Jetting Around Covid & staying in Hotel "California" (European Style)

In June I took part in an amazing and surreal odyssey to complete a high priority mission in Italy.  With the fear of Covid rampant my small team was given the experience of flying over and around Europe VIP style (i.e., can you say Gulfstream 650!) OMG.  This is a spectacular way to travel!  



But as the old saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch", there was the "piper to pay".  We were sequestered in spartan  "cell block" with no chance to enjoy the perks of the locale. On weekends shuttling (VIP air) to the Netherlands from Italy to comply with EU COVID public health decrees.  It was as they say, the "best of times and the worst of times".  When on the "ground" we were in essence VIP prisoners if not at work.  Isolated from the world and recipients of weekly COVID nasal tests the first kind that go well into the sinus cavity.    


Staging "prison escapes". Long nights of poker and meaningful talks about life, breathing, immortality, social justice and philosophy. Eating dinners in shuttered cold war relic Officer's mess.  Drinking, Italian Misto, Amaro who knows how old from a silent O-Club bar. Playing "billiards" on a snooker table using cues without tips.  Ping-pong and guitar playing to midnight until we were playing with opposite hands.  It took me back to high school. No TV, no WI-FI.  Just guys trying to have fun.  Laughing harder than I had in years.  We "closed down" the club night after night (we were the only ones there!   And we bonded - Us against the "system".  Finding ways to overcome the myriad of mission challenges.  Creating and performing our own songs (we are pretty good!)  Forming lasting friendships with our USAF, Italian and Dutch colleagues.  After 3 weeks finishing with just 1 day to spare to catch our VIP ticket to home to loved ones and a nation in chaos and isolation. 

 I am ready to do it again....   

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