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.