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