Fender Bender

First I will just say that it was not my fault, second its hard to have a fender bender when you are 8 to 10 feet off the ground. But yesterday I was flying a mission and we stopped at Kushman FOB to get some gas and when I was repositioning to set up for a take off into the wind I had a steel parking panel the size of a house lift off the ground and try to eat my aircraft. The steel panel is actually 149 smaller 4 foot by 4 foot panels that all interlink to make great big pads that we can park on to help keep the dust down. As I was hover taxing near this landing panel my rotor wash got under the side and lifted this parking panel 10 to 12 feet into the air. I was already power limited and could not climb over it so I was forced to crash into it and have a hard landing. After I shut the aircraft down we got out and took a closer look and found that I did damage to the 30mm gun on the front and in trying to maneuver away from the panel I stroked the tail wheel strut causing damage to it also. I am not sure what the accident will price out at but for it to remain a class D accident the repairs have to be less than 2,000 dollars and that doesn't seem likely. Fortunately for me my wing man this day was Viper 6 my Task Force Commander. After we both shut down and took a good look at everything he told me that from where they were sitting they thought the panel was going to go into my rotor system and he could not believe that I was able to avoid rotor blade contact. This made me feel a little better but none the less we still damaged the aircraft and it will be out of the fight for a few days till it can be repaired. I ended up pushing the parking panel 3 feet which does not seem like much but this pad weighs 7500 pounds, I really was lucky. Not that I could have been seriously injured but had the rotor blades contacted the parking pad when it was up in the air we would have had parts and pieces flying all over the place and possibly destroyed my aircraft and done serious damage to my wing man as well.

So all that being said I am ready for tomorrow to be my last mission flight for a couple of weeks and I can't wait to get home. This may be my last post till I get back in country so until next time and I hope to see all of you between now and then, Night All

Wow what can I say, two more mission flights and I am out of here. Today's mission went well we did not fly as much as we usually do because of the afternoon thunder storms we have over here but none the less we got the job done. I will be going home to the states in four more days and I cant wait. I hope that once I get back from leave I will have more energy to get back on here and post more like I use to. I have been taking my camera and my video with me on more flights lately than I have in the past and I hope to keep that going after I get back too. As for the video when I take my HD camera its is impossible to post any video because of the file sizes. I use my little point and shoot for those videos. Needless to say I am getting pretty excited to be going home for a break even if it is only for 15 days. I will see everyone real soon, till then, night all

47's

A shot of big windy on the ground picking up the good guys after a mission

What it looks like when the try to land in this place, it gets pretty dusty

More Pictures

Walking to the neighbors house to get some sugar

All kidding aside the way these people live makes me appreciate what I have and how truly lucky I am

typical live stock just out walking around

My wing man

This was the prettiest day that I can remember flying in Afghanistan

Pictures

Some of the area getting a little green

Trying to fly and take pictures is a real trick

I flew this one with our new Commander

Another shot of me trying to get the job done

And another day without a scratch, Getting pretty hot out here

Long week

Once again I find myself sitting here typing after not posting for many days. I wish I had more time in my day and I wish I was not flying as much but the truth of the matter is that is what it takes over here to get the job done. We are all doing what we must to get the job done. I am flying 5 to 6 days a week and three of those days I fly another bag of gas after my mission flight doing a RL Progression on a new pilot we just got. I often wonder what this place might have been like when the Soviets were here wreaking havoc. There are fighting positions all over this country on every hill top and in every valley it makes it easy for the enemy to find positions to fight from. The people here are so poor yet they seem so proud of what little they do have. I try to imagine what it must be like for them to see all the US troops trying to do good things for them and their villages. What they must think, I mean do they truly understand what we are trying to do for them or do they think we have an ulterior motive. I hope that someday once we are gone they can look back at the time when the Americans were here and think that was when our country took shape and made it what it is today. I know this might be a bridge to far but it is what I hope for; I hope that all this bloodshed is worth something in the long run. I think that this war would be so much easier to win if this country was not 75% illiterate. If they knew what we were trying to accomplish over here for them and their children they would try to help us get the job done.

We had another rocket attack a few days back and one of our civilian contractors were hurt. I don’t know how bad the contractor was injured but I had heard that it was a white phosphorous rocket and that could not have been good. But at least the person is alive and going back to the States for recovery. We have so many contractors over here covering down on so many jobs that have to be done to make this place work like a well oiled machine. I know that most of them are just here for the tax free money but I think some are here because they truly want to help.

Well I am down to less than one month and I will be back in the states!! And I can’t wait. I am really looking forward to spending time with the Kids and Marie and going to Cincinnati for a visit. I look forward to spending the 4^th in Cincy and after that who knows we will just play the rest by ear. I am looking forward to throwing a certain little girl into our new swimming pool though and I am sure she is too.

Well Joe is still in the states for his eye and I am not too sure when he will be coming back to the Stan but I did hear that his eye will be fine. We will be losing our Germany guys at the end of July and they will be taking their two aircraft with them back to Germany. One of them will be leaving Germany once he gets back and going to the IP course and joining us in Savannah after we get home he is a brand new PC “pilot in command” He is a great guy and he will be an asset to our unit back in Savannah I can’t wait to work with him back in the states.

Business here in Afghanistan is picking up for us and we are trying to make a difference but sometimes it takes a toll on you. I tend to keep to myself and listen to music and watch TV shows on my computer to decompress. I wish that I was better at helping people find something that allows them to decompress but sometimes you just have to send them off to the Chaplain. The Chaplain and I have become really good friends and I have great respect for him he is a great guy that has done some really great things in his life. Any time one of our pilots is involved in an engagement Chaplain Authers will find them as soon as they are off shift and be there to listen. He and I came over together and we got to be pretty good friends through our trip. I remember the first time we had a discussion about my job and what I am here to do. I told him that as long as I was saving American lives and keeping our coalition forces safe that I think I will be able deal with anything that is put in front of me. I told him that the only thing that worried me about my mission here was the chances that I would have a bad engagement, like an innocent person or God forbid a US Soldier. A few weeks back I was involved in a mission and we were flying security for ground unites that we just in filled to an objective area. The unit on the ground told us to use containment fires on two squirters that they had leaving the village. Squirters are MAMs “military aged males” that try to leave the target area. I was the AMC on this flight and I was ok with the containment fires. Containment fires are when we shoot our 30mm cannon in front of them to get them to stop so the ground unit can catch up and detain them. We shot four different 10 round burst but the two men kept walking and would not stop. Then we got the call from the GFC “ground force commander” that we were cleared to engage the two MAMs. This did not sit too well with me or my wing man so we tried to explain to the GFC that they did not appear to be armed and they were not exhibiting hostile intent in any way. At this time the GFC told us to engage the two MAMs, as the AMC I told my wing man that we would engage the targets single ship. Single ship is not how we usually do things; usually we discuss a course of action and set it up for both ships to engage targets. But in my mind I felt that this might get ugly and if it had to be done no sense in both aircrews having to deal with it. So we engaged the targets and continued our security mission over the objective area. Five hours later after the ex fill and mission complete I called the GFC on the phone to debrief the mission and he told me that two women in the village told him that those two men were Taliban and that under their cloths they had AK-47s and chest racks along with explosives. Later that day they sent a team to search those men and they found exactly that along with some documents. I explained to the GFC that that would have been nice to know prior to us pulling the trigger. This was by far the hardest mission I have dealt with as an AMC but once again it was nice to decompress with the Chaplain. I feel for him though because I know he is always there for the soldiers but who is there for him. I try to talk to him whenever I can but there is only so much he can talk about but I think he enjoys talking to me as much as I like to talk to him. Well I need to try to post this before I go to bed, night all

BUSY

BUSY, that’s about all I can say about that! The weather is getting hot the sky’s are clear and the bad guys are coming out of the wood work. I will be going back to days tomorrow and I am going to be even busier than I have in the past. We have a new pilot that just showed up to Salerno and I will be doing her refresher training after I am done with my mission flights. She has not flown for two and a half years so it may take a while, time will tell. We have many pilots on leave and it is getting to be tough to keep up with all of our mission sets with the amount of pilots that are gone right now. I fly, sleep, eat and try to keep from losing my mind, not that there is much gray matter left after all of these years, but I try. The night missions were a lot different from the missions that I will be flying on day shift but I am looking forward to the change, Again. On days I will spend more time going to put out fires where as on nights we did most of our deliberate operations. We would do in-fills almost every night and in doing so we had to really be on our A game. It was up to us to keep all the crunchies “ground troops” safe and out of harm’s way. It’s a difficult task to perform sometimes because the objective areas can be so busy with the chrunchies going all over the place and at times they are all asking us for directions over the radio to target houses and objective areas. Like I said we do missions every night and we try to do the best we can but sometimes things don’t go as planned. Some time ago we were doing an exfill and while we were getting our HVT out of the target house one of our heavy lift aircraft took fire and we lost a soldier and had a few more wounded. All said and done we looked over this target area for over six hours while our crunchies went house to house looking for our HVT and no one saw the bad guy hiding in the tree line waiting for exfill. I was part of the in-fill and did not do the exfill but I shared their pain not being able to keep our guys out of harm’s way. It’s probably one of the hardest things to do over here is deal with the loss of any life let alone a US Soldier. We lose people every day but the only ones that make the news are the coalition forces “CF” we have so many Afghani Soldiers over here putting their lives on the line every day but they just don’t seem to make the news. We have a few forces over here that we work with, we have the ANA “Afghanistan National Army” and for the most part they are Soldiers that want a better life for them, their families and their Country. Then we have the ANP “Afghanistan National Police” these guys are 50/50 some are good and some are corrupt you just don’t know who is who. The problem with the ANP is that they are all locals and there for a little easier corrupted unlike ANA where the Soldiers are trained and then sent all over the Country to serve in the Afghanistan Army so they are less likely to become corrupt. The ANA are trying to make a difference and they will charge the bunker throwing caution to the wind in the most courageous way and they typically suffer a lot of casualties. They are extremely respected for their selfless courageous service and they are doing great things for this Country.

Last week we had a formation to promote a few of our LT’s to Captain which seems to happen way to quickly these days but it is what it is. We also took the time to award some folks their CAB’s “combat action badges” and Air Medals. I was on nights and fast asleep so that will have to come later, we only have two pilots left in our Task force that fly 64’s that have not been awarded their CAB’s. I truly wish that we could have all gotten out of here without one. I do understand however that its why we are here and that we are making a difference and it comes down to its you or them and you have to do what you have to do.

My friend Joe is still back in the states tending to his self induced eye wound but I have been told that he will have a full recovery and his eye will be 100%. Judging by his face book page it looks like he is having an OK time back in the states going to the beach and eating real food out. But hey I am not jealous I will be home soon enough. I have never looked forward to a vacation this much in my entire life, I truly miss Marie and the Kids so much and I can’t wait to see all of them. Living here has been unlike anything that I have ever gone through in my time in the Army; the simple things seem so special like when you can score a couple of your favorite cookies from the chow hall to have as a snack later. It’s crazy over here and I will never forget this trip for as long as I live. I have never flown this many hours in such a short time in my life. Like I said earlier I eat fly and sleep and that’s my life right now, crazy. Well as much as I would like to continue rambling on I need to go get some chow and turn in for the night so till next time, night all

Rocket attack

I flew five hours last night and I was looking forward to some time off and as I was walking to turn in my gear I hear this funny whinny whirly sound going over my head. I look up and see nothing but within a second or two I hear this great big explosion followed by Big voice going off saying “incoming, incoming, incoming”. So off I run to one of our hardened buildings and there I sit till Big Voice announces “all clear”. I have been spoiled lately we have not had an attack for a few weeks and most of the time they happen when I am in bed. You see they usually happen during the day because the enemy can’t video the attacks in the hours of darkness and it all about them advancing their anti coalition campaign through video. The ironic thing about this morning’s attack is that the only building that was hit was the mosque on our FOB. It is holy ground and could not be moved, some of the locals that work on the FOB use it each and every day but no Americans are allowed to step foot in it. Needless to say I am sure that this attack will not make it to the local news here in Khost province, no one wants to hear that the Taliban have destroyed a mosque. Fortunately no one was hurt; although I am sure it will disrupt the normal day to day lives of many Muslims friends that work here on our FOB. I am on for the next few days and I am really counting down the days till I get to go home the first week in July will not get here soon enough. I posted a video of me out flying around Afghanistan in the front seat for a change that I took early this morning as we were coming home. I will write more soon I just wanted to get on and talk about my rocket attack and how much I am thinking about my mid-tour till next time, night all

As you can tell business in Afghanistan has picked up considerably, we are seeing a lot more bad guys out in our area of operation. Not to mention that we have people going home on leave and that leaves us a little short handed to cover down on all the shifts. Then there is the occasional accident like my buddy Joe had when he accidently poked himself in the eye and was rushed to BAF then Germany and finally the states for at least one month for eye surgery. Joe is doing well and his eye will be 100% so no worries there it just doesn’t help us with our man power shortage.

As for me I am doing well flying a lot and keeping up with all the gunnery is keeping me pretty busy. I am not watching as much TV and trying to stay focused on some other things and the time is passing pretty quickly. Night flying is a little bit easier than the missions that we have during the day. Mostly we are a dedicated asset for deliberate operations and we do not respond to 911 calls nearly as often as I did during the day. Don’t get me wrong the 911 calls are pretty exciting sometimes but you just never know what to expect. The deliberate operations are well planed and thought out and we go after defined targets and it’s always nice when we get our target. The Intel that we receive from some of these targets helps us to disrupt so many more operations and makes it worth the risk.

Less than six weeks and I will be home for some needed rest and relaxation and I can’t wait. Marie and the kids will pick me up in Atlanta and we will be off to Cincy. Not sure how much time we will spend up there but it will be nice to see everyone and then it’s off to who knows where. We do not have definite plans yet but we are looking forward to the time together and I am sure whatever we do it will be great.

The weather over here is starting to get pretty hot I am glad that I am on nights it’s a lot cooler and almost tolerable. I fly all night and into the sun rise almost every time I go out I just started to take my camera with me again and I will try to capture so sunrises. I hope to get on here more often even if it’s just for short up dates but time and internet connection just don’t allow sometimes. Till next time, night all

Mothers Day

Long night, and what a bad night it was. We did an infill a couple of days back and the troops that we put in this certain area lost a soldier yesterday from enemy fire and few more were injured. So last night right after we did our mission brief we went to the aircraft and launched. Twelve hours later we landed after engaging six enemy soldiers and flying security for four CH-47 aircraft that exfilled all the remaining troops that we had in this certain area. After our flight we had a mountain of paperwork to complete for everything that happened last night. All I knew is that all I wanted to do last night was call home and wish my wife a happy Mother’s Day. I sit here at my computer in my room ready to collapse and its 04:00 AM in Savannah and I want to call home to talk to Marie but it will have to wait till tomorrow night when I am at the office. All I can do is hope that she had a nice day with the kids and hope to make it up to her next year. For now I need to get to bed it’s been a long day, night all

Shout Out

Wing Man

New Pics

Well let’s just say that it is getting pretty busy over here. Last night I flew 8 hours supporting 4 different missions. I have not been on here for over a week and I will try to get back to posting every couple of days or so. I took some video the other night after our missions were complete and I will try to put it up tonight. I shot it on the lowest resolution to try to keep the video size small so I hope it will upload for me without too much grief.

As for me I am doing well, finally adjusted totally to my shift and back to flying 5 days or so a week. Not much has changed over here pretty much you get up go to work fly come back to your room and go to sleep and sometime during the day you are lucky to be able to grab a few meals and take a shower and get some laundry done. Then the next day arrives and you do it all over again.

Well I am going to close this one for now, I want to try to put some pictures and video up that I took the other day. I will try to get back on later though and talk about what has been going on with our missions a little bit or as much as I can talk about, till then night all

Busy Busy

Nights are going well. I have been flying pretty much and that as you all know helps the time pass more quickly. The night missions are usually a little more deliberate and that leads to us capturing or disposing of, a lot of bad guys. I spend most of my free time watching all of the TV shows that I have never watched and that in itself helps the time pass quickly too. It’s starting to get pretty hot over here, I am glad that I am on the night shift I am usually getting ready for bed around 09:00 to 10:00 and its all ready getting hot.

I am really looking forward to going home this July for some me time and I can’t wait till July first gets here. I think we are planning on Marie and the kids picking me up in Atlanta and driving to Cincy the same day. We will spend a few days up home and then we don’t know what we will do. But whatever it is I am sure it will be nice.

I got onto face book today and I had a friend request from Elli so of course I accepted it and now we are friends. I am sure that she will enjoy keeping up with all of her friends and family on there just like the rest of the world. It really is amazing how easy it is to communicate these days, with computers and internet and all the other advancements that we have in technology. I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been in past wars for Soldiers to wait for snail mail to find out how their loved ones are and not be able to ever talk to them till they got home. I am lucky to have the internet and telephone in my room not that they work 100% of the time but at least I have them. I was able to catch up with Marie and the kids a few days back and they all sounded great. I am not on schedule tonight so I think I am going to go into work and make some calls home later too. I have to get a little paper work done but for the most part I will just relax tonight and have a bit of me time.

As for Afghanistan, not to many changes, the people are still trying to make this place a better place to live and there are still some bad guys out there that want nothing to do with any of that. I notice as I fly around that many of the town centers have more and more new construction like schools and municipal buildings. I am sure there is a lot of work over here in the construction fields. It really is amazing how many contractor workers are over here. I have a good friend who is over here flying old Russian Helicopters the money is really good but there is always that risk factor. I don’t know if I would ever be interested in contract flying once I retire or not but I am sure a half million dollar contract really makes you think. My Buddy retired a couple of years back as a CW4 and he bought a cattle ranch out in Texas his home state. I think his plan was just to do this for a couple of years to pay everything off, I wish him the best. Well like I said in earlier post this country is really going green with crops and its starting to look less like a third world country. It’s still not much to look at but I like it a little bit more than a month or so ago. Well I think I will close for now and try to get to that paperwork but I will try to get on later and see what new pictures I have to up load, night all

Spring is in the Air

It’s just about half way over, give or take a week or so. Things have been pretty normal around here for the past few weeks. We have been busy with missions all over the place and we have been doing really well in the sense that we are continuing to round up bad guys and taking out some trash. I have been staying pretty busy with flying and doing some additional work as our master gunner but mostly flying. I think this country will continue to surprise me this summer as it continues to heat up temperature wise. I was told to expect 120s or so and I am really not looking forward to that at all. I think I am totally adjusted to my new shift and it’s actually nice to fly nights it’s a little cooler and I have always enjoyed flying system. Afghanistan is starting to green up a little and it reminds me of Korea a little in that when I first got to Korea it was late fall and once I started to fly around Korea all I saw were dirt fields and filth everywhere and then spring was just around the corner and all the fields turned green and the country became really pretty. Accept for all the bad guys out there Afghanistan is starting to remind me of exactly that, the same thing I remember from Korea. I would much rather be in Korea, I had a good tour there that year. That year started with me and Dad going to Hawaii and a few months later I had a good friend there with me so all in all it was a pretty good year.

We are being told that 1-3 AVN is not on the books at all for future deployments. What this means to me? Well I am in 1-3 AVN and this would mean that I might not be going anywhere for a few years or so. I left for Korea in 2005 and since that time I have been gone so much from home that I will really look forward to a chance to spend some great time with Marie and the Kids. I was in Korea for a year and then it was off to 351 TSBN “training support Battalion” in Savannah which I thought would be great except for the fact that I spent so much time TDY “temporary duty” I mean I lived in an apartment by myself in Atlanta for almost 10 months. Needless to say over the last 6 years I have been gone way way to much and when I heard that we will be in Savannah for at least two years or more it put a big smile on my face. I like Savannah, we have a nice house and the kids are in a great school doing really well what more could I ask for. A boat you say? Well that might be nice, but not really necessary. I do however want to become one with Savannah once I get home I mean there is so much to do down town and you all know how much I like to eat out. I was told by a friend that down on river street there are over two hundred restaurants within two miles and I want to eat at all of them. I am really looking forward to getting my life back and enjoying the simple things and cherishing the things that matter most to me. Life is short, I say this all the time and I truly believe it. I will be forty five next year and there are some things on my list that I want to do. I do not want to try anything crazy but a few of the things I want to try will not be so easy once I am a little older so why wait right. I have about five and a half years till I can retire and that means that I will need to start preparing for that too. I was told that I would be able to retire in Savannah if that is what I wanted and I am ok with this but I sometimes wonder if we might just have one more PCS “permanent change of station” in us. Of course this would have to be something the entire family would have to agree on and I think I would get voted off the island if I tried to suggest this. And part of me totally understands, I mean this place has been home for three and a half years now and I think my girls are getting pretty tight with their friends and I know that Robby is too. I sometimes think about their child hoods as compared to mine and I am at odds with the pros and cons. I mean on one hand they have seen the world, but on the other none of them have any child hood school friends. And to see them all enjoying their friends now I just don’t think I could ever do it again.

But as for me I am sure I will have another one year tour somewhere. I mean I have five and a half years to go I am sure I will be going somewhere. I will try to go to a place that I want to go to. We have assignments in Egypt, Germany, Korea, Netherlands and a few other places that aren’t at war so I will have to see what I can do. Well I need to get off here so I can get to bed I try to go to bed around 09:00 to 10:00 so I can get up at 17:00 or so for diner chow. Till next time try to enjoy the simple things in life, night all

Busy on Nights

Well for starters I have been extremely busy these last few weeks. We now have people going home on mid tour leave and that has taken a toll on our pilot strength. We are running three shifts now and we just don’t have enough pilots so we are all working a bit harder but it gives us some flexibility to adjust fire when we have to. On average I am flying six days a week and that is working out pretty well except for all the other stuff I have to cover down on. But I am sure that I will survive and I am sure everything will work out fine.

We have been doing pretty well these last few weeks as far as missions are concerned. We have rounded up pretty many HVTs and we are starting to see a shift in trouble makers in our AO. A few nights ago we did an infill thirty miles from Salerno or so and the spec ops reported a couple of squirters that we needed to hunt down for them. A squirter is a possible enemy combatant exiting an objective area that we are allowed to use non lethal containment fires on. On this night I was the AMC and I directed my wing man to follow the squirter that went north east and I took the one that went south west. We followed them for a good ways and talked the spec ops guys on to their location. Our ground assets fired some warning shots on the first guy and he stopped so they could detain him. My guy was a little harder to stop, for one thing he ran pretty quick and got some pretty good separation from our ground assets. So we elected to fire some warning shots, at which time he threw his hands up and was ready to surrender. Only one problem though the good guys were still 600 meters or so from his position and after standing there with his hands up for a while he decided to start running again. But buy now our guys were within 150 meters or so and they turned the K-9 loose the dog did a B line straight to the bad guy and took him to the ground. And as it turned out this was our guy, this was the HVT that we were out here to capture, and we got him. It’s nice to be able to do a deliberate mission and actually get your guy.

As for me I am doing well trying to keep a positive attitude and be part of the solution and not be part of the problem. We have a lot of people that need to be reminded that we are here to do a difficult job and now that we are almost half way through our deployment some are getting a little complacent and we need to keep a close eye on each other and do what’s right. I find myself giving little pep talks almost every day and I am ok with doing that but sometimes I just wish that people would just man up and do what they know is right.

I just started to watch the new HBO miniseries called the Pacific and I think it will be just as good as Band of Brothers. I can totally relate to how those guys must have felt back then and I look at my tour here in Afghanistan and I think to myself wow how lucky I am to have what I have. This is nothing like what it would have been like during WW2 or Vietnam I have internet in my private room and three hot meals a day if I want them. I am living pretty well all things considered, I mean we have a PX where I can buy just about everything I need not necessarily everything I want but what I need is usually there. I guess about the only thing that any of us would have in common with the guys from WW2 is what we deal with emotionally. I mean some things don't change it can troubling at times and quite difficult to deal with. Between getting shelled every few nights and what you are asked to do for your Country not to mention the family separation and just the fact that you will be missing out on an entire year of your life not to mention a year of your families lives. It’s a lot to deal with some times and you need to try to keep a level head and think things through. I try to think about it from a child’s perspective, I think to myself what would life be like for the kids over here if we were not here trying to help them. I see all the good we are doing, I see the new schools, I see the new business centers in the small villages and I know that we are making a difference. They want change, they want to be able to live in freedom and go about their own lives without the fear of being killed for no reason what so ever. I talk to my friends at the market and they tell me stories all the time of what changes they are seeing in their towns. They want our help and they no longer want to live in fear, they want to work and they want to have families and be able to raise their children to be new free Afghan's. It is so sad to think about what opportunities their kids will be lucky to have that our kids take for granted, we are so lucky.

I will be flying for the next three nights and I hope that we have good weather for all of our missions. I am waiting for the rainy season to hit and I just keep waiting, it’s only rained about four times since I have been here. I was expecting Monsoons from what I heard from some of my friends that we replaced when I got here. Well for now I must cut this post off I need to go to the office and try to make some calls, night all

Simple Mission, Not

Well I have been on nights now for a week or so and I am finally getting use to the schedule. I try to go to bed as soon as I get off shift and get up for diner chow around 18:00 or so. Tonight we had steak so I guess its Friday and I fly tonight and I am off tomorrow so I am in a pretty good mood. I am sure we will have a deliberate operation tonight like all the other nights I have flown on this shift. Last night’s mission was pretty funny we launched at 03:00 in the morning to go and exfill two HVTs from an area that we in filled the other night. It should have been an easy exfill, escort two UH-60s with two detainee teams one on each 60 into an HLZ that we went into the other night and grab the HVTs and head back to Salerno. Well not so much, it was a red alum night so I had to climb a bit to shoot a couple of IR rockets to help the UH-60 drivers see where they were going. We shot IR rockets about 3000 feet above the HLZ “helicopter landing zone” and they deploy IR flares from the rockets with a parachute and slow fall for about 2 minutes or so giving off illumination so the UH-60 pilots can see better with their night vision goggles. I don’t need this illumination in my aircraft because all I need is heat and we always have heat. So back to my story, I shoot the rockets, light up the HLZ and when the UH-60s are on short final to the HLZ for landing a call comes over the radio that the two detainees’ have escaped. So our easy escort mission turns into a search and recovery mission for the next four hours. I broke station after a refuel stop and additional time of about four hours to RTB “return to base” to Salerno, I never did find out if they eventually found their HVT but while I was there they did uncover some buried weapons and hand grenades. So overall we at least accomplished something.

I got a couple of packages in the mail this week and just wanted to say thanks to all that sent them. It was really nice of all of you to go out of your way and do that for me, Thanks. I am looking forward to my mid tour and it can’t get here quick enough. It’s hard to believe that in a few short weeks I will have been here six months already. Time is going by pretty quick and even quicker when I am flying every day. I will be home in less than 90 days for my mid tour and Marie and I are still trying to figure out what to do with the time. I think we may go to Cincinnati first for a bit and then end up in Savannah for the rest of it and just to spend time together her and I and the Kids. Whatever we decide to do I just hope the time does not go by too quickly. Well unfortunately it is time for me to get off here and go fly so until next time, night all

Air Assault

Well it’s the day after Easter and I am trying to get use to my new shift but it has been really hard so far. I try to stay up as long as I can but I still find myself getting up in the middle of the night or I guess you could say the middle of the day. I go to work at 22:00 and we fly all night and I go to bed around 10:00 or 11:00 and I end up waking up around 14:00 to 16:00. When I need to be in bed till around 21:00, I guess in time it will work out. I have been pretty busy the last few days though as far as missions are concerned. I have been involved in more air assault infill’s than I was ever involved in during the day. And it makes perfect sense really I mean who wants to go look for a bad guy in the middle of the day when we have all the cool night vision equipment at our disposal. On my first night we had a hasty infill for a HVT “high valued target” basically involves us doing the mad dash for a location where we believe there is an HVT. So my AWT "attack weapons team" flew security for two CH-47s who inserted 60 special operations troops and they basically went door to door looking for our HVT. On this particular mission they used the pro word that tells us HVT is in custody and we continued to fly security for them till their exfill. I had total mission success on that one and I was stoked, not one shot fired and no US troop hurt. This was my first air assault as AMC “air mission commander” which basically means that I was responsible for the entire mission and all four aircraft. The next night was more of the same, we are pretty busy on nights and I am sure once I get use to this schedule time will go by pretty quick.

I got onto face book tonight for the first time in a while and I got to watch Robby play a song, an entire song and he is really getting good. I was glad to see that he is putting the time and effort into playing an instrument. Once again Marie great call, you were definitely right on this one for sure. I can’t wait till I can see him play in person I am sure his music gets a little lost in the slow Internet connection that I have. Well as much as I would like to write all night I need to get off here and get to work till next time, night all

I am Tired

Today is the last day of my reset for going to nights and I wish that I could say that I was completely reversed out but not so much. I stayed up last night till 06:30 but I was still up at 11:30 I just don’t get it. I am sure the first week working nights I will just find myself tired but I am sure I will get use to it soon enough. I start tomorrow at 22:00 and I am on for the next three days so I am sure I will get use to it. I spent most of today redoing my gear getting it ready for flying nights you know new batteries and what not it should all be good to go. I also went to our TACOPS “tactical operations center” and got copies of all of our latest gunnery videos so I can start to grade them for our gunnery. They had about thirty more videos for me and I am sure as the summer continues to warm up the numbers will continue to increase.

I hope to be able to call home this weekend to talk to the kids and Marie they are all on spring break and I am sure that they are all going to enjoy their time off from school. I have been trying to clean my room the best that I can with what I have the dust is getting pretty bad and my sinuses are getting pretty stuffy to say the least. I went for a two and a half mile run today and between the altitude and the dust I thought I was going to die out there. We have a pretty good loop around the perimeter of the FOB just inside the Hesco barriers and for the most part it’s all black top except for about one quarter of a mile that is gravel. The real strange thing about running over her is that even though it was 14:00 and in the high eighties and I ran for about twenty five minutes when I got back my shirt was dry. I am not sure if it’s the altitude or what but it seems like your sweat just instantly evaporates. I miss running with Robby it was something that he and I could do together and he was really getting fast I hope that he keeps up with it. I hope that next year he tries out for track or cross country I think he would be very good at it.

Speaking of Robby when I got onto Face book today he had another video of himself playing his new guitar he is getting pretty good I am glad to see that he is putting time into it. I think instruments are good for fully rounding out your kids and helping them to develop into great young adults. I hope that he is keeping up with all of his school work and that he is learning to balance his time between the things that are important and things that are not so important. I know that it’s a struggle sometimes to decide between things that you want to do and things that you know you should do. But I am lucky to have a Son like Robby he always seems to make me proud and I am sure that he is doing exactly that.

As for my girls I can’t even imagine, I am sure that they are both doing well too. I hope that they too are doing well in school and that they are both making me proud as well. I need to try to catch up with Shirley this week end and try to find out what the heck is going on with the e-mail that I got from one of her teachers. I know she likes to talk and I know that her mouth gets her in trouble sometimes but I hope that she is learning to know when it’s appropriate to talk and when she needs to keep her mouth closed. She is definitely my little social butterfly and I think she has some really good friends who have great parents too that will help with keeping our girls on the straight and narrow path. And as for Elli, I can’t wait till I can talk to her on Skype again and watch her do some more of her gymnastics in the bedroom. I miss them all and I can’t wait till the first week in July when I get to come home to see them all. Well I think I am going to cut this one off for now and try to go back into the office for a bit it is 01:00 and I need to stay up for another 13 hours, night all

Nights

Well its 30 march and I have the next three days off so I can reverse out and get ready to fly nights. I will be working from 22:00 till 10:00 for the next few months or so. It should be ok though there are a good group of people on the night shift and I look forward to working with all of them. So for the next three days it’s all about staying up as late as I can and sleeping in as long as I can. The only down side to all of this is that the chow hall has breakfast food for midnight chow and nothing till 06:00 chow which is also breakfast and you all know how much I like breakfast food. So I will have to enjoy lunch as often as I can and that is not served till 11:30 so who knows.

The weather is starting to get pretty warm over here not 130s warm but warm none the less. Today I was taking off out of one of our small FARPs with three bags of gas and I was lucky to get the aircraft over the Hesco barriers with the power I had available. Next time I will have to watch the refuelers a little closer and cut them off before I have too much fuel on the aircraft. The aircraft is pretty smart it knows how much it weighs and as you add fuel it calculates the weight and adjust your performance numbers and it will let you know what it can do. Unless you get caught up in a conversation with your front seater and let the fueler top off all three fuel tanks before you give him the signal to stop putting fuel in your aircraft. I could have hovered around for a bit to burn some fuel / weight off the aircraft but I was supporting an exfill and had to be on station 25 clicks away. So I got the best running start I could and did a cyclic climb over the 20 foot Hesco wall. It seemed really close but I am sure we were at least 5 foot above the wall and off I went to do my exfill. But never again, must be diligent in everything I do here and I need to always set the right example for all the junior guys I fly with. I have flown about 260 hours since I have been here and for the most part most of my front seaters would be lucky to have twice that in flight time. I typically fly with one of the four pilots right out of flight school and I did all of their progressions in Savannah and finished them up here. They are all doing well and I am sure that they will continue to do great and wonderful things during their tours here. The nice thing about nights is we have more of our experience on nights so I will have someone in the front seat that has over 1000 hours or so.

Tomorrow I was asked to take pictures and video of CPT Kittleson’s change of command it’s at 11:30 so that won’t be too bad I am hoping to stay up till about midnight tonight and 2 or 3 tomorrow night I will be reversed out in no time. We are doing it outside and it should be a pretty nice change of command ceremony, it will be my first in a combat zone. I guess I have done and seen a lot of first this year that’s why I am trying to write them all down so I can look back at this blog after I am retired and think to myself what the hell was I thinking.

Tonight I am going to try and call Marie even if I have to use my cell phone to do it. I have not talked to her in a few days and I miss her voice. Plus the last few emails from her have been pretty short so she has some holes to fill as to what is going on over there. Don’t get me wrong I get one from her every day even if it short I still have a smile on my face when I check mail and I see one from her. I need to try and figure out new time to call over to the states based on my new shift too. I am thinking it will be easier to talk to the kids but I might need to sit outside and talk because 5 out of the 6 guys that sleep in my building will be sleeping when I am at work. I am glad I brought cordless phones with me although the walls in this building are 18 inches thick and make it hard to get a good signal. All right enough for now I need to get off of here and try to call home. I hope that you are all well and healthy because our new health care scares me to death and I can’t even imagine what’s to come, night all

Wild Wild West

To start, I had a great day flying around Afghanistan if that’s even possible. This place is like the Wild Wild West sometimes. We live inside this FOB totally self sufficient surrounded by Hesco barriers filled with sand stacked three high with razor wire all in front and on top of them. But yet sometimes we are still awaken by the sound of Big Voice telling us we have in coming rounds. Fortunately this morning no one was hurt by the indirect fire coming into the FOB. I was just going in for my brief so the last QRF crews scrambled out to the aircraft and launched to look for bad guys near all our historic POO “point of origin” sights. We went and had our brief and launched on a deliberate mission and flew 4.5 hours in support of many missions in the AO and then we assumed red con 3. Red con 3 means that we are still postured to launch for QRF but the aircraft are not running and we are near bye ready to go at a minutes’ notice. So back to the Wild Wild West remark, I think it’s crazy that we all walk around this place packing heat. Everywhere else I have been I carried my weapon but I never had a clip in it. But here in Afghanistan it’s the norm for everyone to keep their clips in their weapons at all times. Needless to say no one ever gets into a big argument with anyone because like I said it can be a little like the Wild West.

I called Marie tonight and told her that I will be home the first week in July so she can start to make planes. I went outside to talk to her on my cell phone and she got to experience Big Voice first hand for the first time. We had to launch Dust-Off and then shortly after that announcement we had the call to let the medical staff know that we had one incoming wounded Soldier. We have pro words for everything and I was glad it was the pro word for one wounded Soldier. Sometimes it’s for four or more and that’s when my heart skips a beat. It puts things into perspective and reminds me where I am and that I am living in the Wild Wild West right now and I need to keep my head on a swivel and do my job the best way that I know how.

Well I am off tomorrow then I fly the next three days straight and then I am off for three days to get use to my new shift 22:00 till 10:00. So I will try to stay up late and get use to my new shift in the middle of next week. I hope that the switch is not too hard on me sometimes it’s hard to reverse out 12 hours in such a short time but I got to do what I got to do. I am looking forward to flying nights it’s a little less stressful at times and I like to stay on top of flying night system. Well what do you all think I am doing right now as I sit here and type on my blog? That’s right I am listening to all the new music that I have just put on my iPod and a great song just came on that reminds me so much of Marie. E.C. you look wonderful tonight. On that note I think I will let you all go for tonight but first I want to say thanks to Lynda and Sharyn for their thoughtful packages that they sent, Thank You both that was really nice of both of you. I am sure I will post more tomorrow since I am off till then, night all

Going to Nights

Going to nights, well I just got the news that next week I will be going to deep nights. Their schedule is from 22:00 till 10:00 so it will be a little bit to get use to. They fly about the same amount that we do on my shift that I am flying right now so as far as flight time it will be about the same. They don’t have as many AMC’s “Air Mission Commanders” so I will fly a few more days a week than I do on my shift that I fly now but that is ok with me. After all it helps the time pass when I am on the schedule more often so I am looking forward to the change. I think the only shift that I would not like to be on is the one that starts at 14:00, those guys will be going out to preflight their aircraft in the heat of the day. I was told the other day that the summer temps here can get into the high 120s so no thanks with that shift. I am sure I will shed some more pounds once the summer gets here I have already noticed that I do not have the apatite that I had when I got here.

I was able to catch up with Marie last night on the phone and it was really nice, I wish that I could talk to her a few times a day but with the time difference that is just not possible. I went outside my building to talk to her on my cell phone and I asked her about the moon not realizing that in Savannah it was the middle of the day. On some of my other trips back in the states when we were only on opposite ends of the country I use to tell her to look at the moon when I was and it was something we could share, not so much from here. But hey we had a nice conversation anyway and it made my night that much nicer, thanks Marie.

Well it finally happened, last night we had a bad shoot. The ground commander cleared the crews to engage some targets that turned out not to be targets. Fortunately no US soldiers were hurt but two people did lose their lives and that is something the crews will have to deal with for a long time I really feel for them. I have said all along that when I leave here I will be ok with everything that I have done as long as I don’t make that mistake, I truly feel for those guys. It’s so hard over here because there are so many on the battle field that are not in any kind of uniform ANP “Afghani National Police” ANA “Afghani National Army” ASG “Afghani Security Guard” not to mention lots of the local tribes have their own militia. So you see it can be extremely difficult to PID “positively identify” the bad guys. And when all hell is breaking out on the ground when our forces are in contact with the enemy sometimes mistakes happen. Tactical patients is the ability to look at things from a distance and figure out the best course of action as far as what to shoot and what not to shoot. But sometimes when the ground unit is in contact screaming over the radio for help decisions have to be made.

On a lighter note, and it’s not 100% yet but it looks like I might be getting out of here the first week in July for my mid tour not August. Keep your finger crossed I f this happens I will be home when the kids are out of school and that will allow us to do whatever we want. So I am sure we will come to Cincy for a bit if it works out and then do something as a family just the 5 of us. I can’t wait to see everyone I will post my dates when it is for sure. Well I think I am going to get some dinner and relax for a bit. I tried to upload a movie today but after two hours the connection dropped and that was just to much pain I will try again once our internet is better. Till next time, night all

Down South

Yesterday I flew 5.3 hours in support of some dismounted troops in the most southern portion of our area of operation. Needless to say our mission was totally uneventful and all our dismounted troops went home or should I say back to their FOB unscathed. So for me it was a good day and I was glad to be there for them. I have come to the conclusion that when 64’s are over head the bad guys aren’t much for coming out to play. And I don’t blame them, they are not stupid people they have been at war for most of their lives and they have learned a thing or two. I found out from our S2 that the average life expectancy for an Afghani male is only 40 years old and 44 for a female. I can’t even imagine what that must be like to hit your twenties and know that your life is already half over. Most of the men over here have been fighting for more than two thirds of their lives. Between the tribal feuds and border enemies and the Russians and now the US I can’t even begin to think how these people feel. And let’s not forget that only a small few are literate so as far as teaching them what we are here to try and get accomplished is next to impossible. I think if they truly knew what our intentions are they would be extremely grateful to have us here in their Country building roads and schools and the entire infrastructure to help with clean water and electricity. We are trying so hard to win the minds of these people and to show them a better life for their families that sometimes we are limiting our ability to win this war. And let’s not forget it is still a war and they are still hurting our troops every day whether we build them a new school or not.

Well as for me I am doing pretty well, I find that if I keep busy I have no time to think about things that I would rather be doing. I try to call home and talk to Marie and the kids as often as I can and that surely helps. I am listening to a lot of music and watching too many TV shows but I think once I get home I will be able to cut out the TV from my routine fairly easily. I have been trying to get out with my cameras as often as I can to take pictures of everything I see. I am going to try to go out on a ground patrol with one of my friends to one of the villages near our FOB to take pictures and video of the locals as he passes out some of his 400 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I think it would be nice to go into the little town near us and spread some tooth decay, just kidding. I just think it would be nice to put faces to all the people that I see every day from the air and never really connect to. Alright I am off tomorrow too and I want to get on here sometime before I fly again and try to put up a video so I will cut this post short for now, night all

CH-47 Chase

What can I say, I had a nice day. I am not on the schedule tomorrow and the day after that I am getting my tooth fixed so what more can I ask for. I once again sit here in my room listening to my iPod which is packed plum fool of new music and I can’t ask for anything more than that. On a lighter note I took some pretty good pictures today and I am going to try to post them tonight if the connection holds out. I escorted a CH-47 all over Afghanistan today and I can safely say they made it home safe and sound. After all that is my job to keep them safe and sound and out of harm’s way.

I think if there was another aircraft that I would like to fly it would be the CH-47 it can carry almost anything and they are pretty awesome to follow around. I think their mission would get pretty mind-numbing after a while just moving things from point “A” to point “B” but I think it would be pretty cool for a short time. I still think my mission is the best you can have in Army Aviation. I mean after all, to keep people safe and to ridding the world of bad guys makes for a pretty rewarding career.

I have been trying to get my video camera out a bit more often and I am trying to capture little videos of all the people that I am working with they are all such great people. I hope to stay in touch with all of them for a long time, they are really good folks and I am a better person for knowing them. Alright I need to cut this off so I can put a few pics up with this post, till next time, night all

Missing

Wow, what can I say? My first really bad day and I didn’t even fly. I can’t really put my finger on it per say it’s just a lot of little things that all added up to let me know that I am not in Kansas anymore. Things seem to be going pretty well for the most part time seems to be passing pretty quick and I have so many new friends here and we all seem to be doing pretty well. I haven’t heard the siren to alert us of incoming in week’s, big voice has been pretty active lately and that in itself gets a little depressing but we have not lost anyone in a while. So I guess I am just having a bad day, they happen and there is not much I can do about it. I was talking to CPT K. this afternoon he and his wife just had their first child and his son is 15 or 16 months and I truly feel for him. At that age they change so much and there is so much to see and do, so many first and he will miss them all I truly feel for him. He is pretty religious and I know he feels in his heart the same way that I do, that we are here for a greater purpose.

I am on mission tomorrow with Jen and my buddy Bob from flight school and his front seater will be in the other aircraft I have no idea if we have a deliberate mission yet or not but I am sure it will be a six plus hour flight. We are flying six plus most of the time these days there is always so much to do once we get off the ground. Everybody and his brother needs us yesterday to come to their aid and I hate it when we can’t be everywhere to help everyone. Just our presence in the area brings the shooting to a quick halt. The bad guys are getting pretty good with their early warning as to when we will arrive, not that it helps them all the time because most times they will never shoot at US forces ever again.

Tomorrow night the primary staff is having a meeting to discuss PDSS “Pre Deployment Sight Survey” which is when the Unit that is coming over here to replace us comes over to get a good idea what to expect and how they might want to adjust their training to better support their mission. If you all recall last May I went on a PDSS to Iraq to help determine manning shortages for one of the CABs that we were getting ready to deploy. It was kind of an eye opener to me; this was my first look at what is going on over here in OEF and OIF. The last experience that I had with being in a combat zone was Kosovo, and I am happy to report that times have changed and conditions have improved tenfold, thank God. I was looking at some pictures that I had on my computer of A troop 6-6 CAV when we were in Kosovo the other night. And it made me think of some great people, Mike and Keith from my troop and Kevin and Dave from C troop. All four of them are Hero’s to me, they were truly great Americans and I was lucky to have served with them, I will never forget them.

Well this post is going south quick so I need to try to bring it around as best I can. I am going to try to call home and talk to my best friend for a while that always brings a smile to my face. She is doing such a great job keeping the home fires burning for me. I would like to think that it is because she is getting some help from my great kids but I will never know. I was able to get on line last weekend and Skype with them for a bit that is always the highlight of my week. I love to watch Elli do her gymnastics and to talk to the kids is the best medicine out there for homesickness. If I have not said it before, I am the luckiest guy on the planet to have Marie by my side and Robby, Shirley and Elizabeth as my kids. I am truly blessed and I know it.

Tonight I will spend some more time trying to get out of my bad mood and it should be easy with all I have to be thankful for but none the less I will listen to some music and look and picture of the ones I love so much and later I will try to call. But for now I will close and promise to try to get on here more often than I have in the last few weeks. This really does help, it helps me to put things into perspective, and Life is short I need to put my effort into things that I have control over and forget about the rest. Because as we all know the rest is in good hands and we can’t change the outcome, what happens just happens, night all

Off today

I flew last night for 5.4 hours and got my NVS reset done. It was nice to get out there and fly around in the dark for a change; it’s almost imposable for the bad guy to see us at night. But then again it’s a little harder for us to see them too but that sure doesn’t stop us from finding them. So after flying last night and getting a little off schedule I was off today so I could get back the 05:00 to 17:00 shift. I am on tomorrow with one of our new LT’s I am not sure if we have any deliberate Ops or not but I am sure it will be a long day again. We have been pretty busy lately on day shift like I said in earlier post the bad guys are coming out of the woodwork not that the weather is getting a little nicer in the mountains.

Today I added many new songs to my iPod that I got off our internet server. We have a collection on there that is unbelievable I have never seen so much music in one place. Not to mention the music is all perfectly categorized and they have everything. From Jazz, classical, country to Rock, they have everything. So needless to say I had to grab it all about 250 Gigs worth. I am sure Marie will be excited when I bring it home with me. I spent a great deal of time listening to a variety of music from all sorts of artist today as I added them to my iPod. It made for a pretty relaxing day, it almost made up for last night and all the chaos that I dealt with last night during my flight.

Afghanistan is an extremely poor country with many poor people just trying to get buy. For the most part I think they all have good hearts and want to live a peaceful life but sometimes the decisions that they make change their lives forever. As much as I would like to look the other way and try not to see the bad in these people I can’t. I truly believe that by holding them to a higher standard and not looking the other way I am weeding out the bad to make room for the good. And after all isn’t that what I am here for, to help this country make changes for the better of all Afghani’s. I will continue to fly in support of many missions for the remainder of my tour here and if anything, I think it will just continue to get busier as the summer approaches.

Have I mentioned how inspirational music has become to me lately? It really is amazing, I have never really had much of an interest in music and now I find myself listening all the time. I can’t wait till I get home and I can listen to Robby play his guitar over Skype it sounds like he is getting pretty good. I wonder what kinds of music my kids will be interested in as they grow up? I hope they don’t get too crazy with their music but I am sure to me it will be crazy no matter how mellow it is. Well I was wanting to tell another story about one of the locals that works in the laundry building but its 21:00 and I need to cut this post off so I can call home and talk to Marie and the kids. It’s mid Saturday at home and I want to talk to all of them before they scatter to the wind. Well before Shirley starts her day, she is quite the social butterfly these days and she usually has a pretty busy weekend planed out by mid week, night all

NVS reset

Well it’s starting to get pretty busy over here. The weather is getting nicer and we are seeing signs of the natives getting restless. I am on tomorrow night so tonight I am trying to stay up as long as I can to try to reverse out a bit. I have not flown night system in a while so I am actually looking forward to it. We are trying to figure out a way to make it as easy as we can for everyone to stay current both NVS and NVG “night vision system and night vision goggles”. We have to fly system one hour every 60 days to stay proficient. I think we would all like to fly night system more than just the minimum but we can’t all be on that shift. I am on from 05:00 till 17:00 or so and as you can imagine I do not get the opportunity to fly in the dark much.

We are all dealing with some of the new rules of engagement and the time it takes to get approval from a ground commander in our own way. All I can say is it’s not helping matters much from where I sit again I wish the politicians would let us do our job and they would do theirs.

Joe left for home yesterday and I already can’t wait till he returns. I hope he has a great visit with his family and I hope he has a great time state side. He was really looking forward to going home he just wished that his date to go home was closer to the middle of our tour. Unlike mine towards the end of our tour his was pretty early. All I can say is that when I get back from my midtour I will not have much time left in country so that is a good thing right. Oh well time is going by pretty quickly I can’t complain this entire tour will be over before I know it.

I will be trying to get more video now that I have a new drive to back all the video up to. I have not been taking as much video since I was all out of hard drive space but I just got my new 2tb drive and I again have room for days. I am trying to capture as much of this country as I can both on video and with my pictures. I tried to get approval to go on a RCP “route clearing patrol” and the boss said no again. One of our other IPs family sent him 6 packages of girl scout cookies and he was wanting to go out into some of the towns and give them out and I was hoping to go and take pictures and video but the Boss doesn’t think it is such a good idea. Don’t get me wrong I have great respect for the Boss he is a good man and I would follow him anywhere. He has a difficult job to accomplish here. He sends guys into harm’s way every day and I know he does not take his job lightly.

The night before last HHC company commander came to my room about 01:00 to tell me to come in on my day off to possibly fly with the Boss and do an escort mission if one of our UH-60s could not make it. We were just the backup aircraft in case one of the 60s broke. As I have mentioned before we do not fly single ship in this country it is just too dangerous. Unless we are doing training in the vicinity of Salerno, as an IP I can fly single ship as long as I stay within 10 miles of the airfield. I did a great deal of this when I first got here it was my job to progress all our RL3 aviators to RL2. Once I got them all to RL2 I was no longer flying single ship every night. And I can actually say that I don’t miss all the traffic pattern flight. It is nice to go out and do missions with other aircraft. Well I am going to try and get some pictures around the FOB today so I am going to cut this post short for now, night all

My Boy makes me Proud

Wow all I can say is this is my 80th post and I had no idea that I would be still at it. I am glad that I have had the desire to get on here and talk about what is going on with me this year in Afghanistan. Today I spent some time moving pictures to a new drive that I got in the mail and I came across one in particular that really made me smile and I will post it tonight with this blog entry. I think it was from Germany based on how old Robby was but I am not sure. Kids are so precious, they are full of questions, they think of their parents as super heroes and there is nothing in the world that you would not do for them. I am lucky to have the three great kids that I do, Marie and I are so proud of all of them.
This afternoon I spent some time doing paper work and that was about it I had a pretty nice day off. I even got to Skype with the kids a little bit and that made my day that much more enjoyable. I am on the schedule tomorrow and I am not sure if we have a deliberate mission or not but I am sure we will fly between 5 to 7 hours that is getting to be the normal amount these days. So I need to get done and post my pictures and go to bed. I do hope that you all like them they brought a smile to my face today but then again he is my son, night all

Sitting at the gas station

Well it’s been a few days since I have written so I will try to catch up with all that is going on. It should not be hard really the weather has been pretty crappy lately and we have not been flying as much. But that is not to say that the bad guys have not been pretty busy because they have been out in force. I was reading in the news that our rules of engagement are going to become more restrictive and that we are going to be somewhat limited as to what we will be able to do in the hours of darkness. I am glad that the politicians are so educated on how to win armed conflicts. All I can do is hope that lives will not be lost while we are soft knocking on Afghani homes during the daylight hours. I think it’s hard to understand sometimes how war can have so many rules. I mean after all it’s a war right, I thought it was all about the good guys going after the bad and being relentless in our search to find and eliminate them. Alright I will change the subject, I had a bad day and it’s over now so I need to move on.

I am pretty excited about finally having a definite date to go home on my midtour. I look forward to seeing everybody especially Marie and the Kids. Speaking of them I am also looking forward to getting on line with them tonight and Skyping. I finally have a pretty good internet connection and I think it will be pretty good tonight. I was out flying yesterday and I took some pictures and I want to put them up tonight as well. The weather was not that great but the clouds were pretty and the mountains were even more beautiful than usual. So I will see how long it will take to put up a few pictures tonight on my new internet.

I hope the weather in Cincinnati is starting to break and the snow is behind all of you. I can honestly say that I don’t miss it at all, not that I don’t like snow because I truly do. I got hooked on skiing when I was in Germany and bought my first pair in Korea were I was on the slopes every chance that I had. But it’s nice to live in the south with the warmer weather. I truly think the harsh cold weather is hard on you not that the heat of the sun is not just as hard on your body it’s just that I think cold weather is worse. So on that bit of advice I will expect all of my family members to move to the south were we will all live to the ripe old age of 100 or so. Just kidding, what I really need is for some of you to move out west near the mountains and the rest of you to tropical islands so Marie the Kids and I have places to go on vacation. Speaking of vacations I have spent a lot of time over here thinking of vacations and believe me I have plenty of time to think. I would like to plan a trip to Alaska and try to get as many of the family involved in this trip as we can. It was the one place that my day wanted to go but ran out of time. I think about him a lot over here too. I think he lived a great life; everyone who knew him would have to say that his life was pretty rich. Not in a monetary sense but in a fulfillment sort of way. I remember the week I was lucky enough to spend with him in Hawaii, all we did is walk around and take pictures of everything, and I mean everything. Taking pictures was a true passion that we both shared that truly brought us closer together later in my life. I say it all the time that things happen for reasons that we may not understand. But the reason my friend Barry dislocated his elbow the week before he and I were scheduled to go to Korea was so Dad and I could spend that week together. And that week I will never forget for as long as I live.

As for Afghanistan, not much has changed over here except for the ROE, some of you might have to look that one up. But I am doing well just a little tired from a very busy week I flew 5 days and racked up almost 20 hours even with the bad weather. And that is the big reason I have not posted much recently. I will cut this one off right here and try to add some of the pictures I took yesterday. I think the mountains were beautiful, night all