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

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.