New Job

We've been flying fairly consistently and am happy to say we put a major dent in the war on terror the other night. AFN (the armed forces network) is the sole source of life here for a lot of people so when our TV went down right before college football saturday the General called out his A-Team. Needless to say it is now up and running, and since we are on a night schedule we've been able to watch a few games.

Since we've been flying more than others, the guys working the office jobs jumped on our flight to stay current, which meant I got to learn more about how the guys in the back operate. It was pretty awesome, dad I'm gonna blow you away with tie-down knowledge. We ran out of seats at one point so Mike & I rode in the hummer which provided one of the softest rides I've had, extra suspension and noise muffling. Thanks to an unfortunate 24 hour bug that has been ravaging its way though our crew I also got to sit in the spotters seat. There have been copious amounts of Imodium passed around and the 50 yard dash to our bathroom has gotten pretty exciting. Luckily the DFac has soup, baked potatoes, and 7up.

Thanksgiving

My first major holiday overseas was a good one. We have made pretty good friends with a Sgt that runs the DFac and we were excited we didn't fly today and got to be there to see all of his hard work. Its amazing how much hard work and how much of a difference individuals can make. He and his battalion are from Hawaii, so his wife sent up some street signs and other decorations to make the place feel at home for them. Half the DFac was Hawaiian, half was traditional thanksgiving, they had ice sculptors (how they did this blows my mind), a cornucopia filled with fruit and lays, a giant mayflower ship they served eggnog from, workers dressed up as indians, pilgrims, elves, and reindeer, a gingerbread city, all the traditional food (which was pretty good), and what blew my mind the most, they had baked several large pieces of bread to the shape of the Hawaiian islands and laid them out on a blue table cloth. Our AC is also from Hawaii so he gave us a geography lesson and showed us where all the cool spots were. It was great to see everyone so happy all from a few individuals hard work. I went with peach cobbler for desert in honor of missing hamburger-ala-foil last night at deer camp.

Great Day topped off with a late night work out and mid-night breakfast, trying to get ourselves adjusted to an evening/night flying schedule.

Dare to Dream

Whenever I was getting tired of flight school I dreamed of days like yesterday, knowing it would be awesome when I got here, it probably tops the previous "best day yet." I started writing a play-by-play and realized it really wasn't that exciting and there wasn't anything specific, but the culmination of a satisfying day of flying knowing we did what we came here to do, did it well, and made it back in time for supper and an Aaron Tippin concert. HA!

So I'll try to make of list of the all the little things that combined into one awesome day:

Tasty omelet w/ everything & biscuit, iced vanilla coffee drink

gotta keep breakfast light on flight days & like to get the hyper energy going early

Briefings, flight prep, and pre-flight were quick & smooth

I guess it doesn't take many repetitions to get to the point where it runs well

Instead of valeting Cols to meetings we were moving actual important stuff. A couple of guys who rode back with us said they had been stuck there with those goods and were gonna get to go home now. Typically we move either people, pallets, or rolling stock: hummers or anything on wheels (which this was) which tend to be the most time consuming. We put some good tunes over the interphone speakers and started rolling like a fluid team, even the FAST team we carry for security pitched in. I don't know why it was so much fun but I was in the best mood, Dad u would've been blown away by the backing skills of this driver (with direction from our loads) and the expert tie down job.

I'm becoming more proficient with my descents and landings which is always exciting

I grabbed a twist ice-cream cone on my way to the Aaron Tippin concert, that dude is awesome, classic red-neck country singer that loves the US and has been doing USO tours since I was born.

Riding the high, we took the bus on a ride around base exploring the far side of the runway. We were back in highschool, cruising and listening to music was a great end to the day, until we found ourselves on a pitch back stretch with no idea where it was going. Everyone got quiet and all at once each person said "umm.... I think we might need to turn around"

Fear

U wanna talk about real fear, there is a flock of ravens that move silently around base stalking weary joggers and unsuspecting hammock loungers. I feel like I'm in a Lord of the Rings movie. I was lounging in our "tanning bed" atop the barriers the other day and I watched their tactics first hand. I've seen them before, but this provided a unique vantage point. There are prolly 45-50 of them and without a sound they leap frog there way across a landscape picking it to pieces. Never fear though, I am ever vigilant with regards to all avian matters.

Still loving flying, still learning tons every sortie, just wish we could do more of it, we were pretty consistent doing every other day there for a week, which was perfect, but it has slowed back down.

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.

Church was awesome again, the prayers for our tone-defness were much appreciated and felt, either the hymns were more in our range, we brought our A-game, or I wasn't paying attention to it, either way it was a huge blessing.

We've been playing a lot of Risk (the game of global domination) and the testosterone packed competition is about to boil over, Mom we need the Un-game ASAP (not really please don't send that, we'd prolly smash it under the 85 lbs weight) Speaking of, after smashing all kinds of fruit we have been inundated with flies. We each have one of those sticky tapes outside our door, last count we had 83 on ours and the other two look just as full, 15 on the one in the room. When its not ur turn at Risk you are on fly killing duty, we prolly average 75 kills a game.

WX update: desert winter is kicking in, without scientific measurements i'd say the after noon is "broken office air conditioner warm" dry heat in the day to "don't won't to go outside to pee because its too cold" nights.

Also - I have received several very thoughtful comments in response to blogs on here, but in my lack of know how I haven't been able to send thank yous, but please know I really appreciate all the support and would love email addresses to personally thank you.

Another Day Another Cinnamon Roll

This post is going to be pretty boring, more for my own personal memories.

Currently I'm going through several personal philosophical debates: at what water temperature does no shower become worse than a cold shower? although the sound of crickets while you walk to the showers makes it worth it. should I just go ahead shave my head? would it look good with the incoming mustache? these are weighing very heavy on my mind, inputs would be much appreciated.

Food is still the much anticipated highlight of my day, I don't know if I've talked about it yet, but ITS AWESOME. Favorites I'm rotating through include various kinds of fish/shrimp/crab, philly cheese steak, every way you can serve chicken, including buffalo wings, bbq brisket, ceasar salad, choose your own ingredients short order stir fry, kiwi, bread pudding, blue berry cobbler, carrot cake, pecan pie, cookies n cream milkshakes, french toast, short order omelets, the biscuits are good, but the gravy has much to be desired. I have been told by several people that the south DFAC where we eat is the best they've ever seen.

Music is also something that can completely change the day. We are getting more and more proficient so my AC has started letting us put music on over the PA on the plane while we are on/off loading cargo/pax. Its fun searching each other's ipods putting on random songs, today's hits included "I can feel it coming in the air tonight" and "run around sue". And I enjoy runs so much more just as time to get out and listen to any music I want.

Another highlight has been seeing tons of different army aircraft i never even knew existed, and some I knew about but have never seen, including all the UAVs.

Like I said not much to report, the flight went well: WAIT I forgot, since today was payday we treated ourselves to Cinnabon (ya its rough over here), definitely a noteworthy highlight. Aw man and how could I forget, Mandy's box came with "the office" in it, we all rejoiced and immediately put it in for a couple episodes. We are much in debt, thank you very much.