Half Time

Half way there. We’ve been here about two and a half weeks. I have to tell ya, time really doesn't fly here. It seems a lot longer than that to me. Only flying once and working every night probably has something to do with that…all the days blur together; and with limited outside contact it starts to feel like you're living in a vacuum. How guys do this non-stop for several months is beyond me. It's kind of mind-numbing.

Things overall are going fairly well. The weather has changed a bit. The wind, which was suprisingly absent the first week and a half, has come back and is pretty much up around 25 knots for most of the day. In the evening things taper off a bit and gets nice out, but during the day the sand whips around and adds a little extra discomfort to the heat.

Flying operations are progressing. On Friday morning we were told from on high that two airplanes from our unit would be returning to the States. They had to leave by Sunday morning. Not sure the reason but the three chosen crews were more than happy to comply and stumbled all over themselves to pack up, out process and leave the base in a day-and-a-half. It was so fast that we couldn't work out the diplomatic clearances beyond the first stop, so they didn't get very far, but the point was they weren't here anymore. Unfortunately it wasn't anyone from my base so we’re all still here. Three days later a couple replacement planes and crews transferred in from another base in the area, so we are now back up to full strength.

We are still working our ride home. It has gone from a guaranteed ride on the 15th of August, direct to our base in Pittsburgh, to leaving sometime in a 7-day period with no guarantee of a departure date until the day prior. Today the direct ride ressurected itself briefly. I'm hoping that carries through, but it would be the first time in a 30+ year career that the AF did anything that was easy on the average Joe.

The flying operations have only had a couple of minor glitches…maintenance issues continue to plague planes in general, but ours are holding up well. Since we are leaving these for the next group of Reserve guys, I hope we don't use all the good luck and leave them with tired and worn planes that start getting effected by the environment.

The crews are doing a good job and handling the long hours. A nice break for them, whether they will admit it or not, is sitting a day of Alert every week or so. We have an emergency medivac mission that covers the entire theater, and have a crew standing by at all times to take off with medical techs and doctors to retrieve medical patients. The Alert tour lasts 24 hours, and as long as there are no launches, it is a chance to catch up on rest, laundry, exercise, etc. We've only had one launch since we've been here, so the rate is pretty low, which is a good thing, for everyone.

In any operation there are hassles and glitches. The ones we typically deal with are waiting for transportation, and getting lousy information from the cargo people on what exactly they have so we have the plane cargo configured correctly. We carry lots of different things, including cargo on pallets, people, medical patients, Distinguished Visitors, battlefield casualties, or a combination of any or all of them. What drives you crazy is getting told you are going to have a full load of 60+ passengers and suddenly 14 people and 4 pallets of cargo show up. We don't pick up cargo where we park so we usually taxi over to the cargo ramp, and are sitting with the engines running. Now we have to tear down all those seats, lay down rollers and make room for the cargo pallets. The on-time take-off all Generals care about is shot to hell, and the people who typically get blamed are the delivery guys. Kind of like shooting the messenger!

Distinguished Visitors present their own set of threats. They are usually Generals moving around the theater, either to see what's going on, go to meetings, or escort the civilian dignitaries that come to see what's what. Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and pretty much every Congressmen and Senator with a tie to Foreign Policy eventually comes over to get exposed to operations here; all accompanied by a dozen staffers and support people. I would think the DV process could probably be a buisiness in and of itself. I'm surprised Blackwater hasn't bid on that one. Right now we have a high ranking General moving around the theater with a Senior Enlisted Advisor who has made it his mission to correct every officer he can find on proper uniform wear, and demand our loadmasters act more like flight attendents than combat crewmembers. I think we'll all be relieved when these guys finally exit the theater and post-flight phone calls cease.

Saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" tonight. FUNNY movie… A little risque, so I can't recommend it to anyone but an adult, but it's good.

Where Have All the Fighter Pilots Gone?

Our Squadron Commander sent this from stateside...it pretty much hits home for us over here. As we all know, it's not just fighters looking for leadership in today's Air Force. My, the times they are a changin'....

Here is a rant from a retired fighter pilot that is worth reading:

It is rumored that our current secretary of defense recently asked the question, "where are all of the dynamic leaders of the past." I can only assume, if that is true, that he was referring to Robin Olds, Jimmy Doolittle, Patton, Ike, Boyington, Nimitz etc. I've got the answer...they were fired before they made major. Our nation doesn't want that kind of a leader anymore. Squadron commanders don't run squadrons and wing commanders don't run wings. They are managed by people much higher in rank with much different goals in mind for how things should operate. Can you imagine if someone in charge today was looking for a LEADER to execute the raid that Doolittle was tasked with and then suggesting that we give that authority to a man who had a dare-devil, boozing reputation and his only attributes were that he had the respect of his men, an awesome ability to fly and the organizational skills to put it all together. If someone told me there was a chance in hell of selecting that man today I would tell them they were either a liar or dumber than shit.

I find it ironic that the Air Force put Gen Olds on the cover of the company rag last month. While it made me extremely proud to see his face, he wouldn't make it across any base in America (or overseas) without ten enlisted folks telling him to zip up his flight suit and shave his mustache off. I have a feeling that his response would be predictable and for that crime he would probably get a trip home and an Article 15. We have lost the war on rugged individualism and that, unfortunately, is what fighter pilots want to follow; not because they have to but because they respect leaders of that ilk. We've all run across that leader that made us proud to follow him because you wanted to be like him and make a difference. The individual who you would drag your testicles through glass rather than disappoint him.

We better wake the hell up...we are asking our young men and women to go to shitty places, some with unbearable climates, never have a drink, have little or no contact with the opposite sex, not look at magazines of a "suggestive" nature of any type, and adhere to ridiculous regs that require you to tuck your shirt into your PT uniform on the way to the porta-shitter at night in a dust storm because it is a uniform. These people we're sending to combat are some of the brightest I've met but they are looking for a little sanity and they will find it on the outside if we don't get a friggin clue. You can't continue to ask people to live for months or years at a time acting like nuns and priests. Hell, even they get to have a beer. Who are we afraid of offending? The guys that already hate us enough to strap C4 to their own bodies and walk into a crowd of us? Think about it.

I'm extremely proud of our young men and women who continue to serve. I'm also very in tune with what they are considering for the future and I've got news for our leaders. A lot of talent is going to run to the outside from all of our services because they are tired of fighting two wars. The one with the enemy...the other against a lack of common sense.

The Night Life...

I've turned into a Vampire. I haunt the nights… As I said earlier, I get off work at midnight and then have about 4 or 5 hours to kill till bedtime… so the trick is finding things to do to kill that time…. At home that is never a problem.. There's never enough hours in the day to get everything I want to get done. Here, there are more hours than I can fill and it's a challenge to find creative ways to fill them.

This place actually reminds me of a TV program I used to watch when I was a kid. There was a show called Sunday night mystery movies.. It used to shift between Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan & Wife. Then one day it switched to Darrin McGavin as the "Night Stalker," an odd detective investigating the supernatural in subterrainean Seattle. It was an awesome series. Sometime I feel like that is life I am leading.

There is actually quite a lot going on at 2 in the morning here. Most of the offices are open for business. Midnight chow is a huge hit, especially with all the guys working out and trying to bulk up on protein. (Is there anything better than a spanish omelet at 4 am?)

The media center is always a hub of activity… for those who don't have computers, they can go and spend a whole 15 minutes on line, checking e-mail and catching up on the news of the world. On my first deployment, that was the only way we had to communicate. I would compose all my e-mails and save them on a thumb drive. I'd go to the media center, and frantically send out e-mails to family and quickly download the ones waiting, then head back to the room to read and respond the next day. It got into a routine. I'd ask questions before I went to bed, Laura would answer and send her questions to me while I slept. When I woke up I'd check them again and answer the ones I had from the night before. Being 8 or 9 hours different put us on opposite sleep schedules so there was always something waiting when you logged in. With me working the night shift, I'm pretty much on the same schedule as home, so it's a bit different. Haven't figured out if this is better or not.

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What I do like is working out at this time of day. The very coolest part of the day is around 4 am. Sometimes that isn't saying much. Today the low was 93. That's just weird! I've been walking about 6 1/2 miles a night, which is really good at killing 2 hours. I hurt my knee right before I left home, so running is still painful, but walking seems okay so far. At a good pace it definitely works up a good sweat, especially at 95 degrees!

There's quite a few people out and about too. You are never alone; people are constantly coming or going to work; heading to the chow hall; to the showers, to the movies, etc. We have a couple of 24-hour coffee shops, a bar that serves from 7 am until 4 am; designated smoking Gazebos where people can sit in and chat in the quiet of the evening (or morning…) Just a different kind of 24-hour lifestyle.

The JAG stopped by the squadron stopped by the squadron the other day. The JAG, for those of you who haven't seen the TV show, is the Judge Advocate General.. In military terms, "the lawyer." This one was the Area Defense Council, responsible for defending all the poor saps who get in trouble over here. We asked him what where the most popular offenses… He said, "Alcohol, Pornography, and Sex."

We have a General Order Number 1B, which basically says you will not consume too much alcohol, you will not have pornography, and you will not cross the threshold of another gender's dorm room, no matter what. Some bases are completely dry. Ours is wet, with a limit: no more than three drinks a day, which really is more than enough in my opinion, but I'm sure others would argue the point. In any event, if you get caught with your own or getting too much of theirs… big trouble. Not to say that it doesn't happen. Unfortunately people who drink too much tend to forget that whole discretion bit, and end up getting caught…

The part about genders staying away from each other is another thing that sounds good in theory… but doesn't stop human nature. The lawyer guy said the biggest selling item at the exchange, and the biggest freely taken item at the medical clinic, is condoms. I don't think they are being used for water. It's petty much a given that "Bunker Love" is alive and well all over the place. I guess so long as it's not in the dorms, it's okay! Ahhhh young love!!!

Where There's Smoke

"Remember, if you smoke after sex you're doing it too fast."
-- Woody Allen

Today we got a base wide warning prohibiting smoking a hookah. I've heard of Hookah pipes but never exprerienced one myself. Didn't know you could here either, but apparently a bunch of people got sick the last couple of days and the commonality was they all went hookahing….(is that a word???)

What, you might ask is a hookah?? (I'm not sure they have many in Zelie, but you never know….) For those of us who are unititiated in the joys of hookahing…I checked Wikipedia and found the following:

A hookah (Hindi: हुक़्क़ा, Urdu: حقّہ, hukkah) is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) water pipe for smoking. Originating in India,it has gained popularity, especially in the Arab World. A hookah operates by water filtration and indirect heat. It can be used for smoking herbal fruits.

Depending on locality and supply, hookahs may be referred to by many names, often of Arabic, Indian, Turkic, Uzbek, or Persian origin. Nargila is the name most commonly used in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Albania, Bosnia, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Bulgaria and Romania, although the initial "n" is often dropped in Arabic pronunciation. Narghile derives from the Persian word nārgil (نارگیل), meaning coconut, and in turn from the Sanskrit nārikela (नारिकेला), suggesting that early hookahs were hewn from coconut shells.

Shisha (Arabic: شيشة), from the Persian word shīshe (شیشه), meaning glass, is the common term for the hookah in Egypt and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf (including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia), and in Morocco, Tunisia, Somalia and Yemen.

In Iran, hookah is called ghalyūn (غلیون), ghālyūn (قالیون), or ghalyān (قلیان). In India and Pakistan the name most similar to the English hookah is used: huqqa (हुक्का /حقہ). The terms "hubble-bubble" and "hubbly-bubbly" are used by Red Sea tourists.

So there you have it. Don't hookah if you are in the Air Force in the middle of the desert. For everyone else (and I'm sure Patti and April might want be tempted to try this with some wild mushrooms....) hookah at your own risk. You've been warned!!!

5 Day Forcast

Flying The Mission

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? – it is the same the angels breathe.

- Mark Twain, ‘Roughing It,’ Chapter XXII, 1886

I mentioned before I took my first flight the other night. It was good to get out of the office routine and fly. Mainly because that is what we do. Unfortunately as you go up in management, you get less chances to do that, and more and more responsibilities for all the things that can go wrong. Being an Ops guy is a challenge and rewarding, but nothing beats getting out and flying the line, moving an airplane and executing the mission.

I was put on the schedule because the crew's normal Nav came down with something and went DNIF (Duty Not Including Flying), which basically means he was grounded for something. As it turned out, he was better by the time of the flight, but since I was rested and had my shift already covered, I stayed on the flight and shared the duties with him.

It's tough to talk a guy out of not flying. Most crew dogs will do just about anything to stick with their crew and fly, even in the most hazardous situations. You hear about guys getting injured and wanting to get back to their platoons or units, and after you've been with a hard crew, you can understand why. In B-52s we had hard crews. We flew, lived, ate, and partied with each other pretty much non-stop for up to a year at a time. In the airlift world you mix and match to meet the mission, UNTIL you deploy, and then suddenly the hard crew concept comes into play and you are back in that same team-building routine. You get a rhythm as a group. After a couple sorties, you can sense what each other needs at different times during a mission, and you pitch in to help each other when necessary. Its camaraderie much like a sports team, only the stakes are bit higher and the rewards bit more obscure.

I was lucky that it was night flight because it matched my circadian rhythm. We were "alerted" at 3:30 pm, and caught the bus over to the squadron at 4. They alert you for flights in the airlift world. Many things can delay you, so the crew is told when to expect getting called to fly, but generally you don't do anything until they call. Sometimes there are delays, and they don't want you showing up too early. The plane might be broken and needing maintenance; the actual cargo may not be loaded yet, or ready to load. Diplomatic clearances for over flight of some country may not be worked out yet. Any myriad of things can delay you from taking off, so you sit and wait and supposedly "rest." Truth be known, you are always ready to fly when they tell you to expect it, and any delay just degrades that. They do have rules though, they can't let you wait indefinitely. After six hours they have to let you
go. But 5-1/2 hours is a long wait if you still have a 16 hour day ahead of you, once you get the call.

Once we show at the squadron, we go get an Intelligence briefing. It lets us know about the general situation, anything going on we should know about, any specific threats that have been identified. They also tell us where we're going for the day (Always a good thing to know).

Next the Tactics guys give us a brief, then we all sanitize (take off all our patches and identifying papers), and the back-enders head to the airplane to load the cargo. The pilots and Nav stay to study the mission, come up with a game plan for getting to and from our various destinations, file paperwork, get the Ops Officer's blessing, and then head to the plane via the in-flight kitchen, where we pick up water and meals for the crew.

At the airplane we have a quick crew briefing, establish some roles and responsibilities, get an update on the maintenance status of the airplane and how the loading is going, then we all hop in the seats and start up. As you can see, it's a rather long, detailed and deliberate process, but one that over the years seems to have evolved into a safe, but successful routine.

By the time you lift off, all the hard work is pretty much done. Preparation is the key. Developing the plan, rehearsing it, and then executing it. If you've done your training right, the execution goes like clockwork and things are pretty uneventful. That's petty much how things went this evening.

Our first stop was Kirkuk, up in the northern end of Iraq, and area rich in oil and controlled supposedly by the Kurds. Oil production must be on the increase because the airport is surrounded by bright oil refinery fires, making the night sky almost as bright as daylight.

We off-loaded some passengers, uploaded about 14 more, and took off again for Mosul. Actually had a hard time finding the place, even though we'd been there before. They had the airport lights way down, and it was really difficult to pick out from the surrounding city. We taxied in, keeping our engines running this time and did a quick upload of people and a pallet of bags, then took off again, this time headed to Baghdad.

Baghdad looked the same as it ever did. Big two runway operation just to the west of downtown. Bright lights everywhere; not my favorite place to go into because of all the lights. Still a lot of baddies out there, so I prefer to sneak in and out, not be seen for miles and miles in a big slow, lumbering transport. What can you do?

The landing was uneventful, and we taxied to the main ramp. The last time I was here it was busy place with lots of transports and helicopters moving constantly. This time we were just about the only ones there, and our passengers had to wait about half an hour before someone came to pick them up. Meanwhile, we uploaded fuel for the ride home, and about 20 passengers.

The final take-off was uneventful and after we got up to altitude, itwas just a long smooth ride home on a cloudless, moon-lit night. We landed at around 6: 15 am, down loaded our passengers and cargo, and turned the plane over to maintenance. I got back in my room about 7:30, and a quick couple of hours of sleep before my night shift started at 4. All in all, a productive night out of the office. Hopefully I'll get a couple more in before we head home.

Water

You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky.

- Amelia Earhart

Boy, do you take access to water for granted back home. Not so here. Here you are in a constant state of procurement of water. Two reasons.

1. It’s HOT. Damn hot. Unbelievably hot! At night when the temps fall because the sun has been down for 5 hours it finally gets down to the range of hot that I remember from living in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Daylight is like living in a hair dryer on full: wind blowing 5 -10 miles an hour with the sun beating down and the the moisture being sucked right out of your body. The flies are horrid because they seek moisture and head straight for your eyes, ears and nose. Man, is that annoying!!!



B. There is no potable water on this part of the base. Seriously, there is no drinkable water available unless it is trucked in in plastic bottles. We have running water, and shower and latrine facilities, and the dining hall seems to have water for food preparation, but none of the available water is fit to drink. Here’s an excerpt from the base paper:

“Tap water throughout CC, OPSTOWN and the CAOC is NOT POTABLE, in other words, it is NOT suitable for drinking. While you are in CC, OPSTOWN or the CAOC please remember the following:

The water from the sink faucets can be used to wash your hands and face.
You should drink only bottled water and use only bottled water to rinse your mouth and brush your teeth.
The water used for the showers is intended for bathing use only. Do not rinse your mouth or brush your teeth while taking a shower. Combat shower rule (3 minute max!) still applies.”

This I gonna kill my friend Miranda: So we have about a zillion bottles of water being brought in each day. They set them up by the pallet in storage stations located all around our residential compound, and you can just walk up, grab a case and take it back to your room. Of course with that is a huge disposal problem with all that plastic. I have no idea where they dispose of all those bottles, but they do. We toss them in the trash, and they eventually disappear. I suspect there is a big hole in the middle of the desert where they dump these things. Kind of ironic, don’t you think? We pull the oil out of the desert, turn it into plastic, pour water into, ship it back to the desert, drink the water and then dump the plastic back into the ground for next couple zillion years….

Here’s an interesting tidbit: We have all this free water laying around, yet you go in the base exchange (i.e. store) and you can actually BUY it…??? Same stuff! Not sure what is up with that, but knowing how much people will pay for bottled water, I guess someone figures people’ll pay for it even when it’s freely available all around them!

Oh did you notice the item above about the 3 minute combat shower? Yep, in an effort to save the non-potable water, they instituted the “combat shower” (My kids didn’t believe me when I started pontificating on the merits of this concept after I got my first water bill after my last deployment!). It basically goes like this: You get in the shower and turn on the water. You have 1 minute to get wet all over. You turn the water off. Apply shampoo and soap all over your body and lather up. When completely sudsed up from head to toe (one eye closed because soap is seeping down from your hair…), turn on the shower (hopefully you remember the correct position of the handles…); you now have two minutes to rinse off. STOP!!! Turn off shower and dry.

Try it sometime. It works, I swear! Of course I don’t think everyone really follows that here, but it’s the idea that helps save some water. I will say it sure isn’t as relaxing or invigorating (depending on the time of day) as a nice 10-15 min (or 30 minute – kids!) shower we’re used to at home.

The Daily Grind

To put your life in danger from time to time... breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities.

- Nevil Shute, 'Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer'.

Someone asked me what I do on a daily basis. Good question. Why am I here? (hopefully I can justify that in the next couple paragraphs, after all, you the taxpayer are bearing the expense! And I thank you!)

On a TYPICAL day, I get up about 2 pm, hit the shower and grab my stuff heading out for work about 3. The guy on the night shift leaves me the keys to a small white pick-up in a basket in our common room. I throw on the shades, open the front door and am immediately assaulted by a stifling heat and the brightest sun I’ve every experienced! I drive over to OPS town (named cleverly after the flight operations that take place there… I’ll bet you wouldn’t be surprised to find it is located next to the base’s runway!)

I’ll spend the next 10 hours or so as the Assistant Operations Officer for a squadron of C-130s that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year moving cargo and people all over the middle east. You name it, we haul it, anywhere a medium sized airplane can land and take off. I’m an assistant because we are only here 30-something days of flying, and some poor Active Duty guy got stuck with being the full-time Ops Officer on a 4 month tour, which will look great on his progress report and get him promoted faster (The guy who is the squadron commander is here for a year, I think, though I am too polite to ask, for fear of rubbing in my touch and go).

The Ops Officer’s job is to be in charge of flying operations, up close and personal. You monitor the crews, discuss issues which could cause problems, check on the weather, and give them a final blessing as they step out to the door to the jet. You monitor their progress over the radios as they load their cargo, taxi and take-off, responding if there are problems, especially maintenance issues. Once they are airborne, you can see their progress via computer as they take off and land at various locations and the stations log their times in an Air Force Command & Control computer program we access.

If they break somewhere, we figure out how to “rescue” them. If they get sick we find replacements. We also act as the go-between for the Operations Group Commander, keeping him/her informed of how things are going; getting waivers (permission) for flying more than normally allowed if the crews get delayed somewhere for maintenance issues or airfield attacks (it happens). The ultimate goal is to get the mission accomplished and get the planes back here if at all possible so they can go out again as soon as they are refueled and reloaded. It’s a never ending cycle, and every day brings a completely different set of circumstances to deal with. Add inspections, regulations and normal office politics (yes, even the military has it!), you get a very fast-paced, intense and dynamic job that never EVER gets boring.

On occasion I’ll get to fly either as a replacement for another Navigator (if he gets sick or wants a break); or just go along for an over-the-shoulder or orientation ride to keep current. Last night I flew up to Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk. It was a great night; clear skies most of the way, a full moon and calm winds. We moved people all around Iraq, eventually returning with 50+ people, all on their way home.

At the end of my daily shift I’ll get off around 1 am, and ride the shuttle bus back to the residence compound where a couple thousand US and coalition personnel make their home. Most nights I’ll change into the required PT gear (the only thing you are allowed to wear if you are not in the work uniform) and either go to the activity center for a beer (we’re allowed 3 a day here!) or go straight out onto the perimeter road that circumnavigates the living area. It’s a 1.7 mile road that I typically walk 4 times.

By the time I’m done with that, it’s 3:30 or 4 am, so I head back to the barracks, watch an hour or so of “The West Wing” (Kara got me the complete 7 seasons on her stop in Thailand..) grab a shower and hit the sack. Then it’s Ground Hog’s day all over again…

Happy Birthday Dad!

Friday, July 18th

Happy Birthday Dad! Sorry I missed another one. But this one at least I had a good excuse. Susan sent an e-mail saying YOUR e-mail was down, so I'll have to give you a call to see how things are. Hope you had a good day and the girls made you some fun paintings.

We've been here nearly a week, flying since Tuesday, and by now I'm pretty acclimated to both the heat and time change. They say it takes a day for every time zone change you go through. We are seven hours ahead, so that seems about right. Guys are now showing up to fly fairly clear-eyed and focused. Our crews anyway. The guys who have been here a month already seem a bit tired. Hopefully with our arrival and the extra crew we brought along, we'll provide some extra breathing room.

The flying here is fast-paced and non-stop. We provide airlift support for three theaters, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa; if you look on a map you can see we cover a lot of territory. The war may be
using a lot of resources, but they are not over stocked or overstaffed on the tactical airlift side. The idea is to constantly keep the planes flying. The planes sometime have other ideas and our maintenance folks are working incredibly long hours trying to turn airplanes to keep up with the demand.

The biggest demand for our services is moving people and cargo around the country of Iraq. If you've followed the war at all, you know that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) or buried roadsides bombs, are the biggest cause of casualties in Iraq, and have been for the last 4 or 5
years. When we first came over back in 2003, we were mostly moving soldiers in and out of country as part of a changeover between the Army and Marines, and did it quickly and safely. It finally dawned on someone that we could use that same process to move everyday men and materiel needs, taking convoys off the roads. So that's what we do: move stuff so that our people don't have to drive on the roads. Someone figured out that 40 people equal a bus, and 8 tons equals a truck worth of stuff, and that is how we gauge our success: how many buses and trucks are we taking out of danger. We don't have many planes, but in a given week, we probably remove an entire convoy from the line of fire, plus move Distinguished Visitors around to tour the battlefield and get to all their meetings.

Pictures from the Trip Over

Saying Goodbye at Pittsburgh












Newfoundland













St. John's From the Hotel













Sentinel Hill













Lunch!













England













Clouds

Made It At Last

Saturday, 12 July 2008

We’re in the Middle East! As we flew east and south out of Turkey, the mountains and clouds gave way to hazy desert sand. The sky became thick with summer dust, and you could see what I remember as farmers fields covered with wind-blown dunes. The Tigris and Euphrates wind their way south through Iraq eventually ending up in the Persian Gulf, and we followed their courses through the country, past Baghdad and Basra to our destination.

We were actually in a bit of a race with our sister ship. We took off about 5 minutes ahead of them, but we were both filed over the same route. Being that close prevents us from being at the same altitude, so we were spaced 2,000 feet apart. We climbed as high as we could so both of us would be safe from any wayward missiles that might be directed our way, but that put us above our most efficient performance altitude, so we really slugged along, allowing our partner to eventually pass us and catch us. For several hundred miles we were stacked one above the other, and we were able to get quite a few good pictures of each other.

Upon landing, we were hit by the heat! After engine shut-down, we opened the crew doors and the heat and humidity hit us full in the face. It was 6 o’clock and over 100 degrees! The bus issue raised its head again. Another hour wait sweltering on the ramp while they tracked down some transportation. Amazing that you have these problems with all the advance notice we provide.

Our next stop was in-processing (remember the out-processing at home?) and then customs inspection by the local police. They scanned our bags and cargo and inspected anything that looked suspicious. I baffled them completely when they came to the dehumidifier I lugged along. I’m sure they were convinced it was some beer making machine or something with all it’s coils and electronics, but I eventually convinced them it was for taking water out of the air, NOT for distilling… of course the sideshow staged by the contractor getting nabbed for trying to sneak porn into the country provided enough distraction to eventually give me the A-0K.

As the Assistant Director of C-130 Flight Operations, I am in a pseudo-leadership position and actually rate a pretty decent room. The guy I will be working for met me as I exited the Customs shed, tossed my gear in his pick-up and drove me to my room in the “High-rent” district. The best part of the room is the bathroom I share with my nextdoor neighbor! I get a bathroom!!! As a crew dog, the bathrooms are a couple minutes walk away… outside in a trailer… in a bed of pea-gravel you usually have to navigate half-asleep in flip-flops or Tevas…. Not easy when your bladder decides it needs relief from the water you’ve been drinking all day.

The final event of the day was heading over to the BRA, the big activity tent where people hang out when their not working. Unlike other places in the theater, on this base we are allowed 3 alcoholic drinks a day, which they track like hawks through the use of a “Beer Card,” and machines to scan your ID. I met up with some of the guys from the ‘burgh and we shared our first beers back in the combat zone, talked about the changes, and mostly about how much hadn’t changed since our last deployments here 2-1/2 years ago.

Turkish Logistics

Friday, 11 July, 2008

Flew to Turkey today. With any large movement of people and assets, getting there is half the battle. The devil is in the details, and it is the coordination of all the little things that makes the trip eventful or not.

We had an issue this morning over the number of boxed lunches. The flight today was 6 hours, so we usually pick up lunches on base for the trip. Normally the crew calls in lunches for the actually flying crew, and the passengers are taken care of by the Passenger Terminal. Sometimes. Sometimes they aren’t, and so it gets confusing. Apparently today things were supposed to work by the book, yet we ordered lunches for everyone and suddenly we had about 30 too many lunches and a very unhappy Transient Support office. I think we just paid them the extra money, took their lunches and left as soon as we could!

It was interesting taking off out of an English airfield, climbing through the clouds, and then flying across the English Channel into Holland. I imagine it was much the same route, altitude and speed that thousands upon thousands of WWII fighters, bombers and transports did back in 1942 - 1945. It was glorious day, and we were in and out of clouds so you could see for miles across the English countryside. The villages are still small and isolated with farmland for as far as you can see. Later on we saw the multitude of ships dotting the Channel probably looking exactly the same as it did 50+ years ago.

For the first time in my life, I flew over East Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. Back in the years of the Cold War there was no way an American Air Force plane would even think about flying through this part of Europe except in times of conflict, and now it’s an everyday thing. Amazing how things change over the course of a career.

Flying over Turkey was interesting… it is a very mountainous country (at least the way we flew) and not much civilization. We didn’t see the airfield we were flying into until the very last minute, even though it was supposedly by a large city… Not sure if it was the haze or what, you just couldn’t see many city lights, even after the sun went down.

Once again we encountered a failure of logistics. Got there just as their bus drivers all went home. We waited almost and hour and a half on the ramp waiting for a ride to the base hotel we were staying at. Of course that meant we arrived after all the on base food establishments, save the bowling alley, were closed, and that only lasted about an hour. Some things never change.. unfortunately over the course of my career, the support aspect of the Air Force has taken a tremendous nose dive. We do more with less and less every day, and you see it in the erosion of support programs at every military base in the country. We buy great weapons, but you have to get that money from somewhere…

One in the Hand...

Today was the big overwater leg. Flew from St. Johns, Newfoundland in Canada, to an Air Force base in England. Due to airspace restrictions over Ireland, we had to fly all the way to the north tip of Scotland, then pretty much straight south to landing in the southern UK. The weather was great but with only a little of the tailwind we were hoping for. All told it took 7 ½ hours to cross the Atlantic, about a 1/3 longer than a jet, but a blink of an eye compared to our forefathers who could ONLY cross this expanse via ship using nothing but wind-power and faith.

One of the big surprises was how warm it was in England. The temperature on landing was 20 C, or about 68. We were in short sleeves all evening, only needing something warmer after the sun went down as we were walking back to the rooms after dinner.

Dinner was in a "famous" little English pub right off base called "The Bird in Hand." Lot’s of good beer and a delicious hard cider called "Strongbow." I had one of those and a Shepard’s Pie. A buddy made the mistake of ordering something advertised as "Nachos" but mostly it was NACHO Mexican in any stretch of the imagination.

Gentlemen, Start your engines!

We’re off! The big day finally arrived, and we are on our way east! I was naturally nervous about leaving "that one thing" behind, but I think I did a pretty good job of planning and packing. Of course it doesn't matter now...!! 

Laura drove me into the squadron, and after checking in, dropping off some final bags, we brunched over at Brugger’s bagels before we said our goodbyes. 

 Getting out of town went really smoothly AFTER I desperately ran down to the clinic to get a last minute "pre-deployment blood draw" to ensure I STILL did not have HIV. (Seems like no matter how many times you ask if there is anything else to do… there is always one more someone has suddenly thought up.) 

 The flight up to St. Johns was a smooth 5 hour drive along the coast. Landed in balmy 83 degree weather and parked at the local FBO (Fixed Base Operator) who must love all the C-130s moving back and forth across the world, stopping in and buying expensive gas and parking spots. St. Johns is a gorgeous place in the summer, and I made sure I took a couple of pictures to remember it. 

 We stayed in the Fairmont Hotel overlooking St. Johns harbor which was only about a 5 minute walk to a multitude of bars and restaurants, which our two plane-loads of Americans quickly filled. Too bad it is so far from home, it would make a great summer vacation spot! (Exactly the opposite in the winter… I’ve been here several times during the fall and winter, and it is pretty desolate!) Tomorrow we head to England!

Last minute details

This is my last day at home. One of the good things the Air Force does is give deployers the day off right before a big deployment. It gives folks a chance to spend time with family, and tidy up any hanging personal affairs, tying up any loose ends. I have a few so it is good to have the time to take care of things.

Some things I had to take care of today included obtaining 90 days of whatever medications I might be taking. Darn hard to get a re-supply of anything but antibiotics at a field hospital. I had to stop by the local tailor shop and pick up my desert flight suits. I had rank being sewn on them. I actually have 4 already, but they were a big snug, and for some reason the desert ones run small anyway, so I obtained a couple a size larger. I feel like I’m swimming in the new ones, but they fire-retardant material is new and with the larger size, when we start sweating over there it won’t be quite so uncomfortable.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I went to pick up the suits, there was no charge! I run into things like all the time. People DO support the troops and find ways to say thank you all the time. It is hard to know how to handle something unexpected like a suddenly paid for lunch, or a 100% discount for a small service, but I do my best to show that we serve because we love what we do, and we are thankful for our neighbors’ support.

Got the buzz-cut haircut. Won’t need much hair out in the desert. A short cut will make maintenance easy and probably keep things a bit cooler. I don’t want to get a buzz just because of the Active Duty thing, but I do see the benefit in upkeep. My hairline is retreating anyway, so I should probably get used to a close crop anyway. I’m not one who plans on doing the comb-over, so when the time comes (and it’s rapidly approaching), it’s pretty much going to be permanently short.

I tried to take care of some bill paying, but came up short on that. You would think with today’s technology you could automate your bills… however that’s not always the case. Some services don’t permit budget payments… so you have to wait till you get the bill that month. For a couple of those I just averaged out what I have paid over the last several months-year and then scheduled payments. I’ll probably overpay, but if I don’t I figure getting the vast majority of their fees will keep the creditors at bay until I get back and make up whatever is left.

Finally, I had to pick up some glasses. I’ve put off getting my prescription reevaluated since before the last time I was overseas, so I was definitely due. Unfortunately, age has taken yet another toll, and I’m on the cusp of needing bi-focals…I declined getting them this time since it is still not a problem when I read, but I do feel the battle of adjustment when I look at something with fine print. Another impetus to get my glasses replaced was the need for sunglasses. I purchased a pair with snap-on shades. I’ll get lots of use out of them where I’m going….the trick will be keeping them from getting scratched with all the sand.

Last night we had a good bye dinner at Pat and Stew's... London Broil an 'at, and Patti adding in some Greek gourmet items to make it a really festive occassion. Quite a send-off. Sorry, still doesn't make leaving for a month and a half attractive, but does make me want to get back home as soon as possible. Tomorrow we hit the road and head east. It will be challenging, but is something I believe is worth doing.

Care packages

People often ask what are good things to send in a care package to the troops overseas. I am only going to be gone six weeks, so with the short deployment and the time it takes to get mail overseas, I will not need much of anything; however based on past experiences and conversations with guys we moved around the desert, a few things stand out as welcome items:

- Letters.

Even addressed to "Any Soldier," they are probably the be-all and end-all of things to receive when you are away from home. Some of the best were from school kids who thanked me for giving my life for their many freedoms! (I thought that might be a bit premature, but I appreciated the sentiment a lot!)

- pictures

- greeting cards

- post cards

- Gum
- Candy

If you can figure out a loved one's favorite and have it show up a couple of weeks since he/she last even thought of it, it will really brighten their whole week!

- Girl Scout Cookies!!!

- Chap stick
- sunscreen
- bug spray
- baby wipes

As dusty as you may think it is over there, it is always way worse. Occasionally waterlines break in even the most civilized locations (i.e. Air Force bases) and after a few hours without water, everyone is feeling pretty ugly!

- magazines

Just keep the Maxims, playboys, playgirls, fitness and muscle mags at home. The Islamic fundamentalists inspect everything coming into the country and will confiscate it (maybe even keep it for themselves [?]), then harass the receiver as if they asked for it to be sent to them. Same goes for alcohol. It is appreciated, but definitely on the NO-GO checklist.

- books
- CDs with music, pictures, videos, books on tape, etc.
- AA and AAA batteries.

They power everything. Folks live off their iPods, walkmans, mp3 players, flashlights, alarm clocks, etc.

- comic books

- baby powder, baby oil

- foot / boot powder

Places to send your care packages or donations:

- USO.org

- treatsfortroops.com

- Operationcarepackages.org

- KeystoneSoldiers.org

- LettersFromHome.org

D - 2

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

Today was our last day of work. We showed up, dropped off our bags to be palletized, loaded our flying gear on the airplane and then gathered for some last minute review and training classes.

There are some interesting requirements that suddenly appear when you get notified you are deploying. Some make sense, some don't. Once we found out we were heading overseas, all of a sudden we were told we had to review our computer "awareness" and anti-terrorism training. We DIDN'T have to review anything on firearms, even though we probably haven't qualified on a weapon for a year or more. Computer "awareness" is obviously more important!

The other tasks I had to deal with was out-processing from my civilian job. Even though my military and civilian jobs are exactly the same and overlap, the civilian side has to pretend that they are separate to keep "the books" straight. Though the civilian job keeps me flying in the Reserve unit, and I am highly encouraged to volunteer to deploy, they won't give me any civilian pay to go do what they want me to. So I have to take leave without pay, ensure I am on military orders, dump my health insurance (I could keep paying the premiums if I wanted...) and file time cards showing that I'm off their books. Once I come back i will have to ask to buy back the time I'm away for retirement purposes, as well as pay to get 401k contributions I'll miss by not being paid. I think the issue is that the civilian side doesn't want to be responsible for any long-term injuries should something occur, even though we all work for the same boss. Funny, isn't it?

Losing my civilian health insurance meant I had to ensure I had military health insurance. You would think that getting a set of orders for the requisite period of time would automatically start the health insurance, but it doesn't. I had to go off-base to the local Tri-Care office, and sign up for it. Then I had to go back on base and get paperwork to enable my family to get their ID cards updated after I'm gone (they have to be there in person to get their cards) so they can obtain medical care. But it all worked out and was accomplished over the course of the day with several back and forth trips, and it was with a definite sigh of relief when I finally realized that I was basically done and could head home for the day. Next time I show up, I'll be in tan and heading for an airplane departing for overseas.

New day, new adventures!

I am about to deploy to the middle east for the fifth time in 15 years. My daughter, a veteran world traveler after spending the fall semester of 2007 sailing around the world as part of "Semester At Sea," decided I should set up a blog to catalogue my exploits. Interestingly enough she suggested this the day I am packing, running around the house like crazy trying to find everything stashed the last three years after my last trip to the desert. It is a hectic time but one filled with anticipation. The fact that this deployment takes place immediately following the 4th of July (and our local community day, which I am heavily involved with), AND my wedding anniversary on the 5th... just goes to make things a bit more frantic in feeling like I'm up to speed on things.

The idea that we are going at the very hottest part of the year is NOT one one of the things I am looking forward to! The good thing is I really don't have to worry about snow or rain or cold weather issues. Shorts and T-shirts should do just fine, with a windbreaker for the ride home on the rotator if we go in civilian clothes. Other than that, just a couple of pairs of pants and polo shirts for the ride over. Oh yeah, ... and the dehumidifier. I hear it's NOT a dry heat this time of year. 

Tomorrow I drop my bags off at the unit to be palletized and then get some last minute pre-deployment training and paperwork done. We are activated for more than 30 days, so we are back under Tri-Care health insurance and though you would think that enrollment would be automatic, of course it isn't; and is yet one more detail I have to scramble to take care of. 

Some of the other details I need to take care of is making sure that bills are set to be paid, especially the one or two that aren't typically automated, and the beginning of the year College bills for the the girls. Heaven forbid if the schools don't get their ransom on time. Luckily this deployment is only about six weeks, so things can't get too out of hand before I get back. It SHOULD be before school starts, or right as it starts, and I should be able to be involved in all those activities that make the beginning of fall such an exciting time in our family.