International Travel and a Russian War Story

Yesterday’s comment conversation between Sam and me about Russia reminded me that I’ve let my passport expire. (Parenthetical aside: I’m still struggling with terminology here, to wit: how to differentiate between Son Number Two and My Friend Sam. Hopefully when I say “Sam” SN2 will get the meaning and vice-versa.) My passport expired last year and I made a conscious decision not to renew it. And that seems strange, in retrospect, as there are still quite a few things and places remaining on my travel “to do” list. Things such as the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Oktoberfest in Munich, and the pyramids in Egypt. And those are just four items on the “never done” side of the list. There is also a “got to go back” component as well, with places such as the Greek Aegean islands, Cappadocia, and Bangkok at the top of the list, followed by places in Europe too numerous to mention. My decision is doubly-strange when one considers that one of my military retirement benefits is “Space Available” travel to anywhere in the world the USAF flies its cargo aircraft (assuming those same aircraft take passengers. Not all do.). While Space-A travel isn’t free, it’s cheap: five bucks the last time I checked.

It’s not like I pulled my passport out of the drawer, looked at it, and said “Oh, Damn! It expired.” No, I knew the expiration date was approaching and gave considerable thought towards renewing. I decided not to. Why? Simply because I believe there aren’t a lot of places in the world these days where it’s safe for an American to travel, including Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Perhaps I’m being irrational; I strongly suspect that’s the case. It pains me to think by giving in to my safety issues I’ve “let the terrorists win.”

I may have to reconsider. SN2 has informed me that one of his assignment possibilities following the Naval War College, and his first choice, is embassy duty in Cairo. I believe SN2 told me the assignment was a two-year tour, and he will take the family. SN1 and I discussed the possibility of SN2 going to Cairo the other night, the fact my passport is dead, and my conflict over whether I should renew if SN2 does proceed to Cairo, or not. SN1’s comment was “How could you not go?” Indeed. We’ll see how this unfolds…

But, back to Russia. My Russian adventure pre-dated digital still cameras, and more’s the pity. I did, however, go out and buy a video camera specifically to record my trip (which was in 1993, not '94 or '95 as I indicated in the comments yesterday), and record it I did, to the tune of eight (or more) 8mm tapes. I edited those 8mm tapes and transferred the results to VHS format and made copies for every team member that asked for one. Perhaps I’ll dig that old tape out and review it for war-story fodder that may or may not be suitable for blogging. I’ll have to go buy a new video cassette player first, though, as the one I have gave up the ghost quite some time ago. In the meantime…

My second, and final, trip to Moscow was to deliver the results of our study and a proposal to the client for implementing our recommendations. Communications, specifically long-distance international phone calls, out of Russia at that point in time were damned near impossible. It was my practice during my traveling days with EDS to phone home every day to let TSMP know I was OK, and (frankly) just to hear her voice. Based upon our communication difficulties during my first trip to Moscow, we agreed that she would initiate the calls and set up a time for her to ring me at my hotel. Paradoxically, incoming international calls always seemed to get through, it was outgoing international calls from Russia that were the problem. So…

Five o’clock in the morning. The phone rings and I think “What the Hell…?” as I fumble for the receiver on the nightstand. I mumble “Hello?” into the phone and hear TSMP on the other end, obviously highly agitated, exclaim “What the Hell is going on over there?”

“What do you mean?” sez I.

“You haven’t HEARD? It’s all over the news!!”

“Wha…?” sez I, still half-asleep and wondering if I’m dreaming, or if this is really real.

“Hang on.”

I grab the remote and turn on the TV. The only English language TV station available in my hotel is the BBC’s World Service, so I flip that on. And what do I see? A BBC correspondent standing in front of the British embassy in Moscow, signing off with “…and it appears Russia is poised on the brink of civil war.” WTF? Which Russia? THIS Russia?

I return to the call with TSMP and try my best to reassure her that I am, in fact, in no danger, not even half-believing what I’m saying…simply because I don’t know. She expresses her concern again and we hang up. I return to the news on the TV, but there’s nothing else about the subject at hand. So, I do what any rational person would do: I went back to sleep.

Fast forward, just to make a long story short. (The whole story is here.) My colleague and I met for breakfast at the usual time later that morning. Surprisingly, he was unaware of what was going on. I told him what little I had learned from the BBC. We agree we’ll go to work and see what our hosts think of the situation. Our hosts, in short, dismissed the whole affair as “politics as usual.” Politics as usual, for me, doesn’t include T-72s parked on every other street corner and busload after busload of troops parked in alleyways all over Moscow. We get on the horn back to EDS headquarters in Texas, using our host’s private line. Our management is much more upset than we are, but the bottom line is “proceed with caution.” So, we did. We finished up our presentations and out-briefs with the client and re-scheduled our flight out of Moscow for the next day, which was Friday, October 1st. On October 3^rd Russian army tanks shelled the White House (Russia’s parliament building) and the crisis was over.

Lots of excitement, eh?