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