BradHawk1

Can you believe it??

2008-08-03T16:13:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-06-18T05:34:00.006-05:00

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...

2008-05-23T05:40:00.007-05:00

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...

2008-04-19T04:01:00.006-05:00

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...

2008-03-21T05:22:00.006-05:00

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...

2008-02-21T04:08:00.005-06:00

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...

2008-01-20T04:24:00.001-06:00

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.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

2007-12-21T05:33:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-12-01T14:40:00.000-06:00

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.

It's November...

2007-11-01T05:02:00.000-05:00

And it feels good to see that on the calendar. It's still difficult to find a place to get to my blog site, now all our mil computers we were able to use are all blocking blog sites. And, I still don't have Internet in my trailer yet...I was thinking of getting by for the year with an alternate site, but it looks like I'll have to try to get on board with a group in my pod of trailers. It's expensive and slow - a real bargain - but also about the only game in town. I'm in one of the Internet trailers right now, it's early afternoon. We are allowed 20 minutes at a time, but if it is not busy, like now, I may get to stay to finish this out. Unlike the great writers of the past, it takes me a while to think about what I want to say, organize it into a somewhat readable format, and then type. I'm not too speedy in that dept. so all in all, it takes me about an hour to an hour and a half to get my thoughts, notes, etc. on paper for you to read. Thank heavens I don't have writers block... I think they have medication for that these days...

Well, we are staying pretty busy, 24/7 operations continue. I just recently switched from days back to nights, back at the AMR plans cell, building our future missions. I'll be here for 2 weeks, then back to flying with my company for 2 weeks. It was great to do a bunch of flying, did another six or seven missions, two at night. Had some more excitement though, more tracers fired between our two aircraft. US weapons have one tracer in five rounds; I have no idea what Hadji uses in their mix...it could be one tracer in twenty-five rounds or they only fired two rounds, and one was a tracer... In any event, all the rounds missed us...tracer fire sure is pretty at night though... Don't know if you heard, about three weeks ago, there was a rocket attack in Baghdad, on Camp Victory. It was a 107 mm (4.25"dia.) rocket, about 6-7' long...killed two and wounded thirty-eight. Bad day for us. Thankfully they don't have a lot of these to shoot...they are rather expensive, so they use them on highly populated areas like our compounds in Baghdad. I'm told the rockets come from Iran(?). I'm hoping that they don't decide to use them on our base. We have enough to do with our mortar attacks... I counted fifteen in September, and nineteen in October. Those were the ones I was here to experience. One of the attacks was close to our trailers, and one of our pilots had some dirt and stuff land on his roof.

Our flights get to be pretty long...usually 6-8 hrs, most times without a break. Never get out of the seat. Once in a while we get to shut down somewhere for fuel, and get a break to eat; otherwise, it's go go go - granola bars and Gatorade while we fly. I'm glad I had a lot of long flying days on surveys for DNR Enforcement at home, kind of got me ready for this schedule. We normally get refueled while the engines are running, rotors turning...nicknamed 'hotgas'. Takes about twelve minutes to top off our two aircraft, and then we get back on the route. I planned a mission to a new FOB for me to see called Justice...on the banks of the Tigris river, a short hop north of Washington pad in the green zone. Interesting place - it's where they do all their public hangings...including Saddams. Ironic name, huh?

You know, maybe its a guess, but I think we are experiencing a lot of positive things from the surge...every time our ground troops find another weapons cache, that's a lot of ammo that's no longer available to shoot at our soldiers or us in the air. There are ground ops going on all the time, we hear about them in our intel brief before we go fly. Between here and in Baghdad, troops are busy fighting and collecting arms. I for one am grateful that the extra folks on the ground are paying big dividends in terms of keeping more of us safe as we do our jobs. Our battalion has had some hits in our aircraft - small arms, rpg's that missed, and that's good news for us. We are still concerned about the other missiles that are out there, and grateful for the special systems on our aircraft to help us avoid the big one. We keep on going, getting all our missions done...haven't dropped a single mission yet, either for maintenance or weather. We've been late a couple of times due to poor visibility in Baghdad, but that's about it. We are the only Nat. Guard aviation battalion in town, so we naturally want to be sure to do our part, and have no whining about 'us part timers'. We have already flown more hours than the folks we replaced...they told us to expect that to happen. Might be difficult to maintain this pace for the year, but we'll see. I'm sure our replacements next summer will be told to raise the bar again...must be a limit somewhere.

When I do get a day off (two days a month), I usually have to do extra cleaning in my room, more than the every other day dusting and mop the floor stuff. It's pathetic, I can wipe down the floor when I get up so I can slide across the floor doing my sit-ups and not get dirty...then later the same day, I'll wipe it again and it looks like I never did a thing. This dust is like flour, very powdery. There's a place at BIAP (Baghdad Int Airport) where we get fuel and lunch, I'll try to get a pic of the dirt. It's like nothing at home.

The weather -- it's cooling now, up to 92 day, and about 60 at night. You should see the people already wearing a jacket at night...what will they do when it does get chilly later?? We actually had a couple of days of cloudy weather in early October. We had a brief thunderstorm and enough rain to wet the ground and hold down the dust for about an hour. Ever since, more blue skies and layers of dust from surface to 200'. OOPS! There's the giant voice...got to run, be back in a minute. Well there was our first mortar attack for November...no damage. Thankfully.

Did you see that last tape from Osama? He said we should all change to his system...it has no taxes.. Well duh, it also offers no indoor plumbing or a roof over one's head???? I'll be glad when we are sure he is in a hole in the ground, permanently...

DNR notes -- seeing some pretty birds, one looks like a King bird. It even flies like one, too. Ive' seen a small to mid-size falcon...looked kind of like a Kestral. We almost had a mid-air mess with a large buteo type, Redtail or larger. he didn't try to get out of the way like most birds of prey. We had to make an 'evasive maneuver' to avoid him...would have made a great picture. Lots of large bats flying around our light poles every night, eating lots of bugs. Got a pic of a lizard the other day, and of a green praying mantis. When I walk back to my trailer late at night when there is no moon (very dark, about 0230 hours) there is a curious little bird that roosts in the rounded out depressions in the gravel from our footprints. He stays where the gravel is the deepest. I've almost stepped on him a few times, but he stays put until the last minute, then runs only a short distance away. He stays in an area about fifty feet square. Other folks asked me about him, they've almost stepped on him, too. I'll try to get a pic of 'rockbird' sometime.

I'm doing well in the snack department in case you're wondering...my crazy daughter Lisa is keeping me well supplied and so are Rhonda and Stef, with some home-baked goodies. I pick up a copy of Stars and Stripes, our newspaper, to read when I leave the DFAC (dining facility), it's about the only way to keep up with some of the news. You can't hear the TV in the DFAC...too noisy, too many people. If I'm lucky, one of the TVs is on a news channel, and I can read the ticker at the bottom of the screen. Boy was I glad to see the Yankees lost. Yahoo! They represent the total wrong image for baseball...way too overpaid, too big of ego's, etc. What is it, three of the Yankees salaries is enough to cover all of the Twins salaries? And the Yanks still couldn't buy a playoff win...

Want to buy a Harley?? There's a dealer rep here on the base taking orders for new bikes for '08. What an advantage...captive, longing for home crowd, huh?

One last thing before I close another rambling update/editorial...I asked one of commanders if it was okay if I volunteer for about three days of guard duty up in one of the towers. Since I have to miss deer season this year, I figured a couple of days up in the tower with a machine gun watching for '2 legged deer in a bongo truck' would suffice. He laughed and said "I don't think so...".

I'm still hoping my mid-term leave plans will come true. I hope to be home around the 20th of December. I want to spend the most amount of time I can with Stef while she is out of school for Christmas break. More later. I know we've only been doing this for a couple of months, but we all get pretty tired. I'm really glad that I'm in the Guard, and not active duty. For most of those folks, this is their third tour in anywhere from six to nine years of service. Many of them are making other plans for when their enlistment is up. The Army is offering some pretty incredible re-up bonuses, and has for a while. I did get to make one Sunday evening church service in October...great to sing again. I miss the whole church family, choir deal at home. I know God is helping me through all of this, I'm so grateful for all the prayers...some days are pretty tough, most are okay. We're getting it done, and the clock is moving fairly quick these days. God Bless all of you, and be safe at home. We can't ever let our guard down at home. Thanks for the support...
CW4 Brad Maas
A Co 2/147 AHB
APO AE 09391

Just another day at the beach...

2007-10-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

I keep looking for the water, and can't seem to find any yet. Well, I'm still ticked about not having our Internet connected yet...parts are still held up somewhere. It's difficult to sneak time on a borrowed computer... I have lots of things to say, but limited time. Basically, I'm doing fine. I'm on a rotating schedule--2 weeks flying and 2 weeks in the mission planning cell. I think I mentioned before, I help to build some of the formal mission requests that become the actual flights we perform. It's very interesting learning how it all comes together on the battlefield. I get to plan a few of our company missions, mostly at night. The challenge is to keep the routes within our safety guidelines for flight time, while wearing nvg's. It's a very tiring condition to work under, but helps us do our jobs a lot better. Besides that, if they (insurgents) can't see us in the dark, we are harder to shoot down. I saw some tracer fire near us late one night...they were just spraying the air shooting at sounds. No biggie... What I wonder about is everyone knows that some arms and nasty missiles have been coming in from Iran. Not good news to us. These past 2 weeks I flew in the daytime. Some interesting things to see. I love looking at the countryside, all of the birds, and lots of sheep and shepherds in the field. It's quite a contrast to think of the technological gap between us flying overhead in a 9 million dollar hi-tech aircraft, and just below us, many areas still look like pictures from the Bible--shepherds tending flocks, homes made from clay block, working fields by hand, cutting grain by hand. All the while I'm seeing this, I'm still watching for the individuals who suddenly turn around and pull out a weapon of some type to employ against us. We get an Intel report before we go on every mission, and I'm amazed at the number of aircraft being fired at, mostly at night...every time I come back from a mission,I thank God that nothing happened during our flight. You'd think they would try to shoot at us in the day when they can see us so easily? Maybe they know we can also see them and would shoot back until we were happy again...

We do a lot of different missions...VIP, we move generals and civilians, Iraqi's, pretty much anyone who has a meeting to get to...we also haul equipment, whatever can fit inside, and we have carried detainees as well. The most moving mission has to be the Hero mission...we will carry the bodies of fallen soldiers wherever they need to be according to graves registration. There is a specific protocol that we must follow, it's very formal, proper, and dignified as the individuals are loaded into the aircraft. Thankfully, we haven't had to perform this mission yet. I cringe inside when I see the medevac helicopters heading for the CaSH pad (Combat Surgical Hosp) on the base here. I pray we haven't lost another soldier. Balad has the 2nd largest hosp in theater.

Life is pretty busy around here, combat ops on the battlefield are pretty much 24/7. When we fly over Baghdad, some areas will be closed to us because of "operations" going on , so we stay clear of it. Speaking of Baghdad, you should see they smoke and haze over the city. Early morning you can hardly see a mile. Seems everyone burns whatever, whenever they want. Third world countries are so far behind the U.S. environmentally speaking. We joke, "Ah there's nothing like the smell of Baghdad in the morning".

I haven't mentioned much about the food in the DFAC...there's lots to eat, it's hard to limit yourself. It's pretty good, for the most part. There's always a couple kinds of meats, salads, tacos, sub like sandwiches, and lots of fruit. The dessert section is actually a large display case like at Perkin's, with pies and cakes, muffins, etc. Next to it is the supply of Baskin Robbins ice cream...yeah, you have to feed the hungry soldiers, or else... Didn't take me long to realize I couldn't visit that section too often... I'm pretty careful about what I eat. They give you large portions, even if you say no... I only eat about half, and throw the rest...I can't eat that much! I keep my belt tight and use a lot of self discipline. I haven't ran now for a couple of weeks. Our schedule when flying, is about a 12 hr duty day or more, and I'm so tired after a long day of flight planning, or flying, I have no energy left to run...or it's too hot. While I'm here planning missions, I have a little more time, so I'll try running a couple times this week. Speaking of running, one day as I ran along the road, the water truck came by...he sprays down certain sections of the tar and gravel to keep the dust down. After he past by, for a few minutes, it was 'Africa hot', with the sudden jump in humidity...but the smell of the moistened ground brought me instantly back home in the early spring when you smell the first spring rain...man was that great!!

The weather here is nothing short of incredible. You've all heard about the heat, and do you know I've been here for about 6 weeks and have never seen a cloud in the sky? Talk about Groundhog Day (film)...clear blue, hot, and dusty...wind from the NW about 5-30 mph. Depending what direction the wind blows, even a few degrees makes a difference between a little dust, or a 200' thick layer with about a mile visibility. I'm told we'll have rain, and a lot of it, in Dec. until Feb. I fact,as I came to work tonight, I took a pic of a pretty sunset with some cirrus clouds...

Other notes, a lot of folks here have bought bicycles at the px (it's at least a half mi to go anywhere, so I walk about 4-5 mi each day)...about $100, use it, and then sell it cheap to the next guy. Same thing with TVs, DVD players, and satellite dishes as well. They tell us boredom is a problem. I haven't had much time to be bored, I'm too tired keeping up with laundry, meals, work, sleep, etc. My schedule allowed me to make it to the contemporary church service on Sun night at 7. Very uplifting...great singing praise songs, and a good sermon, too. The neat part was, while I was worshipping here, my fam was in church at home at the same time! Cool! That brought tears to my eyes... The sermons have been about Daniel--did you know that the area he lived in, in Babylon, is about 20 mi south of Baghdad? I landed at one our FOB's at Al Hillah (next to the Euphrates river) not far from the ruins of that time... Okay folks, dig out your Bible maps and look at early Mesopotamia...you'll see most of it overlays Iraq. Pretty cool to see this from the air...too bad there aren't any bus tours I guy could jump on...nah, maybe later. From another FOB we landed at way east of Baghdad, we could see in the distance (15mi) the mountains of Iran.

DNR notes- I mentioned I've seen a lot birds...of course the first ones I saw on the base were pigeons and English sparrows (yeah). I have seen a kestrel, and some kind of buteo (red tailed hawk type). While flying, we passed over some flocks of large white wading birds, like an Ibis or something? Also, there are great blue heron's here...looks like ours at home. Oh yeah, there are also what looks like mourning doves, too. Sadly I don't have good access to surf the net for bird books to i.d. these guys... I'm probably birdwatching too much, when I should be watching for bad guys. Oh well. Someone saw a coyote on the edge of Baghdad, and there are apparently no deer like animals here at all...no one's ever seen anything like that.

Before I forget, here is my address:

CW4 Brad Maas
A Co 2/147 AHB
APO AE 09391

I would always enjoy hearing from everyone...don't need much from home, there's so much the previous unit left for us - small toiletries candies, etc. My fam is keeping me well supplied with the special things I can't get here. I'm just grateful that time is passing fairly quickly...we just set our clocks back here for the winter, so now it's 8 hours ahead of home...at least until you guys set your clocks back Nov 5.

Well, I need to wrap this up for now, but I don't know any good ones' (hee hee). Thanks for the love and prayers...I know God is watching over me, and my fam. I'm amazed at what a person can do when they set their mind to it. There are a lot of people here working hard and surviving just fine in a strange land. Take care of yourselves, be alert and vigilant. God Bless you and stay safe -- I will too.

Life in a combat zone...

2007-09-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

I had planned on being able to type on my own laptop by now, but it's been difficult to get the Internet set up in our cluster of trailers, so I'm on a borrowed one. My arrival here was nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. I was a little concerned about what to expect in a real combat zone. During our 'in-brief' they gave the instructions on what to do when the "giant voice" says we are having an indirect attack -- listen for the siren, and take cover as necessary. O.K. We spent the first night in transient housing (small really crowded bunk house for 20), then we were able to move into our trailers. I was fortunate that indeed, the CW4's and above got their own rooms...yippee!! Finally some privacy, and space to myself...it's about 12'x13' floorspace, a table and chair and a wall locker and a decent bed.

So, I'm in my room unpacking at about 2:30 in the afternoon, and the giant voice says we're having an attack. I started to laugh, but went through the motions of laying down on the floor next to my bed, cover my head and ears and lay still, wait for the all clear...a couple seconds later there was an explosion about 800' away. Sounded like the artillery up at Camp Ripley, only closer...congratulations, I just survived my first mortar attack at Balad. I thought oh my, this is going to be a long year. Found out later that a civilian contractor was killed and 2 others injured. In our in-brief they nicknamed this place "mortar-ritaville" for all the attacks we get. They seem very sporadic, randomly aimed, and usually don't do much damage. So far I've been here for 3 attacks.

Upon my arrival, I realized how huge this base is. Air Force on the east side and Army on the west. 2 PX's to shop at, lots of dining facility's (DFAC), laundry sites, and we have a theater, an outdoor pool, and a couple gyms to work out in. So far our schedule is very busy, long days. 12-16 hr shifts, day or night. You can tell there is a war going on, it's busy here all the time. Lots of aircraft to watch, Army Air Force, Marines and British, etc. Pretty cool seeing all the different aircraft. It's comforting to hear the F-16 fighters take off on their missions every couple of hours...around the clock. They are very loud, using afterburner on takeoff to get them up hi quickly to be less exposed to the bad guys. I'm hoping to get a pic of them on takeoff at night, the flame out the back end is about 30' long...

My first day mission was a VIP support, a.k.a. the Baghdad shuffle...lots of trips back and forth all around the city, and suburbs. I had a hard time concentrating, while mesmerized looking out the windows at the city of Baghdad. Lots of things to see. Out in the 'burbs, there were lots of dwellings that looked just like Guatemala...made from adobe type blocks, kids running around poorly dressed, a mangy dog, and someone carrying grain from the fields. I had to pull myself back to reality and keep looking for these little bongo trucks with guys in the back carrying RPG's, and watching for heavy machine guns set up along the way... It was neat to land at Washington helipad, downtown Baghdad, in the heart of the green zone. While waiting for our VIP, to show up, we saw the small convoy, and large suburbans belonging to Gen Patraeus...he got in the Blackhawk in front of us. We had shutdown to refuel, and I had time to go in one of Saddam's former palaces, now converted to U.S Embassy offices. There was an Internet area there, and I sent a quick email home from the palace telling my family where I was. It's still pretty hot here, about 110-115 every day. I keep wondering when it will be cooling down some...at home, I'd be counting my water ski trips to my local lake on one hand before it gets too cold. I'm wondering if I'll be shivering like some say when it gets down to 55 degrees?

My room is working out okay -- enough room to hide some of our bags under the bed. The bad news is, it's about 130 yds to the toilets, and showers. It's about a half mile walk to the DFAC, and a little farther to our flight ops. It's about a mile to the PX and other food choices, sewing and alterations, and a barber. Lots of walking, and lots of dust. Strange place this is...I have yet to see a cloud in the sky...wind from the nw every day about 5-15mph. Then it picks up speed, and it blows dust around so bad, that we can't hardly see. We've already had a couple of missions cancelled, due to poor visibility. Completely clear above, but can't see 500' in front of me. The dust is everywhere...I have to mop and dust my room every few days, and shake out the a/c filter at least twice a week. My this is going to be a long year...

I've flown 2 other missions at night under NVG's...pretty scary, hard to see with all the dust. But much easier to see people shooting at you...we had some tracer fire the other night...not really too close to us; they seem to shoot at sounds, so they were spraying the sky, kind of in our general direction...no harm done. Glad these guys didn't have NVG's.

This is a little unorganized, it's 2:30 a.m., (I'm on nights now), my thoughts are rambling...did I tell you that this base has lots of civilians, from all over the world? We have Ugandan security guards, Pakistanis and Filipino's in the DFAC and laundry, other Europeans working other jobs. I'm surprised that many people would leave home to come here with out much protection(body armor, weapons, special training, etc), just because of good pay. Kind of dangerous (i.e. my first mortar attack).

Back to night flight, you should see all the aircraft over Baghdad in the middle of the night...lots to see and avoid. Fun watching some Apache gunships working over a 'hood near Sadr city (a no-fly zone)...pretty cool. We also have to avoid our own UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicles) doing recon stuff...photos, and the occasional armed attack on some sandal wearin' dudes in their man-dresses trying to plant more IED's. Well, it's even later now, and I need to head to the shower and bed. I need to wash the dust out of my ears...literally. Some of these summer days in the desert, trying to adapt, your body reacts differently than home (duh), have you ever been so hot you sweat between your fingers? One if the perks of desert life. I will say this, now whenever I read certain verses in the my Bible about going through the desert, it brings tears to my eyes...I can't imagine life here in Biblical times. It will never be the same reading those chapters again.

It gets lonely, as you might think; I miss everyone badly, especially my little Stef...she started school earlier today...I'm sure she did well. The first 90 days are really going to suck, getting used to the job, our 24/7 schedule, and all the other demands. I'm just trying to keep up with the laundry, and try to get 2 meals a day. I did get a new Our Daily Bread from our Bn Chaplain. He's from an Evangelical Church in Brooklyn Center back home...great guy. Take care back home and stay safe...there are people here and abroad that want to hurt us just because we're Westerners. I love my family, and am proud of what they are doing at home. God Bless you all. I'll try to send some pics for my son to post some time soon. Thanks for the prayers and support... My it's going to be a long year...

Technology is slow in the sand...

2007-09-03T13:55:00.000-05:00

I'm alive, and functioning at Camp Anaconda. Really slow trying to get Internet purchased. I'll do a real update ASAP. Thanks for your patience...and for prayers.

But it's a dry heat...

2007-08-18T01:13:00.000-05:00

Still here in Kuwait, adjusting, and working on final training issues. Got to go back for a minute about the trip here. Again what a view of our planet it was... I was glued to the window, and really enjoyed it. I paid for it later while trying to adapt to a small cot, hi temps, and the whole 44 folks in a group deal. One thing of note, it was pretty neat to be able to wear a sidearm on an airliner...it was a military contracted flight, so chances of things getting ugly was slim, but it was still comforting. Did I tell you that when we landed at Bangor ME we were met by about 45 people from a local VFW, clapping and cheering for us as we got off the plane? Wasn't really ready for that...it was great to have the support.

Back to life at 122 degrees... We have water available everywhere we go...sitting on pallets, free for the taking. Most of us are downing about 4 liters/day, maybe more. We did a 1 mile hike to a briefing at 2 p.m. one day. and the water in my camel back was actually hot...I almost burned my tongue on the first draw from it, the first 18" of water from the tube was nearly scalding! Also of note is how hot your feet get in the sand. Some folks have had blisters to deal with. The weather is incredible, last time it rained was may25th, not going to rain til the end of October. It gets down to 85 degrees at night, 120+ in the day, the lowest ever recorded temp at night in Kuwait was 78 degrees...amazing! Strong winds from the north nearly every day.

Overall, we've done well, only a couple heat casualties (minor dehydration). Driving around here to the ranges for some weapon firing, you see we are clearly in the middle of nowhere. There is little to see. Once in a while we see a herder with some camels, or sheep, and nothing to eat at least not visible to us. Which reminds me, I have a bunch of pics to email to my son for the blog, but my time on the computer here is limited, and the email is too slow to send pics - I'll have to wait til I get my own Internet set up at Anaconda. So, go back once in while and look at the previous blog, and remember, you can left click to enlarge the photos...

Back to the curious water situation here, all h2o is trucked in, stored above ground. There is no cold water like for brushing your teeth...try that tonight at home, with hot water...yuk! We are limited to a few gallons per day/soldier, so we do "combat showers" - get wet, turn it off, lather, rinse quick and get out. I imagine during the winter months, they actually use the water heaters, and tooth brushing is a more pleasant experience (not easy for us northern boys who are used to 55 degree water from our tap). Overall we are well, and tired of staying here. We should be headed north soon. We have almost completed every one's 2 environmental flights, 1 day flt, and 1 nvg. Boy was that a hoot at night!! It looks like the surface of the moon...little or no terrain definition, very difficult to keep our same altitude. Not much room for error when we're only at 100'. It'll take a few more flts to get better at, although, there are some trees and brush where we are going, so it may be slightly easier, we'll see. Under nvgs, we flew to areas where we could still see the berms and barriers from 1991, Desert Storm. Remember that big long trench 5 mile from the border they showed on the news all the time? If you went past it, you were getting close to the Iraqi border...we were flying along it, and near some monster power lines that are between there and the Iraqi border. Pretty cool!

DNR notes - of course, I'm always looking for the flora and fauna, and have only seen 2 birds in this area...you won't believe this, but all we have here are stupid pigeons sitting on our water tower, and of course, English sparrows. I couldn't believe it! No other soaring birds, raptors, songbirds or nothing. Oh curse the man who first transported the Eng Sparrow, and his stupid brother who brought us the lovely carp...both I'm sure without permits (sorry, its a dnr thing...). Hey remember how I try to talk to all kinds of folks in the dining facility? I've met some pretty cool people that way. Got to talking hunting and fishing the other day, and by the end of lunch, I learned how to catch a 4-5 ft alligator, and skin it, and where the best meat is...cool, huh? That's about it for nature notes. Oh, we did have a kangaroo rat run by my bunk, but was too quick to get a pic...... sorry, maybe next time.

New thing for me to get used to, all the electric here is 230v. We all have to buy converters to use our regular goodies. Some folks have blown circuits forgetting about the change. Laundry here is interesting too...drop off our items, it's all very well itemized, then pick it up at 4, 3 days later, all nicely wrapped and wrinkled (not like we have to be in fancy suits or anything)...we can still be all we can be in slightly wrinkled uni's. All the laundry goes to Kuwait City and returns. There is even more food to eat here than there was at Ft sill...just what we need. Lots more choices, but not quite as tasty as Sill. I have questions about some of the meat sources, taste is o.k. but I have to wonder about Habib's camel or Akmeds goat...nah, it must be all legal or they wouldn't be serving it. Well I need to go now, if anyone is late for any training here, the First Seargant bought a nice" Hello Kitty " backpack we can wear...don't want to be the first one for that. Some of our folks have already gone north in small numbers to prep our area to move to. I've heard some say their guts are in a knot, a little nervous about our job we have to do. We just want to start flying and doing our jobs...and then go home. I love you all, and thanks for the support and prayers. It means a lot to me and the others. It's going to be a very busy schedule in Balad. I'll try to squeeze in another blog once I get settled...see ya.

The timer has started...

2007-08-08T09:19:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it here, to Kuwait. We are officially in theater, and our 12 month clock has begun. What an incredible trip to get here - 21 hrs of travel. Leaving Ft. Sill, we passed over Chicago, then refueled at Bangor, Maine. Then to Shannon, Ireland for a quick stop, landed at sunrise, in the rain. Then on to Kuwait...this leg I saw the snow covered Alps, most of europe, and then we flew along the Black sea, over Turkey, and the entered the north end of Iraq. Flew right over Mosul, then saw our base at Balad, then Bagdad, and along the east side down the gulf to Kuwait. I was amazed, it looked pretty much just like we saw in that simulator at Ft Rucker.

I was awake for the majority of the trip, couldn't stop looking out the window... We got here at 6:30pm (10:30am MN time) on Sunday. What a blast furnace!! 126 degrees!! Go turn on your oven to 125, then crawl inside...it's unbelievable! I'm adjusting fine, am grateful when it drops to about 90 at night. It's rather comfy at 0500, but by 0600, it starts warming about 6 degres /hr. It's toughest between 1100-1700 when the sun gets hazy in the dust and the temps start to drop...remember, it's all relative. I have some photos to post at some point, I'm not on my laptop, I'm in a USO computer center, I get a quick 30 min to check email etc. The wind seems to never stop... Today they blew sirens for wind warnings...can't see more than 1/4 mile. Overall my spirits are good, one can't help but think about all the verses in the bible about going throught the deserts. Wow!, it's unbelievable to see this place...

I'll have more later, we should get our aircraft in another day or so, and be here for a bit yet. Please pray for me and the gang, we're hangin... Thanks.

Block Leave

2007-07-26T08:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I wanted to get this out before we went on leave, but there was too much going on right up to the last minute. We had more cultural briefs, and some other classes to attend. We also had to get our final packing done for the stuff we wanted to take home, things we definitely knew we wouldn't use overseas. There was a new class the trainers thought they would try out on us, and if it worked well, they'll use it for future aviation units when they mobilize. It was personnel recovery (downed aircraft), basically how to run, hide, and get picked up by the good guys.
It was very good training...it was exhausting, navigating through the woods, water (yes lots of hip deep water crossings), and fields, without being detected, using all our survival skills, and drinking lots of water. I drank 2.5 camel backs (250 ozs), and should have used more. It was about 3-4 mi of hiking, and then we get a lift from a friendly Iraqi, then more hiking to the pickup site, hiding in a safe house in an Iraqi village, room and building clearing, and last but not least, a trip in a convoy, where of course we had to try to avoid IED's, and we were ambushed, had injured troops (simulated), and had to set up for a evacuation to the hospital... What more could there be in a fun-filled afternoon? Kind of like a semester final for all we've done. I had to stop quite a few times and rest for a couple minutes, it was so hot, and we have our armor and flight vest on, it really makes you think about the difficulty of running, trying not to be seen, and all the other factors in case we do this for real. Incidentally if I do go down for maintenance reasons or "otherwise", there are folks looking for us within minutes, and the wheels of recovery process start turning. There should be some friendly aircraft overhead in a matter of minutes to provide additional fire support or come in and pick us up. All in all, it took about 8hrs, including a detailed debrief. Everyone seemed to like it, got through it, and we recommended they continue it for the next group (sure, why do we care if they get exhausted and worn out, we're out of here!). We did have about 6 heat casualties the first day, but none on our day (thought I was going to become one but didn't). Glad to have it done...

We did get to have an actual battalion picnic at a small lake nearby, complete with burgers, dogs, pop, water and lots of beer for those who required it. Lots of warnings about sunburn and use of sunscreen, but after the first couple hours, seemed to fall on deaf (numb)ears...end result? Lots of really sore soldiers whose pale little white bodies had been scorched. All in all, it was fun, I swam, tanned at the beach (yes I still believe in a nice tan), and played quite a while on the water slide...had some competition, once I found the secret to speed, I won quite a few of my heats (those 10yr olds didn't have a chance).

Now that we're leaving this army post soon, I'm reflecting on the good the bad and the ugly... We're all kind of tired of 7 in our small rooms, but we really got along pretty well most of the time. There were times where we hated it, but, we got through it. For a family of 440, there are times for lots of disagreements, but again, we worked through it, an did our jobs. One highlight for me is meeting people in the dining facility (DFAC..thought you'd get by with no new acronyms, huh?) I usually try to sit near the TV so I can catch even a glimpse of what's going on in the rest of the world. I have dined with a lot of Marines...there is a 5 wk course here in artillery for them. They are pretty dedicated, and they look very young, some are only 17. I enjoyed hearing where they were from, hobbies back home, etc. Then I dined with the Navy...there is a group of reservists, (46) that are going to Kuwait. Their skills range from electronics techs, mechanics, and junior lawyers (yes, like JAG Merijo). Guess what they will be doing? They are training at the detention center (the pen) here on post to be prison security personnel...boy it sucks to be them, huh? Then there's the folks from Virginia, Nat Guard, for their 2 week annual training, filling in for the army band from Sill who went overseas for some ceremonies there. I dined with a cellist, clarinetist, and a drummer. Of course we talked lots of musical notes and rests (based on my vast experience from church choir at home). (Oh Brother!)

It's time for me to go, lots to do at home, a final list of things to bring to Kuwait/Iraq, etc. Taking care of some medical issues at home, spending a bunch of time with my little girl (8), and my other kids as well. I'm really glad to be done with part 1, and ready to start part 2. The sooner we go, the sooner we get back... We will be in Kuwait for a few weeks, to acclimate, and do some more flight and weapons training, then we push north to Iraq. No dates for this yet, but I'm guessing we'll be doing some actual missions by the middle of the month. Not sure when I'll be updating the blog, might be a bit until I get near the Internet. I will have it in my quarters once we get settled in. Stay tuned. Thanks for your comments, thoughts and prayers. Me and all my Battle Buddies need them. I can tell already that time is going quickly, until we fly back to Ft. Sill on the 1st... Thanks, and God Bless you guys...

Out of the FOB...

2007-07-09T23:06:00.000-05:00

8 days and nights of very busy day training, and hot conditions for sleep in tents at night. Basically, it really sucked...really bad. There was a day or two I wasn't sure I could survive the heat, all dressed up, and drinking over 200 ozs of water every day. We started out with 4 days of IED (improvised explosive device) training, then 4 days of convoy operations, and some weapon firing. I was surprised to find out the Army is performing mostly law enforcement duties, and trying to let the Iraqi's take over with more tactical stuff when they can. Army folks are doing more finger printing & processing of detainees. We started out with lots of videos of IED's, vehicle borne (VBIED'S), and suicide bombers. There are robots they use to investigate some of the roadside IED's. We covered the laws of war, ROE(rules of engagement), and sniper operations. We set up entry control points, EOF (escalation of force), use of stop strips. That led us into vehicle inspections, and searches, and personnel searches, and detaining or collecting EPW's (enemy prisoner of war). We also covered civil disturbances and crowd control. Did you know we don't use warning shots? If a vehicle is fast approaching a checkpoint, and ignores the visual and audible signals, they get one round (shot) into the engine block...if they continue, next one's on them...

We put all this stuff to use by driving all around different routes and practiced finding IEDs early on, avoiding land mines, and dealing with COBs (civilians on the battlefield)...actual Iraqi Americans who work here as actors and actresses, how to deal with their needs and even simulated Iraqi army checkpoints, and how to get our convoy through. We weren't allowed to take photos of the cobs because most of them have fam back in Iraq yet. We fired blanks the first 3 days, then used real live ammo on the last day. Pretty cool to shoot again...

About the last thing we did at the FOB (forward operating base...don't you love all the acronyms?) was we came under fire and had to defend it, and launch our QRF (quick reaction force). Yes, we were able to defend it ourselves, without Chuck Norris, or Steven Segall. One thing I didn't care for at the FOB was at least twice a day the OC's (operator controllers) played these Islamic chants over the PA system...similar to what we'll have to listen to overseas. There are a lot of Iraqi's and TCNs (third country nationals) working on the bases there, so I guess we try to be more tolerant of their habits...we are a "kinder gentler army" these days. (oh brother)

Human nature notes - boy, some things never change...picture this. We're all sitting on the ground at these outdoor classes at the FOB, and we get a 5-10 min break about every hour or so. Remember how the boys would tease the girls with bugs and snakes in grade school? Well, a few guys have continued the fun, yes even many years later, of scaring some of the females with these large beetles, or a spider. Once the screams start, it's hard to not want to participate. (I only threw a small beetle, the other guys did the big cockroaches)(really).

DNR notes - While on break between classes we have seen some cool stuff...the toad in the pic and quite a few tarantulas along the roads... I saw some quail and turkeys, too...even a 6ft green snake at the firing range.

The last 2 days after the FOB have been classes on combatives, how to defend ourselves and gain the upper hand in a one on one encounter with an insurgent. We also covered detainee operations (cuffs and stuff), chain of custody, and use of force. I found out (as a victim) there are a lot of pressure points available to get your captive individual to move or do what you need them to do, even when they are uncooperative. We all took turns to learn these. That wraps up a very busy 10 days or so. The week before the FOB, there were 2 of us selected to take a couple days training to become suicide prevention counselors. Not a very nice topic, but there have been cases in theater. We will hopefully be able to get the individual to see things differently. The national average is about 14%, and the mil is only slightly better at 12%. Kind of surprising stats to me.

With all this, the reality of war is about to become every day life. We will be in Kuwait in early Aug. Spend a few weeks training, flying, and adjusting, then we move to our base at Balad, Iraq. With the schedule as its been, we've had little real time off. Worked right thru Mem day, and Jul 4th. So, tonight for the first time, we were allowed to go as a company, and have a nice dinner in town (yahoo!), and wear civilian clothes! Those who desired could have 3 alcoholic drinks. It was great to see everyone's attitude perk up, and the food was great! I enjoyed sitting, and people watching as all my battle buddies were having fun. I was grateful for all of them, even though we don't all get along some times, but we will get the job done, no matter what it is. I then made sure my van load was home safe, as I was the designated driver...

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, and comments...it's great to read them. I'll try one more blog before we go on block leave the 23rd. See ya.

32 Days and a Wake Up

2007-06-21T13:37:00.000-05:00

We are nearing the end of our visit to Ft Sill. Last week was spent doing our big Bn ARTEP (final evaluated aviation exercise). It involved every person in every unit, lots of planning, and prep, and culminated in a large 15 aircraft (3 flights of 5) troop insertion, day, and a return to extract the same under nvg conditions. It was precisely timed, each company of aircraft landing 5 min apart. We were not sure what to expect, but the worst showed up. We wound up getting our rear ends shot up pretty bad on the insertion. I was one of the pilots in A Co flt lead...we had reports of bad guys with small arms in the LZ, and when we were on final approach, turns out they had rpg's (simulated of course). We took a few hits, made a go around, landed in a different place not quite as "unfriendly"...and dropped of the folks. Came back later in the dark and this time we could see the bad guys lying in wait and the doorgunners opened up on them(simulated) and we made it in and out with minmal damage. The debrief was an hour and a half long. We made a lot of mistakes, but there were great lessons learned. The worst thing we did during the night portion was, had our cockpit dashlites too brite. Someone with a night vision device on the ground can see the faint green glow of an aircraft approaching...so we have to turn those cockpit lights down some more...

So, basically we graduated from the aviation side of the house...Yeah! Got home by 0200, and right away the next day we are told we have to start packing. Now we have to pack our B, C, dufflebags and large Rubbermaid "tuffbox"with the stuff we're sending across the pond. Also, we are sending the majority of the helicopters to the port this week to prepare to be shipped on the same boats. Yes, all our extra goodies, tools and aircraft, are going to Kuwait by boat, roughly a 21 day "cruise". I was scheduled to be one of the pilots to fly down to Corpus Christi Tx, and complete my instrument checkride along the way, but then they re-did the list and put all the staff weanies on there instead, so Bradley doesn't get to see the port at all...oh well, maybe some other time. Once they land, the contractors take over and prep the helicopters (fold the rotor blades and fold the tail and shrinkwrap) and the gang hops on a bus and drive back all night. We still have a bunch of training yet to do, so it's really difficult to follow the packing lists...took most of the day, to figure out what we'll need. It's hard to pack to stay, I could be packed in an hour to leave for good, but we still have to go the FOB for a week, and have the proper stuff to leave for Kuwait about Aug 3rd. We are coming home for block leave the afternoon of Jul 23rd, and return here afternoon of Aug 1st. Our departure ceremony has been moved to Aug 2nd, here at Sill. We still don't know for sure which flight suits we"ll have, we hear "one piece tan, no, 2 piece tan, or maybe the new 2 piece ACU nomex"... Remember, we have to get all our rank and names and stuff sewn on, too, which takes some time... All of this takes a lot of time, and effort and we hope we don't have to go overseas with a bunch of extra flt suits, only to send half back home again.

Otherwise, I'm still doing laundry quite often, it's really hot, and we all smell rather bad at times. Only a "taste of whats to come". Getting a little more used to the extra weight of battle clothes, and drinking a gallon of agua every day, or more. There was an interesting event during the drill last week, we had a memorial service for one our pilots who was killed during the exercise...his aircraft was hit with heavy gunfire (simulated). It was a battallion size ceremony, memorial music, helmet and boots posted in front, and people spoke on his behalf, a female soldier sang America the Beautiful, and yours truly was asked to read the 23rd Psalm. The Chaplain directed the ceremony. It was rather moving, I took it pretty seriously, and was praying we don't have to do it for real. Some folks thought otherwise, and didn't see the relevance. Our Bn Cmdr is a religiuos man, and wants us all to not only be in great physical, but also spiritual health as well. To that I say,"Amen brother"! Having experienced a ceremony like this will reduce the shock of performing one for real.

Taking our shots...we had our 3rd and final anthrax shot, (we get 3 more in the series in country), and they suprised us with smallpox as well. Don't ask me why, I didn't know it was even a threat...I was told unofficially that Iran and Syria still have it around...I'm not sayin' , I'm just sayin'. I had to defer my smallpox til I get to Kuwait for medical reasons.

We are back in a strange rainy cycle here, no one's ever seen this much rain here before. They are way ahead of normal, and there has been a lot of flooding. We've barely missed some big storms just east of here...hope we get the aircraft out first without any damage. Sure would like to get some folks from the DNR at home to design a better drainage here - suddenly there's 4' of water in these small creeks, and it blows everything downstream. Little tough on the ecosystem here.

Now you're up to date, sorry it's been a while. The pace continues, some days really suck...I wish it was already over and done. The Col reminds us that we are our" brothers keeper". To that end I am grateful for everyone here, even though some days some folks don't play well together, we are one big happy military family (sort of). We have a job to do, and thus far we've done well. God Bless, and thanks for the prayers, and comments. See ya...

Things are heating up...

2007-06-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

We finished up our training in Alabama, and returned to Ft. Sill on the 3rd. It's been really busy since and I've had difficulty getting near the 'puter to do an update. As much as I hate to admit it, getting back to Sill was like returning to "home plate"... I miss my air conditioned room at Rucker, but the days were very long (11-13 hrs). Basically it means that we have one more thing checked off of our list before we "graduate" in July. I flew some more nvg training a couple nights, and some day training as well. We are now in the phase that all of our operations are directly monitored and notes taken of all our missions. Then we all meet afterward for a debrief of the entire flight, to include the whole mission planning process, etc. Most of the time the debrief goes well, we definitely know our jobs, and we are safe...but the nitpick stuff these guys come up with... Most of us, especially the more "senior aviators", realize that if all they can do is nitpick, there's not much real stuff to hit us on, so bottom line is, we're doing well. We're just tired of playing the game, and would prefer to tell them to take a flying leap... What are they going to do? Stamp my mealcard "no dessert" and send me to Iraq? We're going anyway, whether we do well or not. Sorry, just a little black and white venting.

It's been really warm (trying not to say hot, that will be Aug in Kuwait) here and we are wearing our battle armor wherever we are traveling to and from. 93 has been the high so far, and we are actually starting to acclimate. That means getting used to being fully clothed, and the extra weight of our armor...60 lbs, and a camelback water carrier, to try to stay hydrated. I'll have to get a pic of me in our new IBA, indiviual body armor, and our new only slightly lighter Air Warrior armor we wear while performing flight duties. Its Hot! Our schedule is prety much 24/7, like it is overseas, so on Fridays we've adopted the saying, "Oh good, only 2 more work days until Monday"...

DNR notes- I saw an anusual tree in Al, I think its called a Mamosa tree...has fern like leaves, and really flowery buds, colorful too. The locals liken it to a weed, since after the flowers drop off if you park a vehicle near it, you'll get sap all over Billybubba's car...he don't like that. I got to see one of those Miss Kites the other day, not too many left, I think they've moved into their summer range. Fun to see different flora and fauna around here... Boy I sure do miss the smell of my Coppertone...at home about now, I'd be wearing it everyday, working on that "healthy tan"... Don't wory, I checked with a doc a couple years ago and I'm not a likely candidate for skin cancer... He recommended I go up from my Coppertone 4 to 15, so I did that. Did you know that an spf of 15 blocks out 93% of the bad rays from the sun? So don't waste your money on much higher. (Thank you Dr Brad)

Not much else to fill you in on, we're all tired, and anxious to get out of here. It's a bittersweet thing though, how difficult it will be to leave for part 2 of our gig... Which reminmds me of something, our last night at Rucker, we got to go to a local hole in the wall restaurant and had a very good Korean meal brought in for the 65 of us. It was good... Then the Col said general order #1 was temporarily repealed, and those who desired could enjoy a 3 drink limit...which most folks turned into a 3 drink minimum....pretty funny. I was sitting there watching all the people mingling, and trying their hand at karoake. We really haven't had a chance to visit much, it's been kind of all business since we got here... It was great to just sit and look at all the folks who've volunteered to put their lives on hold for about 18 mos, and help out in this cause. Reminded me how blessed I am to be a part of this new"band of brothers".
A special "hi" and thanks, and I love you all, to my family and relatives. Stay safe, be alert. God Bless... See ya..

Ft Rucker Alabama...

2007-05-27T20:35:00.000-05:00

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.

Reverse cycle...

2007-05-18T19:33:00.000-05:00

That's what we call it when we are working from 2pm to 4am. I flew 4 nights in a row from 12-0230...boy that was rough. Fun flying the area, we have simulated missions both on and off the reservation, to other airports. All while wearing NVG's, but very tiring. The goggles are pretty cool, it's amazing how we get used to them. While hovering over people to hook up a sling load, or hovering into hot gas (refueling while the aircraft is still running), I peak under the goggles, and it's pitch black, can't see a thing! Amazing technology!
Speaking of technology, did you know if you left click on the photos in my blog they are enlarged for easier viewing? I found that out by accident the other day...nicer to see some of the photos up close...

Back to goggles...it would be a little easier to stay caught up on rest if we werent' tied to a bus schedule. I miss breakfast now, and have to be ready to get on the bus by 1120 for lunch. I've planned on getting a catnap in the afternoon before heading out to the hangar to begin flight planning duties, but then something else comes up, more training, a meeting or whatever. So I have to get on another bus to go to a quick supper (relatively speaking), then back to the flight line. Time goes by kind of fast like this, but you get pretty wiped out, and then you get a reset day to reset your duty and flight hours clock. So, today is a reset day, and tommorrow we start flying the training tables for the door gunnery at one of the ranges. I've been imagining what it's going to be like flying under goggles, navigating, talking on the radios, and watching out for individuals popping up from anywhere trying to do us harm... I'm sure we'll learn how to look for them, we do everything in the "crawl, walk, run modes". Right now, some of the things we have to look forward too are a bit overwhelming...
We did get to do some daytime flying , to learn some combat flight manuevers...to help us get out of the way, or to better engage some targets. Kind of fun, wacky steep turns, and banks. We'll be out trying it under goggles next week to get that task signed off. We also had to take a couple written tests on aircraft limitations, and emergency procedures... Have'nt seen the scores yet, but I think I did pretty well.

Remember that hike we did in our second week up that rocky hill near here? Well we had company PT (everyone has to be there), one of our female pilots is a fitness instructor back at home, so she lead us through a 30 min routine (nonstop) of abs and shoulders out in the grass, then the Cpt said we're we're all going for a run up "Mt Syrabachi"...that rock and cactus covered hill about a half a mile from here. I thought "oh boy". There were about 20 of us, the rest were flying. We took off, at a slow pace, and of course the 20yr olds jumped out in front. I was in the last 5... I kept going, thinking I wanted to try to make it up the hill without walking, but that was unrealistic for me, so took small steps and just kept going. Pretty soon I was passing people and was almost half way up the hill. It had already been about a mile or so, and I was pooped. I did stop twice on the hill for a few paces to catch my breath. I started up again, and realized if I kept it up, I could pass up the Cpt (32yrs old), as he was walikng a bit too. So I did, and as I passed him I gasped and said, " the only person we should try to beat is the Company Commander Sir"...and I got to the top. I touched the pole at the top, and started down the backside. Of course, it's easier to run downhill, even if you are tripping over small boulders, rock, cactus, and watching for rattlesnakes. I realized now that I was in the front third of the group, and I got motivated to see how well I could do. I caught up to the "fitness chic" who beat IPods, I prefer to run with a thing called "My God"...I would try to recite special bible verses to keep me focused. So now, it's been about 2.5 mi and about a mile to go. I could see where we would finish, but was running out of gas. As I began to ponder the wisdom of telling your commander that you had to beat him, there were footsteps coming up behind me... I was near death (or so I thought) and I slowed to a walk, and sure enough, geuss who passed me? My Cpt(I hate it when he does that!). So now am I goung to suffer the embarassment of not beating him? No, I had to suck it in, and sprint to catch him, but I did pass him again...I wound up 3rd, and he was 4th. The winners were a couple of those 20yr old rabbits. I was thankful I finished as well as I did.

Not much for DNR notes this time, no pics, not much to see in the middle of the night, or I don't have the proper equip to shoot it. I did see a coyote one evening after supper on the busride to the barracks. Oh the mosquitos are nice...after my run this a.m. I was walking back, almost cooled down, and a guy told me I had some skeeters on me. I looked, and I had 3 on my arms, never heard them, felt them, and they were all large and full of my donated fluids. Pretty messy, and very sneaky...
Well, with any group this size, as I have said before, there are some problems that develop. One individual decided he didn't want to go with us anymore, and he quit showing up for duty. He was an E-6, now he's busted to E-4 (lower pay), and guess what, he's still going to Iraq....not too smart. One of the pilots from another state got into an argument with our Bn Seargent Major(highest rank enlisted we have), and then the Col, and now he's been taken off flight duties for a while and reassigned to desk work. Things get serious when your unit is going to the battlefield, and everyone is needed to do their jobs, and stay motivated.
We heard from one of the pilots in Iraq now, they're looking forward to seeing us about Aug 1. They take their CH47 Chinooks and head back to St. Paul about Aug 14th.

I need to go, got a meeting about our gunnery flight for Saturday. Thanks to all who leave comments, I love to read them...should have said that a while back. I will send a couple more photos to post, too. I love my family, and miss them a bunch...and I am blessed with a lot of wonderful friends. Thank you. Be careful at home, and be alert. We're all in this together. I'm here, to help keep it safe where you are.

Okie monsoons

2007-05-10T18:25:00.000-05:00

It's been raining here pretty much every nite for the past 6 nites...we've had to cancel our nvg training due to severe weather. This area has had 20" of rain so far this year, when I hear they normally have 10 for the year. Thank goodness we finished up most of the range fire for now...
I was suppoosed to fly tonite, but that got pushed back a day because of last nites storms. There have been tornados in the area, and I hear Kansas lost a town to one lately?
Watershed management - boy I'd like to have the folks from my fisheries office down here to help write a better plan for these streams on post... There is curb and gutter, but no underground drainage to give relief to the rainfall...a half inch of rain turns these small 1" deep, 10" wide stream into a raging torrent, 3-4' deep and 40' wide. Very flashy, 5 hrs later, its back to normal. I paused once or twice on a run to see if I could find any fish in these streams before the rains began, and I have yet to see anything... Maybe I should go to the MWR(moral, welfare and recreation dept) office and see if I could sign out a stream backpack electrofishing unit to do a little science while I'm here? Nah, they'd frown on that...

More DNR notes - that bird I told you about last time, the OK state bird? Is a Scissortail flycatcher, not a swallowtail, like I said...sorry, got the name mixed up. I went to the library here to check on another bird I photo'd, a Mississippi Kite...a hawk like bird, gray in color, and not a resident here, but a spring visitor. What's cool about digital cams, is even though I zoomed in as far as I could for the pic, while it's in the camera, I can zoom in even more to chek for details...pretty cool. I'm working on a way to save the zoomed photo too...
Hey, there about 8 Canada Geese on the parade field in front of our barracks...the only ones in Oklahoma...we all know the rest live in Minnesota(oh boy!)

More army stuff? Yes, we've had our 2nd anthrax shot so far, 4 more to go in the series... It's a little pianful, leaves a small knot in your arm. The gals that give it are good...you can't even tell you've been poked, then about a minute later it starts to burn for a spell... No one's had any problems, and no one's complaining too bad. We had some chemical training in the helicopters, we all had to do a preflight inspection, startup and shutdown, and once around the traffic pattern while wearing full chem suit(over the usual body armor and flt vest), and gas mask...that's a pic of me suited up, it's not Darth Vader, it's yours truly. Apparently, some time ago in Iraq, the news reported the insurgency had xploded some chlorine gas along with an IED. So we are just taking precautions I guess.
Do you konow what a FOB is? It's a forward operating base in Iraq... There are many of them ,and we will fly lots of missions to resupply them, pick up people, equip etc. There is a new FOB built here at the north end of the reservation, and we will stay there for about 10 days. It looks just like the ones overseas. We'll get alot more training in clearing rooms and buildings, and some combative training(hand to hand one on one) as well. We also have to start our door gunner training program soon. We have a bunch of new folks that want to fly and shoot back, they will be key to our survival. So, naturally I'm out recruiting all the deer hunters I can find, anybody who got in trouble for shooting sparrows as a kid, etc. They all have to pass a lesser grade flt physical, and will have flt gear like the rest of us in the aircraft. Should be interesting.
We had some Instructors here from Ft Rucker Al, the hdqtrs for Army Aviation. They were here to tell of some of the latest tactics employed there for helicopters, and they demonstrated some new evasive manuevers we may need that are more aggressive than we're used to. Sounds like fun......Top Gun baby!!

I mentioned a while back about a large group of people like this, and always a few with colds, flu etc. Well, last week was my turn...I had a cold, just felt miserable enough to wiping the nose and blowing alot. No place to retreat to like at home, only my small twin bunk next to the door. It got better ea day, and I got to fly once too... Doing much better now. We're all still working on our running programs, I'm running about 2.4 mile each day, and still maintaining the pushups and situps...no word on a final test date.
Because we fly only nites now, we are on whats known as reverse cycle...we don't report for duty until about 2p.m. then we get back from nvg flights usually by 0200(2a.m.) Then we rest for the next day. Takes a couple days to make the switchover, so I start tomorrow, and hopefully fly fri nite(dodging storms?).
Never ceases to amaze me about the great technology we have these days... In the evenings you look outside and see at least a couple soldiers on every floor talking on cell phones to loved ones. Not to mention the others on laptops in their rooms... Everyone sharing their day with someone at home, and missing our loved ones. Thanks for the support, and I'll keep praying for everyone at home. See ya...

Getting hotter here.....

2007-05-06T17:28:00.000-05:00

The temps are slowly rising every day. It's getting very uncomfortable as we do our field training with our body armor, and other gear on. Yesterday we were going thru a review of our basic soldier skills, first aid, radio commo, how to properly employ claymore mines, and of course how to throw hand grenades. (hopefully as aircrew members we won't have to use that skill, and if we do, things have gone to heck in a hand basket) By the end of the day, we were beat ...even when we drink lots of water, it's still tough to make it...I can't imagine what the other soldiers are doing to survive on the battlefield. They are telling us that we can xpect to see 150 degrees in Kuwait when we arrive in august... (don't worry, it's dry heat). After we get back from the long day in the field, and we are feeling like dead meat, we still have to find time to do laundry..... there's only a couple machines on ea floor, so we have to wait for a turn. Kind of a pain in the butt when you're xhausted...... at least it's free. They did install 20 new washers and dryers, but you have to go outside to a different building, in proper uniform, oh, brother what a pain........
We are all a little tired of a rehash of basic training all over again, and of course, missing all our loved ones. Sure do miss TV and the news..... there's a big TV in the dayroom, but usually 15 or more people around, can't here what's being said, and then it's set on the lousy NBA finals(which really don't start til august, and I'm a hockey fan! )
We had our first classes on Arabic the other day.... imagine a room with 160 people in it all repeating words and phrases over and over again. We weren't even given a handout, but they promised we would all get the proper pocket training guide before we leave. We'll get a bunch more training in Kuwait. All I can remember right now is yes and no in arabic......although we did cover all the handy phrases we may need like, addressing the elder of the group, where are the rifles, do you have any bombs, and the ever popular, which way did they go? We also were shown some of the do's and don'ts in the culture as well, hand signals that are o.k. at home are not o.k. in Iraq.
My son Adam is putting up some different pics to show you, one of which is the OK state bird, the Swallowtailed Flycatcher, a pretty bird, long graceful tail, that it uses to manuever and turn(being a pilot, we're big on manuevering flight)... I stalked it and got fairly close, thanks to a zoom lens . (dnr nature note)
Those of you who saw our aviation units' flight patch, is a play on words about being a clown, having those fun qualities, and do you have it in you? Well, those who selected it chose Krusty the clown from Simpson's (wouldn't have been my choice). So, we had a photo op with Col Krusty the clown, a really bad dude, wicked with a gun...
I was scheduled to fly last fri afternoon, and we were still in language class at 11:50, when our first Sgt came in and read of the crews of the flights and we all left early... I thought we were just getting out early to get a bite to eat, then go fly. We got outside and were told we had a search and rescue to perform, I thought it was a test, kind of a training drill. We had to run back to our barracks, change into flt siuts, then get to the airfield. We got there found out which aircraft to fly, got briefed, and made a hasty departure. I was lucky, they only needed one aircraft, and they chose mine. We took off, accelerated to about 150kts, got there in about 8 minutes, met three police officers, and started searching over this small lake. Apparenly a retired Gen had gone fishing the nite before, didn't return home, and they found his overturned boat the next a.m. We spent about 2 hrs hovering in a search pattern, and we were credited with finding his baseball cap. No other signs, water clarity was poor, about 15 in(fisheries geuss), and strong winds that day. We continued the search by xpanding our area back and forth for a couple miles around the lake. Very open country, saw buffalo and elk, and turkey vultures, and that was it. After close to 3 hrs we had to break off for fuel. By now the local law enf had 4 boats, divers, drag hooks, etc. They even brought out the light set for nite operations. Not sure what happened. It was great to get a chance to help. Sun aft I was in the commisary and heard the checkout lady ask someone if they ever found the man, and no one knew.
We are supposed to start flying a little more now, maybe even go on reverse cycle(meaning we are off in the day and work only at nite, for nite vision gogle use, so our bodies can acclimate to being out way after dark and still fly safe)
I forgot to mention for our call signs, our crewchiefs got real creative and selected a list of clown names for us to use...... some were rather risque, for a family and friend kind of blog, I geuss thats to be xpected in the military. So far we have Bozo the clown, Eyore the clown, he's kind of sad once in a while, anyway, we have the whole range of possibilities..... what did I get? They were kind to me and let me be "Deadeye the clown".... thanks to my shooting scores at the range. Could have been alot worse...
I need to go, have a test in the morning.....emergency procedures in the aircraft. I love my family, and miss them alot. I wish I could accelerate time, but I have to pull myself back and take each one, one day at a time..... and remember to leave it in Gods' hands. Thanks.

Lots goin' on.....

2007-05-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

Well we are still busy, getting tasks marked off our list.....we finally finished up at the ranges, both the pistol and rifle. I am fortunate to have done pretty well, I scored 47 out of 47 with the pistol, and 30 of 40 with the rifle....officailly qualified with both. I think I got the highest score with the handgun, and one of a handful of folks to shoot in the 30's with the rifle. That was a tough course with the M4 rifle, all pop up targets from 50meters(53yds) to 300 meters(330yds) with just open sights(no scope). I was nervous but got by my first attempt. passing was 23, and many folks had to shoot 3,4,5 times to get qualified. We had 4 days of ranges, 2 of which were 18 hrs long shooting both day and nite modes. We were wiped out. Glad thats behind us.
We also had a day of land navigation where we were in teams of 4 with a map and compass, and had to find 5 waypoints by hiking crosscountry, about 5 mi. Being the DNR guy I am, I naturally had to be out front, following the headings called out by "compass boy" in the back. I was giving the guided nature tour, telling my buddies what plants and animals I could identify, hoping to finally see a rattlesnake(they warned us alot), ....never did see one, found a van that had washed downstream from the hiway, and we found all our points, They had to rush me along, seems "nature boy" here had forgot there was a time limit, and we had to hustle up to make it in. Turns out we made it in 2:20, the limit was 3hrs. There were a couple teams (washington) that didn't get done on time.
Previously, we had made a short 3.5 mi hike in lite gear up into the hills to sort of get used to the warmth, our boots and forced marching again. When we have had a couple hrs off, we have to run errands, get uniform stuff, items at the px(military walmart), and a haircut. Now most of the soldiers are getting nearly shaved heads, whereas I am not a fan of the skinhead look. I've had some difficulty xplaining my need for a trim, and not to look like Mr. Clean, on our bathroom cleanser. So far, the one lady was from Cambodia, very interesting family history, and the next lady was a local Commanche tribal member, and I mentioned I was part Native American myself born in Idaho,....didn't seem to matter much, she took off more than I wanted on the sides, but left enough on top to feel o.k. about the whole xperience.....last thing I wanted to do was start some intertribal battle over a haircut ....... We'll see who I get next week.
Speaking of meeting some interesting people, I've really enjoyed getting to know our fellow soldiers from HI. One of the other 6 in my room is named Clarence, and he is from Oahu. He's also a CW4, couple years older than me, and has very similar interests. He flew Cobras like I did, some -58 time , and has a couple civilian jobs like me....only he surfs, and I waterski and play hockey. He's an FAA flight examiner, and flys allover checking airline pilots, etc. I'm learning some pretty cool things so far about HI. Another guy is from Alaska, here to augment WA as they were short of pilots. He's a State Trooper from King Salmon, flies a R44 helicopter(small piston eng type), and has a bunch of interesting tales of being a bush pilot..... he drops in on unsuspecting violaters, issues a citation, then he's off somewhere else..... never has any officers on the ground for backup....pretty risky. We were in the commisary(cub foods) yesterday, I asked him about shopping in AK. His eyes were kind of big,(don't think he'd seen a store that large before), and he said, "see that 5lb bag of potatoes for 1.39? $15.00 in AK.....those apples? $4.00 for just one....(by now he'd called for cleanup in aisle 7, as I had fainted). I guess be grateful for what we have....he also said he'll land, buy his food, the produce goes with him in the aircraft, and he mails the rest home..... takes about 4 days. My, my,my.
I need to get to bed soon, have to get up at 5 and run some more.....I said earlier, this takes me a while to figure out what I want to tell you all, laugh at it, correct the spelling, think about all those I love and miss. It is tough understanding the way they do things in the army, I'm so grateful to be a proud member of the Guard.......I thought these anal retentive people all died off by now(last time I saw them was 37yrs ago!) Must be their descendents......
Anyway, we are starting to fly this week, no more army stuff til june. So back to studying aviation and nite vision goggle things. I hope to get to fly again by the end of the week. Things are looking up a little, ...I just keep telling myself it's an "endurance test", and I plan on making it to the end, only with God's help. I'll keep praying for you all, and stay safe at home...... Thanks.

More training.....

2007-04-25T13:17:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally got internet in our room, and no one is here but me, so it's just me and the broadband.......it's all mine! (for a little while)
We keep being bused to classes and meals, so life is good. If you took 440 people from anywhere, made them all work together for a time you'd have a certain amount of attrition... no different here. We've had a handful of injuries to soldiers, nothing serious, even falling down some stairs. There are a couple of folks who will be sent back home for various reasons, we may lose a pilot too. So we are hoping we can get thru the rest of our "green training"(all the army stuff most of us forgot a long time ago), and start the "blue training", our flight stuff, mission specific, and we get to wear fight suits again!!(joy, joy)
We've had a Sw asia security brief, an introductory class on insects, poisonous critters, and a couple on heat related injuries, and how we will handle the intense heat there. Not uncommon to see a crew member give someone an IV, we'll be carrying around lots of saline in our CLS(combat lifesaver bags).
We're still working on PT(physical training), we have to do an official PT test about the 10th of may. Thats pushups, situps, 2 mile run. The Bn Cmdr has put out that evryone will get at least 70% in ea event. Well need to be in the best shape of our lives to survive the heat. So, I'm working on that sixpack in my abs, got about 3 cans so far, need some more work. My running really sucks right now......gee, I wonder why? Could it be that they bus us to the dining hall 3 times a day, we can't say no to the food? Nah, I'm personally only eating half of what they give me, even if I ask for a little, they still give alot. Must be geared for the 20 yr olds in the group(shutup).
Enough on that......one more thing, working so hard on our bodies as we are, it reminds me of a dream that all of us young outdoor men had after high school of getting that modeling job for Cabela's, where we could stand proudly smiling in nothing but brand new long underwear, holding a Cabela's coffee mug, leaning on the mantle over a heavily stoked fireplace........Oh well.
We'll be getting issued our IBA(individual body armor, and welcome to the world of a million acronyms) soon, it's the pixelated camo like our uni's are, and weighs about 65 lbs. We'll start out without the armor plates out, and work up to acclimating here as it gets warmer each day.I'll post a pic once I get mine. Speaking of photos, I sent a bunch to my son Adam to put on the blog for me, as my time is limited. There is one of a small scorpion, one of the local guys to watch out for, besides rattlesnakes and cottonmouth snakes.
Had a couple days of weapon training, on the M-16(M4 short stock model we carry in the aircraft for pilots), and the M9(9 mm semi auto pistol, also for pilots and crew chiefs), and the M249 SAW (m16 caliber machine gun), and the M240 (larger caliber machine gun for the helicopters). We go to the range next week to actually fire all these and get qualified. I can't wait to blow something up.
I got to fly last nite(yahoo) I got my local area orientation of the army reservation where we'll do our flight training. one lap around the place in the day and one lap around at nite under NVG's(nite vision goggles). A little smaller than flying up at Camp Ripley, which most of us know like the back of our hand. More restrictive, more ranges to avoid, and lots of artillery firing all the time. (artillery is the large noisy guns that shoot a 155mm projectile long distances on the battlefield, great for taking out enemy tanks, etc) Sure felt strange to be flying in a whole new area, and it's got some neat things around here too. The Whicita Mtns wildlife refuge borders part of the north side of the reservation, and I'm told they have elk, bison, some kind of dall sheep , as well as lots of turkey, deer, etc. We flew by a large reservoir last nite and of course I wanted to go skiing, and was looking for a Malibu or a Mastercraft ski boat somewhere, but to no avail. ( not advisable to do while in formation with 3 other balckhawks). It only reminded me that we can't leave the post(base), and we can't wear civilian clothes. Ours is the first group they've restricted in that way, while getting ready to deploy. I'ts only about 90 more days, and we all know why we're here and we're o.k. with it all.
Moral is pretty good overall, there's a few people we'd like to send somewhere else, but they won't let us do that. As any soldier can tell you, it's difficult to be gone from loved ones, and seeing someone's eyes well up with tears can spread quickly, while sharing pictures of our beautiful chidren and families at home . I know I'll owe my 8 yr old Steffy lots of hugs and tickle time while home on block leave in late july.
I'm praying for you all at home to keep safe, be alert, and thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
If you would pray that I can get caught up with the academic stuff, I'm a little rusty. It's hard to find the time and a quiet way to memorize this stuff for the blackhawk. I'm just feeling a little dummer than I should be. I know it will all come together, but there's a lot to learn.

Sorry I got a little windy here, this took me about 50 min to think and pound out, so you see I'm not the fastest, but I'm willing. I actually got this done uninterupted......finally a little "me" time....... See ya.

What day is it?

2007-04-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

Well time is marching on, and I have hardly a clue as to what day it is. If I hadn't a calendar watch or calendar on a nearby laptop, I wouldn't have any idea ...... everything just runs into the next event. I'm a little bummed out, still getting used to marching or running, nowhere to hide from my new family of 440. Pretty cool talking with our brothers and sisters from HI though. can't wait to see the islands when this gig is done.
We finished combat life saving, made me nearly ill looking at many injuries from the field..... unbelievable mutilation. I can't believe how some soldiers lived from their injuries. We are all hoping to God we never have to use it, but glad we have some training.
Today we had classes on battle fatigue, stress and suicide.... more pleasant stuff, and the usual annual brief on sexual harassment, fratinization, and legal stuff, blah blah......
I'm trying to tell myself to just go with the group, we're all one big happy family.... quite a slow pace compared to my civilian life, lots of waiting for busses, meals etc. We have a saying so far, "Semper Gumby" (be flexible), and the ever popular, "indecision is the key to flexibility". We're all counitng the days til we complete the green phase and move into the blue phase,about may 3. That means we start flying in early may.....Yahoo!!
I really am greatful to be part of this group, how cool is it to be over 40, (shutup), and on military flight status, and flying one of the best aircraft in the world... Thank you Lord!I'll hopefully have some photos to post when I send them to my son, I just can't get much time to do it.... and I'm kind of ticked I can't find a phone line to use anywhere on this post! So I cant use my Enforc. laptop yet, which is driving me nuts.... Our internet for our room should be installed by fri...... Thanks.

We finally left

2007-04-13T21:06:00.000-05:00

We finally took off from STP, and literally flew right into spring.......4 gas stops, 7 hrs of flight time.....left the snow about southern IA. So far, real long days, welcome back to the Army,(oh boy!).....these will be somewhat short notes here for a little while, 'til I get some internet set up somewhere, I'm on a friends 'puter using a wifi card. Next three days are combat lifesaving, sticking each other wtih I V's, inserting nasal breathing tubes(ouch) and we'll each make up a IV bag kit for each of us for future use......
Foods pretty good, nice big dining facility, but theres 440 of us here now, and we are bused everywhere. Rooms are really small, 7 of us (1 guy from HI and 1 guy from WA) in each room, plus ea of has 6 bags or packs..... feels like sardines. It's quite an adjustment getting back in the army, but its all coming back tom me now...... better go , I think of 90 things to say during the day, but my clerical staff is lacking (ha,ha). Thanks, and I thank the Lord for family and friends, and all these dedicated folks here. See ya.....

2007-04-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

This a real test by the real user of this deal, .... me! It'll take me a bit to get use to finding my way around the site but I'll eventually catch on. I checked some of my dnr emails, and found a tentative schedule for next week....I show up at 9 on mon, and I'm listed to fly out on wed at 8 or 9. More details as I learn them. See ya for now.......

The Week Before...

2007-04-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! This is just a quick test to try out the new online blog!

Feel free to post a comment and see how this works! I'll write in more detail when I have some more free time about what it was like getting ready to leave for eighteen months!