A picture is worth a thousand words .....

Sometimes a few sentences are too.........


"I am nothing special, I'm not unique. You pass people like me everyday on the streets of your cities and towns, sometimes they are so close you can't even see them - and sadly enough normally you wouldn't even speak to them. But we are all around you, we always will be too. Past, present, and future. Some of them are reading these words right now. We protect you while you sleep.

Don't ever forget that.


Check back in sometime in November or December." Click on title for link to this is your war blog..........


If you didn't have the chance to read his blog do so ..do so... do so......'nuff said

"Fire a warning shot first"

"Isn't there any kind of training you need for this?......."I asked, the nco while we continued to fill out the paper work.

"Fire a warning shot first"........he said.

Hmmmm...nice...Good advice....., I thought to myself . And with that he handed me my M-16a-2. And what do you know... now i'm a weapons courier. You too can go from mechanic to combat arms in with two minutes, and an m-16a-2. I have shot an m-16 before......we have to quallify every three years. Which in the airforce is little more than learning how to make a bullet come out and which direction the pointy end of the weapon goes. So yeah...holding the weapon this time felt different, becuz this time when i pulled the trigger it would be with the intent to to kill someone. I knew i probably would not have to do that, and i sure as hell hoped i wouldn't....But the thought of that possibility got the wheels turning. It is amazing all the shit you think about when your holding a semi automatic weapon... with real ammo and no range. They handed me the weapon with out a sling or cleaning kit the morning i was leaving. It is a weapon that they pull off the rack, i have never used it before. No sighting it in no function check. I hope i never find out wether it works or not. Im tired...too many long days...too much stupidity. im burning out. Im not complaining it is simply AF works .I have never spent more time doing nothing in my life than lately. It is funny how some bosses think that everything is black and white when something goes wrong and you are involved... but they take no responsibility for morale...when it is low and everybody is getting out of the service because some people are not good in charge....they blame the war or the activation. Yet when 3rd acr was getting ready to deploy again...even though their unit suffered many casualties and deployed for a whole year and endured many many hardships ......there were so many who wanted to be a part of the second deployment that they had to do a mass reeenlistment of 300 soldiers. THAT IS GOOD MANAGEMENT. MY LEADERS need to take a lesson from them....they have a lot to learn about integrity, service before self, excellence in all we do .....pride.......they are overweight lazy people who by regs are not fit to be in the af.... why is it the rules only apply to low ranking people.?

One Soldier's Story

Hey they wrote about me.........Can u tell that i am smiling?!?!?!?!?


Writing Inspiration - May 23
Here are some more examples of good writing, inspiration from which could help fuel potential submissions to The One Soldier's Story Project. As usual, these are examples of writing only, with no judgements as to the subject matter.

Also as usual, potential authors shouldn't assume that one of these examples is how they should write their own story. Rather, you should try out the various techniques these writers used (and also those in this previous post), and see if any work for you as well.

A Soldier's Thoughts: The post "It Was Still Dark" is a great piece. This would almost work as an acceptable submission as is. The story is there. What it needs is some form of dialogue, so it's not told in only the author's voice. Having that, even just a little bit, would really take it to the next level.

Live From The Rear: "You'll Probably Get a Medal" is also very close to being an acceptable submission with few changes. Because of the stream-of-conciousness style the author has written in, the addition of dialogue is less important, because the author's voice becomes the story. That type of writing is very difficult to pull off, but this post does a pretty good job. Also, this post is from Sept., 2004, but like many good blog posts, it's only found if a reader really scours the archive...more reason to take one's writing efforts in a new, more visible, direction.

Blog Machine City: "Money Shot, March 24 entry" is not really a story, but it's the kind of anecdote that gets overlooked unless a writer commits it to memory. It's got some dialogue, plus some good description. This blog is full of good entries, and this is an old one from 2004. The flipside of blogs is while the best posts are buried in the archives, at least they exist. When the time comes to pick and choose what they want to write about in more in-depth form, the author will have an ample research library to work from.

This post will be linked to Mudville Gazette's Open Post.

130 

Ops thru NVG's 

Home sweet Home... 

1st Ad Old Ironsides (click for home page)

Old Ironsides 1st Ad 

c130 crew flying approach 

deployments 

3rd acr 

kuwait 

offload 

Long tabbers going out the back 

Incomming

It was in iraq My boss said it was a missle that hit the engine. But in all my infinite unwisdom of weapons that the airforce has taught me..... i think perhaps, if our plane's engine actually got hit by a missle directly....the plane would likely be minus a wing if not more.But the plane was aparently flying and then landed safely at an airfield near by.

I later found out it was an RPG. I would like to take the time now to thank the russians for their crappy munitions, because it didn't go off.

It did put a hole thru the engine....from one side straight thru to the other.Like a huge azz bullet would. Some electrical wires were severed and shorted, and started a fire. The heat cause the skin to warpseverely and we will have to change the motor and probably one time flight itto a location capable of the major repairs.

So there is a reason we do the combat approaches and it is not just to get the soldiers to throwup. Sorry about that guys.

dusk 

For the question about army crewchief training (click here)

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I think this kink does
a much better job than i ever could in answering your question.

Where ya headed?

I was talking to some pilots (majors) ..........and we were talking about our responsibilities relative to our rank and i mentioned, thinking back... i had more responsibility as an E-2 than i do 12 yrs later, now as an e-6. We were just talking to talk...shooting the scheisse to pass the time...... and one of the pilots brought up...."i know a Lt with 3rd ACR with more responsibility than alot of our airforce Generals "

the other pilot nodded and said he knows it was true.
Anyway........So i'm getting ready to do an engine run on an airplane. I am the currently only one on my shift who is engine run quallified

The plane next to me is getting ready for takeoff. All the passengers, and flight crew are onboard except for the loadmaster who monitors engine start outside the plane. Everything appears normal.....then i notice a soldier standing next to the loadmaster. Then the expiditer drove up to ask what was up?....why was there a soldier wandering around the ramp in front of a plane getting ready to take off?.

So the guy drove up, and before he could say anything, the soldier asked.........."Do you have any planes going to Balad? " And the expediter asked...."well, where are you supposed to be?" The soldier....prolly all of 18yrs old......said.....".well i'm supposed to be going to Balad ....but this plane is going to Baghdad....." It was funny....it sorta came out in an accusatory tone like we had screwed up and the other 60 passengers going to baghdad should just go to Balad cuz that's where he is supposed to go. Maybe you would had to have been there to see the humor......but his innocence and confusion were so funny....

And so our expediter asked....."well then how did you end up with these guys....?."

and the little lost soldier said........ "i don't know, we were all just traveling together........and i was supposed to be on a plane going to balad at 0X00" and i noticed everybody had different kevlar covers than me so i asked where they were going and they said Baghdad , and i need to go to Balad.....that's where all my clothes are going......(at that point now the plane had took off two hours ago.......)

You'll be happy to know he was a 13 series mos.............(I forgot the alphanumeric, however)..........

So--------a bit of advice ---------don't forget to inventory your soldiers , .........'cuz if the kevlar covers are the same we will send them to the wrong place!!!!!!!!

"WOO0ooooooooooo.....!?!?!?!?!?!!!"

freedom 



.


Yesterday was crazzzy! Don't know how much time you all spent in desert, but in certain areas there are not alot of trees or any thing else that remotely resembles vegitation for that matter.
Just lots and lots of sand. In fact last five hrs of flight over, that's all i saw out the window of my humble herc.

So-----to make a short story long, little vegitation....not many birds......in fact i think in the last
few days our planes have hit the entire population. (which is 2). Two birds ...two holes in
leading edges on two differant "tails"----of which we get to CANN (cannibalize) wing leading edges from plane to plane, depending on what else is broke---so that we have no more than
one broke plane at a time. We have a problem gettting parts here, which is ironic since
-----here, compared to stateside ---the priority code is higher when we order parts.

BUT...... at home we are a small unit here is just cluster fugg...so even with the higher priorit
y we're at the mercy of the active duty morons, and thier moronic proceedures----and all sorts
of strange (though entertaining) stuff is happening to our parts.

Like being lost in customs (of course handled by active duty airforce)---"I'm sorry sir, i didn't
know you needed that $150,000.00 elt (emergency locator transmitter)---can't you just order another?" So then we go over to the plane that's most hard broke, (has something that takes
the longest to fix---like an engine change which takes at least a day before it is FMC again
[fully mission capable] )---snag all the working parts for all the planes that are not NMC [not mission capable]----because we are waiting for parts (hence cannibalizing)---------

So we play musical parts to "try to put humpty back together again".....heee,heee,heee-
---You know humpty dumpty.....yeah--okay that was lame! .... Sorta like cut and paste ---but
with nuts and bolts. But anyway i had the most awesome day the other day. For the first time
since i have been here ---i was on a plane where we brought a little more than a platoon of
guard airborne guys----home to stay---at least for a good while. Any way these guys (mostly
just kids actually) stepped up to the crew entry door---and stood in the entry way one by one
---and then the soldier in the entry way would step down the first two steps while the next
soldier waited in the doorway...and the soldier on the steps would have both feet together
on the last step and execute a little "hop" off the last step and in the cutest strangely high
pitched voice utter a " soft Wooooooooooo!" .... One by one thru the crew entrance door.
The goofy crap you guys do when you don't notice a chick watching......Woooooooooo!, not Hooah?! they were so excited they were on auto, not concerned with appearing macho....and relating an airborne jump with the excitement of coming home (subconciously ) so they didn't realize or care how goofy they looked----or sounded with they're little fag like sounding "wooooooooo!" accompanying there airborne style exit from the crew entry door.

You'd have thought the crew was giving these guys jumps lights. Like little kids. Maybe you
had to be there, but about as best as i can describe...... it was funny in the sorta way that
makes your soul smile.

Someone you should know

I want to figure out how to have a blog roll.... havn't had much time or luck though. Help plzzzzzz!!!!

Other than that.... Black Five has a blog and he has an area called ...."Someone you should know". Well that is just one of the many cool parts of his blog. With that i'd like to say....

I Found this today it is worth reading, as "Rubicon 15" is perhaps someone you should know...............


Military.com ForumsJust Back from Iraq



Sat 26 March 2005, 09:18Rubicon_15


Just Back from Iraq
Well boys, back from five months in Iraq. It was a hell of an experience.
All I have to say to you cherries is listen to the experience of others and
learn from it.


Sat 26 March 2005, 12:22KansasGrunt Rubicon_15, welcome back bro!
My unit's going in a couple months. Any advice would be appreciated.
Again, welcome back.


Sun 27 March 2005, 18:09Hacksaw235 Hell yeah, Rubicon... welcome
home big man. Way back in the day I used to belong to C CO, 1/162nd
in Gresham. I was there for about 5 months then went RA. Now I'm
retired as of 01 DEC, 2004. You guys stay cool and keep up the good work.


Sun 27 March 2005, 22:46Sigma_Nu Rubicon,
Welcome back! I have been hanging out with Thomas for the last few
days. Way to KICK @SS over there. Check out page four of the Year
of pictures by Time magazine. You will see a familiar face.

Mon 28 March 2005, 00:02tim4day 5 Months must be nice to get
the short tour, Glad you made it home but 5 Months how did you
manage that.


Mon 28 March 2005, 05:04jocamryn
quote:
5 Months how did you manage that.
You said what I was thinking...lol


Mon 28 March 2005, 14:18schoelman Welcome back rub!
5mos? mid tour leave! enjoy it while you can, be safe bro!



Mon 28 March 2005, 21:23Rubicon_15 Thanks guys. I was hit
on Nov 11 by a few rpg's and ied's. I was peppered right below
my iba and took a little in the hand. For the 5 month question, I
joined a unit that was already 7 months into there deployment
and I volunteered to go over as a replacement. KansasGrunt: I
would say to watch out for pot holes and garbage on the road.
That can mean IED's. Keep your gunner well supplied with
ammo if mounted and stay low in the turret.


Tue 29 March 2005, 05:02CombatParatrooper
Welcome back Rubicon!
Tue 29 March 2005, 05:25jocamryn
quote:
I was hit on Nov 11 by a few rpg's and ied's. I was peppered
right below my iba and took a little in the hand.
For the 5 month question,
I joined a unit that was already 7 months into there
deployment and I volunteered to go over as a replacement.


jocamryn removes GIANT foot from mouth

My apologies, Thanks for your service and good
on you for volunteering.
Tue 29 March 2005, 07:55SSGRock Welcome home.
And THANK YOU for your exemplary service to our
great nation!
Fri 06 May 2005, 11:56Wannabe29 Hey, Rubicon, can
you tell me about how you went about volunteering, and
how they transitioned you into the unit? I ASSUME you
went Guard, based on your profile. I also take it you did
not train with them before they left, so where/how did they
train you up?

Welcome back. Hope the wounds are healing.
Fri 06 May 2005, 12:31fireiscool welcone home nothing like
being back in the greatest country on earth. Best feeling ever
touching green ramp
Fri 06 May 2005, 22:13Rubicon_15 Well, its kinda funny how
all worked out. I transfered from a pogue unit into the infantry
this last april. I had orders for infantry mosq during the late summer.
The course was unfortunately cancelled due to a lack of soldiers signed
up for the course. So I wasnt able to go. I had been volunteering to go
over as a replacement since I transfered in. They wouldnt let me go
because I wasnt a 11b yet. So at the end of the summer I was not mosq'd
and I gave up on a hope of deploying as a replacement. Two weeks before
my fall semester was going to start, I got a call from my S1 ncoic saying
that they were excepting replacement of any mos. He said that we would
mob and train up at bliss. Those of us not 11b would be qualified at bliss.
So I said yes and was mobalized within two weeks. I went to bliss with a
platoon of other volunteers expecting to be there for a month. We arived
and were told we would be in kuwait within a week. I was pissed. So we did
a retarded paperwork shuffle and a weapons qual and then we were sent to
Kuwait. Went through RFI within 24 hours and was sent into country with
in 72 hours. So I had no real experience as a infantrymen besides basic and
training with my infantry guard unit. All the replacements were sent to diff
companies. I was sent to my company with a few other guys and were split
up into the platoons. I was the only guy to go to my platoon. I was given a
week of training by my squad in weapons,humvee operations and basic infantry
skills. It was hard being a cherry in the unit. Especially being the only one. My
first week out I was in two firefights. I was gunning on both of them. I was hit
with shrappnel on the second one and sent to anaconda for about five days. I
returned to my unit and had light duty for about a week. I started patroling
again after that. Im not a 11b yet. I have mosq next month. My unit tried to get
me ojt qualified while I was over there but the big army didnt like that idea. My
squad honorarily awarded me a CIB and blood pinned it. I cant wear one but Im
still proud to have atleast been pinned with one. It sucks that I cant be awarded
one, but even though I was in a unique situation I dont think the regs should be
altered. The CIB is for the infantry and only the Infantry. Sorry, I kinda rambled
on for a while.

Becker Out

Playing with your privates at the Chow Hall

Here is part of a letter i wrote to Colby way back when..... about life on the airbase........it was posted before but got lost after the "my war" blog scare


So i'm at the chow hall the other day and i see a couple of soldiers without thier division patch on. And i have been buggin all the army guys with questions to find out what all the patches and stuff mean. (as you probably have guessed....i am not doing my mother proud with that whole "talking to strangers" deal......ha!! ... ) So i was curious weather or not there was a reason not to wear a division patch or if it was neglected in the hurry of a deployment. But the guys i work with thought that...." in the army, not every one wears a division patch....." Well that sounded like a bunch of bull so now i had a point to prove .... And i walked up to the two privates and asked --" i noticed your not wearing division patches, and i was just curious why?".....they tensed up and said "Mamn....we got deployed so fast we didn't have time ...and they weren't sure which unit we would be attached to........and ....." it was funny....i think they thought i was scolding them or something, like i even had a clue or something..... The guys were laughing and they told me to leave the poor privates alone.

It was funny.....i told the pvts that i didn't mean it that way and then they relaxed. I don't know if they actually thought i was scolding them....but it sure seemed like it. Other than that----i discovered one of lifes mysteries while doing laundry the other day...

Did you know it is possible to not only wash but to completely dry a mars bar with your clothes and --it will remain completely intact------ i didn't try the taste test---but i didn't have chocolate on my clothes..... how cool is that?!?!?!? [note to self.......remove food and aircraft parts from DCUs prior to doing laundry.] i always forget that one....
probably no surprise that i don't separate lights -----darks---whites whatever.

Separating laundry to me means there are two categories= reds and non - reds......... (Milky Way bars being a non-red)

Well i have to admit.......i'm really confused about something you said. You said that you have family in the airforce (the smart ones). I understand the part about the family in the airforce. But i dont understand about "the smart ones"

In fact i cant think of a day i have not ended up wondering desperately where are all these "smart ones" that are supposed to be in the Airforce...... I have my own theory on that...........Since you guys are the athletic ones you must be the "dumbjocks"......and since no one was ever accused of being athletic in the airforce......we must be the smart geeks.

But in reality we are not smart or athletic. We at our base have to wear reflective belts dusk to dawn.....and this is a huge issue........Briefed over and over and over ...... so that we dont get hit by our own airforce vehicles at night. ( i have found enemy snipers really appreciate it since we get hostile fire pay here too!!)

And hello!!!!!! Something is just VERY WRONG about going to war to have the biggest hazzard being a little friendly fractricide from our very own dumb azzes driving at night while *SOBER* !!! with their lights on and still hitting us. And hello....it is a big enough hazzard that everyone on the base needs to wear their reflective belt. Hmmmmm...... maybe someone could tell us a little about cammo and concealment before we are all jessica lynched...huh?!?!?

here's another one..........they want us to wear our uniform-- or pt gear..........no more civvies. So they decide to implement this without issuing pt gear, and mid-deployment. Now they only gave me three sets of BDUs. They will give everyone one set of pt gear......So if you actually work out (go figure....something the airforce would neglect to think of)... then what the hell do you wear after your pt gear is all sweaty.( Since we are airforce and we dont believe in that army "all uniform all the time" fun........) And get this.....there reason to not allow us to wear civvies.....it is for force protection! ha! ---Whose force!?!?!? i have found enemy snipers really like it when we walk around unarmed in combat zones with airforce emblazoned across our chests and reflective belts----it helps conserve ammo that would otherwise be wasted on civillians!!!!

Don't laugh at me calling this a combat zone......remeber we have airforce drivers here!!!

Can you believe we actually have a class to get requallified on hangar door operation annually....... Our hangar doors are powered electrically. There is one button to "open"....one to "close" and one to "stop". I know it is complicated and by now i'm sure you are completely lost...........(also keep in mind we shoot m-16 every three years).......Now these doors move at about 2 mile per hour.......and somebody crushed their head in a hangar door& killed themselfs!!!! WTF!!!! So we have annual training......now i'm thinking, if i WANTED to kill myself, i would pick a better way than that. So if somebody is able to smash their head in a hangar door.......we probably didn't want them working on airplanes anyway...hello!.....there is alot to be said for natural selection!!!!!

& i have to ask........Do you have heat stress categories in the army? Yeah this is funny.....we have this thing called "heat stress categories" where someone who is sitting inside in airconditioning determines how stressed i am getting from working outside in the heat............And get this.....they email us to tell us!!!!enough said about that!

So PLEEEEEEASE, fill me in on where all these smart people are in the AF.....i'm too busy with hangar door training , dodging Airforce vehicle operators & running inside to find out how stressed i am from working outside in the heat to find any smart people!!!!

"What the hell are you doing in Africa"?

africa 




My freind Stacy is awesome. He is an army officer now . Started his military adventure as one of the few, the proud and the eventually, i guess... apparently fed up.....& made his way from grunt to glory and is currently an army of one.

I never really did understand the whole "army of one" slogan.... i thought teamwork was key. Well maybe they just pissed everybody else off, so now they have an army of one ... whatever....regardless i am still acting high...or was it aiming high?!?!?!? in the chairforce

Intraserviice rivalry aside ... my freind Stacy is a good shit.He is a tell it like it is kinda guy...and he keeps me laughing. He's good people... the kind you wanna go to war with.

So there i was in africa...sending "Stac" an email..... yup it was awesome.... i had a "kitchen pass from kindergarten"....... and i was staying at a marine camp. I got to use yahoo mail........yup!!! thanks Colby (cbftw@blogspot.com)

Thanks to my buddy renown author and the original army troublemaker blogger...Colby Buzzell.... the airforce has gotten psycho strict on computer usage.........i think that it is fuggin cool since it is cuz of Colby...anyone else i might be annoyed.........but it was Colby!!! So how cool is that cool!

Yeah so there I am in africa...and like everything else good in my life... if i had it my way i'd have screwed it up a hundred times over.

But it wasn't up to me, i had no choice so the results were the latter of the two. I was cordially invited (military style)on a cross country tour of africa.... so in other words it was like...."pack your shit-- your going to Africa"
and i said....like every good self-sufficient Nco who likes to speak their mind...... "Roger"......

So it is almost the end of my 12 hour shift. I worked 12 in the after noon till 12 in the morning. It was 10 pm when they told me i would be going on the road for a few days. So they gave me a cell phone and some intel and drove me back to the barracks so i could pack. It was about midnight before i was able to hit the sack. I had to be at the chow hall for a ride into work at 0400, which would give me just enough time to fall enough asleep that i was afraid of oversleeping.....so i at best i was able to doze just a bit in fear of the latter.

Before i knew it the alarm went off and i found myself in a groggy state trudging thru the rocks my short and conveinient three hundred paces to the bathroom/shower trailers.....and then dragging my overnight bag /kevlar /flak vest and chemgear thru the stone pathways that seem to inflict all middle east military installations another conveinient three hundred paces or so to the chow hall. Well since the worst part was over....which was the loathing of little sleep....after the few sleepless nights in the days preceeding....i sat sinking into the rocks on the side of the road.....& in a sorta euphoric state i thought to myself "i'm going to Africa......., fuggin a"

So after i had to run into the chow ahll to call my late boss and remind him not to forget about the crewchief......i got a ride into work and waited for my briefings... for my intel.... for the ride out to the airplane.....for my aircrew who had gotten the word the takeoff time slipped two hours. I didn't.....
Typical.

So there i was half brain dead from exhaustion....half wired from too much coffee in a sort of incoherent uncomfortably numb sorta state...waiting to liberate the Africans or whatever mission i was selected to endure... while the aircrew... who were alerted appropriately of the schedule change had enjoyed thier remaining crew rest in peace.

Upon their arrival we endured all things military......as more briefings were inflicted upon us, between the mandatory moments of hurry -up -and -wait..........and after way too many hours when the military had taken a simple process and turned it into something inconceivable difficult....

With the loadmasters signal,
I pulled the chocks and we were off on our african adventure. .....and ......IT WAS COOL!!!

Did you ever see the Movie Black Hawk Down? based off Mark Bowdens book?....you know the scene in the begiining where the black hawks fly up the coast to the target building (the olympic hotel) we flew a chillingly familiar route. The movie was actually filmed in Morocco as opposed to Somalia....and we were closer to where the mog actually took place.

The veiw was chillingly remniscent of that scene. We worked near Somalia for a bit and it was strange, though i was not in Mogadishu much less the battle of the MOG.... i am sure that it would be uncomfortable for anyone who was. In that location ...the tall "skinnys" spoke with the same accent, something for which my first experience was from the movie black hawk down. That in it of itself is awkward. Sorta like your only knowledge of boiler rooms being associated with Freddy Krueger....and then being in a boiler room for the first time. Though you don't necessarily feel any danger it just sorta creeps you out.

Africa is HOT. I have spent summers working outside in the desert in Kuwait and Iraq.......seeing thermometers peg at 140 degrees in the shade........ but Africa is a whole notha' kinda HOT!!!!

It was still winter at the time & the ac kicked off in our tent only momentarily...and in minutes it was 90 degrees on the thermometer...in the morning....in the winter...... It was hotter there than any place i have ever been. I would hate to see the peak of summer.It is a whole nother kinda hot....unlike anything i have ever seen.

We went to several different countries in Africa. and it was the most interesting mix of culture i had seen in my life. In kenya we had a long drive from the airport to our hotel. Colorfully painted new modern vans were used as busses for public transportation forthe locals. Brightly colored tropical flowers grew on bushes lining the the highway....something remniscent of a tropical paradise........and in front there were stick houses that people lived in. Goats walked freely throughout the town and along the roads......Merchants stood in rush hour traffic dressed in what looked like Swahili tribal garb with their large wooden wheel barrels that carried heaps of fresh mangos or hand woven baskets or other goods to sell along the road. The locals wore tribal garb with a bone piercing their forhead as ifthey just stepped outof national geographic magazine.....or the guy next to him at the market wore an Addidas shirt. I even saw one guy with a grey and black Army t shirt like the army pt gear that our soldiers wear.....hmmmm.........

Every so often people gatherd around a speaker talking on a podium in a microphone... i dont know the lauguage but so i dont know what they were talking about but it reminded me of what a televangilist might be like in africa.

Among the traffic mixed with the newer busses and the merchants with the wheel barrell type carts, there were old ricketey 5 ton sized trucks with flat beds and gates around the bed loosley heaping with furniture (that was not tied down) they navigated weaving in and out of trafficon the expressway while
two or three people hung on to the back of the gates......tempting fate.

I couldn't believe it.... a piece of furniture could easily fall knocking one of the guys off the back into the traffic..........

We did some missions away from the city. The guys that did the illustrations for the lion king did their homework.......it looks just like that there..... the trees and stuff. Only it wasn't a cartoon it was life right there before my eyes. There were termite hills that looked like ant hills... but they were taller than me. Puzzled at the size of the enormous termite hills I asked a local African army guy at the airport we were at if the termites were really big.Because i had seen hawks with a wingspan greater than i am tall and the termite hills were obnoxiously huge.

He held his fingers together as if to pinch something.... indicating the size of the relatively smallsize of the termites and smiled as he explained (in broken english witha thick accent) " No... they are very small but they are veryvery busy very ".....

A marine officer who spent quite a bit of time there said the termite hills were actually were hard structures and if you ran into one with a vehicle it would mess up your vehicle. Then he climbed on one and everbody took pictures.

This airstrip we were at was in the middle of know where. It was a paved slab with no buldings and a guy walking around with an Ak-47. A rickety out house sized structure made of some scrounged up old wooden boards sorta slapped together provided a makeshift shelter from the hot african sun for the guard.

There was a bit of a delay in the process of getting a diplomatic clearance to proceed to the next location....so we had a little time on the ground to spare. The marine looked a bit concerned and pulled the pilot in command off to the side and talked for a few minutes before the pilot decided we would press on to the next location... and wait for the clearance there.

Later i found out that the marine was concerned that if we spent much time on the ground in that location a young local teen might grab an RPG and take a pot shot at our Herk for kicks. So he wanted to go on to the next local to sit idle where security was better. Our pilot agreed emphatically.

And then we waited as we danced our diplomacy jig to the tune of all things bureucrtaic in hopes of being rewarded our clearance to press on. We picked up some guys and their stuff at that next location. They wore civillian clothes. Most were pretty clean shaved with military haircuts. Some had longer hair. Most carried weapons of some sort....M-9s stuffed down the back of their pants........some had various automatic weapons..... some with a laser sight Most of the guys looked mid thirties and they looked like they were in pretty good shape. I guess they were army. Airforce tends to have a bit of a beer gut going on by that age.

And we took these guys and their stuff to another place in the middle of knowhere.

When we landed, at this third world place...rickety old trucks apprroached and there was no forklift at the airport to down load the pallets. Luckily the plane had to be loaded with the one coming off last at the aft most pallet position on the ramp. Because we had to break down the pallets and make a chain and down load the two pallets bax by box out the paratrooper doors. Due to weight and balance considerations this was the only way to load the plane. And due to no forklift being available it was the only way to download the plane. So wedown loaded the plane box by box into these rickety old trucks. The guys were funny and worked together well as a team. one guy would pick up a case of water, where the box was broken and would hand it to the next guy warning him verbally that the box was broken.....or if the box was heavy........then some of the guys would warn that a box was heavy when it was obviously very light by looking at it...and they would warn vise versa as well just to be funny. It was sorta amusing..... these big guys obviously in good shape handing off a two pound package warning "careful heavy". I guess it was even more amusing the fact that they thought it was so amusing......it went on for probably an hour withoutthem becoming any less amused.....endearing i guess you might say.

Where we dropped them off...there was nothing there....and nothing around for miles. They brought all the food and water, tents for shelters..... and personal items as well medical and vetrinary supplies that would be needed to treat around 20,000 cattle and a few thousand people....everything needed to do this on those two pallets. And that small group of people did that in around 5 days.

They even scavenged the wooden crates that the water was sitting on on the pallets....so they could build an outhouse.

It was a humanitarian mission to provide advanced vetrinary care to the livestock so that the livestock would be healthy and produce a bigger meat yield for the impoverished locals. The also provided medical and dental care to the locals. And the worked with the loals to get them the training and supplies to eventually become self sufficient.

I did not realize the full scale of that mission until i read about it in army times months later. That was mentioned briefly earler in my blog. The only reason i bought the paper was because (cbftw)was on the cover. I didn't realize till much later the article concerning the mission i was on. Kinda ironic. But it is only a few paragraphs.... Colby's was deservedly on the cover.

So there we are in the most austere place this airman has ever seen, and that night we stayed in a 5 star hotel. Too funny.Quite an interesting contrast. It was on the ocean.....a beautiful resort type hotel with all the amenities a few bars, internet cafe..gym....spa...a dancing club..e few various shops...they gave us warm aromatherapy incensed towls...and fresh squeezed mango juice...... ponds adorned with lilly pads and cattails weaving throughout the courtyard and little wooden bridges conneting the walkways over the ponds.

The guys having spent too much time at the airbase......enjoyed the views.....as there were many tourists from various countries.....and many of the women looked like models.

They even joked asking me to break the plane so we could stay longer. There are not that many good looking women on the airbase and they are largely out numbered by the guys. That is what the guys complain about anyway. And of the good looking ones... you wont find them wearing low cut floor length dresses with a slit up to their ears.

Real Swahili tribal people performed their tribal dances live as we enjoyed a whole huge tropical buffet spread for dinner. The place was very upscale and we were not dressed for it. Our pilots had to wrap sarongs around their clothes to be allowed to join us for dinner.

The next day it was back to the ghetto.......but first we had an intermediate stop. we pulled in another hole in the wall airstrip. And long haired "civillians" with automatic weapons walked up to me and asked "Do you have my soccer balls"... and i looked at him kinda strange and said i didn't know and that everything that we had for him was on that pallet. I figured it was army slang for some weapons or something else i'd never heard of. And after the pallet was down loaded i watched the long haired guy in civvies pull the straps of the pallet loose and cut the metal straps loose with his leatherman. He wipes the sweat from his brow and pulled the cover of the box off. He pulled a few items wrapped in plastic out and set them aside and pulled out another item and then he said "oh good...they sent the pump too....i was afraid they would forget to send the pump" I got a closer look to see that the items he set aside were deflated soccer balls. A whole big box of them.

I smile and approached the guy......"Ok i have to ask.....what are all the soccer balls for?"

"Were starting a national soccer league...."

Ohhhh....of course what was i thinking.........lol...

I got back to the marine camp and emailed my freind Stacey to share a little about the trip in Africa.

Granted about a month prior i had been outbound to the desert aor. So i got Stacy's response which said only....."What the hell are you doing in Africa"........

I responded...."picking up guys and starting national soccer leagues"

the troops

Herkie Airlines

Went back to the Doc

....i went to the doctor cuz i have had an ear infection for awhile and they wanted to see if it would go away by itself.....hmmmm well it didn't so i went back hopeing to get antibiotics....

The long hours and heat can run you down quick out here, so fighting off illness too can really wear on you. Lately i have been too tired to eat or even change after work. Take off my boots and fall asleep right in my bed and sleep all the way till it is time to go back to work the next day. So i had enough and went back to the Doc... hoping theyd give me some antibiotics to fix up my ear. Well i got the antibiotics......but when i did the open up and say ahhh thing, they looked in my mouth they said i was dehydrated .......hmmm good to know i guess, but what about my ear?!?!?...Soooo after about 4 very bad attempts with an iv needle.... they somehow managed to give me 3 litres of fluid......probably only needed two until the four bad attempts at starting the iv.....(i must have lost a litre of blood right there)...... So me... now ten percent of my body weight heavier than i was an hour ago...was sent on my merry little way to waddle myself back out to the flight line and i have been peeing non-stop since. But my ear feels better.

........Even a War........

One of the best parts of being a crew chief on herks in the fact that we get to fly with the plane and when we break on the road we get to fix it. Jack of all trades and master of none. I have been awakened from my sleep by loadmasters pointing to the flight deck more than a few times. It is a sorta sign language that i have come to find translates to "hey chief.......your gonna have a long night."

It is amazing how quickly you can go from sleeping off a hangover at 30,000 ft to completely awake and focused in the matter of a second.....with a simple poke in the shoulder and point to the flight deck from the loadmster.

So i grab my headset and head up tp the flight deck........

I plug in and tap the engineer on the shoulder while i take a quick scan of the instruments looking for the offending malfunction.....Gen out light #3 eng...he looks at me and i nodd and point to the voltage freq selector switch.......

Understanding that i want to see the voltage and freqs for all three phases he cycles the switch.....I dont know why ....i just hate talking over the intephone with the crew on headset... i guess it is because i get too into what i am doing i am afraid i will talk over a radio call from "center" or something........

So I manage trouble shooting with pointing and grunting as all good crewchiefs can do if needed. I pointed to the generator sw and the engineer responds by resetting it.....i nod and he recycles the phase selector to check volts and freqs and load on all three phases .......still nothing. I reset the generator control panel... and yes..... we are in business. Since i was up and we only had an hour or so in flight i got a start on "the forms"...or aircraft maintenance records.......filling out the debreifs and other forms as much as i could to enable myself to save time on the ground.

And i'm up in the flight deck sitting on the bunk like many times before.....and it is a long approach in headed towards the west into the setting sun.The desert has some of the most amazing skylines i have ever seen.It is almost overwhelming.And it was one of those approaches in still skies flying toward the disappearing sun ....where you get to see the entire sunset....... and the by the time you've taxiied in and shut down it is dark outside.It is hard to describe.

But it is strange, how beautiful even a war can be from a few thousand feet.

HRs

I look at the soldiers getting onto the plane...with all their gear (flak vests rifles and kevlars (helmets) and i always try to remember their young faces. I make it a point to study their expressions and look at their eyes. Dont really know why. But I know that some will come back heros and that some will not come back. Sadly, whichever it is will matter little except to the family and freinds of the soldier.

The reality of that statement struck me as I was re-configuring the cargo compartment of a '130 to haul wounded. This was the second time I had to do that. mostly we just haul/cargo and healthy soldiers.The first time i had to configure it to haul litters was when we sat alert in December.

The "alertbird" is a plane we get ready to go for short notice if something happens that it is needed. Normally it was not our duty to have alert, but the normal guys plane broke so we picked up the slack. That particular day the alert was needed and called into action. That was the day the Mosul chow hall had the suicide bomber attack around Christmas. I had a freind there at that time who thankfully was not injured (or worse)in the attack. But the "alert bird" was called to medevac haul some of the wounded that day.

And here i am again, configuring the plane to haul wounded. Taking down all the seats and rollers and putting up the stantchions to support the litters and fixing all the devices that the aeromeds said were unservicable due to getting knocked around a few too many times.

I overheard the aeromds talking about the mission, as the senior (male) aeromed instructed the jr (female) aeromed how to hook up the medical oxygen supply to the aircraft oxygen system. Apparently there were a few litter patients that we were taking from here to another base in iraq. And at the base in iraq we'd pick up some "HR's". The senior aeromed (a captain )reached around the young attractive aeromed to show her how the oxygen got hooked up. She was giggling and the flirting was annoyingly ever present as they went about their business setting up their gear for the mission.
We were almost finished getting the plane ready when we saw he bright flashing lights of an emergncy vehicle approach off in the distance. The ambulance drove up andbacked itseld up to the ramp of the plane...which i lowered and i had installed the removable loading ramps to facilitate walking up with the litter (or stretcher).

The patient looked yung and he had bandages and IV tubes in his wrists. I later found out that he is a marine... out of the ramadi area. The giggling and flirting amongst the two crew members continued despite the fact that there was now a patient on the plane. I heard them two aeromeds discussing the mission some more over alot of giggling...and the Sr. aeromed was asing the loadmaster crewmember about the placement of seats. He was concerned there wouldn't be room to starap down the "hrs". At ths point the female jr. aeromed interrupts and asks..."What's an Hr?"....

For a moment everything gets silent as the Sr. male aeromed says "human remains"....

the jr aeromed interrupts the momentary silence with a giggle saying ...." oh...hee hee hee... all this time i thought you were talking about human resources when you said H.R."
The flirting and giggling continued, barely missing a beat.


I wondered if i was the only one who thought it inappropriate to reduce someone who gave their life for their country to just another acronym.