I had been in the Marine Corps for less than a year when I got stationed in Hawaii. A few months later, I took leave to go back to my hometown in the Midwest. It was wintertime, so even though I left a sunny, tropical Hawaii, I arrived at my hometown where it was cold, crisp weather, but I was accustomed to it. A couple of days before I was supposed to return to Hawaii, a snowstorm began. Departure day, the airport was closed completely, and I was stuck with no way to get back to Hawaii.
I called my unit in Hawaii and tried to explain my situation and to request a leave extension, but it did not go well. A few days later when the airport opened up, I flew to Hawaii. I was in a heap of trouble when I got back to my unit because my leave had expired. I was ordered to report to the company First Sergeant, who ripped me up one side and down the other. To this day decades later, I still remember his words to me when I said, “But First Sergeant, it was snowing and the airport closed down.” “YOU SHOULD HAVE PLANNED BETTER, MARINE!”
From that day on and throughout my next three tours of duty in the Marine Corps, I never again took leave during the wintertime to fly home. ~
And you have been planning ever since. We live and learn. I got stuck in Denver because of snow once. They finally put me on a flight to Houston and after many hours another one to Florida. I've also been stuck in the Atlanta airport and Heathrow in London. I got into mischief at Atlanta and Heathrow but Denver was misery.
Yep. I flew out of Spokane Washington with a stop in Denver which turned into a long long stop. Then I made it to Houston with another long wait, then finally they asked if I wanted a flight to Tampa which was not my destination but I took it. I was going to just rent a car and drive but my family drove up there to collect me.
I could tell about several but they are all fairly similar. I was spending the day in town and had not noticed that blizzard conditions had begun outside, anyway I decided to drive the 14 miles to get home. The paved highway conditions were not had then when I turned off the highway to finish the trip on the gravel road I got hopelessly stuck in a snowbank. Was far too cold with windchill to try walking the remaining 4 miles so I went to a nearby farmhouse where they kindly let me stay the night, fed me breakfast in the morning, then since the storm had eased off I was able to dig myself out and make the rest of the way driving home.
That is frightening story to me. I once worried about getting stuck in Wyoming when I drove into a blizzard on Oct. 1. I could not believe it. I didn't get stuck but knowing where the road was was almost impossible.
I moved into a house so very well insulated and wall thick that the bathroom door in the cellar locked from the inside and I screamed and screamed and bang and bang and kick the door for 1 and a half hours until I was able to squeeze crawl out from a tiny blocked shower window like a rat which was very big and I land and lay in a garbage heap grateful. The people were too fat to get up.
This post was edited by CosmicWunderkind at February 11, 2022 12:33 PM MST
Randy D 