Shortest Day Ever

I spent today farther North than ever before and it is the Winter Solstice (Dec 21) so I saw 6h 58m 38s of sunlight (actually never saw the sun despite being up and outside), officially making it the shortest day of my life. Since we were broken we hopped a train to Glasgow for my first international 24 hour period not in uniform. It was pretty awesome. I really enjoy my crew, spending time with them is always fun. (mom doesn’t allow always and nevers) so I have to caveat that with the fact that on every deployment you hit an irritable wall in which all you require is the most impossible thing to find: time and space alone. Sadly I wasn’t immune to this nasty disease and didn’t always have my party pants on, but I apologized, asked forgiveness and everyone forgave me, so I guess we’re ok.

ANYWAY, Iraq doesn’t get you in the Christmas mood nearly as much as you might think, and that bar is probably already set pretty low, so it was pretty exciting driving to our hotel last night seeing well lit Christmas trees in windows and snow on the ground. The Christmas carnival in the main square today helped too, but hearing Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas” in one of the shops is exactly what I needed to set me over the top (so I’m listening while I right this). While we were enjoying some haggis, napes & tatties my AC brought to fact that we weren’t flicking flies off of each other and our food, there wasn’t a constant burning poo smell in the air, and he didn’t have to get dressed last night to walk to the restroom.

Better than the scenic train ride across the highlands was learning that some of the guys had flown the other plane to pick up the spare part and maintenance already changed it out and it was ready to make the hop across the pond. They are pretty amazing, just another advantage of the 130, we can carry our own repair team.

Happy Birthday

The Air Force gave me one of the best birthday presents a guy could ask for: A ride out of a combat zone that will eventually take me home (fingers still crossed). It may have had a slightly delayed T/O for weather at our destination taking it to the 20^th instead, but hey.

It was kinda weird getting ready to leave, suddenly things annoying as sandpaper toilet paper weren’t that bad. One Army Lt we saw often in the gym (on a 15 month deployment) couldn’t believe it. When I told him, he just stood there staring off into the distance repeating “WOW” over and over. He never stopped, I finally had to walk off and leave him in his own world of disbelief. Its funny how quickly you create a bond with TCN’s (third country nationals that work on base, mostly from India) you could easily note the tone of longing for home in their voice as well. We have it very nice in the Air Force, I am extremely thankful.

We hit up the capital of Hungry for a gas stop (geography quiz for the day) on a divert from what was our primary stop due to the same poor weather. Brian sent me an email asking if I was ready to trade blowing sand for blowing snow. I thought he meant Cheyenne/Ft. Collins, little did I know he was psychic and knew we would be sledding down a snow covered taxiway. It was so powdery my head had a hard time convincing my eyes it wasn’t sand. It was odd being inside a clean hard walled/floored building again with restrooms big enough to turn around in. We hit the sky again on our way to our next stop and I quickly became educated in the amazing 20* temp change from the top to bottom litter in the back of the plane (four high bunked cots we snooze on). At one point my face was almost sweating while my feet were going numb. Upon landing we received the best news you can get when trying to make it home for Christmas “Your plane is broken and won’t be able to fly tomorrow, maybe longer since getting the part could take awhile considering the weather and time of year.”

Whoops

I don't know what happened, but I just realized I haven't posted at all in Dec. I guess nothing new or exciting has popped up. We still have over a week here but flying is about to finish up, since we brought in all of our own support we have to take it all back with us. This differs from most deployments where there is a constant 130 asset and we just rotate out as crews, so there are some logistic situations to work out.

The Harlem Globetrotters were here last night, they are hilarious and put on a very entertaining show, I just can't say enough about those who come out here and do show after show for very little pay, for small crowds that are far less than motivated to give positive feed back.

Lastly, I have had several people ask about acronyms they have seen, so here you go:

DFAC = Dining FACility

NVG = Night Vision Goggles

WX = Weather

UAV = Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

ATOC = Air Transportation Operation Center (best guess) the people who give us our cargo/pax

Pax = passengers

if there are any others just let me know and I'll get 'em up here