Private Airshow w/ Philly Cheese

Today was one of the most unproductive, fun days yet. We were delayed awhile due to local crazies lobbing shells over the fence. Side Note: I hesitated to include this not wanting to worry anyone. But the truth of the matter it happens with somewhat regularity, plus its Ramadan, its just what they do, like us putting up Christmas lights. And honestly putting up Christmas lights injures more people per year. The post-touchdown celebration at a Bearcat football game is much closer than any of these poorly aimed, crudely rigged projectiles from the 70s. When instructed to clear the flight line, we walk to a plywood shack and watch movies till the all clear (made it halfway through I-Robot, still don’t know how it ends) ANYWAY, after that delay we flew to base X where a refueler was in line for gas before us resulting in an 1.5 hr wait, and once they got to us, the truck ran out of gas and they had to get another (we did pushups to pass the time). After crunching the numbers we realized that due to our delays our next stop would already be closed for a ceremony. I utilized this delay by venturing out for Philly Cheese Steaks on the Boardwalk. We finally taxied down only to discover our cargo AC pack had locked up on FULL HOT, not too awesome for pax, so we shut down once again. We off-loaded the pax, put some tunes on over the loud speaker, proceeded to the ramp to play some cards, and I broke out my bandanna and the philly cheese steaks. The crew was pretty pumped, I heard “this is the best food I’ve had since we’ve been here” and “man this could’ve been a really crappy night, but now its awesome” so they were well worth the cost and grease stained flight suits. We ended up partying on the ramp with a private airshow as the sun came up. Formation A-10 & F-18 take offs & landings, predators & reapers; all in all a pretty unproductive really fun night, we even made it back in time for breakfast. Good Spirits in Bagram.

OH YEAH, NVGs make for awesome Meteor Showers!