Bravo

We have been flying a lot more these past few days. We were "sitting bravo" yesterday. not the primary crew, but supposed to be ready to go within an hours notice of when we are "alerted" A Lt. Col had assured us the previous night there was 0% chance of being alerted, which should of made us more suspicious. Regardless we treated it like a day off: sleeping in, going for a run, watching some office, working out, lounging and enjoying social time at supper. Enjoying my twist cone on the way out the door brought the news it was time to party. It is interesting to see how each person handles the news. Some reply with an indifferent "well I wasn't doing anything anyway" some angry they have to reverse the downhill mental spiral toward bed they had already begun, and some giddy to the point of dropping their ice-cream. Eventually all settle into the professional crew we are, or strive to be each flight, and I think we were tonight.

Apparently the Army REALLY wanted these 15 or so troops moved, there were several higher ranks on board and we held short for 10 minutes or so waiting for a General to decide if he wanted to go or not. On the way back in they had activated some sectors around base allowing the Army copters to do the work they do, combined with visibility below minimums left us circling looking for options. Much preferring our own hooches, we passed on CQ's suggestion to divert and instead took the chance at the low visibility. Once again my AC's experience showed, as he gave us a play by play of what to expect. The sky was perfectly clear with just a finger nail of new moon and the NVGs revealed multiple shooting stars and a blacked out convoy, we could see airfields further out than usual and each town had its own green halo glow from fog. So to say visibility is what would keep us from landing was strange but sure enough right as we touched down everything disappeared and you could barely make out our own wingtips. The fog was ridiculously thick but maybe only 50' deep. Yet another great learning experience and beautiful night flight.

ps: the other night we flew to Kuwait which becomes a highlight when you have enough time to run to the mid-night diner for REAL milk!!!!!! See facebook for pics of that base during the day.