Can you believe it??

I wanted to get something in my blog before now, but things moved pretty quickly towards the end of our tour in Iraq. I was scheduled to fly one of our aircraft in the first group to depart towards Kuwait. I kept holding my breath, each step, waiting for a cancellation or some delay, but each event kept moving along...... To actually be flying out of Iraq was quite a joy in itself, we all cheered as we crossed the border into Kuwait. Some flights after ours were firing off all their remaining flares at the border........wish we'd thought of that. Next was the cleanup and removal of some battlefield specific equip on the aircraft by contractors. Once the aircraft were cleaned and passed the first customs check, we flew them to the seaport at Kuwait City, landed right on the dock, and some other contractors and our mechanics helped fold the rotor blades, and tail rotors and prep it for the boat cruise back to the states.
We slowly started getting all our battalion's aircraft to the port,(as they completed training of our replacement unit) and of course that meant that almost all our folks were out of harms way, and starting to relax a bit..(xcept for the balmy 122 degrees) One of commanders heard there were some seats available with some other units that were also going to Ft McCoy WI for out processing. Because the departure process from Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait can be a lengthy one, they thought we should start sending our people home to start the whole process there. We had heard rumors that some of our seats could be taken away on our later scheduled flights. So basically, my group of about 16 got to leave a little ahead of the others. I can't tell you the joy and happiness I felt as we lifted off the ground and into the air above Kuwait...... yes there was a huge cheer, and yes, some tears on my face........

15 hours later,(fuel stop in Shannon Ireland), we touched down in Wisconsin....... man was everything green around there or what?? We touched the bright green grass, and of course kissed the pavement to welcome ourselves back to the states. The air was so clear, no dust or sandstorms......... Unbelieveable!!

The unit we flew home with were combat engineers. Their normal duties would be road construction, building runways, other structures as well. Their duties in Iraq were "route clearance". These were the guys who had to clear the roads everyday of all sorts of IED's. Pretty dangerous stuff. I was fortunate to sit with soldiers from 2 different units during the out processing. I asked alot of questions, and eventually I asked how many soldiers they had lost. One unit had 2 that were killed when an IED went off right next to there vehicle. The other unit had lost 4 in similar situations. Both had numerous injuries as well. I couldn't help but thank them for the hard work they did, and that they, and the infantry going door to door were the real heroes in this war. As I sat in the seemingly endless waiting lines at each out processing point, I just listened to the many different conversations of these ground soldiers. Kind of funny, after a while, they made alot of jokes about "the day they got blowed up"....... refering to when their vehicle was caught in a blast of some sort. Some talked about some of the insurgents they had killed. A real testament to the importance of upgrading our ground vehicles with better armor protection. It was interesting to sit and listen how a war like this has affected these soldiers.
We got thru the out processing ordeal, and were headed home on a nice tour bus......shortly after we crossed into MN, we pulled into a rest stop, only to be greeted by 2 State Patrol squads waiting to escort us to our Nat Guard hangar in St Paul. That was totally cool!! The last couple miles was beginning to get a little tearyeyed as we rounded the corner to our loved ones waiting for us there........Hallelujah!! We were done!!!
Needless to say, It is soooo good to be home. I was so tired of the heat. The dust and storms. The brushing my teeth with hot water(all the water storage is above ground, so never any cold water in the summer). And no more rocket and mortar threat..... We heard some rumors back in Balad, about this thing in the states.....a place with a bathroom, your bedroom, and even a TV, and a kitchen all in the same location......I think they called it a huuse...no wait, a House! Ya, that was it! All that stuff under one roof! What a concept! I love this country!!

Getting reacquainted with my family has been fabulous........ my 9yr old daughter really missed her dad. Its great to have weekends off...... cool! I checked in with both my civilian employers, and they still want me back at work(yahoo!!)

I want to thank you again for following along, for the support and prayers. It was great to be a part of something big...... We were part of a history making effort. We really have done a good thing, and need to follow it thru to completion.
As far as my blog goes, I may keep it up for a bit......I'll see.
Thanks again, and God Bless.........

It's really great to be home...............

Next month...

At the moment, those are my two most favorite words these days. Of course, it refers to our battalion getting closer to completing its year long deployment in Iraq, and heading home. Hallelujah!! From today, we have around 27 days until folks start leaving for Kuwait. We are all anxious to be away from here, and out of harms way. Most of us are getting pretty tired of dodging the daily mortars and rockets fired at our base. We are continuing to fly our missions, and keeping people busy.

The weather is a different story...I never would have expected that June would be our worst time to fly, due to dust storms. We've had quite a few days of 'no flying' and very poor visibility. It's pretty warm here too, getting up to 110-115 degrees or so a few times so far. We know it's only going to get hotter, but that's o.k. - means we're closer to going home.

We're still seeing more progress in Baghdad. Even after the latest uprising from Sadr City, things have quieted down, and the majority of the people are returning to their former activities. The people want to just live and work without fear. There are more little shops opening up, and even a couple pools have opened up again...seems that Iraqi kids like to play in water too...go figure.

I just finished up a long stint in the AMR cell, building more mission sets that we fly. Probably my last time, as I now return to the Company to fly again, and see if I can get a little more flight time. I've only flown about half of everyone else, due to my job in the AMR cell. So tomorrow, I get to fly...I'm really looking forward to it. We still have folks down at Basra (see last months blog). In fact, they will likely stay there until our replacement types show up. There is going to be a larger, full time presence there to help the area get back on its feet. Our replacements will probably be split with some here, some there to support the continuing effort. We'll look for more good news from there as time goes on.

Riding the 'A' bus to the other side one day, I heard other soldiers talking. It was sure nice to hear someone else talk 'newbie on the base' stuff: where things were, what bus to take, etc. Nice to see more new people coming in all the time, and patiently watch as we get closer to leaving. Nice to be the big dogs on the base.

Of all the things there are to spend money on here, you'll be happy to know, I've fought off the urge to get a tattoo (not really that tough). Don't laugh, lots of our folks are coming home a little more colorful than when we left...must be a combat zone thing, I guess.

DNR NOTES -- Not a whole lot to mention here, still seeing the usual birds, especially the English Sparrow. Way too many of those, and obviously they've spread a bit too far. I have seen a Kestrel like bird around the tall roof lines of the DFAC, but I can't seem to locate nests anywhere. I'll be busy looking for more stuff when I fly again. Had a bit of a concern a while back, seems there was a cobra snake roaming around our housing area at night. We were advised to always carry a flashlight and walk carefully. Thankfully, they wouldn't be interested in us, but if someone stepped on one by accident, that would not be cool. And did you know that only Chuck Norris can prevent forest fires??

We've heard that our replacements are soon to arrive in Kuwait, and the early advance group should be here in about two weeks...means as more start trickling in, and get up to speed on the missions, we start trickling out (same as last year). Boy does that sound nice. We're all ready to start doin' some chillaxin'...

Once again, thanks for the thoughts and prayers, it means a lot to have your support whilst we do a difficult job. We will continue to stay mission focused, and keep dodging whatever they may shoot at us, until the aircraft are shutdown and ready to be loaded on the ships in Kuwait. We are making a difference here, and it shows. God Bless, and be safe at home........ Thanks.
Now if I can get my son to post some more pics on here before Sept. (haha) you'll be all set... : )

27 days in Basra...

Remember I said last time, I was going down to Basra for a 'little while'? My planned, short visit of a week or so turned into almost a month. At first I was not very happy. It took some getting used to being on a foreign base, in this case operated by the British. COB Basra (contingency operating base) is located along the international airfield property. They had us staying in Camp Charlie, on the northwest corner of the base. We knew we had to be courteous, as we were guests there. We were there to do some VIP flights for the local 2 star General who was in charge of the operation. We also did some brief re-supply flights, and kept a small platoon of soldiers for a 'personnel recovery', should the Apaches, or any aircraft go down. The Apaches played a big role in the effort to push the insurgents that started the mess, out of Basra. My job was to be ready with the PRT (personnel recovery team) every night. Whenever the Apaches were out, we sat with the APU running (auxiliary power unit) listening to the radios in case they got into trouble. We listened as they found some dudes moving weapons across the river in a boat. They were discovered, urged not to do that anymore (pretty much shot them, and sank the boat). One of the gentleman was wounded, and instantly became a detainee. Later we were able to see the gun camera video...pretty cool. The IA (Iraqi Army) had been strengthened in the area and was taking the lead role in all the ground ops. Things settled down and we weren't needed to sit in the aircraft and wait anymore. We were then on standby most of the rest of the time.

Living in Basra was a little more frightening than in Balad. The rocket attacks were way more often, and more accurate. The rockets you hear about over here are fairly good size, and fired from farther away than mortars are, and have a lot more explosives in them. The Brits were getting rocket attacks pretty much daily. Once the Apaches arrived, the attacks dropped off to about 2 a week or so. We heard the Brits were glad for that, but thought that the 'Yanks' ate too much food...

They put all of us US folks in one large tent and we each lived in our own little 'concrete coffin' as they called it: a 6x7 space surrounded by short walls, concrete blocks piled 4 high. Our bunk was a hard fiberboard piece mounted 2 inches off of the floor and we slept on a 3 inch mattress (not hardly a Sealy Posturepedic). Directly above the bunk, barely 24 inches above the mattress was a half inch plate steel, covered with 15 inches of sandbags wrapped in plastic. So, the first time you were in your bunk when the rocket attack alarm went off, you guessed it, we all tried to jump up, and of course smacked our heads on the steel plate. One lesson of that almost all of us needed to learn was to just roll over, hug the wall, and pray the sandbags and steel would work. On top of that, we had to learn to live in a dark 'no lights on' tent. Seemed someone was always sleeping, with rotating shifts and all. That was a real pain, you go through a lot of batteries trying to read at all, find your stuff, etc., in the dark. I would go outside and read in the shade next to the tent, between a large dirt barrier and the blocks in the tent. I don't do well living as a mushroom...

Boy, the food was really good in Camp Charlie...much smaller menu, but much fresher meats, salads, and different deserts. I could eat 2 or 3 of the smaller lighter deserts and and not blow my 'get down to water skiing weight this summer' diet. They cook with a lot of currie...took a little getting used too, but after a bit I kind of liked it. The 'chow house' as they call it, was also a large tent, with the concrete block walls inside. It didn't have the hardened roof we have back in Balad, so if you were there when the alarm goes off, everyone hits the floor...even in the chow house. I'll say, you had to be pretty quick to beat the Brits to the floor...one evening I was talking with their pilots, when all of a sudden, I was like the only guy standing for a split second. Don't worry, I was horizontal and falling at terminal velocity (from 3') and found my own little spot to land on and cover my ears, close my eyes and pray. That one landed out on the taxiway, missed our aircraft (whew!). We were all tired of wearing our body armor all the time, too. I have to say, the only thing I liked about being there was getting to talk to the Brit pilots every night while we sat around waiting for a mission. What a hoot! I asked them every question I could think of, we covered all topics: The Queen, Maggie Thatcher, Prince Harry, Prince William, Tony Blair, weather, fishing, hunting, who can own guns, the few Brit police that do carry guns, politics, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, and local rubbish removal (garbage strike troubles in the UK). And of course, I got a lot of pics of the British helicopters there - the Lynx and the Merlin. Pretty cool stuff. The Brit pilots come from all over the UK, and some from Africa, Australia, Europe, and even Fiji. Their military has an interesting retirement plan, you can stay and get full retirement after 22 years, or take a partial (50%) at 12 years. Our basic plan is 20 yrs or nothing .

While talking to the pilots every night, we were introduced to their British cable, and BFBS - British Forces Broadcasting Service. They have a lot of sport channels, soccer, rugby, cricket. Then there's pool tourneys, card tourneys ,dart tourneys, and some of the Brit comedies we've had in the States. Kind of enjoyed all of the music videos...I'm up on all the tunes now, I can probably list 5 of the top 10. Did you know they have a rather large woman who does 'hip-hop signing'? That was something to see...this lady dancing around while signing the lyrics. Ohh boy! The Brits have very nice 'telephone cabins' and 'Internet cabins' to use. A whole different Internet, phone calling system, and even their keyboards are different than ours. Anyone who got an email from me in Basra, saw some of the occasional difficulty I had finding the usual letters, etc.

All in all, it was a very worth-while experience to see Basra. It's an interesting place. We did get to do a very special mission one night. The IA (Iraqi Army) was making a push (door to door)through the last of a bad part of town, and were looking for an individual, an HVT (high value target). If they found him, we were to transport him to another base about 100 miles northwest, and give custody to some Marines. We were normally working 7pm to 7am. They called us at 0345 and said they had him. We launched at 0400, met them at an undisclosed location, and flew him and an extra detainee to the other base, and transferred custody, and we took off. Got back about 0930. We'd been awake and working for a long time. Pretty fun mission.

DNR notes - Basra is in the very southeast corner of Iraq. It's the place where the Tigris and the Euphrates join and become the Shaat Al Arab river, which then flows down to the ocean and neighboring Kuwait. Years back, Basra must have been a shipping mecca as there are fairly large ships tied up along shore, and some very large (300'+) ships laying on their side, sunken, and rusting away. This area is one of the oil rich areas in Iraq as well. Lots of refineries, spilled oil, and constantly burning pipes/wells above ground. We can see some burning near the airfield, about 4 miles away. Lots of fishing here, too. I have pics of guys setting gill nets in the river, and lots of people collecting vegetation and fishing in the shallow areas in their push boats...only a few people had a small outboard motor. Can you imagine flying over a wetland that goes from one horizon to the other? You would never expect this in a predominately desert environment. Unbelievable! I loved it! It even smelled like our wetlands at home. Mostly all cane grass, and lots of other types I obviously couldn't identify while zipping along at 13o mph. Water levels are down here though, we never got the usual amount of winter rainfall. You can easily see some wetlands are dried up, and the ones with water are shallow...it's tough for the canoe/boaters to push their boats through in places. What a great place to do some veg studies...maybe when things settle down a bit more. I'd love to send some water samples home from Iraq, though I can't figure out how to get them past customs...

Now back at home plate (Balad...and by the way, this place is like a 3 star hotel compared to Basra) we are busy in the 'starting to pack mode'. We have dates to get a lot of our gear ready to send home. Can't hardly wait!! This has been an incredible experience, but I miss my family too much, and they miss me. We are still flying a lot of missions, while working on the packing lists. Our replacements are busy at Ft Sill (remember last year for us?) and they are on a shorter train-up than we were and will start arriving here late June. So, thanks for all the prayers, boxes of goodies (we're full on snacks and stuff) and the support. We know there is a lot of good going on here even if you don't hear it at home. All the soldiers are doing a good job at winning the hearts and minds of the people. It was fun to personally thank the Brits for helping in the coalition effort. They were envious of our support networks, and overall support from the majority of our country. They don't get much support at home, but they too are equally angered at global terrorism, just as we are.

That's why they serve. We all do this to protect our own soil. Be safe at home, and God Bless you all. We'll stay vigilant, until the last of ours is on their way home. Thanks.

About 88 days...

Most of us here are counting the days until we start the big move out to Kuwait. Of course, we're staying focused on our jobs, but in the back of all our minds, we're pretty excited to be looking at summer time in MN. It's already summer-like here, and has been warm for a while. Temps up to about 100 so far...we know the hotter it gets here, means we're closer to going home. Boy, have we had the dust storms...seems like we lose 2 days a week of flying because of them. Visibility of only about 200-300', but it's not real windy on the ground level. Can't figure out how these things build up and move in here. They develop with fairly short notice, too. Some of our crews have left here in nice weather, and been forced to RON (remain overnight) somewhere else. Amazes me how such fine dust creeps in and covers my room, and piles on the doorstep like fine snow. I'm guessing we're pretty much done with rain, to wash anything away, so we're stuck with all this loose flour like stuff being moved around. Some folks are even wearing those paper respirators, like for painting, or sanding.

As far as our flights are doing, we're still hanging in there. Pretty busy all of the time. I still spend half of the month in the Brigade AMR cell, and half with my company trying to catch up on my flight time. I'm way behind everyone else, but I like what I'm doing. You've probably heard of all the new activity over here in Baghdad, and down at Basra, in southeastern Iraq. It's been difficult to get our passengers into the green zone, Washington pad, with all of the mortars and rockets coming from Sadr City. There's been quite a few injuries, and a couple of deaths of workers there. Blackwater had some aircraft damaged, and there were some injuries over at the medevac CSH Pad. Needless to say, we make our visits to Washington as brief as possible and hope our timing is right.

With the activity in Basra, we've got some of our folks working down there for a while. There having some successes with the Iraqi troops taking the lead role there. We are continuing our support role for the effort, as well as the Brits who are still there helping. I'm not quite sure how we're going to resolve some of these events - no one is real happy about these flair-ups. I'm still hanging on to my plans for the Sadr Lake Recreation Area: can you imagine how nice it would be to be able to share a beautiful large lake(due to the size of the hole) with the local Iraqis, for picnicking, swimming, all sorts of wonderful outdoor activities, all in the name of peace? I've seen in my travels flying over Baghdad a million times a day (doing the Baghdad shuffle back and forth) that the University of Baghdad (not sure of the proper name) has re-opened, and is bustling with students. There is a lot of activity by the locals all over, just trying to live their lives, raise families, etc. I hear from some ground soldiers that by in large, the people are grateful we are helping, and they know we don't want to be here any longer than we need to. We are still working to win the hearts and minds of the people every day.

Well ,the weather just changed again, looks like it might get real dusty...do ya think? Last time we were grounded for weather, we had a sharp increase in mortar/rocket attacks on the base. They must know if we can't see to fly, we can't go find them either. I'm tired of being rolled out of my bed to head for the bunker. Thankfully, no serious damage, but they've been close. A mortar landed about 700' from us in the AMR cell one evening. My monthly total of mortar attacks in march was at least 20 that I was here to react to. I think it's starting to get old...

DNR NOTES - Time for some more pleasant stuff...sort of. There was a large cobra snake found cruising around one of the housing pods the other day. No injuries thankfully. I'm pretty sure he was looking for some rodents there, and not our smaller, perhaps tastier soldiers. Most of the colorful songbirds we saw last year when we arrived, are back. I saw the Iraqi version of a killdeer - it's a little larger, more colorful, and very determined to guard its nest. We were sitting in the aircraft, ready to takeoff. Once the crew chiefs got back in the aircraft with our passengers, she made her way back to her nest and sat down on it, only 40' in front of our noses. Do you have any idea how windy and noisy it is right in front of the aircraft? She was doing well until we lifted off. She went rolling off the nest, we literally blew her away. No harm though; the crew chiefs said she got right back up and headed back to the nest. Amazing how adaptable wildlife can be sometimes that close to human activity. No more large flocks of waterfowl around, I only see a few ducks, and some beautiful large wading birds, look sort of like a spoonbill (?). I've seen some egrets, and cranes as well.

I need to go now, I have to finish packing my bags. It's my turn to head down to Basra for a while. It will be a little different type of mission support than I've been doing here. Hoping all goes well and we can all get back to Balad soon.

Thanks for the prayers and support, it means a lot to us. This has been a long journey to this point... I think I've got a few more gray hairs these days (not that I had many in the first place). We'll all be glad when its done.

Stay safe at home, enjoy the greening of your lawns (yes it will eventually stop snowing on you, it always does), and enjoy that sweet smell of spring, and the thawing of the lakes that we're so famous for. Incidentally, I'm selling a lot of soldiers the idea to come to vacation in our state...we could have some extra visitors on leave sometime. Reminds me how much I miss the ramp up for all the spring work at my office...

God Bless you all, and thank you.

Spring has sprung...

We appear to have survived the rainy, cooler (winter) season. The mud has all but disappeared and left hard unusual shapes to walk and drive on. They will remain that way until it rains next winter. The ground is very hard, and being mostly clay-like, the rain runs right off. The last of the puddles are finely dried up. Now we have the dust storms and winds to deal with. This flour-like dust is truly amazing...it blows into every crack it can. In our rooms, the dryer sheets we lay on the front of our A/C units are full in just 3 days...they help collect extra dust we would breath or settle in the room. Normally the dryer sheets last about a week before they are full. When the storms are from Syria, the dryer sheets turn a reddish brown color. Our own local dust is a darker brown. We are often grounded for a day or two because of the storms - visibility of only 1/8 mi and very strong winds. Pretty ugly. Then the real fun is, it will rain for about a minute during the storm and make a real mud mess on the aircraft windows, etc. Pretty tough to clean off to go fly. I've never seen anything like this before. I have to wonder how this dust affects us long term? I guess we'll see later. As far as the temps, it's around 60 at night and getting into the 80's during the day. The only good thing is that the hotter it gets, the closer we are to going home.

This last time I was back with my Company to fly, I was able to see a couple of different places. I finally got to see FOB Echo at Diwaniya. It's a mostly Polish base...very interesting. I got pics of all the Soviet built helicopters I was trained to attack and shoot down back in the 80's. My how things have changed. They can serve alcohol in their DFAC after hours, which of course made a lot of our crew members drool and want to stay around for the vodka slushies after supper. But...you can guess the outcome. Pretty cool to see those Soviet built helicopters up close. Did you know there are soldiers there from Mongolia? This truly is a coalition effort with countries from around the world taking part in the war on terror...(except for stupid France). I also flew out west to a couple USMC bases, to drop off soldiers and gear. Enjoyed seeing how the Marines are living in the desert...pretty much like we are. Same kind of DFAC (dining facility) and lots of dust and dirt. It's cool to see the Marine soldiers in the refueling area - they give us lots of salutes as we roll in and out for fuel in our Blackhawks. On one of my flights the other day, we picked up Admiral Fallon (Centcom Cmdr, all the Mideast). It was his last trip from Balad before leaving the country to move onto his next assignment. Just recently whilst back in the AMR planning cell, I was one of the planners for the whole entourage for Vice President Cheney, Senator McCain, US Emb Crocker, and a bunch of others. We had to jockey around all our mission sets and leave some items blank, as you would guess for security reasons. It all came off without a hitch and the VIPs enjoyed their visit to my base here, Balad. I was unable to attend the early speech the following morning. I was working on my crew rest, fighter management (AKA - I was sleeping). If I'm working nights, I don't get to bed until 0200 or later.

I'm still enjoying flying during the daytime the most. I love seeing all that I can in and around Baghdad. The level of traffic and people out and about has steadily increased in the last 5 months. People in the open air markets, lots of traffic jams on the roadways, and seeing kids playing outside at school. Some of the schools, the children are wearing colorful blue uniforms. It's too bad the city is still plagued with an occasional bombing of some type, but for the most part the insurgents have been driven out of the Baghdad area, except for some radicals in Sadr city. I read an article by a military journalist who has been here for a year and is now leaving. He says we are winning...we are making a huge difference to many people, and we are winning the hearts and minds of the people. We have helped so many with medical advances, water treatment facilities, roadway improvements, and even getting their railroad back on track (sorry). Then there is the improvements in the military. Iraq now has a small Air Force again, and are training more pilots all of the time. Many areas are slowly being left in charge to the Iraqis. I'm optimistic that things will continue to improve over the years. It will take a long time, but what we are doing is a good thing.

While flying around, I will occasionally see a convoy of large semi's headed up and down the highway MSR's (main supply route). Sometimes the delivery of supplies to our DFAC gets delayed and we are missing some regular items, like fruit and some veggies. I've had to make a salad sometimes with all the fixin's but missing...lettuce. It was okay without the iceberg lettuce (nutritionally poor). I found a nice patch of green grass...sure looks bright compared to the desert tones of everything else. That reminds me, there are 2 things (and more) you won't find in Iraq: a lawnmower, or deer. I found a poster showing common animals here and the largest mammal here is a jackal, like a small coyote. I thought that was interesting. Also, I have yet to see much for grass anywhere, even near the palaces (don't worry, I'm still watching for machine guns,rockets, etc.).

Our flying is going well, we are keeping up a stiff pace. Not much for enemy activity to report, and that's good. We still prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. It's tough some days not to get a little complacent, but then we talk about it and remind ourselves what we are here for, then keep going. We are all counting the days, and grateful every time we get back safe inside the wire. Although, it actually hasn't been all that safe inside the wire lately. February, I counted at least 26 attacks I was here to hear the alarm for. That is the most I've heard/seen thus far. We recently had a multiple attack and our Taco Bell had minor damage, along with the hospital (both over on the east side). There were some injuries outside of the hospital. No tacos were damaged in the incident.

When I'm able to attend, maybe twice a month, I am still enjoying be able to go to the contemporary worship service on Sunday night. It brought me to tears a few times last fall realizing while I was in church in a combat zone, my wife and daughter were in church on Sunday morning back at home. What a comfort it is that God knows us and watches wherever we go. The last time I attended, we had a baptism. They set up a tall metal stock tank outside the chapel, filled it with water and there we were. What a memorable experience for soldiers to write home about.

Time to go...but not without saying thanks for your prayers and support. We have about 4 months left here and then the out processing, turning in of equip, etc. We hope to back in St. Paul by about 7 August (?). We will continue to be safe here, and all of you be vigilant at home. Everyone must be alert, the feds are still foiling plans by terrorist groups who still want to do us harm on our own soil. Thanks again...God Bless you all.

I think my "winter" is about over...

We had our snow in January, and the "Iraqi winter" low temps of 28 degrees a couple of times. It's starting to moderate a bit. Now, the lows are about 40-45 and the highs are about 55 to 60. It's been much drier than normal for the winter months. I'm back in the brigade office now building those AMRs, the actual flight missions that we'll fly. While I was flying with the Company a week or so ago, the temp was up to 65 a couple days in a row. It made us all anxious for spring.

I mentioned it being dry - in January, we should have had at least 12 days of rain but we only had 4. So far in February, we've only had 1. We ended up having a water shortage disaster here. I'm not sure how the whole water system works, but we were running out of it. The water supply is replenished some by rain, but mostly water is diverted from the Tigris river next to our base and into a reservoir, then processed for our use in the showers, base laundry, the DFAC, etc. Our bottled drinking water is processed and bottled right in Baghdad, at Liberty base. There's no shortage there; always lots of H2O that way. The problem was a gate in the Tigris that diverts some of the flow into our reservoir had broke and then shut our supply to nearly zero. The fix was to have the Iraqi engineers repair it, not the U.S. That meant it would take much longer to fix than if we did the job. End result: no showers - period; paper plates and plastic ware in the DFAC; no laundry...man did that suck! So, almost immediately soldiers were almost fighting over the last packages of huggies wipes in the PX. I feared the worst and started hoarding bottled water. Of course, I was grateful it was cool weather and not summer weather. It's amazing, you can get a pretty good bath with a plastic waste basket, washcloth, and bottled water in my room. After about 7 days of this, the restrictions were eased some and we could get one shower every other day (3 minute combat shower) only during certain hours. Laundry started up again, but only 3kg (normally 6kg) every 4 days. So things were looking up. I knew it was good to have Air Force here...they're not used to 'suffering' as much, and I knew the leaders here would find a fix ASAP. We're almost back to normal but the laundry is still trying to catch up. Imagine the loads of laundry with over 27,000 folks here...

When it was raining here, it is the absolute worst mud I have ever seen...it's like cement...it's clay like stuff that doesn't come off of your boots very easily. Most of the base is covered with this 1/2 inch to 3 inch size 'Lake Superior lake shore' gravel. It keeps the dust down, but makes it really tough to walk through...it's about 3 inches deep almost everywhere. Painful walking the first 40 days we were here. We cursed it most of the year, but now in the rain, it's the only way to make it anywhere over the mud. There are a lot of worn, high traffic areas that we have to get through and we are forced to get muddy. I spend about 5 minutes in some deep gravel outside my room trying to clean off my boots...I feel like some guy in a big cat box scracthin' around.

I've met a lot of interesting people here, from many different parts of the world. I'm still amazed at the number of contractors that are here. As much as 1/3 of the base or more is contractors, and that may be conservative. Many of them make great sacrifices to come here just to find a well paying job. A woman at the laundry is from the Philippines, has been here 2 years and has 2 more to go. She worked in the laundry in her country and now she makes 4 times as much working here. The last time she saw her son was when she would still carry him - he was 8. He told her "The next you see me Mom, I will carry you." I'm sure there are many other stories like that all over the base and the whole Iraqi theater.

As far as our missions go we are still chugging along, trying not to look at the calender too much. There are still people shooting at us...we keep flying fast, dodging the majority of it all. Still very grateful for the surge - troops are still finding weapons caches of bad stuff that would have been fired at us. We are gaining ground overall, and we are still working to win the hearts and minds of the people. A few interesting missions: one of them, our Battalion got to fly Angelina Jolie when she was here to discuss with Gen. Patreaus the plight of Iraqi refugees. A couple of guys were able to get their pictures taken with her.

Some other news, it is so good to hear talk about our replacements coming this summer!!!!! Last week there was a small contingent of our Aviation Brigade from St. Paul, and others from NY and Louisiana's Avn Bn's that will replace us. They got a quick run through on how we do the missions, layout of our Bn area, and had meetings in Taji and Baghdad. Our commanders did the same thing in December of 06 before our deployment. Sure feels good to see other units arriving all of the time...lots of shoulder unit patches that I don't recognize. I kind of feel sorry for them, but then I don't - we all had to got through the same thing. I'm just grateful to be where we are now, and still making progress. The insurgents have been busier in this new year, same as they were last year. They must have received a lot of mortars and rockets for Christmas...they've been donating them to us lately. Our attacks on the base were at least 23 (that I was here to see or hear) in January. No significant damage, and a few duds. February appears to be keeping pace. Bad news in Baghdad: the other day, there was an attack with 14 rockets and mortars at once. No word on damage. Thankfully they miss a lot, but it's still a little unnerving. You may have heard about the attack in a Baghdad marketplace a few weeks ago that killed about 100 people? Insurgents had strapped bombs to 2 mentally handicapped women and sent them into the crowd...someone else detonated it from outside.

On a more pleasant note, the little rain we've had this winter has made things start to green up a little. Of course I'm talking about near the Tigris and Euphrates valley's. There is even a little sign of green grass sprouting beneath the Lake Superior gravel in a spot I found over on the east side of the base. Still seeing large flocks of crows and waterfowl sitting in flooded fields.
Dust storms - we've had a couple now...they move in rather quickly and stay for a couple days. This last one, the dust was a lighter reddish color, not sure where it's from. I use dryer sheets on the front of my ac/heat unit, and I had to change them in just 3 days. Normally I can go a week or so before they are black. It makes for rather eerie visibility. The aircraft are all grounded...can't see more than 1/8 mile. No flying for about 2 days. I stand in it, but you don't feel any wind blowing like you would at home in a blizzard or other storm (?). Strange place this is. It is nicely quite though when no one is flying. It's a nice reminder of who's really in charge of weather and things...

I said earlier, we are doing o.k. I won't tell you we're doing great until we are all out of harms way. Yes we are all tired, but excited, counting the days. By the time I write the last one of these, I'll probably be at a 3 ft hover over my chair (I'll try to get a pic). God bless all of you, and please stay safe at home. We can never let our guard down. Thanks so much for the prayers and support. Pray for us to not be complacent and to stay focused these last 5 months. Thanks.

From sand to snow...

Well, it was quite a transition going from the desert back to my home state that had a nice layer of white stuff pretty much everywhere. It was great to see. The travel process to get home wasn't so easy...being in a group of a couple of hundred soldiers made it interesting to say the least. It took three days to get home, and I did land at MSP by 6pm on Christmas Eve. It was great. My oldest daughter said it was like a Hallmark moment - Dad coming home from a war zone on Christmas Eve, the family meeting at the gate, lots of tears and hugs. It was very special, even if I was so tired from lack of sleep, I felt half incoherent. At that moment, sleep didn't matter...I'll never forget the feeling of coming home.

We had at least 8" of snow at home, and Christmas day brought some light flurries and no wind. It was beautiful to see the snowfall. Had a wonderful time seeing relatives, visiting folks at the farm and South Dakota as well. Went to the movies, saw a couple good films. I must say, I had the urge to stand at the beginning of the film and wait for the national anthem, like soldiers do in the theater at Balad. Had a chance to go ice skating at the John Rose Oval in Roseville...pretty neat place to skate. The kids and I skate on the large outside oval, and there's small hockey games going on in the center part. It was warm that day; we had a good time. Nice to put on the skates again. I'll get back to playing hockey again next winter. I enjoyed my extra time with my daughter Stef while she was out of school. I took her with on some needed shopping trips. We stopped in to see the folks at my DNR fisheries office, to say hi and let them know how things are going...they like to see Stef every once in awhile, too. I had to visit our DNR enforcement office in St. Paul, to update my laptop that they are allowing me to use while deployed. Once Stef started school after the break, I spoke to her class about what I'm doing in Iraq. I was very impressed, those 3rd grade hands were up asking questions continuously for about 45 minutes. It was fun, especially seeing my daughters face in the middle of the group smiling at me. I also spoke to my older daughters class (she teaches at St Micheal-Albertville High school). Another great group of students and teachers with lots of questions...I felt honored that they were interested, and are very supportive of our efforts over here.

It was a little odd feeling, coming home from something like this, there were moments I wasn't quite sure how I should feel. It felt like I'd never left, but yet I had this powerful feeling that I knew I had to go back and finish the job we'd started...all of my friends are still there. It was great to know that for me and my family, we started the final part, part 3. It felt good to see 2008 on the calendar, and know that we come home this summer. Yahoo!!

The return trip wasn't quite so pleasant though. There wasn't a break in Kuwait at all. We had a day to adjust and do some other paperwork on the way home to MN, but this time we got off the bus at our temporary base again at 1:15am. We thought they give us until noon to catch a nap, eat, etc., but they ran us right into the next formation, attended some briefings, and grabbed our bags and were on the cargo plane and on our way. I left MSP at 8:30 am on the 9th and walked out the back end of the cargo plane at Balad, Iraq 11am on the 11th. It was cold (to us) in Kuwait - it was 50 degrees and raining most of the night. When we got here to Iraq it was 30 degrees and (are you sitting down?)a rain and SNOW mix...I couldn't believe it!! If I had been more awake, I might have fainted. As we gathered our bags, and rode the bus back to our side of the base, you could see snow collecting on patches of the dirt, along sidewalk areas, etc. Even better, it snowed in Baghdad!! First time in about 60 years! Some of the local Iraqi's that were interviewed (Stars and Stripes paper) said they did not remember it ever snowing there before. So I've been telling everyone from somewhere else, that "when the MN Nat Guard goes into battle, we like to bring a little of our own weather along for the trip."

After getting adjusted, and a light case of the flu, I'm back to work. I was able to fly two missions before I returned to the Brigade office again. I'm helping to build our missions on the computer, that we will then fly. It all comes back to me, as I hear of some increased 'activity' with our aircraft, as to why we are here. We are doing something noble and right, and we are slowly winning the hearts and minds of the people. Again, I'll say how grateful I am for the troop surge last fall. I know the brave ground troops have uncovered a lot of extra weapons that would have been used as IED's, other bombs, and items fired at aircraft. So we'll keep doing our jobs, as safe as we can, and keep marching toward the end of our 'all expense paid beach vacation'. January seems to be as active for the insurgents as any month. My December count of mortar attacks was 12, up until I left on the 21st. I assume there were more after I left to total the usual 15-19 that I experience while here. It has been cold here(Iraq cold) down to 28 degrees at night and about 40 during the day. I'm hoping that we can get to -30 degrees to freeze out some of these insurgents in their man-dresses. A little hypothermia would do them some good.

Not much else for now, still seeing large flocks of crows and flocks of white pigeons over Baghdad. Some of them have left quite an impression on our aircraft (literally). Be safe and alert at home, please. Thanks so much for your prayers and support... God Bless.