I want you to think of the worst birthday you've ever had. Painful I know but we will get through this together. Mine might not be that bad but it's probably pretty close.
My 28th birthday was memorable, for sure. Not because of some crazy party but for just how little time I actually spent of the 24 hour day, not at work. I was deployed in Qatar (this little country borders Saudi Arabia in the Middle East) at the time and I had a planned 10-hour flight mission scheduled for my birthday. I was there with a P-3 Orion squadron which is a four-engine prop plane. I already knew this wasn't going to be a birthday I would remember fondly. Don't get me wrong I loved flying. It was some of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. I loved flying on deployments because you were doing the work you had spent so many hours training for. As with anything though, flying on deployment isn't all cupcakes and rainbows (although there were definitely flights where legitimately both happened). There is added stress, preparation, and protocols that are tacked on to the mission flights so have a 10-hour burner on your birthday is not ideal.
Qatar is a big base so we had to take a bus to get to the building that the pre-mission briefs were held. Sadly it is not a direct shuttle so it took about an hour to get from my barracks to the building. The mission brief was at 0200 (2 AM) which means I had to be up at 0030 (12:30 AM) to have enough time to get ready, catch the bus, and get to the brief on time. Keep in mind at this moment I have spent about 45 mins of my birthday not at work, however, I was asleep for 30 of it and getting ready for work for 15 of it.
Once we get to the brief we consider that the start of our preflight. My crew briefs the mission and heads to the plane. Getting to the plane we have to take another bus to where our gear was housed and then another bus out to the flight line where the plane was. Flying in and out of Qatar was always a cluster. Once on the aircraft, we start our normal preflight routines, getting it ready for the mission ahead of us. 4 hours later we are ready for take-off. We taxi up to the runway and start the takeoff procedures but engine number 3 doesn't have enough power so we abort the takeoff and taxi back to our parking spot to get it fixed. Luckily we have 4 engines and the others were fine but we still had to wait around for about 3 hours for engine 3 to be fixed. Now 7 hours into a preflight we were ready to go again! Just like before we starting taxing to the end of the runway but before we made it there we received a weather alert on the radio. A sandstorm was coming in and they were shutting the airfield until it passed. Since our preflight hadn't exceeded the limits yet we headed back to our parking spot we went to wait out the sandstorm. Mercifully the storm cleared up after about 3 hours and a full 10 hours after we started the pre-mission brief we were cleared for takeoff and cleared to continue the mission.
I would love to sit here and tell you it was some gloriously exciting mission, like Navy Seals get movies for but it really wasn't. While the mission was vital, it was also long and monotonous. After we finished our portion we were sent back to base and landed about 10 hours after we took off. For those of you keeping score at home, we are at a 22 hour day already and we aren't done yet. Every mission flight required a bunch of post-flight briefs and paperwork. There was also the task of shutting the plane down properly and waiting for our ride to do the travel in reverse. By the time I had dropped off my gear, found a ride back to the briefing room, and finished my paperwork we are clocking in at around 26 hours. Now we wait for the bus and wait for it to hit all of the stops before I am finally back at my barracks an hour later. By the time I walked into my room, it was about 27 hours after the time I left it, meaning it was about 0345 (3:45 AM) the next day.
I am fully aware that people have WAY worse birthday stories than this but this is pretty comical if you look back on it. The best part is I am not even done and obviously haven't even got to Johnnie Walker Blue yet! Patience my dear reader we are almost there.
I get a call on my phone 4 hours later asking why am I not at work. I explain the flight and what time I got back and I hear "There are no rest requirements for non-flying events. Get in here." Less than happy I get out of bed, shave, put on my flight suit and take the bus back to where I just was only a few hours ago. Once there I am greeted by snide comments about my upcoming relocation. Confused I head over to the officer that called me to see what was up. He informed me they were sending me Djibouti Africa to set up another deployment site and we would be sleeping in shipping containers and we were leaving tomorrow. While most people would consider all of that bad news I was excited to go. I had never been to Africa and any time you are away from the main deployment site, things were usually a little more chill. So I packed up, loaded up the mighty P-3 Orion, and went to bless the rains down in Africa.
Once there and settled, the other officers and I went and found the Officers club on base. It is basically a bar that you can relax after flights. Tired I walked up to the bar to see what their selection of whiskey was. Normally at Navy Officers clubs, they have the run of the mill stuff, nothing special, like you mostly just go there for dollar beers kind of level. I was shocked to see a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue sitting behind the counter at a place like this in Africa of all places. I had never tried it and was never ready to spend $250 dollars on a bottle. Knowing pours of it cost around $40 in the States I cautiously asked how much a pour would be. The volunteer behind the bar goes "that is $15... you know that right". I politely smiled and nodded. All drinks were served here in plastic cups, but no Johnnie Blue. They got out an actual glass cup to pour this scotch into. Elated that I was getting a late birthday gift to myself in such a unique place I was eager to try it.
Blue is definitely smoother than the others in the Johnnie Walker family. It has the perfect amount of smokiness to remind you that you are in fact drinking a scotch but you are not eating a campfire. It isn't nearly as peaty as a lot of other scotch I have had. It is so smooth that it barely has any burn and leaves a pleasant smokey finish.
Even in the worst situations, you can usually find a silver lining no matter how small. For me, it was a very busy, sleep-deprived birthday only to be sent to a more remote location. However, without that trip to Africa, I don't know when I would have finally been able to try such a famous whiskey. Plus Africa turned out to be a pretty cool deployment site so all in all, I would call it a win!
Johnnie Walker Blue is 80 proof and is one of the smoothest scotch I can remember. These are the listed notes but I don't always get all of these. I am curious to hear what you got.
Nose: Take in the wonderfully mellow, rounded nose – replete with dry smokiness artfully mixed with the sweetness of raisins.
Palate: Serving a velvety combination of vanilla, honey, and rose petals – before broadening out to include a zesty orange flavor with notes of hazelnut, sherry, and dark chocolate.
Finish: Signing off with a rich and luxuriously long finish, which showcases Johnnie Walker's trademark smokiness in the most sophisticated way.
I would recommend a glass of this neat but as always drink it the way you will enjoy it most. Overall, I would definitely try Johnnie Walker Blue if you are ever given the opportunity.
Comments