I put a few pics on facebook...

We flew along the Tigris on the way down (see picture, actually it won't let me, so never mind) and landed at what looked like the only populated area for miles and miles, there is nothing out here and for good reason. We touched down and pretty much pulled off the side of the road (as far as large aircraft go) As in Scotland I immediately remembered the smell when we stepped off the plane, this time it was like football practice in early September when it was really hot, and there was no grass on the field, and you were face down in a ton of dirt with eight sweaty dudes on top of you. I don’t know why they call it the sand box, I haven’t seen a grain of sand yet, its more like dirty gold bond powder with rocks mixed in here and there. (side note on this: I have come to a fork, this stuff gets everywhere and there is no way to defeat it, I can either drive myself crazy trying to clean, or just act like I’m backpacking or in highschool and not care about me or my stuff having a light powder coat of dirt) I also don’t see how anything could live here, plant or animal. I have however seen a few birds around a water pit, and a hole I believe to be dug by a lizard. There are a few “trees” planted along some of the roads that used to be watered, but they are fading pretty dang fast.

This is definitely an Army base and we stand out like sore thumbs in our flight suits and blue PT gear. I heard the population of the base varies from 5 to 10 thousand at any given time, so they have awesome gymS and awesome chow hallS, which serve much better food than I would ever fix and in much larger quantities, you combine these two with an abundance of down time until we get operations set up and I’m gonna see how much weight I can gain in two months. That’s right I said two months, its like a long vacation. We talked to a helo pirate who was here for 15 months, and is now back for 12 (at least that is what they tell him, I wouldn’t be surprised if they extended him longer). My room is nice, it’s a 3 room modular long house on blocks, with two to a room, so my crew has a unit. We have internet and AC with a modular bath house down the way. I have more than everything I could want and anything I don’t have I could get at one of the bases’ BXs. Everything is staffed by TCNs (third country nationals) they can come over and work for $25 a day room and board paid with no vacations. Once they choose to leave they can’t come back. They are all very friendly (speaking extremely basic English) but smile constantly and do whatever they can to help.

Yesterday we toured the base adopting the Army mentality that if you see it, and it doesn’t look like anyone else is using it, you can take it. We’re fixing our place up quite nicely, we’re bored boy scouts looking for screws and pallets.

This morning we started cleaning and setting up what will be our operations HQ in an underground bunker, again very stereotypical of what you would think an Iraqi military station would look like. Also stereotypical of Iraqi AF hangers, they each have a single large patched up hole in the top, precisely put there by some of my brethren in 2003. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be flying for awhile, and as you can tell from the length of this blog we have lots of down time… I have lots of pics to put up tomorrow.

Written on the Plane

My first stay in a former Soviet block country makes me question how bad communism was and if we need government regulation at all. Apparently the smoking age is much lower as we saw, what had to have been a 5-6 year old smoking in the streets after 10:00. Parking is much less regulated as well, every sidewalk and front yard doubled as a free lot. Littering appeared to be legal, and dogs were encouraged to roam at will. (I just entered the combat zone for the first time12:38Z, 22 Oct 09!!! Mike just activated the defense systems and flak vests are being donned, just a precaution mom, I’m sitting on the bunk for this one, the Lt Col wanted to fly in for the first one since he won’t be flying the rest of the trip) We circled the block and found an Italian restaurant, we elected to stay away from local stuff this time. Romania was a pretty stereotypical Eastern European country like I would expect in movies. The hotel was nice though, right on the black sea, which is not black and might as well be an ocean.

We flew over it this morning and entered Turkey airspace being careful not to stray too far east or west to avoid Syria and Iran. As we approached the border almost all at once our radios and raw navigational equipment started buggin out, I don’t know what that was about. We’re starting down now, I’ll finish this on the ground in Iraqistan!!!

While I’m told St. John’s is a beautiful place when the weather is nice, rain and snow hold the majority of the climate. I’m also told on a summer weekend night the party street is out of control, but on a nasty late fall Monday night that’s not the case. And thus was our 16 hours on the ground in Newfoundland, cold and wet, not a sole to be seen on the streets except sailors who looked they were fresh off the filming of deadliest catch. I did however have another spacious room to myself with a nice view of the harbor, (which was pretty cool) but it was dark the whole time so I didn’t really see anything of interest. Apparently every non-mid-air-refuelable prop plane has to use St. John’s as a launching point across the Atlantic, so there were several interesting planes there.

I got to fly the Atlantic leg, well I got to sit in the seat, my duties included but were not limited to: making position reports every 5 degrees of longitude (since there is no radar control over the ocean) backing up our flight plans coordinates, informing the engineer if the right wing was icing up, monitoring the radios, and continually getting quizzed by more experienced crew members, exciting right (thumbs down). It was really cool though, definitely the longest single flight I’ve ever flown, but we still whipped Columbus’ time record. They had sub sandwiches for us before we left so we used the oven to toast them and heat up our cookies, we plugged the ipod into one of the extra headphone jacks so we had tunes playing in the background, I got to get up to stretch or use the little boys room at will, so it was better than riding in the back with the pax (passengers) and cargo, which really isn’t too bad, we have some litters up (usually for medical pax) but utilized for naps, and as always the ocean and clouds were amazing.

Prestwick Scotland was our next stop; once again dark almost our entire stay, but the smell of money (or cow manure) filled the air on my first steps across the Atlantic. The weather was nice so we found time to wander around Ayr, taking in the old buildings and flirting with the only girl at the only open bar converted from an old church, which held 9 other patrons all males in their mid 60s. We almost talked her in to giving us a ride to Edinbrough or Glasgow… I love the accents. The sunrise revealed we were only three blocks from the coast with a striking bluff just down the way, and the ride back to the airport provided a little sight seeing, all of the city, which was really interesting. Hopefully I’ll get some more time to hang out here in the future, I think with any more time we could’ve gotten that ride.

OH

Tonight I find myself in the Buckeye state, alone in a hotel room with 2 beds, free wireless & cable, expecting a nice complimentary breakfast in the morning. Its a rough life, and I venture to say my dad will draw a stark contrast against his first overseas military experience for the rest of my chronicles (I like using that word). It is beautiful here, when driving to our hotel one person commented "I feel like we've gone back in time" another "Is this where home and garden takes all their photos" The hardwoods are in the height of there change, the air is crisp, rich green lawns, rolling hills with various crops ready for harvest and small barns filled with pumpkins. It does a nice job of curbing the frustration of taking so long to get somewhere in the Herk, we left cheyenne, I should be in Iraqistan, i'm just too anxious...

This morning was a different beautiful, the eastern horizon was turning deep red when I left and the western snowcapped peaks were being lit before all else, not a cloud in the sky letting me watch them the entire ride up (since I didn't drive, my nav's girlfriend drove to say goodbye) No one rode up for me, but the buffalo were closer to the rode than I had ever seen them, literally pushing on the fence, and I'm 98% sure they did that for me. One of the load's (we have 2 loadmasters with us) parents came to see him off and of course his mom's eyes were getting red even though this is his 4th deployment. My AC (aircraft commander) didn't inform me of this but he was/is supposed to be getting married 2 Jan in Hawaii (we don't think we'll be back by Christmas) (a testament to his attitude, not once has he shown disappointment or frustration about this deployment) Needless to say his eyes were red too when he stepped in the passenger seat of the crew bus, I acted like I hadn't noticed and stared straight ahead as I drove. Its funny to juxtapose the emotions I see to my own, those being of pure anticipation of what will happen next. Then juxtapose that to my AC, this being his eighth deployment, nothing is new to him and he laughs at my excitement over the smallest events; loading the pallet with our bags, arriving at a new base, doing everything together as a crew - which at present is turning into one of my favorite things, it feels like I'm in a gang. I'm sure I'll talk more about them later, I'm writing more up front than I'm sure anyone cares to read but expect this to quickly wane as things become standard.

PS. I didn't make the above comments out of self pity, b/r interesting observations, i have received more than enough well wishes to last the short 2 months. Best coming from Meg & Ben before bed tonight.

Well I'm leaving, On a Jet Plane, Don't know when I'll be back again...

Thats not entirely true, its a turbo prop, and I have a rough idea when i'm getting back. BUT I am finally getting to play in the big sand box with the other kids. Its only taken me 7 years since highschool but I found out last Thursday I was getting picked up for an assignment I volunteered for to go fly for the army. Thats about all they told me other than to be ready to leave in a week. Since then several hypotheses have been thrown around as to what we'll be doing and where we'll be stationed, but one thing is for sure I'm leaving in the morning. The mighty Hercules is many things but it definitely isn't fast or long legged, which means we'll be making several stops on our way over and won't be in Iraqistan for another week. I'm gonna use this as my chronicler for all the cool stuff that happens, I'll also try to let anyone know who reads this when I expect to be online next in case they want to chat. Laterz Taterz, JLT

Nature More

I don't know why I haven't posted this yet, but over the past couple months I have been on some amazing trips to the Mountains. I don't know why but I love it there. I've skinny dipped in a lake that forms directly from snow melt, had several moose stare me in the eyes after rubbing off their velvet, watched elk do things I didn't even know existed all in the name of impressing a mate, been blinded by golden aspens, summited rocky peaks just to get a better vantage point to un-lost myself, had 3 inches of snow last weekend, to hike in shorts and sandals this. It makes me think of a poem:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is society, where none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar
I love not man the less, but Nature more…
- Lord Byron

But more importantly I've had good friends (and made new ones) to share these experences with, which brings up another quote:

Happiness Only Real When Shared
- Chris McCandless