BAF

Not much to say about BAF, 400 guys living in a big tent all waiting to get sick from the years of dust and filth. But lucky for me I am still healthy after 5 days all ready in this tent so I can't complain. I am being told that we might fly to Manas late tonight and that would be great time will tell and we will see. I have been spending a lot of time with Bob he and I are trying to keep each others spirits up. It is kind of hard to do in this place there are so many things to bring you down, nothing to do and nowhere to go and the worst of it is there is no privacy at all we are stacked in here like sardines its crazy but this time next week and i will be at the house so what am I complaining about right, Right. Well chow tonight was pretty good after all it was veterans day and they try to make holidays as nice as they can. I will try to get a post out at Manas but you never know what will be available so till next time, night all

The Light is brite

Wow I am at a loss for words; I don’t know where to start. I guess it’s because this is the end, tonight at 2200 I drop off my bags and then at 0200 I load the C-130 for BAF. In a few hours I will go to eat my last meal in the chow hall and wait till I load the plane. I will not miss this place, but I will miss all the great people that I have met that aren’t Vipers. Most of them are from the 101^st and they still have some time before they get to leave. I wish them all the best and continued success in the challenging mission that they have in front of them.

My next post should be from BAF we are expected to be there for 4 to 6 days. I can only tell you that I am not looking forward to it, we will all be living in a great big fest tent and if one person is sick well you get the picture. After that I will be in Manas which is in Kirgizstan don’t know about the spelling but that is what it sounds like. We should only be there for a couple of days and then it will be off to Savannah by way of either Germany or Ireland. I am so excited to be going home after all that I went through this year and I can’t wait to spend time with Marie and the kids. I am a lucky man, I have been given so much and life has definitely allowed me so many great opportunities. This year will not go down in my history book as my favorite year by any means, but I know that we have made a difference over here and I am so proud to have been a part of it. Until BAF, night all

Going Home

Going home!! What can I say, I am excited to be going home but I hope for the best for Task Force Tiger Shark’s in what is ahead of them. This country still needs our help and I hope they are able to make some great changes before we withdraw completely. I spent all day today at the post office trying to get my last minute things off to Marie it totaled three more boxes with insurance over 110 bucks go figure. But after all the horror stories from TF Tiger Shark and all of their personal containers being broken into in the wonderful Country of Pakistan what’s another 110 bucks. I also packed up my flight gear into one of our containers for shipment home it was bitter sweet but more sweet. I flew over 750 hours in about 10 and a half months taking away the midtour trip home and a few weeks on the front end and the back end. I wish I would have kept better statistics on what all I did over here as far as missions are concerned but I did not. All I know is as a task force we flew about 900 to 1100 hours a month and that was just the Apache’s. As for munitions we shot over one hundred and fifty thousand pieces of ordinance. The rest will go down in the history books and speaking of history books I was interviewed for my part in the FOB attack on 28 Aug just the other day by a military historian. They told us that it is standard set for anyone who is put in for an Air Medal with a V device, I felt a little silly at first but I think I was able to keep it to the facts. That was by far the craziest day of my tour the interviewer seemed a little stunned when I answered her question as to at what part on that day was I most scarred. I told her that I was more scared running to our TOC with the machine gun fire going all over and running through the concrete barriers towards the TOC and finding myself looking down the barrel of an M-16 being held by a frightened teenager. I told her that once I got to the aircraft I was good and once we were airborne even with all the tracer fire coming up from what seemed like every direction I was great. I was sitting in my office and I had five hours of work to get done that morning, and that is just what we did. Five hours later FOB Salerno and FOB Chapman were safe and it was over. This would turn out to be the second biggest engagement that Task Force Viper would be in this year and once again no US or coalition forces killed.

My last flight in country was with Jennifer Hakeman and we flew 4.7 hours last night and we also flew some flags so I am going to add a picture with this post and I am going to try and get the rest of my packing done tonight so I am going to cut this one off, so till next time, night all

Almost Done

Getting down to the wire, only 5 more days and one more flight before I leave this place. I am trying to do all the last minute packing and shipping so that my trip home is easy on me and quicker through Customs. We are slated to leave Manas on 13 November but this is always subject to change. I do know that it is really cold in Manas and all I have left for cold weather gear is my fleece jacket so I am going to freeze my tail off for sure. We are still having engagements which I was sure would slow down drastically once the weather got a little colder but it is what it is. I am in the middle of my turn over with the new Task Force Master Gunner and once that is done and I fly my last flight I will be finished and just waiting to fly out of here. I will try to post updates as to where I am and when I am flying for my trip home, night all