"Daddy, where were you when the volcano blew?"

Jimmy Buffett wrote a song about Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano  in the late 70s. In the song Volcano, he laments not knowing where “Im’a gonna go when the volcano blow”. (By the way, Jimmy was a bit prescient, the volcano would erupt in the 90’s nearly destroying Monserrat’s tourism industry)

Well, I never thought something like that would happen to me but believe it or not, it did. I’ve come up with a lot of inventive excuses for being late, but “...the volcano...” was never part of any of them.

I was supposed to return to SWA on the 16th of April. On the 14th, the completely unpronounceable volcano Eyjafjallajokull decided to rear its ugly little head out from under a glacier where it had sat peacefully for several weeks after a minor eruption on 20 March. The last time this thing got serious was back in the 1800s so who knew?

Having more than a passing interest in the R&R program I was curious to see exactly how the Army would handle this. Perhaps surprisingly, the Atlanta PAP handled it as if volcano’s popped up every day. We were placed in a holding pattern around the USO for a few hours while the echelons above reality developed a work around for the fact that our normal refueling sites in Ireland and Germany were no longer an option. A plan was developed in about 18 hours and the test flight took off with just over a 48 hour delay. Based on what I’ve heard from the other end, there were no glitches enroute.

In the mean time, the Army arranged for the housing, transportation and feeding of 350 incoming soldiers every day, no mean task.  By the time I leave, the backlog will have grown to more than 900 and by mid week, it will be completely gone.

All of this probably sounds like no big deal to most of you but the reality is that it was a minor logistical miracle. Contracts had to be amended, crews moved, country clearances adjusted, a “not through customs” deplaning area for the soldiers had to be set up with basic amenities and on and on – like I said, a minor miracle in 24-48 hours.

Hopefully, I’ll be back in my office on Tuesday to write something better but until then, you’ll just have to enjoy this flash back to the 80's, Jimmy Buffett with hair, shoes and a then new song, Volcano:

Friday, May 8, 1981, ABC's comedy show Fridays,