In December of 1995, Nick found out that his unit was put on the rotation to provide F-15E support for the 4404th Provisional Wing, back in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
The unit would send half the squadron from Mid-April, 1996 through mid-July. The rest of the squadron would deploy from mid-July until the middle of October. Nick and his subordinate, A1C Parker Jenkins would deploy with the first group. Members of the Langley AFB Hospital Squadron would deploy with the second group.
With a tearful farewell from all three of his wives and almost 5 year old Julianna, Nick' sweet little daughter, Nick boarded a chartered 747. They were leaving on the 17th of April of 1996 and the aircraft would take him back for another stay in Dhahran.
People seeing off their loved ones marveled that 3 women, all three pushing double twin seated strollers full of babies and toddlers, were there to see Nick off.
Just before he left to process through the mobility line, Theresa whispered in his ear, "The usual rules apply, husband. I cleared it with Sammi and Toni." Terri's cryptic message was permission for him to screw around while deployed, provided that he filled Theresa, and therefore Samantha and Toni, in on the details when and if he did.
The first thing that simply baffled Nick as they descended to land was instead of landing at King Aziz International Airport, which also was the runway for the Dhahran Air Base, the 747 landed in Manama, Bahrain. He pondered 'why on earth would they do that?'
Bahrain is a small island nation just off the coast of Saudi Arabia, and was the place Nick lost his appendix the last time he was deployed to Dhahran. He learned later that Saudi Arabia was playing diplomatic games with the United States. He and others, who flew in with him, had to wait their turns as they were ferried to Dhahran onboard a C-130, a four engine, turboprop, cargo aircraft, assigned to the 4404th Provisional Wing. Nick thought that was silly, why they didn't just use buses. Manama was only about a half an hour away from Dhahran.
During their in-processing briefing, Nick learned with the other members of his squadron, that the threat level was up due to a spate of terrorist acts occurring in the kingdom over the last 6 to 8 months. The worst was on November 13, 1995, almost six months earlier, when a car bomb exploded in the courtyard of the Saudi Arabia National Guard's Office in Riyadh, killing seven people including five Americans.
Where Nick had been used to going downtown whenever he wanted, on this deployment personnel had to check day by day to see what the threat level was. Another rule was he couldn't go alone, but also couldn't go in a group larger than 4 people -- everyone going down town had to wear civilian clothing.
He also learned that the Saudi Arabian support had gotten less than cordial over the last year. Food quality had dropped and there was even a salmonella outbreak at the Saudi run chow hall that occurred a few months before. The Air Force had to step in and take a greater role in food procurement and preparation.
When he finally reported to the clinic for duty, after a day of rest and recuperation, Nick was surprised and delighted to see that SrA Lisa Sneed was there. She was the girl that he had an ongoing relationship with the last time he was in Dhahran. He was also surprised to see that she was still a Senior Airman, and not a SSgt. When she got a chance to take Nick aside she whispered to him, "We need to talk."
The first thing that impressed Nick was the medical operation had added several new positions since his first deployment. In addition to the SMEs from the various flying units, there were a small contingency of nurses and medical technicians who were deployed from units around the various state side bases for 170 day tours.
Nick was informed that some of the SMEs provided medical care at the Flight Line clinic. So he was scheduled the next day for his first shift over on the airbase. The medics manning the clinic met up in the mornings at 07:00 and took one of two ambulances onto the air base, where they would work until 5:00pm. It was nearly the same shift he used to work there in 1992.
Later in the afternoon, after the initial clinic tour he was on was over, Nick was able to find a quiet spot to talk with Lisa, he found out that the now 23 year old woman had filled a vacancy from her home medical unit by volunteering to supplement the SME contingency of an F-16 unit out of Shaw AFB, South Carolina; Shaw was her current assignment. Shaw had only been there a few weeks longer than Langley.
Lisa looked as surprised to see Nick as he was to see her. Nick asked, "Lisa, how have you been? Then he smiled and said, "It's so good to see you."
The small blond woman looked up and smiled at him coquettishly. She answered, "I'm really glad to see you too Nick. I really enjoyed our last deployment together."
"So, what have you been up to?" asked Nick, "Has life been treating you well?"
Lisa's smile melted off her face, she replied, "That's something that we need to talk about, but not here. Come by my room this evening, I get off shift at 18:00" She was using military time for 6:00pm. She found a notepad and wrote down her building and room number, which was located somewhere in the Khobar Towers complex.
Nick was able to find Lisa's room; he started to hunt it down around 17:30, so he would be there by 18:00 hours to meet up with Lisa. Waiting by the apartment's door, he soon watched Lisa come off the elevator. Her face lit up when she saw Nick waiting, she hurried over and let the two of them into the apartment.
Lisa had a deal with her roommates in that guys could be invited in, and roommates would find something else to do, vacating the room while the woman with the guest entertained. Up until then, Lisa had never entertained anyone. She shared three of the five bedroom Khobar Towers apartment with 3 other airmen and 2 SSgts. The largest bedroom was inhabited a female MSgt who was the Shaw's unit Superintendent of Administration. The final bedroom was occupied by a TSgt who was a flight line worker. Lisa's roommate was another Aeromedical Tech and SME of the Fighter Squadron. A1C Stephanie Meyer who was currently on night shift at the clinic.
Lisa invited Nick to sit on her bed with her, there was a chair for the desk in the room, but Lisa wanted to feel Nick near her.
After Nick began filling her in with what was happening in his life, Lisa was astounded to learn that Nick had 'married' three women, and that he was able to keep it hush-hush as far as the Air Force was concerned. As far as the US Air Force was concerned, he only had one dependent spouse, and that was Theresa.
After a bit, there was a lull in the conversation. Lisa looked down, staring at her hands. She looked up at Nick with a worried look on her face. Finally, she reached for her purse and after digging around it for a minute; she came out with a wallet sized picture of a 3 year old little girl. Lisa handed it to Nick and said, "This is Rachel Lynn, she's my little girl."
Nick smiled at the pretty little girl; she was as blond as her momma. He stated, "I bet her daddy is proud of this little sweetheart."
Lisa swallowed, and then reluctantly added, "Um, her daddy doesn't even know she exists." Then she looked up to stare into Nick's blue eyes, "That is until now."
