Ft Rucker Alabama...

About 65 of us from our battallion were sent here on the 23rd of May, to take part in an aviation training exercise(ATX). 30 pilots and other staff personnel are going through the planning and execution process as we simulate flying in Iraq. There are people here from the 108th BN, the people we're replacing in Balad. We're getting some great info on what to expect from living quarters, showers, etc., to all the battlefield intel I can't talk about right now. They will fly with us for about a week to show us the in's and out's of our area of operations. We will basically get new info every day to help us plan our missions, so we can avoid the small arms fire, and the larger and more deadly weapons as well. The preparations to go fly have changed dramatically over the years. You've heard me mention the extra gear we are wearing, well there's also a great deal of computer planning we do. All of our routes, landing zones, personnel to pickup, and last known enemy info is all plotted out before we leave. The more we do this planning both here and at Ft Sill, it boosts our confidence in our ability to get the mission done safely.
I forgot to mention, we are also flying these routes in a simulator. It's a non motion sim, it looks like an aircarft on the inside, but it never moves. We wear a special "virtual reality " helmet...it's heavy, and causes headaches. If you turn your head too fast, you can start to feel ill. No one has been sick yet, but there are sik sacks in the cockpit just in case. The normal sim we fly is a larger full motion sim that lifts up about 15 ft on hydraulics that allow it to turn and bank while we see images on the the 3 window screens. The terrain we see in the sim here is identical to Iraq. Many of the routes we'll fly there, we are flying here in the sim.

Before we left for Ol' Alabamie, we all recieved our final RFI at Sill...rapid fielding issue. It was anything but, it took about 7hrs to get issued yet another duffle bag, and all kinds of cool camping stuff. I mean tactcal battlefield gear. Backpacks, new kevlar helmet, 4 more uniforms, other neat stuff that is mostly for the ground troops, but you know Uncle Sugar...he loves all of us soldiers so everybody gets the same stuff. The only problem now is, we had to bring it back to our already overcrowded rooms...now we have even more crap piled up to the ceiling... Oh boy!

When we get back to Sill on the 3rd, we'll go back to reverse cycle again, for more nvg training, and applying what we learned here. We have a big Battalion size xercise to complete as we slowly draw near to the end of our training in OK.

NVG gunnery - we completed the majority of our crew chief door gunnery, and I'll send some pics for my son to post....they're a little blurry, but it was the best my camera would focus thru the goggles. I have a video from another guy I'll try to let you see that. Pretty cool watching the tracers (phosphorous coated bullet that burns brightly, visible day or night). 1 bullet in 5 is a tracer...helps you see where you are shooting, to hit the target better.

Forgot to tell you that there are a lot of folks training at Sill besides us... Marines are here learning artillery, I've seen soldiers from all over the world here too. Kind of ineresting. Accept at meal time...those darn Marines...eat all the food. Just kidding, they all salute me like crazy, and look like they'll drop and give me 20 if I asked them to. I've had some conversations with a number of them... I really have enjoyed talking to people from all over. You meet some neat folks if you take the time to say hi. Anybody who knows me, knows I'm not afraid to talk to anyone... I should mention our food is pretty darn good at Sill. We have civ contractors who run the place, and with another aviation bn here (medevac) getting ready to deploy, they feed about 650 folks every meal in about 2hrs. They're really busy, and most of us say thanks...
I hear it's been a little cool at home, but as you might geuss it's real "toasty" down here...not bad when I compare it to August in Kuwait and the rough adjustment that's going to be.
I forgot to tell you when we were through with our first day of training here in Al, I actually got to change into civilian clothes and go out to eat... Yahoo!! Yippee!! I'm suprised you didn't hear me scream for joy when I got to go to the Walmart here in Enterprise... Tears rolled down my cheeks as the semi toothless senior citizen with tobacco stained clothes said "how ya'll do'in tonite?" I almost gave him a big hug...

Well, I need to mosey on I've got some flight planning to do for the sim tommorrow. I miss everyone, and am so glad that part one is almost done...(ask my daughter Stef about the 3 part journey).. Some days are rather difficult, but time is moving right along... I will take a moment on Mon (Mem Day) and remember the brave people who lost their lives in WW2 to secure the freedoms and democracy we have today. We are blessed to have a couple in my church at home who both served... He was at Omaha beach, and she was a Rosie the riveter at an aircarft manufacturing plant in ST Paul. (Our old guard hangar).
God Bless you all, and be alert at home...everyone should pay attention, there are still people who want to do us harm, simply because we're westerners... Thanks.