrival, I met up with the rest of my crew [and started the process of integrating with the VR-52 Detachment team]. Got back on the aircraft after about an hour - it as now pretty full of people (oh well...).  Fortunately, I had a good seat, set up by an old friend (Mike from Atlanta). Our flight to Shannon was around seven hours long - our DC-9 would have had to make at least one stop to make it that far...  I passed the time reading, doing crossword puzzles and having good discussions with people I'd previously known only from the phone and email. It was dark, raining and brisk when we landed in Ireland and we all had to deplane and wait near the aircraft while fueling.  On the ground at midnight...