Merry Christmas everyone!!

Ho Ho Ho, what do you know...it's December. Man am I glad for that. I've been trying not to count the days until I go on leave, but I do see time passing rapidly. We are still busy with 24/7 operations. Some of the mission sets have changed, so my company is flying more days than nights. By that, I mean we typically have an 0700 hour or so takeoff time, so we have to show up at our TOC (tactical operation center) at 0400. For me that's an 0245 get-up so I can do my usual push ups and sit ups, chew on a granola bar or a cookie, start drinking the Gatorade, shower, shave, and do a short Bible devotional. Then a quick look at some aircraft stuff, clear my mind, start concentrating on the mission, and I'm out the door to work. We will likely get a shutdown at BIAP (Baghdad Inter airport) for fuel and some lunch, then we're back at it. Many times, we won't get back til after 1800, so we all get to reset our night vision goggle clock (60 day currency). By the time we do all the after action items for the aircraft, log books, mission paperwork, etc., we are released about 2.5 hours after we land. Then, time for a quick meal in the DFAC, swap laundry, shower, and get to bed. Long days, but time goes by fast. Haven't had much activity to talk about...we still see people shooting up in our general direction at night, but nothing to report for all my day flights. I'm very grateful for that. I just completed a stretch of flying 6 out of 7 days. I was pooped to say the least. You'll start to see where you just aren't quite as sharp in some small cockpit tasks as you were back on day 1. Then you make corrections, and suddenly realize it, and start paying closer attention. We talk about complacency at each of our flight briefs before we jump in the seats. Flying over Baghdad as much as we do, its amazing what you can see. Many areas are still battle-damaged, and the majority of it to most pilots here--it's a dump. Most of the time we refer to our missions as doing the 'Baghdad shuffle', or for the Sesame Street fans, 'Shuffleupagus'. We've flown by some bad looking 'hoods' near Sadr city, where I was sure there would be a missile coming up to meet us...but nothing happened.

Still being a DNR guy, I'm appalled at the uncontrolled burning of anything and everything. I guess it's one of the perks of winning an all expense paid vacation to the Middle East (the brochure mentioned the beach?). There's the most unusual smells, too. It would be nice to someday get this 3rd world country to start paying closer attention to its environment. I know right now, we're just praying they can survive this insurgency. By the way, I am a big fan of 'the surge'. I believe the extra ground troops have helped uncover a lot of weapons caches and other items that would have been used as IEDs against troops or fired at aircraft overhead. I see the convoys returning to Balad on the roadway (I always breathe a sigh of relief when we get back safely inside the wire) and I want to tell each one of them thanks when I see soldiers in the DFAC. I'd have to stop everyone on the way in...I don't think they want me to do that. GO Ground Troops!! They are the real heroes around here.

Other items of interest, we've had a lot of VIPs coming in. I've helped plan quite a few of the AMRs (while doing my 2 weeks at brigade each month) to get them moved around... The Holiday season seems to bring out extra visitors. We've flown the Sec of Def, lots of Senators, Iraqi prime ministers and local Shieks, a bunch of wrestlers from WWE came to visit our DFAC, and how about Kelly Pickler from American Idol? She came through with a group of 15 and a bunch of musical instruments. What an entourage. Robin Williams, Kid Rock, Miss America, and some others from Comedy Central were here yesterday. Don't forget, Gen Patraeus has a permanent detachment from our 12th CAB flying him every day, too.

One evening a while back, there was a local Shiek who's wife was going into labor prematurely. The local medivac helicopters were alerted and picked her up and transported her to a hospital at FOB Speicher (Tikrit) or up to Mosul for the proper equipment she would need. Pretty cool to be helping wherever we can...we are always trying to gain trust, and win the hearts and minds of the people. It makes me feel good that we can transport as many people as we can by air, and keep them out of ground convoys...we are saving lives every day. We get to help move all the upper level commanders (and plenty of other soldiers, too) as they continue to work to get this country to be able to stand alone in its own democracy.

On to some DNR notes--still feeling like fall to me. We are seeing lots and lots of birds...huge flocks of crows that number in the thousand's. Lots of pigeons. Over Baghdad, we've had some minor bird strikes (minor for us, very terminal for the pigeon hitting us at 130 mph). I've had a quick look at some waterfowl lately, and am happy to see the ever popular coot is doing well here. I've also seen what looks like mallards, and even some shovellers (neighbor ducks...the kind you shoot and give to your neighbor...they don't taste very good). The shovellers look just like the ones I see across the road from my fisheries office back home every spring. Suppose they followed me here? Nah...

These fall temps, now ranging from about 33 to 55 every day, still tricks my mind into getting ready for deer season...the sunsets and sunrises make me think about the whole deer stand thing all over again. But thankfully, it's just about Christmas. With that, I wonder if the insurgents are a little busier shopping these days? Our December mortar attacks are down a little from the last months...only 13 (that I've been here to react to). The dust levels have been a bit better as well. I flew one day, when it was absolutely clear for 20 miles...looked like I was flying back at home in October. The next day we quickly returned to dusty visibility...does make nice pics of sunrises and sunsets though.

There have been some personnel changes here and there, trying to keep our mission completion level high. I guess when you bring 450 people together to work long term like this, there's bound to be a few squabbles along the way. You can pray for all our personalities to work well together for the remainder of our time, to stay focused on the mission. Our battalion TOC is decorated for Christmas, along with every office space too. There will be a BN Christmas party for those who can attend (remember, staggered work shifts). I hear some Christmas music playing once in a while, and it really hits me that we are a long way from home. For most of our soldiers it will be easy to keep working right on through the day, get chow, and go on to the next day. This is the ultimate in 'Groundhog Day', if you know what I mean. We just keep doing the same duty, being as safe as we can. Please pray for our soldiers to find a moment in the day to recall, or realize for the first time that Jesus is the reason for the season.

I'm one of the fortunate ones with school age children at home, who were granted their leave somewhere near the Holidays. I start the 2 day or so process to get home tomorrow. I'll be happy to shovel some white stuff, not think about mortars landing on my head, and spend a lot of time reassuring my beautiful 8 year old daughter that God is watching over all of us here, and that I'm okay. Looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Saviour...

May you all have a Blessed and Wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Stay alert at home, and be safe. Thanks.

(Be nice if I could make it home by Christmas eve...)

Moving right along...

Well, here I am again, another month behind us - thank the Lord for that. Everyone is still busy, 24/7 rotating schedules, etc. The weather has certainly changed...these days are like late September, early October at home...about 65 day and 40 at night. It sure feels more comfy to us. Kind of funny to see the way people are dressed. The Hawaiians (our B Co.) - most are wearing long underwear. The Ugandan guards at the DFAC are wearing winter gloves, heavy stocking caps, and tan ski jackets. Then us MN folks show up in line and we are wearing PT shorts and T shirt...go figure? Then there's the Europeans, working for the many different contractors...they are dressed somewhere in the middle. Interesting...

About the contractors, there are a lot of them here. Our DFAC (dining facility) is 1/3 contractors at meal time. When you see how the military moves, how we are all outfitted and equipped, and see all of the special equipment, it's easy to see how the war on terror is so expensive. For those who may not know, here is what the contractors do. Every piece of equipment is built by its manufacturer, but the special equipment that comes with it is built by someone else. In our case the helicopter I fly is built by Sikorsky, but the avionics (radios & flight instruments) are built by someone else. Weapons systems, sighting systems, etc., are all built by private companies. So, we have special people here to fix things as rapidly as possible to get us back in the fight. There are specialists here for our aircraft engines, transmissions, weapons, etc. The Apaches have all of the folks here to keep up with the hi-tech night vision and sighting systems it has. All in all, it works well to keep everyone functioning, but it is expensive. Most of all of the contractors are paying way better than the military. In fact, a few of our folks are interested in returning here to work for them.

Flying is going well, our company is doing very well, especially in maintenance. I believe we are staying at 85% or higher operational rate. The requirement coming into this was that we were told we had to maintain at least a 75% rate...so we're doing well. As I'm typing here, we are getting some real live rain...we had some sprinkles in October, but this has been some thunder and lightning, and enough to make things really wet. Man it sure smells good, like a spring rain at home. When I get near a computer, I pull up MSNBC and check the weather at my zip code...man its really cold at home! That's ice making weather. I checked some of our DNR Enforcement reports, and sure enough, some folks have already gone through the ice, what little ice there is. We all know how important it is to be the first one out there to get the good bite! Ya, uh huh.

Couple of nights after finishing at the AMR cell, I would go out the flight line and sit as close to the taxiway as I could and watch aircraft for a couple hours, hoping to have the F-16s take off the runway closest to me so I can get a picture. You wouldn't believe the 30' white flame coming out of the tail as they race down to runway in full after-burner, then pull up quickly at the end to get up high as fast as they can to avoid possible ground fire. Absolutely breathtaking, and wonderfully, groundshakingly noisy. I have always enjoyed being close to airplanes, while they are landing and taking off. I've sat at the end of the runway of a few airports in my day. I really like watching when the jets get up high enough, the turn off the after-burner, they disappear into the night. All of the aircraft here fly with night vision devices, so no one has any external lights on that you can see with the naked eye. It's cool to listen and watch as huge jets are making their approach to the runway, and you can't see them until they turn on a landing light at about 100 ft. They suddenly drop out of the inky black night and touch down. It's great to see how the night operations continue as we keep taking the fight to the enemy. While sitting along the taxiway, I did see what looked like a rabbit running around in the ditches. Do you suppose it was a "waskowy iwaki wabbit"? Sorry...we were warned by those before us that we would start to get complacent in our duties after about 90 days. Well, we are talking about that, and trying to be aware of it. It's easy to fall into that - missions are going well, and not a lot of damage to report. They also said we would go through that cycle again about 100 days before we leave. So, we will keep being careful and paying attention, and watching out for the bad guys.

Mortar attacks were down a bit for November, at least the ones I was here to witness. I counted 17 times. One recently was really a blessing from God -- a mortar landed in one of the trailers in the pod next to mine, about 300' away, but did not explode. Two soldiers were there but weren't hurt. It ripped through a wall locker and down through the floor. I'm glad they(insurgents) have old and outdated ammo that sometimes fails to detonate.

Shifting gears a bit, we have flown a lot of VIP's lately...a number of senators and congressman, John McCain came through here, and the Sec of Defense. More importantly, before Thanksgiving, we had two visits from famous cheerleaders - The Washington Redskins and New England Patriots ladies were here and did a show at the east side MWR center. After that we had Carlos Mencia and some guys from comedy central (I don't know of any of our folks who got to got to a show). My Thanksgiving day stared out kind if lonely, it's the first real time at home when we slow down a bit to remember our blessings. It's always a special church service and time with relatives, then it ramps up for Christmas. I was flying all day and was down in Baghdad. We dropped off some folks at a FOB, then shutdown and had time to go seek out the DFAC to get something to eat. After a lengthy wait, it was a Holiday after all, we got inside the small building. Much to my surprise, behind the counter serving all the soldiers was a 2 star General, a number of Colonels, British and Australian Colonels, and a Navy Admiral! How cool I thought... I recognized some of the names as customers we flew a number of times. It was then I realized that this was truly unique, a once in a lifetime for me, a chance to have a turkey dinner in Baghdad in the green zone, celebrating our US Holiday. We ate rapidly, took our customers to the next few sites, then had to return to that same FOB. We were delayed a bit from landing, hearing the need for an "urgent medivac" landing there. There had been a rocket attack in downtown somewhere shortly after we had been there to eat. Never heard the extent of injuries, though it brought us back to reality quickly, to our duties at hand.

I'm finishing this up at 1:30 am our time...got to hit the shower, wash the dust out of my ears, and try to get to bed. That's one of the worst things about this place, the lack of indoor plumbing. I try not to drink anything after 7 pm, so I don't have to get up and do the 140 yard dash to the nearest ACP (air conditioned porcelain). That really messes up my sleep cycle. There are lots of porta-potties around (within 75 yards of my trailer), but those are getting to be like a cold October camping trip at home. Ah the blessings of indoor plumbing...someday... Okay, TMI, TMI...

Must be time to go, I seem to have drifted off into meaningless dribble. I'm praying for my upcoming leave, I hope to be home by Christmas. My little princess really misses her dad. I plan on spending as much time as possible with her while she is out of school. Should be lots of fun. I ask for Gods Blessings for all of you this Holiday season. Take some extra time to be with loved ones. Thanks again for all the prayers and support you've shown us here. We will continue to be safe here, you be alert and safe at home... Thanks again.