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

HGST Complete

Monday night, had a pretty good day for the most part. I was not on the flight schedule so I was able to get caught up with all my master gunner stuff. I spent most of my time grading all the HGST and getting them posted on the server. I was pretty happy with the results, we had an average score of 94 percent which means that everyone paid attention in all of the classes and studied for the test. I was pretty happy with how it all turned out.

I went to the Bizarre to buy the fifth season to Alias which is another TV show that I have gotten addicted to and I was there for at least an hour talking to the brothers. They have so many stories about their Country I could write a book about them. The elder is 34 and his younger brother is 31 they sell movies and video games that they get from China. I asked them what they thought about the Americans being in their Country and they immediately started in on how much safer their Country is now as compared to ten or fifteen years ago. But they also told me that even though they are the majority in the way that they think there are still Afghani people that fear the US Soldiers. I asked them to explain and they went into great detail about what happens to some of these remote villages when the Taliban come into the towns. They told me that they are told horrific stories about Americans murdering and raping woman and children and it is believed to be true because 95% of the Afghani from the small villages up in the mountains are illiterate and if the Taliban tell them this it must be true. When I asked them for a good number, a percentage, of how many of their fellow Country man like the Americans here they both said about 90 to 95% which I thought was pretty good. I then asked if they thought we were making a difference and they both told me that in many ways we are making great improvements and in some we are going backwards. I asked them to explain and they told me a few more sad stories of how they lost good friends to the corruption in the ANP “Afghanistan National Police”. It sounds like the Police are pretty corrupt and you can’t trust them all the time. But they did say that there are good people all over just a few rotten apples that bring the whole thing down. I told them of a flight that I had a few day earlier where I came across and ANP convoy that struck an IED. The IED hit the second vehicle which was an unarmored truck kind of like a small pickup and it cut the vehicle in half. I was diverted to their location to secure it for Dustoff to come in and get the wounded out. My first report to higher was that it looked like the trailer attached to the lead vehicle was destroyed which was not the case after we came down a little closer we were able to see the other half of the truck. The front axle and the rear axle were probably 25 yards apart and at first glance all we saw was the front of the truck. Five minutes later Dustoff was on location trying to do all they could to get the wounded out. We often support ANP and ANA “Afghanistan National Army. The brothers did tell me that the ANA are all the good guys that they have many friends that have joined to try to make a difference in their Country. They both told me stories of friends and family that have joined the ANA and that they are trying to do whatever they can to make their Country better. I guess the biggest thing that I took away from my conversation with the brothers is that they both seemed hopeful that their Country has a chance. They told me that their economy is doing better and that people are finding work and that wages are getting better. They both thanked me for being here and both became emotional, I told them that I was proud to be a guest in their Country and that I was glad to be able to help. I explained to them that I wanted for their children all of the opportunities that my children have and that I appreciated their sacrifice and the risk they take to come into my FOB to work. It’s so hard sometimes to talk to these guys over here about what is going on in their lives. I have no idea; I can’t imagine in a million years what it would be like to live in a Country that has been at war for as long as their Country has. They have never known peace or what it would be like to have freedom and choice. But yet they are so hopeful and they have such great optimism I find myself in a better mood after I go to the Bizarre and talk with the Afghani workers. I hope that someday they do have a chance of a normal life where they don’t have to worry about being kidnapped or murdered for what they have done here on this FOB.

As for me I am doing pretty well, four months down and eight to go. I can do this on my head if I have to. I think deep in my heart and in my mind I know we are making a difference and the end result will be that my time here will affect many lives, not just mine. I need to get off here so I can call my best friend and tell her that I finally got an official date for my mid tour. I have owed her that for some time know I can’t wait to see her, night all

Rain Rain Rain

Oh where to start, let’s see I was off today because the weather was so bad we could not see the end of the airfield. So I spent most of the day trying to get caught up on paper work it was most exciting to say the least. I really don’t have much to talk about tonight the day was uneventful and rainy all day. But it has been a few days since I last wrote on my blog so I wanted to jot down a few lines to talk about what is going in my life. First I think I am addicted to TV shows, well at least a few that I got from Joe. It’s so funny before I came to Afghanistan all I ever watched on TV was the news and now I think the news is the last thing I really care about. I mean after all I am over here living the news every day and the last thing I want to see before I go to bed is headlines about what is going on over here. So far so good, 1-3 out of Savannah has not lost anyone yet and for that we are all thankful. I am sure once the weather goes full swing this summer things will heat up a bit but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

We have some new units switching out right now and it has been really crowded here at FOB Salerno. Mostly in the chow hall occasionally we have a line to wait in to get lunch or dinner. You know me never was much for breakfast that is a meal that I will always skip I typically get to meals a day and that is plenty for me. I will not complain about the food for the most part it has been pretty good they have a really good chocolate cheese cake that I really like and as much as I try to limit how often I eat it I tend to eat one every day. The one thing that I really miss is real milk, we have pretty good soy milk that I drink pretty often but it’s not the same.

I met a pilot from the Alabama National Guard and we had a nice conversation yesterday he was telling me all about what kinds of jobs are available right now for pilots and what most companies are looking for as far as experience goes. Talking to him it sounds pretty promising to be able to stay in Savannah, it sounds like there are plenty of jobs in the area. And as I have told so many of you I am not looking for much I would just like to get a nice EMS job somewhere close to home. I like Savannah and it’s not Cincinnati but it is growing on me not to mention my kids and their friends. I truly hope to finish my career at Hunter Army Airfield I truly like it in the south. Marie may have some trouble with the bugs sometimes but I think after time she too will learn to love the area. We truly do have so much to see and do in the savannah area and when I get home I want to do it all. I think we may revisit the Boat idea too, living so close to so many boat ramps and being so close to the water I think we need to take advantage of it. Or we could always buy a nice plane I would like that just as much. With a plane we could take trips up north as often as we want, of course we would have to get a twin though. And if we had twin I know I would be trying to take the family all over the place. Some day when we are older maybe this will be easier to pull off. Right know we need to figure out how to get three kids through school and set them up for success. Not that I think this will be a problem, on the contraire we are lucky to have the most wonderfully, bright and gifted kids in the world. And for that Marie and I are truly blessed, truly.

Well I am really jumping around with this post aren’t I. You know I usually sit down here at my computer with some sort of idea as to what I want to talk about. It usually has something to do with something that happened to me at a given time or something that happened during one of my flights. However if it was from one of my flights, I usually have to sit here and think carefully about every word that I write. Not that I have national secrets floating around in my head because for the most part I don’t. But there are so many things that we do on a day to day basis that can’t be shared with the bad guy because there is always the chance that it could put good guys in harm’s way. And like I have told you all so many times before I can deal with doing many things while I am here in Afghanistan but the one thing that scares me more than anything else is the thought of hurting a good guy. I think we are doing all we can do to mitigate the risk of hurting friendlies. The other day I flew security for a ground convoy for over 5 hours they only traveled about 20 miles but it is a huge ordeal to keep them safe. This is probably one of the jobs that I like the best I truly feel like I am making a huge difference. I am keeping these guys who are so vulnerable safe and out of harm’s way. We have many tactics to complete this mission and so many things that we must do as pilots to make it a successful mission. But nothing beats the call I get when that last vehicle passes through that gate into their FOB and I know that they are safe. As most of you know we are losing more troops over here to IEDs and VBIEDs that convoy security although it is not very sexy is so so important. Well my word counter says that I am over 1000 so I know that I need to cut this post off. My final thought, almost four months down and I am really looking forward to going home for a break, NIGHT ALL

QRF Flight

Music and my new Friend

Music, I never thought that I would ever say that music could change my life. But I was wrong. I was always a talk show kind of guy, you know news shows and business and investing. And I always loved the show Dead Doctors don’t lie that I use to listen to in Alabama. But know I listen to just about anything, Pop, Jazz, Rock even country it really doesn’t matter to me at this point. It’s really all about what they are saying, you know the story that they try to tell. Most songs are small stories mixed with music and sometimes you really have to listen to understand what it was that the artist was trying to say. I have my favorites and they really touch me some of the songs remind me of home and others remind me of friends and family. I think I will never be the same person once I get out of here, not in a bad way either I think I see things much clearer now and I feel that I will be a better Dad to my kids, Husband to my wife, brother to my siblings and friend to all. Today I was at the bizarre and I spent some time talking to one of the Afghani guys that risk his life to come onto our FOB to sell us things from his country. His Dad was killed by the Russians and his mother raised him the best she could. They had nothing he and his brother and sister shared everything, everything. They did not always have enough to eat and he was the only child that could go to school. I could not totally understand what he was saying about school but I think he only went for 5 or 6 years. He now has children of his own and he is trying to provide for them the best that he can. Both of his boys are going to school he sees to it every day that they are safe at school before he comes to our FOB. Then he walks for almost an hour to get to a location where he is picked up and transported to another location where he is screened by security and then loaded on a bus with blacked out windows and driven onto our FOB. The Bizarre is open from about 0930 till 1430 and know I understand why. One of his friends who came from a richer family use to drive to the security check point and ride the bus onto the FOB with him. A month or so back his friend was killed in his car when it blew up trying to get to work. His job was to come onto the FOB and sell handmade rugs to American Soldiers and contractors. The pain in his eye when he told me about his friend really got to me I see all the guys that come onto our FOB and I try to think about what kind of lives they have when they leave the safety of our FOB. I find it so sad that their lives have to be put in harm’s way just for them to try and make money to give their children a chance at a normal life here in Afghanistan. I use to go to the bizarre and talk these guys down on their prices just like I use to do in Korea and now I find myself going to the bizarre and asking them how much is something and I pay what they ask. The average household annual income in Afghanistan is 300 US dollars unless your family is in the Poppy business and then it’s around 6,500 dollars for the family. The men that come on our FOB do not grow drugs they are screened by security and watched pretty closely. I am sure that they are making much more that the average wage for their country but given the fact that they are all risking their lives to be here hardly seems worth it. My new friend at the bizarre is full of questions; he wants to know all about America. All he has to go by is what he sees in the movies. He has no idea about what freedom is like he has no idea what it would be like to live in a country where you can go to work and not be in fear of being killed for what you are doing. To let your kids go to school and rest assured that you will see them after. To have a chance to make something of your life and make decisions for yourself and your family that won’t get you killed. He is a good man and I respect him for what he does and for the sacrifices that he makes on a daily basis for his family. I will never know what it would be like to walk in this man’s shoes for one day. All he has been through all of the family and friends he has lost and yet he has only kind things to say about everything, I can’t understand how someone can be so forgiving and yet he so sincerely is. I think Afghanistan is filled with many good people and a few bad and it is a real shame that we only know of the few bad. I will keep you updated on my new friend who will remain nameless for his own safety and what is going on in his life through all of this but for now I will close this post, night all

Some picture of the mountains

Long Long Day

Wow, where to start. Yesterday I flew 7 hours and with three fuel stops I was in the aircraft for over 9 hours all said and done. We completed just about every mission type imaginable in theater. Fortunately no harm came to anyone that we supported, covered, escorted or responded to from a call over the radio. So in my mind the day was a total success, just a little longer than I would have liked. I was flying with one of our new pilots and they did a great job keeping eyes on all that we needed to keep eyes on. Someday I think it would really be cool to round up all these people that I am becoming such great friends with for a 20 year reunion or something like that. I truly feel that the bonds that are formed in situation like this withstand the test of times. Speaking of those bonds I was talking to a great friend last night and I found out that he might not be coming to my FOB. I was really hoping that he would be coming here and that I could give him the welcome that I gave him once before when he came to Korea. He will be coming over here to replace us near the end of this year and his unit will also be divided into three or four Task Force and sent to different locations in Afghanistan.

I sometimes forget how fragile things are over here and then I notice little things in my daily routine that make me aware of where I am and what is going on. Like simple things missing in the chow hall which means that we have not gotten supplies for a while or no one gets any mail for a whole week and then it’s like the post office is packed with packages and letters and they have no room. Then wham it hits me, Rob you’re not in Savannah anymore you are in this place where you have no control over anything in your life not your food or your time or anything that is important to you. I will walk everywhere I go, I will eat what is made or go hungry and I will work as much as I am needed no matter how I feel or how much I need a break. But at the end of the day, I feel that I have done all that I can to make a difference in this place that I am just visiting for one short year of my life and I am truly OK with it all.

Back to yesterday and my 7 hour flight, we escorted some Ch-47s into a FOB that is considered High Risk because of the amount of indirect and direct fire that they get on a daily basis. I was circling at 10,500 feet and my wing man was the low bird flying close security for two aircraft that were shooting their approach into the FOB. When Apaches are on station the bad guys scatter like roaches when you turn on the lights and our CH-47 pilots know this and they are always so happy to see us when they have to do combat resupply to some of these more dangerous FOBs. I went to flight school way back when and I was sent down to Ft Rucker to learn how to fly the Cobra. For those of you that don’t know the Cobra is also a gunship, it is a single engine attack platform similar to the Apache Longbow. But half way through flight school the state of Indiana lost the Cobra so I had two options OH-58A/C or UH-1 Hueys and you all know how that turned out. So I flew the UH-1 till 1998 when I came into the Army to learn how to fly the AH-64A. So you see things happen for a reason, I was meant to fly an attack platform and even though I did not get from the start I would end up flying guns eventually. And I am loving every minute of it, it is pretty cool to be given the chance to fly the most advanced attack helicopter this world has ever known. I am a member of a small group people who like to call themselves Apache drivers. Like I have said before in some of my previous post in May of 1998 I quit my job, and I have not worked ever since. Night all

HGST Complete

Another nice day off, well sort of I spent most of it writing a new HGST “helicopter gunnery skills test”. But the rest of the day I relaxed a bit and it was nice, very nice. Tomorrow I am on QRF and I am not sure if we have any deliberate missions or not I will just have to wait and see. Just got back from chow and buy was it lacking tonight, did I mention that it was not that good? Oh well I will try not to complain because I know that it does nothing and there are some things that you just can’t change and the chow hall is one of those things.

I spend a lot of time thinking about home, more specifically Savannah. When I get home, I mean home for good I want to become very familiar with everything that down town Savannah has to offer. I read somewhere that near River street there are over 200 restaurants within one mile and I want to eat at all of them. They also have a great deal of history in the area and I want to learn about all of it, from the Civil War to now I want to learn everything there is to know about my new home town away from home. I mean after all I will be there for a while until I retire six years from now. And after that who knows I am sure I will be able to find something to do in that area like, welcome to Wall-Mart can I get you a shopping cart? I think I might even go back to school and get my masters or something crazy like that. I will be fifty years young and have a little freedom to do something crazy like that for a little while so I may as well take advantage of it.

Great song, “once in your life you find her” so true so true. I thing this song says it all, you find her and the rest is history. Life is like a book filled with empty pages, you just need to find that special someone who has a pen and is willing to help you write the ending no matter how scary it gets sometimes. And once you find that person you can’t let them get away no matter what.

I am starting to talk to the Afghani guys that work at the bizarre, they have some unbelievable stories and I am actually taking notes so I can do them justice. There will be more to follow on the locals that risk their lives to come on our FOB to make a buck selling us boot leg movies and odds and ends. Sad really but so interesting that I just need to put a few stories on here to be able to remember them and what they did for me the year that I was in their Country. Oh well I need to get up early and I am getting pretty tired so I will cut this post short tonight but I hope that you are all happy and healthy, even those of you that are up north dealing with all the snow, night all

Its getting busy

I am on tomorrow, I was glad to be off today, really glad. Yesterday’s flight was pretty busy the weather is getting a little bit nicer and you know what that means. You guessed it all the whacks come out and believe me they were out in force. The first thing we had was a TIC and while we were on station for that we were re tasked to a VBIED “vehicle born improvised explosive device” fortunately no one died, we were pretty close so we arrived on station quickly and spent the next we twenty minutes or so securing the area until Dustoff arrived to transport the wounded to Sal hospital. I still find it hard to understand how someone can have so much hate in their mind that they can drive a car loaded with artillery shells up to a US Army convoy and blow themselves up. But hey that’s just me right; I mean maybe they have no choice. Maybe their families are being held hostage and they are told that is the only way they can save their wives and children. I know that there is not much I would not do for my wife and Kids and I am sure they feel the same way. All and all I earned my money yesterday and I know that we made a big difference, especially in the lives of the Soldiers on the ground during the TIC when we got on station the bullets stopped flying and they knew that help had arrived. We were there long enough for them to regroup and get to some good cover and wait for Dustoff to arrive and transport the wounded back to Sal.

Ok enough on all that today I did nothing but eat watch some movies relax. Ok that is not all together true I did spend some time in the office doing some paper work and getting ready for gunnery. Oh yea I also mailed my first package home to Marie and the kids. The first box is for Marie and Robby the next package will be for the girls. I wanted to go over to the bizarre and buy the girls some authentic Jewelry made in Afghanistan but for some unknown reason the Bizarre was closed today and I wanted to get the box mailed so I sent it with only a couple of things in it. But I know that when my girls get their gifts they will be happy with what I send. I almost forgot, today I got a box of brownies from Marie and the girls and boy are they good. I know, I know I told Marie that I would throw them away but they looked good and tasted even better. Sure they were made over three weeks ago, but hey with all I got going on over here I am not too worried about some spoiled brownies hurting me. Thanks girls!!

I love to get on here and type while I am listening to my iPod; music really has a profound impact on how I look at things and how I put words together. I never thought that this blog would be so therapeutic for me but even after a completely crappy day when all hell breaks loose I can escape to my blog and talk about most of what happened and move on with the rest. For obvious reasons there are so many things that I can’t talk about but it still helps to sit here and write things down. What you don’t know though is when I am sitting here typing to my blog I spend a lot of time going through the events in my head and thinking about what went right and what went wrong. I also have to proof some of what I write so I do not talk about things that I shouldn’t. For the most part I am getting pretty good about that, I use to write times, places a names but know I try to be pretty generic with all of that. I spend a lot of time picking titles for my post so that I can look back at this year from now and remember what was going on. I feel that this has been the most challenging experience I have ever had to deal with in my life. When I was in Kosovo I was a front seater, I was a Pilot, with basically no responsibilities whatsoever but here I am the Pilot in Command of my aircraft and the Air Mission Commander of the flight. With that comes great responsibility, when my team is out flying its mission it’s my call if anyone will pull the trigger. I have to be absolutely certain that what we see and what we do is both morally correct and accurate. Our rules are very clear and I must follow them to the letter of the law. There are a lot of things that I think that I can live with when I leave but one thing that I can’t, is a bad engagement. I pray that I am always able to maintain tactical patience when it comes to engagements. And then and only then I know that I will be able to leave here the same guy I was when I got here. Alright I am pushing over 900 words for this post and I need to be up early tomorrow so I am going to cut it off right here, night all

Its cold out there, but not at Sal :-)

Oh where to begin, let’s see I am two days into my new schedule and like I said for the most part it is going pretty well. We are flying just as much only we are not on duty as long but more often, and I am ok with that. The natives are getting pretty restless these last few days they are trying to come out in force I guess they are just as depressed about the crappy weather we have had for the last few days too. I was out in central valley today escorting other aircraft and looking for bad guys in all the right places, lucky for them they were not there to be found. It’s really cold out in central valley I would guess it’s about 15 degrees or less. We flew all over the snow capped mountains looking for bad guys that keep shooting at some of our FOBs not that it’s a real threat for the most part they show up launch some indirect and the run. Most of the time no one is ever harmed but even a broken clock is right twice a day and sometimes they even get lucky. My FOB has had indirect so many times since I have been here that I don’t even keep track anymore. No one has been hurt yet I think they are more interested in popping one of our 40 million dollar aircraft because that would truly be a victory for them. All I know is whenever you bring a knife to a missile fight the guy holding the knife usually can’t keep his grip on that knife for too long.

On a lighter note, now that the weather is clear we have 27,000 pounds of mail inbound over the next two days and I am expecting some brownies from my girls so I am pretty excited about that. And I know they made them some time ago but I will enjoy them anyway even if they make me sick. I have been pretty lucky so far, I really only had a quick flew like cold for a week or so. Many of my friends have had what they refer to as the Afghan Ge-hod and they have been in their rooms for several days dealing with nasty nasty stuff. So no complaints here if you know what I mean, as for me I try to stay away from the germs the best that I can. I think our biggest problem is all the Afghani help in the chow hall, they are not known for the perfect hygiene if you know what I mean. But what can you do, all I can do is watch what I get and try to stay away from some stuff based on how I know it gets prepared.

Tonight I am going to try to stay up a little later than I normally would on this shift and watch a movie or something. I am off tomorrow and then I am on for three off one and on for four. I get one to two days off a week. Well not off exactly; there are so many other things to keep up with even on my off days. Tomorrow I need to write our HGST “helicopter gunnery skills test” then print 30 copies of it for next week. I will put it on the board in the office that the test will be next Friday that will give me some time to give the classes to prepare all our pilots for the test. The master gunner job has given me much to do and it will keep me pretty busy for the next 6 months. Most of the gunnery I will grade from gun tapes that crews bring back from their mission flights. I have our TAC Ops guys dividing all the video on our shared drive in my folder and for the most part it’s working out pretty well. Well I think I will cut this post off right here till next time I hope all of you are happy and healthy, night all

New Schedule

New schedule is not so bad I have to get up much earlier than I typically like but my day is a little shorter. We are running our shifts a little differently and I think it will work out just fine. It has rained for the last few days and the air is clear and today when I was flying I forgot my camera and I was so made the sky was so beautiful this afternoon and the snow capped mountains were gorgeous. Not much else to add tonight I have another early flight in the morning and I want to get to sleep as soon as I can I was pretty tired today I guess I am not use to my schedule yet I am sure it will take a few days. I will take my camera tomorrow and if it is still clear I will try to get some pictures, night all

Sunday, haircut day

Well good evening everyone, as I sit here in my room thinking about my day the only thought that comes to mind is that I am going to try and get online tonight and Skype with Marie and the Kids. Today was a pretty good day for me the weather was not so nice however I was not on the flight schedule and I only had a few things that I had to get accomplished so all in all it was good. I did get a haircut this afternoon I guess you could say that was the highlight of my day so far. But once I see my family on the computer I am sure that will quickly replace my haircut as my Hi for the day. Well not really much going on today I just wanted to get on and say hey, Hey. I hope that things are great for everybody in the States, Richard congratulations on your new job; I hope it works out well for you and that you enjoy it. I will try to write more soon, night all