Moving

Last few days have been pretty busy; two nights ago we thought our FOB might be getting attacked so I ended up flying around the FOB for like 6 hours. While we were providing FOB security we noticed that on the south eastern side of our runway our ground security force was launching a ton of 40mm illume rounds. Not that it’s a big deal for us they cannot be shot too high but it was more about was something going on in that location that we were not seeing. I mean after all this was where the Taliban tried to assault the FOB on their last failed attempt, and we all know how that attack turned out for them. So we work our sensors all over that area and we see nothing so we write it off as some kind of unplanned training event. So back to our mission to keep the FOB secure and that is just what we did for about another two hours till the Pistols launched and did a BHO “battle handover” with us. We reported to them that we were experiencing a bunch of NSTR “nothing significant to report” and that we would be glad to call it a night. So we land our two Apache’s and we head to the CP “control post” and we start our debriefs and what not and then we see on the TV Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera reporting live from Afghanistan on FOB Salerno talking about FOB security. What a small world I did not even know he was on our FOB and let alone he was patrolling with our ground security guys, good for him.

So a couple of days later and I am packing up my room getting it ready for the new guys that are here and I have to move to a new room for the last weeks that I am here in Afghanistan. No complaints out of me that means that I am one step closer to going to the house. I am probably looking at about 5 to 6 more flights in this country and then a couple of big jet flights and I will be at the house with Marie and the Kids. It has been a long year and I am ready to go home but I do understand that I have 5 to 6 more flights out there in bad guy country and I need to keep my game face on till I am done and I am heading home. The 10^th Mountain guys are ready to take the fight to the bad guys and I hope that they have as good of a year as we did here with Task Force Viper. I feel that we made a huge difference in our area of operation and that the changes we made will make a difference for many years to come.

I will have IO Global Internet in my new digs so I hope to be able to have time to make a few more post before I get on the big plane to get out of here. It’s a lot slower but I will be able to make it work. I almost got to take an aircraft back to FOB Shank the other day I was trying to switch out with another pilot so I could go and try to catch up with Barry before I get out of here. I hope that his tour goes as quickly as mine did and that he has no serious issues. His area is about the same as mine except for the living conditions are not as nice. And it gets a lot colder over there he is sitting at about 7000 feet MSL and I am at 3800 here. My coldest winter day required me to wear a sweatshirt and his will require some serious cold weather gear, hate it for him. He also started a Blog and I am looking forward to following his adventures I hope that he has a good year.

I turned in a leave form for 6 Dec 2010 till 7 Jan 2011 I am looking forward to some time off. I have not had that much time off in I don’t know how long but I am so looking forward to it one month with nothing to do but spend time with my family. When Marie and the kids get out of school for X-Mas we will have to see what the plans are but I think we are hoping to go home for a visit. Not totally sure what the timeline will be yet but I am sure we will get it worked out soon. I will be the only one not going to school when I get home it will be strange for a bit, Marie is doing most of her classes in the evenings right now and it will be nice to spend quality time with the kids when I get home. I will hopefully get some down days where we can spend some time at home before she goes to school and then meet my girls at the bus stop; I always liked to do that. Well at least for Elli I think Shirley would be a little mortified if I showed up when her buss arrived. Needless to say I can’t wait to be a Dad again and I can’t wait to be a Husband too. Well guys that’s about all that I have on my mind for now I think I will get back to packing my stuff so I can move tomorrow before I go to fly, till next time, night all

18 days left

Help has arrived, we are going through our RIP process and the light is getting bright. I have friends from 10^th Mountain and it is good to see them. I only wish that Barry could have come to my FOB but instead he will be going to FOB Shank. I am on the flight schedule fewer days each week and that doesn’t hurt my feelings one bit. I flew last night and we took fire from a ridgeline near Zerok it was right at dusk and hard to see the bad guys. They are getting pretty good at not moving once we are on station and they only shoot after we pass their position. So we had a position and we set up for race track patterns on their known location and we shot just about everything we had on that ridgeline. The shooting stopped and we went back to the house. This time of the year the fighting comes to a screeching halt it just get to cold up in the mountains for them. Most of them go back to Pakistan and bed down there for the winter. And this will give our replacements the time they need to perfect their flying in the mountains and their procedures for doing business.

I will be getting on a C-130 in just 18 days to go back to my life and for that I am so thankful but this place I will never forget. I will remember the people I met, things I have seen and most importantly things that I have done over here to try to make a difference. I will look back at this tour as an event that truly changed my life for the better. I don’t really expect many to understand what I am talking about but I feel that I have grown so much in this short year and I needed it so much and it truly will affect the rest of my life.

As for life in Savannah, wow what can I say it is going to be awesome I am looking so forward to everything that Marie and I and the Kids are going to experience in the future. Family is so important and we must all remember that whatever happens to us we can always count on our family to pull us through. I am not sure when our Internet will be cut off but I will try to keep everyone posted on me getting out of here somehow. Night all

10th CAB in the House

Wow what a day, reality has finally set in, help has arrived. Tenth CAB is here to replace us and I am sure glad to see them. Today we gave them their academics and tomorrow they start flying. They will not be turned loose to go out and do great and wonderful things for God and Country for week or so but it is nice to have them here on the ground with us. They are not all here yet it is a process that takes a few weeks, it’s a phased event some of our guys leave and some of their guys arrive. I leave on main body 7 which is leaving Afghanistan on the 7^th of November. After I leave their will only be a handful of 3^rd CAB Soldiers in country. It has been a long year and we have done a great deal over here in that year and I am proud to have been a part of it all. I feel that this tour has helped me in so many ways that I may never truly know the full effects of everything that has happened to me over here. I have seen so many things that I will never forget and some of those things have had a significant impact on my life but I know that I am a much better person because of it all. I truly see more and feel more and I definitely want to experience more. And I can’t wait to get home to start a new chapter in my never ending life with Marie and our three kids. I am not sure how much longer I will have Internet but I will try to keep my Blog going even after the Internet is disassembled and packed for shipping back to the states. I put my first three boxes on one of our conexes today and my room is starting to look a little less lived in and I like it. I am on the flight schedule tomorrow and it’s after 2300 so I need to post this so I can try to Catch Marie on Facebook till next time, night all

Long Day

Well the day started out like any other day, but it just kept going and going and going. On a positive note my good friend Barry has arrived safe and sound at FOB Shank and I am sure he will do great and wonderful things over here as well. I hope his tour passes as quickly as mine did for me. Tomorrow will be the first day of academics for the new group of Aviators that we just got and I am glad they are here. I flew six and a half hours today or should I say to night and we did every mission under the sun or should I say moon. from escort to TIC to deliberate hasty infill. Need less to say it was a very busy day and I am glad it is over. I was hoping to catch my true love on the computer tonight before I go to bed but I am sure she is busy school all ready. I will have to catch up with her tomorrow. I am down to 24 days and a wake up before I get on a plane and get the heck out of here, and I can't wait. I am off tomorrow except for teaching a class or two and loading my action packer and a couple of bags in a container so I will try to get on tomorrow and post a bit more but till then, Night all

Back at Salerno

I am back at Sal and things are going pretty good, we have a lot to get done in these last few weeks. The new Unit is starting to show up and there is a lot of training to get done to get these guys ready to take the fight. I was gone for just over a week and in that time I missed out on a lot of packing and loading opportunities. I have a lot to catch up on and a lot to do as far as packing is concerned. I will me mailing a lot of my things home to try to cut down on space in our containers. We have space but it is limited and we have all acquired many things since we have been in Country. I have many things that I am hoping to sell to some of the guys that are coming to replace us I think it will be the easiest way to lighten my load. I figure 50 cents on the dollar and I should be able to get rid of my things pretty quickly. like my refrigerator and one of my TV's some containers and a few other things that made my stay here just a little more comfortable. well I am not sure how much longer we will have Internet so I will try to post as much as I can in these next few days to explain all of the hows and whats of what we are going through. Till then just let me say that I am ready to get home to Marie and the kids and I am still glad that I was a part of OEF TEN Task Force Viper, night all

Linda Norgrove

Well this article was posted on Yahoo News shortly after the attempt that was made to rescue her. I was sent up to Jalalabad as the AMC of two aircraft to help in the search for this woman and sadly to no avail. I and three other pilots were in Jbad for a little over a week we took two of our Longbows and we tried to help another one of our Task Forces locate and rescue this woman for about a week. I was sad that we could not help her. We are fighting people with no hope for a better life and they are desperate in so many ways and have nothing to live for. An Enemy that feels they will be rewarded with 72 virgins for killing an American is a hard enemy to beat. I truly wish we could have done more, I wish that we could have saved this woman and made a difference in this one life, but we couldn’t and makes you think about what war is all about. And I hate it, I hate the fact that no matter what we do it never seems to be enough, and I don’t know if it will ever be.

Yahoo News Article

KABUL: Questions have been raised over the failed attempt by US special forces to free a British aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan.

Linda Norgrove was killed on Friday night when one of her captors set off a suicide vest as NATO troops arrived by helicopter to rescue her.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Foreign Secretary, William Hague, defended the operation to rescue Ms Norgrove, saying it was ''her best chance of safe release''.

However, the Telegraph learnt that local Afghan leaders wanted to negotiate with Ms Norgrove's kidnappers to win her freedom but that they were overruled by NATO commanders who feared she was about to be smuggled to Pakistan and handed to al-Qaeda militants.

Ms Norgrove, 36, from Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, had been in Afghanistan since 2005. She was going to a ceremony to open a 24-kilometre irrigation canal at Salar when she was abducted on September 26 with three Afghan colleagues.

The rescue operation began on Friday night after special forces pinpointed her location in mountains close to the Pakistan border. They were within moments of reaching her when she was killed.

Troops who battled through small arms fire to reach the compound where she was being held found her dying on the ground. Medical treatment failed to save her. Six of the kidnap gang are thought to have been killed in the fighting.

In the days after her kidnap in the Kunar province of north-east Afghanistan, a split developed between NATO and local police chiefs over the best strategy to adopt. NATO commanders decided that any attempt to negotiate her release would take too long. They feared she would be taken to Pakistan where al-Qaeda sympathisers would almost certainly kill her.

It is hard to be sure who might have kidnapped her. Most of the fighters in the province are loyal to Hizb-I-Islami, a group of extreme Islamists led by the veteran warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has changed allegiance repeatedly over the years.

Ms Norgrove, an experienced aid worker for the US agency Development Alternatives Inc, was wearing a burqa when the two-car convoy she was in was attacked. Security guards chased the kidnappers, who escaped with Ms Norgrove and three of her Afghan colleagues.

Locals said the scene of the attack, close to a police checkpoint on the road between Jalalabad to Asadabad, was perfect for an ambush.

A farmer said he saw Ms Norgrove being led into the hills after she was seized by between six and eight armed men.

Her Afghan colleagues were released on October 3. One said they were freed through the help of elders.

A string of kidnaps in the same province earlier this year had ended peacefully through negotiations. The chief of police in Kunar, Khalilullah Zaiyi, was confident of securing Ms Norgrove's release.

On Saturday night, Afghan government sources said Mr Zaiyi was angered by NATO's decision to send in the forces.

An official said: ''NATO didn't even ask their permission.''

General David Petraeus, the senior NATO and US commander in Afghanistan, said his troops and Afghan forces had done ''everything in their power to rescue Linda''.

JAF

First day at JAF otherwise known as Jalabad, I will be working 14 hour days here for as long as I am here. I will be working seven days a week till I get sent back to Salerno. I understand my mission here I am to help with the coverage for the missing British woman. They have many leads so hopefully I will not be here too long. This place is not as nice as Salerno and I can’t wait to get out of here. On a good note though one of my friends from Ft. Rucker is here, Jim Mullenix. He and I will try to make the best of it and I hope that between the two of us we will be able to make the time pass quickly. Wonderful I just sneezed and now I have a bloody nose so as much as I have to talk about it will just have to wait till next time. I am doing all of these in word and I will post all of them when I get back to my room where I have internet. Till then, night all

Day 2 in J-Bad, I was on the flight schedule but we did not launch. No complaint from me I did not sleep too well last night because of the new guys coming in at all hours of the night. Our B-Hut is full now though so I hope that we will get into a routine and everyone will be more considerate to the sleeping man. The b-hut is a building made from plywood and I do mean every wall and floor and ceiling. Our hut has eight rooms about 6 feet by 7.5 foot. All the interior walls are about 6 foot high and made from plywood as well. I am so spoiled coming from Salerno with my nice room in a concrete building with all of my happy gear like my TV and my big computer not to mention my bed with sheets and big pillows. I am sleeping on a cot here under a sleeping bag liner. Thank goodness I am on days because even in October it is hot in these b-huts. Jim told me that during the summer they would never get below 90 degrees and that was with three additional air conditioners that they had to purchase. I remember when I was in Kosovo we would all be up around 0700 or so because we were living in tents and by 0700 it was already 90 plus and you just couldn’t sleep. Oh well speaking of sleep I have a 0445 show tomorrow so I need to cut this one short as well. Still no good Intel on the British woman but we are all still hoping for the best, night all

Cutting off our supplies

Wow what can I say I have been extremely busy with all that has been going on over here? For those of you that have not heard we have had a little misfortune on our Task Force in the news lately. We are in the middle of a great big investigation and there is little that I can say or talk about on here but I will post some news that I got off the web I am safe to do that so here goes.

Yahoo News had this to say

Pakistan on Thursday blocked a key NATO supply line into Afghanistan after accusing US-led forces of mistakenly killing three Pakistani paramilitary border troops in a helicopter raid hours earlier.

The events are testing the already fragile US-Pakistan alliance against Al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban militants holed up in remote, rugged mountain terrain in northwestern Pakistan tribal areas.

They come also as details continue to emerge of an alleged large-scale terror plot against targets in Europe hatched by Pakistani-based militants that was reportedly disrupted in its early stages by Western intelligence and air strikes in Pakistan. Some reports said the US and NATO's stepped-up air attacks were aimed at the plot's planners.

The Associated Press reported that NATO has launched a probe into the alleged killing of the three border guards that Pakistani officials said took place at a checkpoint on the Pakistani side of the border in the Upper Kurram region Thursday (see map). Pakistan has lodged complaints.

"We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies," Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said of the border incident, without mentioning the blockade. ...

Over the weekend, NATO helicopters fired on targets in Pakistan at least two times, killing several suspected insurgents they had pursued over the border from Afghanistan. Pakistan's government protested the attacks, which came in a month during which there have been an unprecedented number of US drone missile strikes in the northwest, inflaming already pervasive anti-American sentiment among Pakistanis.

Two Pakistani government officials said that shortly after the alleged incident, Pakistan moved to block the Torkham border post at the edge of the Khyber tribal region, according to AP. Pakistan reportedly closed the same passage briefly in September 2008 after a US special forces raid into Pakistani tribal areas, according to the Congressional Research Service (pdf). The New York Times calls it "the most important border crossing for trucks supplying NATO-led coalition troops in Afghanistan."

On Thursday, the Pakistani daily Dawn reported a fresh round of attack-helicopter strikes by coalition forces against targets in Upper Kurram. Local officials strongly condemned the new strikes as "an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty," Dawn reported.

The Daily Telegraph reported late Wednesday UK time that 15 to 20 British citizens are currently training inside Al Qaeda-run terror camps in Pakistan, citing "Western intelligence sources."

The disclosure comes after the CIA launched drone strikes on Pakistan training camps in North and South Waziristan in an attempt to disrupt an Al Qaeda-plot to launch an attack targeting Britain, France, and Germany.

The plans would have seen terrorists sent on to the streets, probably of the capital cities, to shoot random passersby before heading in to landmark buildings. Intelligence sources said that the attacks would have been coordinated for maximum impact and may have been aimed at financial institutions. However, the terror cells had not yet travelled to Europe and the targets were still unclear.

Pakistan has been the recipient of lavish US support. From 2001 to 2008 it received some $5.3 billion in US aid, including $3.1 billion in development and humanitarian aid, making it one of the top recipients of US aid funding, according to the 2009 Congressional Research Service report (pdf) on US-Pakistani relations. Pakistan also received in that time some $6.7 billion in military "reimbursements" from the US for its counter-terror efforts, the report said.

But although Pakistan is a nominal ally in the US-led war on Al Qaeda, anti-American sentiment runs strong among the Pakistani population, and "there exist widely held suspicions among foreign governments and independent analysts alike that Islamabad’s civilian government does not fully control the Army, that the Army does not fully control the intelligence agencies, and that the these intelligence agencies have lost their ability to rein in the very militant groups they helped to create," wrote the report's author, K. Alan Kronstadt.

In June 2008, 11 Pakistani Frontier Corps soldiers were killed in a US bombing raid, according to the report.

Task Force Viper in the news again

All I can say is the hit and run tactics that have been working for them in the past are coming to an END !! The days of coming into Afghanistan attacking and then running back to Pakistan are over. This is the news article that I got off the web and I thought I would post it

ISLAMABAD – NATO helicopters based in Afghanistan carried out at least two airstrikes in Pakistan that killed more than 50 militants after the insurgents attacked a small Afghan security outpost near the border, spokesmen said Monday.

NATO justified the strikes based on "the right of self-defense." Pakistan is sensitive about attacks on its territory, but U.S. officials have said they have an agreement that allows aircraft to cross a few miles into Pakistani airspace if they are in hot pursuit of a target.

The first strike took place Saturday after insurgents based in Pakistan attacked an Afghan outpost in Khost province, which is located right across the border from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, said U.S. Capt. Ryan Donald, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"The ISAF helicopters did cross into Pakistan territory to engage the insurgents," said Donald. "ISAF maintains the right to self-defense, and that's why they crossed the Pakistan border."

The strike killed 49 militants, said U.S. Maj. Michael Johnson, another ISAF spokesman.

The second attack occurred when helicopters returned to the border area and were attacked by insurgents based in Pakistan, said Donald.

"The helicopters returned to the scene and they received direct small arms fire and, once again operating in self-defense, they engaged the insurgents," said Donald.

The strike killed at least four militants, said Johnson.

The tribal area where the strikes took place is largely controlled by militants who regularly carry out attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. rarely uses manned aircraft to carry out strikes in North Waziristan and instead relies on drone attacks that American officials refuse to acknowledge publicly.

Pakistani intelligence officials said two NATO helicopters carried out a third strike inside Pakistani territory on Monday morning, killing five militants and wounding nine others.

The strike occurred in the village of Mata Sanger in the Kurram tribal area, which is directly across the border from the Afghan provinces of Paktia and Nangarhar, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Donald, the NATO spokesman, said officials were still investigating and could not confirm or deny reports of the attack in Kurram.

The Pakistani military could not be reached to comment on the NATO attacks.

I am down to just over 40 days and I know that we still have so much to do but I find myself thinking about what is going on at home and I am getting pretty excited to be part of it all. Marie and the kids are doing well and I am looking forward to getting home just in time for the major holidays. I think we will be planning a trip to Cincinnati this fall I am not sure when but I know that it will have to be at a time when the kids are out of school.

They are telling us that it may be a while before we get aircraft once we get home and as for taking time off I think it will be pretty easy to get some time to reset. I have over 60 days on the books and we are being told that we will get 10 days or so when we get home after all the mandatory reintegration training. Time will tell and I am sure it will all work out I am just looking forward to being at home with my family. I have to get back to the office so I need to cut this short but I will write soon till then, night all

Some Pictures

My Front Seater Jude came to America when he was 15, and is more American than a lot of people I know

Me standing next to my arch enemy the MI-24

Another Front Seater, Alexa and I were waiting for our wingman to get their aircraft fixed, she was trying to stay cool

What can I say it was a cool sunset, alright I may have tweaked it a little

It's been too long

Well the elections are over and we will soon find out how they went for the Afghan People. I hope that the election results are good and the people here can have a little more faith in their country. As for me and my part in this whole process I would just like to say that Task Force Viper has once again made a significant difference in Afghanistan. We reduced the problems experienced during the last election by over 50 percent and for that I feel pretty good. Any loss of life is unfortunate but hurting people for coming out to try and make a difference in how their country is to progress is so disheartening. The Taliban are so ruthless in what they will do to stop the democratic process is breaks my heart. I was glad that we were here to help and I hope that this Country will continue to grow and someday become a place of peace where one could actually come to visit. But for now that is just not possible and as much as most of these people would love for that to be the case it just isn’t so, some day.

So I am starting to pack up some of my stuff and get ready to ship things home, can you say hell yea!! All I know is we have less than eight week to go and now is the time that we all need to stay focused and keep our wits about us. I will be flying less in the next three to four weeks than I have since I have been here but once our replacements get here I will be extremely busy getting them ready to take over on the fight. We have three IP’s here and we will have to get them all up as quick as we can. This will involve local orientations and environmental flights for every aviator. And once these flights are done we will let some of our PIC’s take them out for their FMQ “Fully Mission Qualified” flights. And then it will be time for me and all my friends to sit back and observe and monitor. I will hopefully not be on the flight schedule the last week or so that I am in Country but you never know. It’s hard to believe that this tour is almost over I spent the last week writing my portion of a paper for a Unit Award that is awarded to one Unit a year and we have a great chance of getting it. Time will tell, I was never much for writing especially capturing what went right and glossing over what went wrong but as a Task Force we have done some amazing things and I am pretty proud to be part of all of it. I will never forget any of these people and I will never forget this place, I just hope that when it goes down in the history books we are seen for doing more good than bad.

So life back in the states let’s see, ice cream whenever I want it, everywhere I walk will be on hard surface with plenty of light, no more turning an ankle on the gravel that covers our entire FOB walking around in the dark. I can wear shorts and a T-shirt and not be covered head to toe in uniform. I will be able to go out and eat what I want or I can make what I want it’s not going to be luck of the draw in the chow hall anymore. I look forward to sitting at my desk in my room and having Shirley or Elli bring me a plate of warm cookies and a cold glass of real milk, and this list is so crazy long that I will just stop right here. Life is tough and we have a lot of things that need a little attention in our own Country but we must remember that our Country is the best Country in the world. I find myself tearing up these days every time I hear our national anthem and I know it’s because I finally think I understand what it’s all about. There is not much that I would not do for my Country, but the cool thing is that I truly think that’s how most people feel about our Country and that is just awesome.

I flew 5 hours the other day the night before the elections and we were pretty busy we had two engagements which are what it is all about for us here and I am ok with that. But the thing that made me sad is what they were trying to do. The Taliban were trying to set explosives in and around polling sites to harm innocent people and for the life of me I just can’t understand how someone could be in the mindset that hurting innocent people is ok. During my entire time here in Afghanistan in every engagement I have been involved in. I always had to tell myself that my actions were just and that it was them or me but to go out and place explosives where innocent people will go who are only trying to better their Country through a vote I feel in my heart is inexcusable. Well like I said earlier in this post we made a huge difference in the election and I hope that Afghanistan is the better for it. I am sorry that I have not posted for some time its just been pretty hectic with all that is going on over here. Till next time I post know that I am doing well and that my head continues to swivel from side to side and I refuse to become complacent, night all

September 11 2010

September 11 2010, I was not on the flight schedule today but the schedule was full. We had many extra flights on the schedule for saturation. It is about 1830 and I just got back from our HHC 1-3 cook out it was nice to have a grill out and to unwind a bit. I am also off tomorrow and I plan on doing nothing at all for the entire day, nothing. This day is almost over and I am glad that we have received no attacks there has been much rumor that something bad will happen today and I am glad that it has not been the case.

I am flying nights now and I am having a pretty good time of it, the mission sets are a little slower and as always it’s hard to shoot at what you can’t see in the night. We try to circulate the battlefield as best we can checking in with as many players as we can on a tank of gas. Sometimes when we check in we are asked to look at POO sites and anything else that is out of the ordinary.

Less than 60 days to go and I feel that the time is passing pretty quickly. We will start to see new faces in about 30 days and once we get them trained for the mission here I will find myself on the schedule less and less. Not that I don’t want to fly it’s just that I am ready to change out with the new unit and get back to the house. I look forward to getting back to my life with Marie and the kids, we have so much to look forward to and I can’t wait to get back to it.

I found out today that some of the videos from our FOB attack have been requested from many parties in the states whose names will go unsaid. I also found out today that everyone who was involved in the actions that morning are going to be recognized and awarded for their actions that morning. It is kind of cool that we will be recognized for what we did that morning but it really doesn’t matter to any of us, we all did what we did because we knew we had to for the safety of our FOB. I just remember looking at myself in my mirror the morning of the attack and for whatever reason thinking of the line from the movie Black Hawk Down “It’s what you do right now that makes a difference” so I put on my helmet and charged my M9 and out the door I went and within thirty minutes I was air borne taking care of business. As I read this it sounds pretty silly even to me but that was what went through my mind that morning and I will never forget any of it. 60 more days, and I will be out of here, night all

Back in the Groove

Well it seems as if the time is really starting to pass quickly now that we are in September. Our FOB is back to normal after the Taliban failed attempt to overrun us. We received an e-mail from General Petreaus congratulating us on our swift reaction to the attack on our FOB. I know that the attack that we had will probably be the last real attack on our FOB for some time. I am so glad that no one was seriously hurt and that life is back to normal or as close to normal as it can get living on a forward Operating base in Afghanistan. Only two more months to go and in less than a month we will start to see our replacements show up so we can get them trained up and mission capable.

Overall our moral here is great and we are all definitely keeping our heads in the game for the final stretch. I know that I personally try to be extra conservative when it comes to last minute mission changes, as an AMC “air mission commander” I way all my decisions based on what I know right should look like. I say it a couple of time a week that we are too close to going home to do something stupid and hasty we must all use tactical patients and make good decisions especially when it comes to shooting.

As much as I want to be home there are some things that I all ready know that I will miss about this place. The free food and laundry service are a couple but mostly it will be the people, and how we interact here in this environment. Living side by side one another and doing what it is that we do here I know will stay with me for many years. I have never trusted anyone with as much responsibility for my well being as I have entrusted the other pilots that I fly with here. And I know they all feel the same way as I do. I will remember this year in Afghanistan for the rest of my life but not because of what I did here but because of the people I had the pleasure of working with and the friendships that I have made. Plus I know that we were able to make a difference and that we changed many lives both Afghani and American. I know that I have grown in so many ways and that I have a new respect for many things in my life that I never had before and for that I am greatfull.

Attack on our FOB

Ok, well first of all I have never posted headlines but today I thought it would be an easy way to explain most of what happened. And then I will try to tell the rest of the story, or as much as I can without going into too much detail.

The Washington Post

Insurgents disguised as American soldiers attacked two U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday morning and managed to breach the perimeter of one of them before being repelled, according to NATO and Afghan officials.

The assault began at about 4 a.m., when dozens of Taliban fighters, some wearing U.S. military uniforms, launched simultaneous attacks on Forward Operating Base Salerno, in Khost province, and nearby Forward Operating Base Chapman, where a suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees in December.

They fired mortars and rockets, along with grenades and guns, and two insurgents entered FOB Salerno by cutting a hole in a fence, NATO officials said. No Afghan or U.S. troops died in the assault, but four NATO troops and an Afghan policeman were wounded, and a 12-year-old Afghan boy was killed, according to Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, the police chief in Khost.

The response to the attack was swift and deadly. Afghan security forces, along with U.S. troops, killed about 15 insurgents at FOB Salerno and six more at FOB Chapman, while three others were killed by an airstrike after they were spotted fleeing the scene of the attacks, NATO said.

The attacks appeared to have been orchestrated by the Haqqani network, one of the most lethal Taliban factions, led by Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani. His fighters operate primarily in eastern Afghanistan and have been responsible for violent attacks inside Kabul. NATO said a Haqqani network fighter named Mudasir was one of those killed in the assault on the bases.

Insurgents have laid siege to other heavily fortified U.S. bases this year, such as Kandahar Airfield and Bagram Air Base. But such attacks are rare, and insurgents generally fail to cause significant damage to the installations.

Ishaqzai, the police chief, said 48 insurgents took part in the assault on the two Khost bases, including several armed with suicide vests. NATO said it recovered a car bomb, seven suicide vests, two recoilless rifles and other unexploded munitions.

Fox News

Coalition forces conducted a precision air strike on a truck occupied by three Haqqani Network fighters after they attempted to attack Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province today.

Mudasir, a Haqqani Network facilitator for improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers, was killed in the strike along with two additional insurgents. Mudasir, who is also known as Qari Ishaq, had direct ties to Haqqani Network senior leadership based in Pakistan and was a teacher at a madrassa known to facilitate suicide bombers.

Sources tracked the vehicle from the vicinity of FOB Salerno and after verifying insurgent activity and ensuring no civilians were present, an air weapons team engaged the vehicle, which subsequently exploded. A follow-on ground force confirmed the three insurgents were killed in the engagement.

Afghan and coalition forces killed 13 Haqqani Network insurgents, four of which were wearing suicide vests, as they attempted to attack FOB Salerno early this morning. Afghan and coalition forces also detained five insurgents and destroyed a recoilless rifle at the scene. No Afghan or coalition forces were killed in the attack.

“The Haqqani Network and their fellow insurgents have failed to cause significant damage or casualties on any of their attempted attacks on coalition bases over the last several months,” said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center director. “These insurgents will be held responsible, which was evident in this strike.”

The Rest of the Story

Well for the most part it was a normal 04:00 morning except for the incoming rounds. Not too big of a deal until I heard the machine gun fire which means that we may have a problem. So I jumped out of bed and 35 minutes later I was in an aircraft circling the FOB looking for bad guys. This was probably their best assault on the FOB all year and I am sure it will be their last for a long time now that they are a little short on help. This was the first time since I have been here that I have even come close to thinking that we had a problem. As I was running to my aircraft this morning the amount of gunfire was crazy it seemed to be coming from all directions and I could tell that it was Russian made hardware making the noise. Our soldiers on our FOB did a great job repelling the insurgents and providing us cover to get to the aircrafts so we could launch and do our jobs. It was truly amazing how well rehearsed and deliberate everything played out. Like I said in 35 minutes Bob and I were in the air taking care of business. After about five hours in the air things died down and everything seemed to be under control. Bob and I only had to hit the FARP one time to rearm and refuel and the guys working in the FARP were so pumped up we were in and out in less than five minutes true professionals. So after all of this I am glad to report no friendlies were killed and only a few troops were injured and those were minor scrapes and bruises. And I wish I could go into more detail but I am afraid this is the best I can do. I am thankful to be serving with such true professionals the men and woman on this FOB rock and I am lucky to serve by their sides. I am pretty tired and I think I will crash hard tonight when my head finally hits the pillow, but I feel great, night all

Great Day

Had a great day, no one shooting at me, weather was nice, and most importantly, no one was hurt on my shift. Bob and I had a great flight I let him be lead and I followed him around Afghanistan for just under four hours today. We had a few planned missions and we responded to a few more that just sort of popped up. All and all it was a good day for me in Afghanistan.

Tomorrow I am not on the flight schedule however I have a ton of work in the office to catch up on. I have so many gun tapes to grade for my gunnery but I am really getting tired of using them. I almost wish that I could send everybody to the range with some training ammo and grade all the video of my guys shooting at blown up hulks. But unfortunately we do not have any training ammo on the FOB. So I just need to suck it up and get the job done.

I saw Sue’s post on face book about President Bush out in Texas welcoming the troops home and even though I could not watch the video I know how those Soldiers must have felt. I felt the same way when I was walking through Atlanta, times have changed and I think the Soldiers have the respect of the American people for what it is that we go through. Many might not agree with what is going on overseas but I think except for a few crazy groups that are out there they all have respect for the sacrifices that are being made by our Soldiers.

The weather today was just like home, extremely hot and humid. I was soaked before I was done with my pre flight at 0800. I would say that the temp reached high 90’s by mid day and stayed there till well after 1800. I am sure the Savannah weather is pretty similar and I am sure the kids are making good use of that pool. I look forward to swimming when I get home before we close it for the year. Or who knows maybe we will keep it open this winter and see how that works.

Well six days from tonight is a day that once again I will miss but it is a day that I will spend thinking about someone that means so much to me. I know that she will spend most of the day thinking about me too and I hope that she will always know how truly loved she is and how truly blessed I am to have her as my wife. All I can say is 1988 was a great year for me; I married my best friend and found my soul mate for life. And twenty two years later after all we have been through all the moves and all the separations she is still by my side, and for that I thank her from the bottom of my heart. Marie I thank you for your continued sacrifice to me and my career, for letting me chase my dreams and continue to do what I love. I could never do any of this without you, thanks for keeping the home fires burning.

And you all know how special the 27^th of August is. I look back at this date when Marie and I were planning our wedding and I had no idea that it was also the day that my Mom and Dad got married. As most of you all know I am not too quick with dates when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries even today let alone 23 years ago. I know that I miss a lot of important days in many of your lives and I just want to express to all of you how truly important all of you are to me. On that note I think I will get this posted before it gets too late, I hope all of you are happy and healthy and I will talk to all of you soon, night all

Weather for nothing

What can I say I am a sucker for a sob story. So we show up for our brief this morning and after the weather guy tells us what the weather is like outside our AO which was horrible to say the least. Our Battle Captain tells us about a US unit that will be outside the wire in a really bad province so we elect to push the bad weather. Thirty minutes later after skirting some really bad ceilings and visibility we arrive on station to find out that they canceled their mission hours ago. So needless to say I was not in a very good mood for the rest of the afternoon. I was the AMC today and we spent the rest of our gas jumping from FOB to FOB trying to give as many folks as we could a little support. Any time any FOB has two Apache’s on station they always have a few grids that they will try to pass us and get us to take a look. So we look at a lot of historical POO sites around many of the FOB’s in our AO. We saw a lot of NSTR “nothing significant to report” and that is not a bad thing but sometimes I just wish that I could have been there at the right time. One of the FOB’s that we provided some over watch to took indirect fire before I even got back to Sal. Thankfully no one was hurt on that FOB but it still makes me mad that while I was over head looking for bad guys they were there setting up for a rocket attack and could have hurt US troops.

I am on tomorrow with Bob and I am looking forward to it he and I always have a good flight. Bob and I are the only two AMC’s “air mission commanders” on our shift so we are not usually on together but he and I will fly together tomorrow with a few of our new front seaters. I have no idea what they have on the mission schedule for tomorrow but hopefully we will be gainfully employed. I am starting to get a little tired of these short flights lately. The weather has been shutting us down to about one bag of gas lately. Before I went on leave it was pretty normal to fly six to eight hours a day and as of late I have only been flying three to four.

Our Alabama Guard guys are switching out with another unit from Georgia and the new guys are just not as experienced as the last unit. Don’t get me wrong these guys have just as much heart as any unit that I have worked with it’s just that their PC’s “pilot in command” do not have near the hours that the last unit had. They are our CH-47 guys and they do a lot of our deliberate missions. I am sure in a month or so the new guys will be all over it and they will be up to speed on all of our code words and how we do business. Well I am in the double digits now and I see that light getting brighter and brighter. I am still being told that I will be in the last group out of here after I do my hand off to the next MG “master gunner” but I think I should still be home around 12 to 20 November and that puts me in the double digits. I need to hit the sack for my flight tomorrow I hope all is well at home and I would love to know what is going on in the news but I just don’t have the time tonight to look, night all

LUNCH

Ok back to my lunch story, I have been here for nine months now and I have known about a restaurant on our FOB that is run by the owner of the land that our FOB sits on. I have never eaten there until just the other day. I don’t know why really because you all know me I love to go out for a good meal. So I was on shift and the weather was not good enough for us to go out and complete our assigned mission and my front seater came into my office and asked me if I was ready for lunch. As he and I were heading to the chow hall for lunch I ran into Bob and he said that he was going to the restaurant and asked if I would like to come with him. Bob eats there a few times a month and has never gotten sick so I said what the heck I will try it. When we got there Bob introduced me to Hasiead the owner of the restaurant and the land that we are on. Bob ordered for all of us and I will have to say that it was a pretty nice experience and the food was fine. Not five stars but it was good, and the people that he has working for him are truly great people. Hasiead only leaves the FOB one or two times a month to buy the things that he cannot get from our chow hall. Basically the local cuisine that our chow hall does not have and they can’t get for him. He cooks in a traditional open face oven with fire wood inside that he has been using for decades. All and all I was enjoying myself, good company and good food and then our radio went off with the TIC “troops in contact” call. And as you all know I have a much lower requirement for bad weather when it comes to a TIC or Dustoff call. Needless to say in less than fifteen minutes we were in route and I have already told the rest of that story.

Today I was off and spent most of my time in my office grading gunnery tape for our sustainment gunnery. Our Task Force has done a lot of work over here and I think we are doing all the right things that will set this place up for success. Once our replacements get here they will have a much easier time settling in and continuing their mission. Our Brigade Commander came down yesterday to fly with us a bit to take a look at our AO. He will be here for a couple of days looking at how we are doing business and then he will be going back to BAF. After lunch today he wanted to see all the primary staff in the Bosses office and we had no idea what was up. As it turned out he only wanted to give us a pep talk and let us know that “we are great Americans” that his catch line he says it all the time. But anyway he also presented us all with his Commanders coin I will add a picture of it to this post tonight it’s a pretty big coin but I like it. This place has been a huge pain in my but lately and it’s nice when someone throws you a bone now and then. So I will add this coin to all my other Commanders coins and I think I may have a nice case made when I get home to keep them in. well it is getting late and I need my beauty sleep so I think I will close this one for tonight. I hope that you are all doing well and I look forward to seeing all of you, night all

COIN

Commanders Coin

A new Friend

I got an e-mail from a new friend today and I wanted to share it with all of you. I met Randy in the Atlanta airport the day I shipped back to Afghanistan. We had a nice conversation and we talked mostly about Afghanistan but in our short talk I could see that He totally got it. And it was so refreshing to meet someone who truly understood why it is that I have to go back to this place and try to make a difference.

Hi Rob,

I hope you remember me. I met you at the Atlanta airport on July 18th when you were on your way to Afghanistan. I hope you are safe and doing well! It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and in our brief encounter, I can tell that you are a man of extreme integrity. I know you must miss your family a lot and I just want you to know again how very much I appreciate all of your sacrifice and bravery! Men and women like you make me proud to call myself an American!

I just returned from a trip to Los Angeles and now I am working hard in my medical practice. It always seems that when you take some time off, you pay for it when you return to work.

I will certainly understand if you don't have time to respond to my email, but I would really enjoy hearing from you, even if just a brief note to tell me that you are doing well and are safe!

All my best,

Randy

Like I always say things happen for a reason, and today I got an e-mail from someone who I only met one time but he was able to reset my train of thought and help me to stay focused and deal with everything my day had to throw at me. Needless to say today was pretty busy, first we ran to our aircraft from lunch for a troops in contact out in our AO. When we got on station the gunfire was no longer directed at the troops on the ground it was coming our way. As we approached the POO site “point of origin” and almost immediately started to take Machine gun fire, not to worry we were at about 1000 feet off the ground and in a pretty safe profile. Unlike the troops on the ground that were surely in harm’s way from the machine gun fire, we are able to give them some cover just by being there. We set up for some inbound runs towards the POO site which was in a wooded area and after a few inbound runs the shooting stopped. I would like to think they just ran out of ammo for their machine guns and decided to call it a day and went home to their families. I know I would give anything to be able to go home to my family after a hard day’s work but I know I will be there soon enough. I wanted to talk more about my lunch today but I am afraid I am pretty tired and that story will have to wait till next time, night all

A Bad day, for us all

Bad day for us all, this morning I was awaken by big voice saying “Incoming, Incoming, Incoming” and that is not the way I like to start my day. We had a few rounds that rocked the FOB this morning but this time it was HE “high explosives” instead of WP “white phosphorous”. The problem today was one of the rounds went long and hit a small house just outside our FOB killing three small girls’ ages 4, 7 and 11 and this time it really hit me on a personal level. You see because we are here they ended up losing their lives by the hand of the Taliban and I totally get that. We did not kill those children by our own hand but yet our presence did have something to do with it. It is so hard to stay distant and unattached from what is going on in the day to day lives of the Afghani people when I see it so up close and personal every day. We pull a hundred locals out of the raging river and we are hero's and in the next few days a rocket intended to cause us harm kills three little kids. So it is totally understandable why the Afghani locals are afraid and a little stand offish. I am so ready to go home to my own three kids and I need to thank God every day for what he has given me. Life is too short, and I will not waste another minute of it, night all

Bad weather, but still flew

Great flight today, I flew 4.2 hours and it was in some pretty crappy weather but no one was hurt and we completed our mission. I am on tomorrow with the same person and after tomorrow she should be ready to go to nights to finish her RL2 to Rl1 progression, my work on days with her will be done. I watched a good movie tonight it was called Clash of the Titans, I am usually not one for all the gods and dragons and what not but it had a cute story and I liked it. I think before I go to bed I will try to watch another episode of Sons of Anarchy; it’s a new series that I downloaded from the shared drive that we have over here. They had the first two seasons up so that’s all I have right now if I like it I will go to the Hajji mart and buy more. I have downloaded more TV shows to watch than I have watched in the last ten years of my life but between that and spending time in my horizontal time machine what else is there to do other than work.

So I am three months from home, the light is on be it ever so dim but hey it’s on and I can see it. I think Marie and I will try to plan something for the family to do some time near the first part of the year. After Christmas but before the kids go back to school I think will be a great time for us to go and do something I am not sure what yet but I look forward to planning it. I am sitting here typing on my blog listening to my iPod and as I have said in the past it’s amazing how my life is changed by what I listen to or what kind of movies I watch. We are in the process of trying to do all the planning for the Unit that will eventfully come to replace us over here. It really is amazing how much is involved in the process of doing just that. One of the biggest things to overcome is the fact that we just don’t have the life support over to house everyone all at once so it’s done in phases a few in and a few out. The key is picking the right people at the right time to make it seamless and painless. As for me know that I am on primary staff I will be here till the end I am sure I will be one of the last people out. Not a big deal though we are all still suppose to be out of here by the middle of November so no sweet. I have a lot to hand over to the incoming Master Gunner I will try to set him or her up for success the best that I can. I hope to be able to have everything in place working before they even hit the street in late October. I think their advanced party should be starting to show up some time in October. And that will be here before we know it.

I just wanted to get on and put a quick note up so I am going to get off here for know, like I said today was not the best weather I have flown in over here but mission accomplished and not problems with any of our missions so all is well. I will try to post soon but I am flying for the next few days so till next time, night all

Crazy Day Off

What a way to start my day, not on the flight schedule, a package from Marie with my favorite brownies and a card that lets me know just how lucky I am, It’s going to be a great day. So I get up and go to the Hajji Mart and get a couple of movies to watch today so I can spend a little time in my room relaxing. I bought Grown Ups and just got done watching it I thought it was pretty good but then I like Adam Sandler so what did I expect. I bought four other movies too but I don’t think I will get to them any time soon. We are getting ready to adjust to four shifts to cover down on the elections so that we can have more of a presence in the AO and we are still a little short handed so we will all have to pick up an extra shift or two. I think it will only last three or four weeks so hopefully we will all be able to suck it up and get through this ok. I read a great article in the news this morning about an Afghan girl who was horrifically mutilated who appeared on a controversial Time magazine cover who is to undergo surgery in the United States to rebuild her nose that Taliban cut from her face. The note on the cover was “What happens if we leave Afghanistan” It makes me think about this country and how far they have come and how much we have sacrificed. Surely this cannot all be for nothing, surely all of the wonderful programs and schools and town halls that have been built and started will not go empty. I pray that history will not repeat itself, that the US will not cut and run only to allow this country to fall back into the Stone Age. We have done this to these people once before and it has not been forgotten. We see it every day over here when it comes to the amount of assistance we get from the local populous. You see they are still really gun shy when it comes to stepping forward and pointing out the bad guys to us. They know that when it’s all said and done they will remain and they will have to suffer the consequences if we do not complete our mission over here. They will follow and help who they feel will come out as victorious and when the Boss keeps talking about we will start our withdraw next July in the news and on TV it’s hard for us to complete our mission. We have made so many advancements over here that it kills me when I read articles like this it’s like he hasn’t a clue as to what is going on over here. I can see why the last General cut and ran without getting the support he expected from the same Boss that put him in that job in the first place.

Sorry about that, it’s just been on my mind eating away at it for a few days and I wanted to share. So I have a metric ton of gunnery video to grade for our rolling gunnery but today I am not going to go into the office not even for one minute. Today is my day off and that is just what I will do, be off. However it’s 0600 in Savannah and I told a certain family that I would call before they go to school so I will have to cut this post short. Disregard its Saturday and I am sure that they are all still in bed. I wish I could be there with them I know I would be running around the house trying to wake them all up trying to figure out what we will be doing today. I love weekends when we have no plans I love when we can all just shoot from the hip and load up in the car and make a day of it. I think it has to do with some of my most fond memories when I was a kid. We would load up into the car and go to the park or to Brookville Lake with some cousins and Mom would pack a picnic lunch with all the snacks. I lived for those trips and I had so much fun every time we went. Now days it seems like I am trying to pull teeth sometimes with my three to get them to want to load up in the car and go and do anything. But times have changed so much and things that were the bomb thirty years ago just don’t have the same bite these days. I got it, kids want to do what they want to do and that doesn’t mean that they will want to jump into the car and run down to river street for the twenty fifth time. Wow I am all over the road with this post aren’t I, I think once again I have been affected by another Hollywood movie. I watch movies by myself and my mind just goes crazy and I get all emotional and I spend the next few hours trying to figure out how to make everything better. When the truth is I have no power to change anyone’s life but mine, and I think I am well under way in that department all ready. I think if it were up to me I would spend more time listening and less time talking and more time feeling and less time overreacting. Like I love to say and have said so many time before, life is short and we all have but one go at it so try not to screw it up. Marie, you are the greatest, you keep me grounded and you keep me going when I just want to call it a day. Without you my life would be so different, without you Marie I don’t really think any of this would matter. In my mind I would be over doing a job that has to be done not really thinking much about it. But knowing that I have you and the kids to come home to makes me think all too often about every little decision that I make over here, and believe me I make a lot of decisions over here. And thinking about what you would think of some of these decisions I know helps me to make the right ones. I love you and I can’t wait till we are whole again, we have a lot of catching up to do and I know that we are well on our way but I want you to know that I never want it to stop. I hope that you and our three precious children load up that car and go and do something special this weekend and think of me at some dinner table somewhere new and think that if Dad were here he would have loved this place. Night all

Went for a run

So I started running again and today was my third day running around the parameter of the FOB. I have a running buddy and he and I try to run as often as we can which seems like it should work out to be about three to four days a week which will work out fine for me. So we are half way around the FOB and we hear AK-47 fire, this does not usually bother me when I am nestled in the center of my FOB but as we are running around the parameter fence I start to think to myself as I look through the fence and see Afghani's out there working in the fields and driving their tractors that this might not be the best place to be. But the nice thing about the Parameter fence line is that one trip around and you have run about three and a half miles so it just works out pretty nicely in that respect. Where as if I run around some of the inner roads which are gravel I need to run many laps to cover the same distance. Not to mention the chance of twisting an ankle or hurting a knee. Decisions, decisions, I am sure that things will work out and the answers will come to me. It's not as if we don't have guard towers all the way around are FOB because we do and this FOB has never been breached. So as long as we are smart about it we should have no problems, besides have you seen how fast I run who could shoot such a fast moving target? Just kidding at 44 the Army gives me all afternoon to run my 2 miles for my PT test not to say I need all afternoon but I am just saying. Oh well I just wanted to get on tonight before I go to bed and tell this quick story and Post it. I am going to try to post everything that happens in these last few months as best I can so till next time, night all

River Crossing

We are finally starting to see a break in the weather, I got up today and the sky was clear and the sounds of choppers flying all around the airfield let me know that the weather is green meaning that it is good and we are back to work. I just had lunch with Joe and Tony and we talked about Joe’s flight yesterday and how he and the two Chester aircraft (UH-60s) were responsible for saving at least 100 local nationals. You see Joe was flying security around the FOB when he noticed that over in one of the watties or rivers as we call them, there were a whole bunch of local nationals stuck on sand bars out in the rising, raging water. So they made a call back to Salerno to launch the QRF Chester element to come help save some of the Afghani’s, many of them were woman and children and they were stuck in the racing water. Unfortunately before the aircraft could respond to the scene Joe had to watch a few of them get washed away. When they first got there the water was at their ankles but by the time Chester got there the water was above their knees and they were all holding each other in little groups to keep from getting washed away. After all said and done they removed over 100 people from the ever rising river that surely would have taken most of their lives. This is not a story that will be told on the news back home but it was nice to hear that today it was talked about on the local Afghani radio, who knows maybe the next time some of the bad guys are setting up rockets for an attack on our FOB one of these people will return the favor and alert us of what’s about to happen so we can stop it before one of our Soldiers gets hurt. Oh well wish I had more time but I need to get back to work, I just wanted to share this story before I forgot all the details, night all

Mid Tour Picture

This is a picture of me and my posse and believe me I could not ask for a better posse. We had a wonderful time in the mountains and I can't wait till I can take them back to those same mountains to go camping and sleep in a tent, that right Shirley we will sleep in a tent in the woods with no electric and no cell phone reception. But we will do just fine because we will all be together for a few nights then its off to plush condo or something, I Love you guys

Rain Rain Rain

Well this is just great, more rain than I have seen in this country in the last eight months all in the last week. Not that I am complaining about the cooler weather that it has brought us but I am getting tired of getting wet every time I need to go to the office or to the chow hall. Did I mention that I am tired of getting wet, yea I thought so? So anyway we are all in the chow hall the other night our normal group and we are all talking about how this tour has impacted our lives. I was a little caught off guard from some of the comments that I heard. I was really expecting to hear how the time away from love ones has ruined our lives and made it hard to keep relationships both with family and friends close. But no one had stories like that to tell instead I heard similar stories of how this experience has strengthened those same relationships in the same way that I have felt. I can’t really put my finger on it but I think it has something to do with the uncertainty of our situation and how all we have time to do is think about better times both ahead and in the past. And for me it has also given me the opportunity to look back at some of those previous experiences and think about how I would have done some things a little different. Don’t get me wrong, there are not too many things in my life that I would have done any different. It’s just that I might have approached them a bit differently and with more tact. But like I love to say life is too short to spend one second thinking about things that we have no chance to change. But to try to learn from our mistakes and not make those same mistakes in the future is how we grow as people. Alright I am putting myself to sleep so I will try to change the subject and talk about how my day is going so far. I got up around 08:00 and checked e-mail and then I went to the office to see if there were any changes to the flight schedule and to my surprise there were not. I have a fairly light schedule this week; I am only on it 4 days and 3 of those days I will be flying our new Captain trying to get her to RL1. She is doing pretty well and I know she is glad to be here flying as opposed to what she was doing before she got here. Before she arrived at FOB Salerno she was the BDE “brigade” commander’s secretary and not flying at all and trust me that is a thankless job at best. She has not had an engagement yet seeing how she just started flying missions but I am sure that will change soon. I remember thinking to myself before I had my first engagement that if I could influence the battle field with just my presence and keep the guys on the ground safe by just flying above them in the most threatening attack helicopter in the world I would leave here the same guy. Well unfortunately sometimes it takes a little more than just looking tough to get the job done and I am ok with that as long as I can leave here without a bad shoot. I try to maintain tactical patience and rule out all possible alternative options to pulling the trigger and I truly believe that this will be all I need to accomplish my mission without incident.

Enough on all that, I called to talk to Marie this morning to let her know what 06:00 feels like. She will be getting use to that schedule soon enough with getting the kids ready for school. I can’t wait till I am home and we can both get them ready for school together. This is one of those things that I wish I would have done a little differently, at least on days when I had nothing to do, when I was not flying that night. I think the time Marie got to spend with our kids was pretty special in the morning getting them ready for school and I completely blew it. But like I said a change in my behavior as a result of an experience is what learning is all about. And even though “I am not a very smart man” I can learn from my experiences and change my behavior. So what I am trying to say is the Cleavers are going to have nothing on me when I get home if you know what I am saying.

As for the first part of next year, I just don’t know what is going on yet. I will be going to Ft. Rucker for six weeks for the Instrument Examiners course and another week or so for the Master Gunners course. And I know we have a spring gunnery and a midsummer NTC “national training center” rotation. But other than those two events I am not too sure what will come down the pipeline for us. All I do know is that I will have over 60 days on the books for vacation and that is more than I have ever had the entire time I have been in the army. I think I just might take an entire month off and spend as much of it with my best friend as I can. Until she gets sick of me and sends me on my way, which might only take 5 or 6 days. Time now is 16:00 and diner chow is rapidly approaching so I must once again cut this post short and get ready for din din. You all know me I try not to miss many meals especially when there is chocolate cheese cake on the desert line, so to all my friends and family till next time, night all

Crazy Day

Ok so I am sitting next to my aircraft looking at the log book when all of the sudden I hear the familiar sound of an inbound rocket. I look to my left and low and behold I see the rocket on its last fifty yards or so of flight and then boom it hits the ground. Fortunately for me it’s about two hundred feet away and it’s not an HE “high explosive” round but instead it’s a white phosphorous round. It lands on the next taxi way behind the aircraft parked behind me where it can do no real damage. It burns for a long while but its on the concrete so no problem. And at this very moment I realize that what I have been saying all of my life is so true when it’s your time to go it’s your time to go. All and all we had four rockets hit the FOB within ten seconds of each other and none of them did any damage or hurt anyone. We have been having a lot of bad weather which makes it a little easier for the bad guys to get close enough to our FOB to set these rockets up. They usually use some sort of a fuse that will allow them to leave before the rockets launch. I was on QRF this morning but we had a deliberate operation so we did not launch to look for the POO site”point of origin” instead they launched the OH-58Ds which is a scout recon platform. I ended up flying almost five hours today in support of my deliberate operation which for the most part was a dry hole we were not able to remove any bad guys from the battle field. My front seater is doing pretty well though this was her first no kidding deliberate operation where she was in direct support of over one hundred and fifty special ops guys on the ground. We in filled them with two CH-47s doing two turns a piece and kept a close eye on them as they completed their mission. But like I said we came across no bad guys and after an hour or two it gets a little monotonous but I know the guys on the ground feel so much safer hearing us and seeing us over head. I wish that I could post more but we have a command and staff tonight so I need to eat and get to my meeting till next time, night all

Sunday, ice cream day

Back in the groove flew 4 hours today and for the most part it was ok, but we did have to come back to Sal to get a different aircraft to finish our mission mine had some electrical issues and didn’t want to cooperate. But like I said we flew 4 hours and except for that short delay we got all of our missions completed on time. I am on tomorrow with the same person a new Captain that we just got from another FOB a few months ago she is doing well for having not flown for over two and a half years. I have done most of her progression and she should be fully mission capable in a few weeks. I think she is glad to be RL2 and going out on missions with me. Tomorrow my wing man is the Task Force commander and I am sure he will want to be in the lead aircraft which actually works out great for me because it allows me more opportunity to teach and talk to the young Captain while we follow the Boss around.

I went for a run tonight and it felt pretty good I ran with another IP he and I are about the same age and we ran about 2 miles and then we walked another 2 I think it was good for both of us. I hope to start doing that two to three times a week it actually seemed to give me some energy. I am getting ready to call it a night and I just wanted to get on here and hit the high lights of my day. Chow for lunch was great they had my favorite, chicken cordon blue and I am not able to get that two often it seems like they only have it a couple of times a month and at least one of those times it seems like I am always flying. Although Bob will get me a to go plate because he know how much I like it, good old Bob. Dinner was pretty good to and I had my usual Sunday night ice cream not that I deprive myself of some of the finer deserts in the chow hall mind you because I am a sucker for the chocolate cheese cake, if it’s available I have to get a slice and I would say it’s available 4 to 5 days a week. I am really surprised that I am not as big as a house, I guess it’s the fact that we only get 1 to 2 meals a day and I have had some days where I only got one meal without any snacks in the aircraft either. My favorite snack food in the aircraft is a Cliff Bar, they have them in the chow hall most of the time and they are your typical granola bar except that they are 75% organic which I like and they taste pretty good too. I am off the day after next and I can’t wait to make some calls home, the kids start back to school soon and I want to wish them all the best for another great school year. I made a deal with Robby and I am sure that he will make me proud, but it’s going to cost me I just know it. Well I want to get this posted so till next time, night all