live from the rear

thanks for serving

2007-05-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Havn't wrote in a long time. It is sad how life has consumed me in the past year or so. I miss the desert. I miss that feeling of purpose and being a part of something that mattered.

Before i even returned from the desert, we got the news that my base was one of the many that would be closing. Since that time, those assigned to my unit as well as myself have been stuck in this bizarre custody battle between the military and the politicians.

the reality of the statement.....'you can love the military but they'll never love you back' .............is a slap in the face that continues to sting throughout the painfully slow process of our base closesure.

the selfishness and injustices i've witnessed sicken me at times.

but then that is government i guess.

Now available!!Cbftw's book from amazon.com!!! click here

2006-12-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

You can order Colby's book online!!!
Click the enevelope at the bottom
to tell all your freinds!!!
My War by Colby Buzzell

2006-11-04T01:44:00.000-08:00

A journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step

scrapbook

2006-06-19T05:41:00.000-07:00

Excellent job on the 15 day lube

So i got a few evals recently on a preflt inspection, and on a 15 day lube. All evals were passed with no defects. Not a big deal but On the 15 day lube report the evaluator noted "excellent job on the ball screws".....For some reason the guys in the shop found that funny.

Main landing gear (MLG ) balls screws, are the component in the MLG that is used to extend and retract the MLG. It is actually a large screw turning thru a ballnut that that allows the gear to be extnded and retracted straight up and down in the wheel wells. The components need to stay clean and lubed so they operate properly. Excessive friction can damage your gear rendering you NMC. or could create an emergency....if it gets stuck. The last thing you want is hung gear, or I take ball screws seriously.

And check this shit out! My plane rocks! I think it is cuz her crewchief is awesome. So my plane was flying her tail off last week. Crazy shit trying to juggle the required inspections and maintenance and servicing with the fllying schedule when other planes are breaking left and right and so they are relying on mine to take the other lines.

A while ago the boss made a big deal out of this guys plane flying five lines (missions) in a row without any write ups. No small accomplishment as these are big planes and so there are alot of minor things that can get written up. But the big deal was that the guy who was getting the pat on the back for it, spends more time in the office than on his plane, and well Herks just dont fit inside....'naw mean?!?!?! He thinks he is a better mechanic than me. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and everyone has the right to be wrong. Still, it is human nature to believe what you want to be true, and to manipulate the truth into what you want to believe.

Alpha ones don't make a good crew chief. Preventing preventable writeups does, which for the most parts means alpha ones. Mechanical components break....you cant prevent that. But it is normally with a little warning....so the more u r out on your plane and get to know every nut and bolt....the more you will know her personality and be be able to to catch the small stuff. And the more you do that......the more control you have over when she breaks. Preventative maintenance. You can "rag wrench" the hydraulic leak till the plane is broke somewhere on the road and troops are counting on it, because it is within limits.........

Or you can use the time it is already down for other maintenance to get it fixed....before it is out of limits. Of course sometimes things do occur without warning. But a good crewchief knows their plane and will for the most part break the plane when they want, not let the plane decide when to break or the aircrew. Yes luck has a little to do with it.........but over the long run a good crewchiew will not take back seat to luck.........

So my plane comes back "alpha one" all the time (no writeups). I dont need someone who sits in an office to acknowledge that to know she is a good plane.

However.... The other crewchief (who is better than me....remember) his plane was supposed to fly a late line. Mine was scheduled for the "out and back" to Neverland . But becuz they are flying mine so much lately it is hard to get any maintenance done...... they swapped the tails, so i could quickturn mine to send it back out on the road after that mission.

BUT

Check this, My plane wass getting ready to go and the other crewchief's breaksdown so i have to cut my mission short . Mine comes back and lands 'alpha one' for the fourth time in a row .....takes the other crewchief's mission .....flies to Neverland and back and guess what? No write ups. That makes 6 for my plane. And then i quickturned her and sent her back out and she continued to fly all her missions without writeups untill a new flight eng wrote her up for APU (auxillary power unit) output pressure dropping below limits while starting #3 engine...well it always works right up untill the time it breaks........but,

..... well quickly cranking the engine with airconditioning on, and then again with it off ....verified my hunch. No defect. Air conditioning draws air off the APU, and our starters are pnuematic. #3 engine is the 1st engine we start in the start sequence. When we go to start an engine we hit the start btton which opens the starter control valve allowing air to flow to the starter turbine.....and voila!! She's cranking.....add a lil gas and some flames you just turned jet fuel to noise......

So yeah......there is a reason the book says to start the engines with ac off.......

Burn Her!!

2006-05-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

Burn her !!!

waking up at 0300 partly because it is raining and my tent is leaking....partly cuz i set my alarm to hit the gym before work...

A much better idea it seemed before i went to bed...& before the thunderstorms....

so because of the morning person i am not... i drug my unhappy azz out of my bed, & after a quick debate on which is worse....(sleeping in a wet bed or going to the gym)......my motivation won....so i hit snooze and attempted to find a bit of comfort in my crappy little bed in my nice new leaky tent.....and then shortly decided "fuck this" .....so i grabbed my ipod( which isn't actually an ipod but i am brain farting the real name......god i hate that....) and in a few splashes and leaps over some puddles i was at the gym.

I hopped on the treadmill and started to walk for a warmup.... i noticed the annoyinging squish squish sound my shoes made as they hit the rubber treadmill surface....and i noticed everybody else noticing my shoes too as they turned their heads. i felt like a retard, because you are not supposed to wear street shoes to work out at the gym.....and it was kinda hard to be inconspicuous about it.

So i did what any non commissioned officer in the airforce would do.......i pretended i was two. My niece is two and when she gets shy around people she covers hers eyes..

..because if she can't see them......they can't see her......

Well i didn't actually cover my eyes.... but i did not look at them ....therefore they could not see me....

.. there was no way in hell i ran thru thunderstorms and pouring rain at 0300 am to go to the gym to not work out...........so after a quick warmup and a little eye contact aversion.... i started to run. Water squished out with each step as i ran leaving a trail of little footprints as if some invisible man was chasing me ....and i was running away but not getting anywhere....like a bugs bunny cartoon.....(btw please let the record show that bugs bunny kicks azz!)... the thought made me laugh to myself and with that distraction.... i accidentally caught a few evil stares from the conventionally minded who were doubtless appauled at my disregard to the importance of dry shoes......but however lacked the cojones to approach me.....preferring the much more effective (& passive aggressive) management tool ....the dreaded evil stare.......

that made me laugh too

and i continued to run, past the residual sleepiness....past the achy muscles ...past the point where you stop staring at the digital readout....thinking my god will this ever be over..?!?!?!

.......past the point where you stop looking at the digital readout because you feel like maybe it isn't so bad.......past the point where your legs go numb and you begin to feel like u want to run forever and past the point where i should've gotten off the treadmill to get my ass ready for work.

but just a little past, because there was plenty of time left if i hustle.

and so i did.....in fact i hit the showers and i started to walk to work still enjoying the beta endorphins that i wasn't getting from sex....and in the midst of my runners high......feeling very much like running still, i weighed getting sweaty after a fresh shower......with walking to work ...and realized it was the desert and i will be drenched in sweat in half an hour anyway working on the line......so fuck it. I ran. and i got to work 10-15 minutes early, which is standard for my unit. i walked in the breakroom. i am the only girl. So it stands to reason that everybody else is a guy. They are watching porn. i walk out of the breakroom. Most guys would say i am pretty cool........but when i said porn i meant porn......as one guy said..... "the good stuff" and there was .....no flag football there...this was full contact. kinda awkward hanging with the guys who are like brothers ...with their hardons.....no thanks..........not like i care.... but yeah....no thanks

So i try to think of something to do to make it look less obvious that i was avoiding the situation. Outwardly aversion will alert the hecklers instantaneously...and that.....is throwing yourself to the dogs

......so i go check my mail to stall time untill the bosses come in to give the morning briefings..... they will probably turn off the porn then. Sometimes i had mail...sometimes i didn't . so it was hard to keep from looking like i was avoiding them, since the mail place was right across the hangar, and it only took a second to walk there. So i stalled a few minutes before i wandered back to the triple x movie house...our breakroom. The bosses were in there. The porn was still on.

They looked at me kinda funny when i walked in. Probably because there was porn on, and they were not sure what my reaction would be. I thought nothing of it and when the meeting was over I happily went out to the flight line to work. By the time i had gotten in from the line to take a break the porn was off the air so it wasn't a big deal.

This went on for some time until one day my boss pulled me aside and said he wanted to talk to me (my boss was a guy from another unit who i have only seen a few times even still to this day, [ in fact i was one of the few "odd balls" stuck working on this shift as most of the guys from my unit were on night shift. But since this other unit did not have their own engine run qualified people with them....us highly quallified highly motivated individuals got stuck working with these creative nouns instead. ]...lol

So he pulled me aside...i figured he was gonna apologize and ask if the porn bothered me and offer to ban it if i was offended.......well kinda.................

..and by that i mean he actually said to me.......

" Angela, i need to talk to you about your attendence.....you have been showing up to work late, and you need to start getting here on time or i will be forced to take administrative action. there is no excuse for that behavior....."

i was floored.

apparently by getting to work ontime..... he meant skipping my morning workout so i can sleep in and go sit around and slurp fat at the chowhall with the others--& then wait for the bus to drive my happy (and perhaps then fat ) ass to work which will get me there a half an hour early, but hey...it beats walking....and hell , not only do we get to be lazy asshats...we get to hang out and watch porn to boot.

funny though...how my definition of being on time was always being there before it was time to start....which, granted... in the airforce is at least 15 minutes early...but in the airforce reserves is more like 5 minutes early. i was ten to 15 min early....i thought that was on time, (heck some may even go out on a limb and call it early)......and i was fairly certain that at a minimun, being on time was not punishable under the ucmj.

after a brief pause for shock and a quick rebuttal,

the ncoic explained ..."but you have been seen more than once running to work at quarter till......."

With that i wondered if this person had ever done any pt in their life ever....... but his beer gut clarified any suspicians that he might be a triathlete of sorts.....

So ok...... now i lived 1/2 a mile away from work...(the break room specifically)...... so these alleged sitings of said zoomie running to work at quarter till when i am supposed to be there on the hour......hmmmm do the math.......my god if i walked i would still be early....which last time i checked, btw.....is also not ' late'.

His disinterst in my story quickly told me i was not entitled to a side of the story.... unless, of course it was the same as his.....

at that point he gave me a discertation explaining how he outranks me, and then uttered something about insubordination.......

Apparently the ucmj has changed. Defending yourself from wrongful accusation made by those who out rank you is now called insubordination. Damn those sneaky jags....who can keep up?

After impressing me with his keen intellect , so evident in his disertation of rank and insubordination ( yet oddly absent of abusing rank as well as slanderous remarks toward ncos, do i need to continue?!?!?)

anyway...after impressing me with his keen intellect ....

I found his point vaguley remniscent of a movie i'd once seen ....

The Witch: But I'm not a witch I'm not a witch!
Sir Bedevere: But you a dressed like one
The Witch: They dressed me up like this!
Crowd: we didn't! We didn't...
The Witch: And this isn't my nose. It's a false one.
Sir Bedevere: [lifts up her flase nose] Well
Peasant 1: Well, we did do the nose.
Sir Bedevere: The nose?
Peasant 1: And the hat, but she is a witch!
Crowd: Yeah Burn her burn her!
Sir Bedevere: Did you dress her up like this?
Peasant 1: No!
Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!
Peasant 3: No!
Peasant 1: No!
Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!
Peasant 1: Yes!
Peasant 2: Yes!
Peasant 1: Yeah a Bit
Peasant 3: A bit!
Peasant 1, Peasant 2: A bit!
Peasant 2: a bit
Peasant 1: But she has got a wart!!!!!!

that time has come and gone.......and oddly as fate would have it.despite my poor attendance for that brief period under their command...i was promoted...and about a year after i had forgotten what an effective creative noun he was....it was brought to my attention that some of the the triatheletes have exemplified thier careers by setting the standard ... and by that i mean they reflected great credit upon themselves and the uniform code of military justice.....and were appropriately rewarded by losing a stripe.........

poetic justice.......or uhhh art imitating life.........

oh .....mp3 player.... yesssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......... :(

i hate that sh!t

Roughneck Nine One by Frank Antenori

2006-01-21T00:55:00.001-08:00

Coming Soooooooooooooooooon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Click here to Pre-Order

Roughneck Nine One

by Frank Antenori

A powerful look inside a Special Forces A-Team and its dramatic and controversial battle against a huge opposing force in Iraq.

On April 6th, 2003, twenty-six Green Berets, including those of Sergeant First Class Frank Antenori's Special Forces A-Team (call sign Roughneck Nine One), led a battle against a vastly superior force at a remote crossroads near the village of Debecka, Iraq. The enemy unit had battle tanks and 150 well-trained, well-equipped, and well-commanded soldiers. The Green Berets stopped the enemy advance, then fought them until only a handful of Iraqi survivors finally fled the battlefield.
In the process, Nine One encountered hordes of news media and at the peak of the fight, a US Navy F-14 dropped a 500-pound bomb into the middle of a group of supporting Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, killing and wounding dozens. This is the never-before-told, unsanitized, unedited story of the fight for the crossroads at Debecka, Iraq, and a unique inside look at a Special Forces A-Team as it recruits and organizes, trains for combat, and eventually fights a battle against a huge opposing force in Iraq.

SFC FRANK ANTENORI, U.S. Army (Ret.) joined the Special Forces in 1988. Since then, he has participated in numerous operations in over thirty-four countries and has been awarded numerous decorations and citations, with seven received for combat actions.

HANS HALBERSTADT has authored or co-authored more than fifty books, most on military subjects, especially U.S. special operations forces, armor, and artillery. He served in the U.S. Army as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam.

I'll be doing the talk show and book signing circuit from 25 May to 15 June promoting the book.The press release is supposed to have a teaser; I'll ask my publisher if I can post it here first to give you guys a taste of what's in store for the rest of the book.Ft Bragg may be where we debut the book on Tues aftercMemorial Day, the day before you can buy it anywhere else. The publicist for the publisher is looking at a couple of other places though so Bragg is not a lock. It will be on the tour though. Also, it looks like we’ll be in Tampa for SOF week 19-23 June giving away free copies to all active duty SOF that want one (while supplies last). I'll put a couple to the side for my fellow Army comrades, because I'm betting those Air Force guys at MacDill, will try to scarf them up.You guys beat me to the punch, I was planning on posting the schedule when I announced the debut of the book, but unfortunately we’re still a couple months out from finalizing everything.

Frank A

Show your support *click on envelope below to email your freinds and spread the word!!!! *

semper fi

2005-11-16T01:38:00.000-08:00

I pledge allegiance........

2005-11-05T22:42:00.000-08:00

My War Reviews

2005-10-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

Killing Time Reading "My War"
I recently finished reading Colby Buzzell's My War - Killing Time in Iraq. It's being billed as something between "Catch 22" and "Dispatches".

Well, while Buzzell writes cynically about some of the missions, the soldiers, and the Iraqis, it's easy to see that he really cares about them, too. This dichotomy is the very definition of Colby Buzzell. He has immense disregard for the media, the President, the anti-war movement, the tacticians developing the methods to fight the war...just about everyone...while trying Soldier on in one of the roughest environments in Iraq (Mosul).

CB starts the book with his life at the point of his enlistment - moving from meaningless (to him) job to meaningless job. He spends a lot of time contemplating his motivation for becoming a Soldier.

He discusses his desire to get into the fight. He discusses how he started blogging and what he thinks of military bloggers.

The combat rememberances are very interesting - possibly because Buzzell only romanticizes battle when it's finished by a TOW missle exploding at a target. His own role and the roles of the soldiers are secondary to the sounds, smells, and feelings happening at that instant.

And, of course, he's got an infantryman's sense of humor. When forced to write a mandatory death letter to be given to his parents if he were killed, Buzzell writes:

Dear Mom and Dad,

You're right.

I should have gone to college instead.

Love,

Colby

So how is the book?

My War is a great read. Buzzell moves between new material and his posts from CBFTW. While I don't know about Buzzell being the next Heller or Herr, he certainly is interesting. Both unflinchingly critical of the military, himself, and the Iraqis and strongly supporting the fight, Colby Buzzell brings the human side to the War on Terror.

It's well worth the price.

Posted by Blackfive | October 14, 2005 | Permalink

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Comments
I've just finished reading that book as well, and I must say it is an excellent read. Buzzell is an incredible writer. The book is very blunt and open, yet very deep and intricate at the same time. You can clearly see, as you said, his internal conflict about being in the Army. The book gives so much insight, be it narrow because it's just his point of view, into the war that we don't see or hear about often. The kids throwing rocks, the contractor with his ticket home in that SUV, all the quirky Army regs like one strap backpacks, and Tomahawk Six's radio transmission are all incredible stories. His humorous slant on all the good and the bad and his no-bars opinions makes it a very memorable read. This book, milblogs, and all the stories that you, Blackfive, bring to us all give us some insight on something that some of us might not experience or hear about. Thanks for the review.

Posted by: dlo | Oct 14, 2005 4:01:37 PM

I'm partial to books about Marines myself, but with your recommendation I think I'll read this one.

Have you read Ambush Alley by Tim Pritchard? It is by far the best book about combat I have ever read..................I'm guessing it will be a movie in a year or two

I'm currently reading No True Glory....A firsthand account of the Battle for Fallujah by Bing West...............I'm in chapter 2 and so far so good

Posted by: Geoff Milke | Oct 14, 2005 4:59:26 PM

Generation Kill was also excellent. And Nathaniel Fick (frequently quoted and mentioned in GK) has his book out now as well - One Bullet Away.

Posted by: Jen | Oct 14, 2005 5:02:54 PM

I've been meaning to get the book. My only problem right now is finding the time - with moving and unpacking - I'm so far behind with everything - but maybe this weekend! I've been waiting to see how he made the jump from blogger to "dead tree" author - they are two different things. Your review makes me look forward all the more to having time to sit down and read it. Thanks.

Posted by: Teresa | Oct 14, 2005 5:04:35 PM

One Bullet Away is a great read, too.

Posted by: Blackfive | Oct 14, 2005 5:09:01 PM

I just finished reading Colby's book and I must say that it's a fantastic first book. I agree with Matt that it's not exactly Herr or Heller, but neither does it feel cobbled together. It's a scrapbook of a very intense year.

The real triumph of the book is the emotional complexity of it. It's not a black and white war, and likewise, Colby's feelings express the moral confusion of being in a combat zone.

I'm sure, much like "Gunner Palace", that some folks are going to hate this book, especially if they have never worn a uniform. Reading it, I must of laughed aloud at least a dozen times--especially when he captured just how absurd modern combat is.

I also just finished "the Last True Story I'll Ever Tell". While I hate to compare, "My War" is a stronger read. It brings us into a world.

MIke Tucker

Posted by: Gunner Palace | Oct 14, 2005 7:02:11 PM

Somehow I relate to anyone who thinks their life could be more meaningful. Personally, I'm envious of any man (since I'm male I mean man) who portrays a sense of satisfaction with their life. I'll have to read this book. Being introspective and not exactly liking the beast that peers back is one thing, being able to translate that into ANY readable format takes talent and guts.

'Course, I could be reading too much into Blackfive's description of the book's contents.

Again Blackfive, thanks for the info.

Posted by: Blaine | Oct 14, 2005 10:38:00 PM

Thanks, Mike. You've got a lot of cred with me, personally and professionaly, and I agree - he could've gone a lot of different ways with the book and I think he stayed true to his experience (as anyone who spent time in the Army in combat will atest).

Long live WILF!!!

2005-10-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

"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."

Going out the Back

2005-10-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

Unmanned aerial vehicles

2005-07-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

Me and the guys were sitting around watching the game on AFN. A commerical came on t.v. honoring the women who have died serving in iraqi and enduring freedom. Though the thought was in the right place, It just seemed wrong. They made no mention of the men who died. what happened to "you will not be forgotten","never shall i fail my comrades" and "leave no man behind"

Apparently i wasn't the only one who found the memorial disrespectful. One of the pilots turned to me after the commercial had highlighted some of their accomplishments before those women's last fateful missions and he
said very sarcastically " Nicole...bet you didn't know it but, you women won the war....yeah it was all you women who won the war" And a few of the other pilots chimed in with more sarcastic remarks.

I thought to myself.....i understand your point, but you do realize you are sitting in Germany drinking beer... getting credit for iraqi freedom....critiquing someone who gave their life taking fire from the enemy......and commenting about how little you think they contributed.

i have just two things to say about that...... i don't care if they are white, black, iraqi, male, female, or elephant.......they died for their country ...lest we forget.....what have you done for Uncle Sam lately?

and

Have you heard of auto pilot, and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)?! Just wondering

Do you know what you are fighting for....sir?

2005-07-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

While in Germany i saw signs with the slogan "Combat Pride" all around the flightline. They had odd sops too.... they wanted all the fire bottles lined up perfectly in front of the nose of every plane...for "Combat Pride"...at the commanders request. There were no airplanes there that have seen combat... there are no gunships or other special ops birds there.

This was during the battle of fallujha last november where we took heavy casualties. Those fallen soldiers and marines were brought back to freindly soil just a few hundred yards down the ramp from where we were parked. From where all the combat pride slogans were posted.

Thanksgiving came and went..... And there was no mention of our wounded brothers who lay wounded and alone at the hospital. Some of whom died there. All while we professed combat pride by lining up the fire bottles and lowering the gear doors....so all the airplanes looked the same and so the flightline would look aesthetically pleasing from the big picture window. Combat pride to me is not leaving my fallen brothers, it is about being thankful for their sacrafice on thankgiving.

At one base they actually flew in a motivational speaker from the U.S. to giva a mandatory breifing to talk to us and to tell us how important our job is and to try to drive home the point that there are soldiers with great hardships out there....soldiers fighting and dieing and that is what we are here for.

These soldiers are all around us... on the base...they are who we haul......

i found it an insult to make me sit thru that breifing. If you didnt learn it from the guys around you.......you wont learn it from some motivational speaker.

And just bringing in the motivational speaker contradicts the point they were trying to make.

"Did you used to be in the army?"

2005-07-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

"No". i said and i must have looked a little confused because he went on explaining... "well it is just that most people in the airforce dont know what an EIB is."

I looked at the airman, who proudly displayed his EIB on his airforce uniform.....something i have never seen before in the airforce. He wore jump wings too....but his airassault badge was 'traded' for an airforce security forces patch.He shared that He used to be infantry for the 101st.

I told him i had alot of respect for infantry. And he said "Thankyou. I really miss it, sometimes"....and he paused .... and looking at me in that very profound moment he again said thankyou.

Sucks, squeezes, bangs, blows, and goes

2005-06-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

This morning was the best I've felt in a long time.

Engine runs.........Fuggin A! Throwing throttles in an 80,000 lb hunk o metal....the plane lurches and rocks with every throttle movement responding to your commands ...producing so much thrust she blasts everything in her path. Enough thrust to send a small plane taxiing behind her hurling like a tumble weed. What's not to like about engine runs? It is different everytime, never know what could go wrong. And because we are doing maintenance ops checks things do go wrong. From jumping chalks...to emergency shutdowns for any number of reasons, smoke, fire equipment malfunctions. The plane shaking and straining against the chocks when we are pulling power while I run thru the maintenance checks with the run crew. The original write up was a a hung start with low TIT (turbine Inlet temp). It happened in both auto and null. Which means if this engine were a reciporcating engine in a car...it would be cranking over but not starting. Youd have spark but no ignition. Which means your not getting fuel.But The fuel pumps were working. So very simply put....the component that we call a carburetor on a car is called a fuel control for a jet engine. It meters fuel to the manifold, but it has more bells and whistles than a carb. You know when you drive from low elevation into the mountains how you have to adjust the mixture on your carb or the car runs like crap. Well ours has the bells and whistles to do that automatically. Not real practical to have the mechanic get out there while we're flying along to adjust it. To further complicate a simple system we throw the "TD" or temperature datum system into the mix. Well it basically limits the temp of the engine by further adjusting fuel flow. More or less for optimal engine performance. We can actually select "null" and bypass or "null" the whole TD system. Sounds sexy huh? However normal operation is auto or the TD system operating. Dont want to get to technical on the operation of a jet engine.......it is actually pretty simple... if anyone does have any questions about the technical aspects ask away......or about planes in general.......

So today was a great day, cuz it was me against the clock and i won..You can schedule a plane all you want but if she doesnt want to fly she wont. And only a good mechanic can change her mind, No general can order her to fly ....just the crewchief. Can you hear me smiling?

.....i will never forget though in tech school which is AIT for those fluent in army......., when someone raised their hand and asked how a jet engine worked on the first day of class, and the teacher responded "well.....It sucks, squeezes, bangs, blows, and goes."

By the text book there are indeed 4 sections to a jet engine. Intake Section=takes in air=sucks The Compressor Section=compresses air for more efficient burning=squeezes The Combustion Section= burns the fuel air mixture=bangs and the exhaust section=expels heat and unburned gasses=blows + ...goes=the thrust produced by the first four.....moving the aeroplane outta dodge!

You know one day i wanted to get to my site so i typed in the title live from the rear..... and boy was i surprised to find the sights that got brought up....of course mine had not came up until i put in the actual addy. I considered changing the name at that point, pretty embarrassed by my ignorance. I can just imagine where this post will end up!

In Remembrance ............................... click here

2005-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a good site about our fallen brothers click on title to check it out

Rest in Peace....... Brave Heores, You are Not Forgotten.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Lance Cpl. Larry L. Wells
Mount Hermon, La
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A 1997 graduate of Scituate High School in Massachusetts, he joined the National Guard straight out of high school...
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Maj. Duane W. Dively
Rancho, CA
Dively had completed flying a mission and was returning to his base when the crash occurred.
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Sgt. Arnold Duplantier
Sacramento, CA
Duplantier was killed by small-arms fire while he was providing cordon security in Baghdad.
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Spc. Brian A. Vaughn
Pell City, AL
Vaughn and another soldier were killed when their unit was attacked by small-arms fire while conducting combat operations.
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Because of you

2005-06-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

Because of You
(written by "Militarybrrat" )

For Colby Buzell , and 'Blue Steele' and all the other Stryker guys...For Travis and all the other 'odd men out, For Joe Kleikamp and the other 'Iron Soldiers'...For 'Sgt G'....For Matt Rockhold...for Chris Robishaw ...For Adam Kimmich..., for Joe Klapperich For Mike Glover and all of 366 be safe guys!..for Al Locke..for Frank A.... For "Filthy Beast"... for Steve Patnode... for Stacy Schiver for 'Scuba Steve' you fu*ker...........lol ......for

For Matt England, for Nick Keane for Bob Romer....and all the 82nd guys...and 96th CA ...For our kentucky boys with the Screamin' Eagles of the 101st, and Highspeed 160th... For my georgia buddies from 3rd ID and the 75th HOOAH!! ;) To the guam guys who i forget what there unit is called for .....Fourth ID ......for the guys with the "Electric Jalapeno" division patch don't remember which unit it is and I'm too lazy to google it...for the rainbow division patch infantry unit...(do you guys ever have a military pride fest...lol sorry couldn't help it....:} For 10th MTN out of Ft Drum...for all of Socom and Our other services......

There are many more units, i wish i could remember more....for all the brave men who we have flown into combat...to the heros we know and the many more that we don't.....

for all those men who have ever worn blue cords for the medics that sacrafice so much to bring our brothers home and those brave troops who support and fight with them. For our wounded , For our fallen brothers.......

It is what you do that makes this military one i serve so proudly in. It is the great people like you that makes our country worth defending

freedom

He's sitting on a roof all night He shivers in the cold .
He struggles hard to stay awake He's just 18 years old .
He writes a letter to his mom beneath the desert moon.
He promises that he'll stay safe that that he'll be home soon

the newest member of his squad his eyes still wide with faith.
He joined the army out of school to keep his country safe.

The town below is quiet and the people are asleep
the darkness hides the bloodstains of past battles in the street.

your work may never be as such that most will ever see
the bravery and the sacrafice required of infantry
So to the unsung heros fighting for democracy
No thanks could ever be enough because of you im free.

He was sitting on a roofotop in the desert far from home
it was night and it was quiet he was feeling all alone
it was not as he expected in this far and distant land
he grew weary of the checkpoints while he freed Iraq by hand
He came here with a vision fighting bigger better things,
he thought by now Iraq somehow would hear how freedom rings

Another observation point...... another Ied......
it seems at times he wonders do they want democracy?
another boring checkpoint ...& another countless raid..
sometimes he starts to wonder can we win this war we made?

he's melting in his armor while he's sitting there all night
.... the world below seems peacful through his rifle's sniper sight
......he's been here 15 months but
if he could he wouldn't trade ...he'd do it all again
just for the freindships that he made.

for his buddies and his comrades in this far and distant land
and for those who've ever had to hold a wounded buddies hand

for the guys who've seen the fear in eyes of children on a raid
& for those who've had to see a buddies life begin to fade.
for the anger and the sorrow and the heartache and the rage
and the stuggles and the sacrafice behind this war we wage

for our hero saving lives only because they risk their own
and the brave men who when sound asleep still hear a wounded's moan

for the soldier on the roof training his weapon on the night
caffeine to fight fatigue just to stay ready for the fight

your work may never be as such that most will ever know
the fear within your heart, it is not something that you show

Thank you for the hardships you must stuggle with each day
thanks to those in times of fear who bravely lead the way
So to our the unsung heros who provide security

Forever im in debt to you, it's cuz of you im free.

ramadi

the best part is bringing them home

2005-06-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

here is a the story of a soldiers homecomming..the small little part i play is the best part of serving.......

bringing back for R&R

It was only 8 months ago but it feels like a life time already. I had already been stateside for a week before we were flown back to our state so I had gotten to talk to my family on the phone several times. I was told that our families would be meeting us at the unit because we'd be landing on the military side of the airport. My sister had fedex'd her cell phone to me in Colorado so I could call anyone I wanted at anytime, still such a novelty for me. Our plane landed at the small airport and we were loaded onto busses when the phone rang and my mom told me to look out the window at the fence line. My oldest daughter was there in the parking lot so I ran off the bus and kissed her through the chain link fence with tears in my eyes. My mom had brought both my daughters to the airport even if they could only see me through a fence. My baby girl was only 4 months old when I left last year so she was a little scared of mommy in all that gear but I held her through every stupid little formation and I wouldn't let go. The tears of joy were so different than my tears of last year. I don't honestly remember what happened after that, just lots of cuddling on the couch with my girls. Like DocMillerTime said, being a single parent is a whole different world. Your children are all you can think about and I am so thankful to be home with mine.

I got off the C-5 at Hunter Airfield, shook the Adjutant General's hand and chatted with him for a bit (there was only one chalk of us arriving at once, and the state TAG maintains a close relationship with our company). I went to a makeshift supply truck we had, cleared my weapon, turned it in, and walked into the hanger to be greeted by a US flag that had to be about 300 feet across. If you've ever seen the embarkation terminal at Hunter AAF, it spans the entire length of one of the short walls. The VFW and Red Cross and USO were there giving us food and stuff, but noone could eat. I took advantage of my first Krispy Kreme in almost 18 months, and literally ate the thing in one bite, then choked cause I tried swallowing it whole. After recovering from that little bout, we formed up and got on a bus. This whole time it hadn't hit me that I was home yet. We made the 30 minute drive from Hunter AAF to Ft. Stewart, and formed up outside the gym. We could hear the 3rd ID band playing and crowds of people cheering. We organized the chalk by company as best we could (were were a mix of 3 companys from the same battalion returning on 6 different flights) and formed up, then marched into the gym. We couldn't even hear the 1SG call mark-time---march, we just did it on our own. The TAG gave a brief speech, and then the battalion commander took the formation, and called for the Sergeant major. "Sergeant Major, POST! ......Sergeant Major, take charge of your chalk, dismiss your troops."....They saluted and the CSM did an about face. " Stand at, Ease! ........Welcome home, warriors. First formation will be at 0700 hours Monday. Battalion! (Company!). Attention! .....(there was a long pause, maybe 15 seconds)......DISMISSED!"
All hell broke loose. With a loud thunderous cry we all just broke ranks and ran into the bleachers to see our family. I found my mother in the stands and gave her a hug and didn't let go for 10 minutes. At some point in time that day I found all the other guys I was friendly with, and hugged their parents too. Hell, apparently I hugged a 1-star General, but I must have missed that. Anyway, we were dismissed for the weekend, so the first thing we did was drive back to Savannah, and I put my stuff down on the bed and did a crossword puzzle. Then I remember going downstairs in the hotel, still in my DCU's cause we didn't have any civies, and drinking the last year away.
I never really realized I was home until 2 weeks later when I went on vacation skiing in Utah...the same vacation I was trying to go on when I was activated and pulled off my plane to go to Iraq. I woke up to the sound of mortars firing, and explosions, and I rolled off my bed, searching frantically for my rifle and body armor. It was only then I realized that I was in the US, and the mortars were avalanche control. I couldn't stop shaking for nearly two days.

Hi Everyone

I feel that my experience was alot different than the ones I've read . I am an army reservist, most of the men in my unit were already on duty since 9-11, got about 90 days off and were activated for OIF. We spent 8 months in Baghdad and came home as 3 seperate groups. The first were the guys close to the 2 year mark then the rest of us came home.

We were broken into 2 groups and sent home on Military transports, not airline planes. Luckly we came home on Dec 24 and Dec 25. But we didn't get any fanfare when we landed. We got on a bus and luckly had people who got us out on a 4 day pass, on a bus by midnight. Those that left after my group got in anfd got their pass shortly after the got back.

We had to come back after pass so that we were out processed. When we got to our area we were escorted by fire trucks from every station that our soldiers were from. We had a speech from the general and then we were dismissed. Not alot of fanfare and we were lost in the shuffle. And even a year later there was not much support, but some of us keep in touch and help get through.

Thanks for having an open ear and mind.
Bakes

2005-06-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

dawn, U.S. Marine Cpl. Jason Williams, of Pierre, S.D, mans a 50 caliber machine gun from inside the turret of an armored Humvee, helping provide security for a convoy of engineering equipment traveling from one base to another, in Ramadi, Sunday, Dec. 12, 2004. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) December 12, 2004

Rivr Blitz

2005-06-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Marines from the 1st Battalion 23rd Marines prepare their weapons in Haditha, west of Baghdad. The 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and Iraqi Security Forces kicked off Operation River Blitz, aimed to enhance security in and around the western Iraqi al-anbar province and its capital the city of Ramadi. (AFP/Jaime Razuri) February 21, 2005

2005-06-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Seen through night vision gear, Lance Cpl. Gary Cremeans, machine gunner, 3rd Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and a 24-year-old heating, ventilating and air-conditioning technician from Austin, Texas, stands guard over two suspected insurgents, secured and detained in the background, during a nightly cordon and knock raid around Ramadi, Iraq, Dec. 23. The raid was part of a larger effort to maintain security and stability by disrupting the insurgency prior to elections.
(Cpl. Paul W. Leicht) December 23, 2004

so what makes someone wanna grab a gun and run into harms way?

2005-06-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Click on title to see article... found it on military.com

I chose 11B as an MOS simply because to me it's the heart and soul of a military force. Whether you're an Infantryman or a Ranger. It's "the warrior" mentality in my opinion and you wear the crossed rifles and blue cord on your uniforum.

As for Infantry in the National Guard which I was in and I'm going active duty to try and become a Ranger fairly soon, it's no different that Infantry training within the regular Army. The fundamentals are the same and they're all trained at Fort Benning Georgia. Unlike the Army reserve which has one, the National Guard has two objectives- state and oversease. If terrorists were in a building in your neighborhood they're not going to call active duty Infantry- It just cannot happen, they cannot call the reserve because they don't have 11B or other MOS's such as calvary Scout and etc. They're going to call the Guard and if you're needed in a place like Iraq you will also be called upon to defend this nation.

The reasons why I chose 11B may be different from other people but I assume we're all basically the same, whether you're in the Army or USMC, National Guard or active duty Infantry= becoming a warrior.

It's a calling. You hear it or you don't. If you do nothing else is going to measure up and while you'll probably entertain other options, to tell your self you're being open-minded, you'll know you're going to be an Infantryman before you even walk in the Recruiters door.

when you were a kid playing Army you never pretended you were a trasportation truck driver, a computer maintenance technician or a water purification specialist. You pretended you were an Infantryman (except for the big, dumb, slow kid that always wanted to be George Patton and went on to become a DAT).

It was always my dream to be a Soldier so I went and became a Soldier. I wouldn't have been happy as a court reporter or finance clerk in BDU's.

"The free men of the world are marching together to Victory."

Ever since I was a young child its what I wanted to be. An inner sense of adventure, a craving for danger, and the chance to go places and do things very few people get the chance to do. When my family asked me "Why, why the Infantry?", I honestly couldnt give them a good answer except for "Its just something I have to do."

It's a calling. You hear it or you don't.

There's your answer.

That pretty much covers it.
Your heart is either Infantry or it's not.
Mine was and is Airborne Infantry and still is even
though I've been out for years I still believe in it and
the great honor of wearing that blue brade and the cross
rifles.
The silver wings and jump boots don't hurt for the extra
touch either.
A Green Beret would be even better...I didn't make it that
far and live to regret it.

Be All You Can Be

2005-06-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

give er gas

2005-06-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

parts to keep em flyin Hamilton Standard Style!!!!

2005-06-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

T56-15 Aliisons W/ Hamilton Standard props YEAH BABY!!!

2005-06-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

coalition troops

2005-06-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

runup pad for 130's in kuwait

2005-06-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

for those opposing desert storm

2005-06-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

the best shit hole i ever lived in

2005-06-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

the success of desert storm...today....freeing Kuwait...Amerivcan Style

2005-06-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

iraq

2005-06-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

beautiful desert...........

2005-06-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

bringing back for R&R

2005-06-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Mechanics from Outlaw Troop, 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, perform maintenance on a Mast Mounted Sight of an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter at their base of operations in Habbaniyah, Iraq May 8, 2003. Photo by Andy Rogers/The Gazette

Memorial Day.....and the famililies

2005-06-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

Wow............!!!!'nuff said.....
[click on title for blog link]

Sunday, May 29, 2005
. . . and the familes.
I got an email recently that took me to task for taking too lighthearted a view of war and military service. The writer seemed to feel that by not dwelling on death and fear and horror, I was leaving a false impression of how combat was. I didn't think too much about it at the time - his main point seemed to be that, by not making my experiences seem terrible, I might actually encourage someone else to join up. I've already mentioned in this blog that I wasn't one of those who paid a heavy price for my service, and I do want to encourage others to do their duty as citizens - if they decide that duty includes military service, then I want to applaud that decision and not discourage it. I thought about the email again, though, as Memorial Day approached. And everyone should know that, for all that I sometimes make light of my experiences in combat, there are people who have paid dearly for the things that we sometimes take for granted in this country.

Maybe all soldiers in combat don't pay a heavy price, but some do, and every family of a combat soldier does. The wives and husbands, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, spend their days living with the dread of seeing the Army staff car pull up into the yard. Every news report of casualties - a rocket attack in Ghazni, a suicide bomber in Baghdad - hangs over them, day and night, until the names are released. Was it him? Was he on the chopper, in the HMMWV, on the patrol that got ambushed? And when a soldier does go down, he pays the "last full measure of devotion" then and there. For the family, the butcher's bill is presented on the installment plan. The family pays with every missed birthday, every question from the young child, "When is Daddy coming home?", every lonely night with an empty bed serving as a perpetual memorial, every pang of loss down through the years.

In the town where I live, every Memorial Day, Main Street and the town square are lined with plain white wooden crosses about three feet high, each surmounted with a small US flag, and each with the name and war of a local son who died in one of America's foreign wars. Even though it's a small town, we have enough war dead to line both sides of several miles of road with crosses spaced 20' or so apart. Family names common in the area leap out as you drive by, reminders of sacrifices gone by and pain still remembered.

And sometimes that pain goes on for many long years. We have another Memorial Day tradition here: Every year, there's a commemorative gathering in the town square, usually in the week before Memorial Day so that the middle school can attend. There are speakers on the meaning of the day, usually military and political figures, and an invocation by one of the local preachers. Then the Honor Roll of fallen heroes is read, and it takes a while. Family members sometimes step forward and read the name of their loved one, and occasionally share a memory. I try to attend whenever I can, out of respect for the fallen and their families.

One year, not too many years ago, an old, old woman was seated behind the lectern, sitting in her weelchair, but dressed in her "Sunday best." She had been brought from the local nursing home to participate in the ceremony that day as one of the family members who came to remember their dead. She was frail, and on oxygen, and she struggled to stand when the time came to read the name of her lost soldier. She told us that when she was a little girl, her father had gone away to fight in World War I. She remembered lying in bed at night and taking comfort in hearing his footsteps, solid and heavy, as he walked down the hall to his bedroom. One night, after she had gone to bed, she heard his footsteps in the hall for the last time. He came into her room that night and told her that he was leaving for France, that he had to go away for awhile, and that he loved her very much. He never came back. He died in the Meuse-Argonne. As a little girl, she said, all the while he was gone, and even after she learned that he was dead, she would listen for his footsteps in the hall. And now, she told us, as she lived out her last days alone in a nursing home, after a lifetime of tending her family and raising her children, she would still sometimes try to catch the sound of his footsteps as she went to sleep. A long and full lifetime later, longer and richer than most, she still missed her father and, at times, wept for his loss. And she wept then, as she read his name.

posted by Special Forces Alpha Geek at 2:52 AM

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

2005-05-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

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"

2005-05-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

"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

2005-05-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-05-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

130

2005-05-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ops thru NVG's

2005-05-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

Home sweet Home...

1st Ad Old Ironsides (click for home page)

2005-05-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Old Ironsides 1st Ad

2005-05-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

c130 crew flying approach

2005-05-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

deployments

2005-05-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

3rd acr

2005-05-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

kuwait

2005-05-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

offload

2005-05-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Long tabbers going out the back

Incomming

2005-05-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-05-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

dusk

For the question about army crewchief training (click here)

2005-05-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

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?

2005-05-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

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"?

2005-05-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

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"

2005-05-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

the troops

2005-05-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Herkie Airlines

Went back to the Doc

2005-05-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

....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........

2005-05-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-04-30T01:19:00.000-07:00

I got back from africa yesterday. A nice respite from the the normal bullshit we have to deal with.We stayed at a marine camp which in it of itself is unique. Quite a culture shock, but it is a small base. The facilities are a bit more "down town' than other places i have been. But being it is a small base ....it is more laid back...and you are treated more as an adult which is a nice change of pace.

A new trend i am seeing in the military is the attempt at eliminating decision making. I donot condone the events at Abu Grahib, but at the same time Pfc Lyndie England...was found gulity for "following orders" and the brass above her walked away virtually unscathed......

The military is pushing for mindless compliance of rules and regulations regardless of wether or not they make sense.....and regardless wether or not they endanger those following them.

So I am left to wonder.....what is the job of a leader? Where are the leaders who are concerned with troop moral,with getting them enough food & water, adequate shelter, the tools and equipment to do their job? Are leaders supposed to do that anymore? Are they supposed to ensure that the individuals under them treat one another professionally in accordance with the UCMJ? I often wonder if there is any value to being a good leader at all anymore.

Sorry i havn't been able to post much

2005-04-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

The Gov. computer nazis blocked blogger sites at alot of places i have been to recently. But thanks for checking back and not giving up on me!

His War.............

2005-04-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a letter afreind of mine wrote before i ever went over to the sandbox....

So you think you are going to the great sandbox huh? Lucky you. Are you on orders yet or are you not sure. Where are you stationed at right now? You will almost definatly be at BIAP, you know how the military loves its acroynms. Thats Baghdad Internatinal Airport. I go there about 2-3 times a week and its about 30 mins from my compound...maybe we will run into each other there :P

Small world.

Tent city isn't bad at all...you will likely be within walking distance of the main PX and Burger King. The PX is actually pretty decent out here. I dont believe they segregate tent city but im not 100 percent on that. I know a few girls at BIAP, MP's from my brigade, who say that life at BIAP isn't that bad, but they don't get to go many places so they get stir crazy at times, I don't think the AF deploys for a year like we are so it might not be as bad for you.

I have so many stories I could tell you of this place, I wouldn't know where to begin..the people are actually great and I have some pictures of this place on my laptop back in my room I can send you later if you like...Just keep your mind in the game and don't let yourself get taken down by the negative people that hate their job, they would complain just as much as if they were in garrison..we signed up for a job and then they get mad when they actually have to do it...go figure.

In all honesty I like the AF, I mean without them in Germany Id have poor shopping choices ;) Let me know if you want to see the pics and give me an idea of what story you'd like to hear. If you use a messenger program like yahoo or msn let me know and I could relate the stories that way.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Joe

Winning .........one convoy at a time..........

2005-04-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

Our commander received this letter and passed it along ....i wanted to share :

Maj XXXXXXXXXXXX,

I just wanted to pass along some feedback we received from the Marines up in Fallujah from one of crews that had some extra ground time one night. Often we forget why we’re here and focus on what we would rather be doing elsewhere or other various issues. One of the comments I’m hearing more each day is “we’re not hauling anything on these missions and it’s a waste of time”.

I’ll be the first to admit at times we do fly a mission into the box and when we get there, they don’t have anything for us. This probably happens on maybe a few sorties per day out of roughly XX at this base. That however doesn’t make it any less frustrating for my crews as well as the maintainers that bust their butts to turn that aircraft or fix it in time for an on time takeoff. But the fact is no matter what we do, this will not change during this war or the war that comes after it. We need to focus on what we are accomplishing on the other XX sorties.

I will tell you the C-130s that you guys fix and turn everyday gives the Army and Marines the capability to remove over 600 trucks per month from the roads of Iraq! If you don’t think that’s significant, think of the kids that would be in those convoys if it wasn’t for the C-130’s coming into those airfields everyday and night. And if it still doesn’t hit home, ask me in person what it’s like to fly an HR (Human Remains) mission that has 6 caskets with American Flags draped over them out of the AOR.

This is the quote from the pilot that met some of the Marines that night.

“the Marines up there really appreciate what we are doing. That stretch of road between Asad and TQ is a no-kidding no-mans land and they personally thanked us and praised the C-130 for lessening the need for convoys!”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Please tell your troops we appreciate their hard work and we couldn’t do these missions without them. But also tell them our warfighters in the AOR appreciate it also.

Thank you.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cbftw has a book !!

2005-04-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

I know alot of you (if not all of ya) have checked out my blog from the "my war" blog. The blog of all blogs. cbftw@blogspot.com ** if you stumbled onto my blog by accident and havn't had the pleasure of my war ....definately check it out. That's an order!

So there i was, in Qatar in line at the bx/px whatever.and i saw a copy of Army Times.... usually there are enough copies around the break room at work that i dont bother buying one.......But guess who was on the cover.....Everybody's fav blogger...cbftw....Colby Buzzell. So i bought me up a copy and it turns out he is in the process of writing a book. Heart felt congrats to ya soldier boy, (if your reading this). Much deserved.
March 14th issue of Army Times...kinda funny the amt of crap they gave Colby...then to put him on the cover and credit him with starting the blog revolution......
(and Colby, u said u wern't a blog spokesman)

Even more ironic.....I bought the copy because of Colby being on the front.....and wouldn't you know it right there on page 7, under the title around the army they
had a little blurp called civil affairs and visits. So i'm reading the article and realize that i was on that mission! ...of course i'm not mentioned for the little part in it that i played.

The following was cut and pasted from ARMY Times...i did not see the author.....but he is also metioned in macrh 14th army times

March 04, 2005

Blogs of War

Esquire Magazine, called “My War,” the blog of former Army Spc. Colby Buzzell, “The most extraordinary writing yet produced by a soldier of the Iraq war.” —

Soldiers are trying to make sure their version of the truth from Iraq gets out.
Even though for many, that truth doesn’t include revealing their identities, their online diaries are becoming an increasingly popular way for anyone with an Internet connection to “listen in” on the war zone.

Blogs provide a vehicle for soldiers to speak their minds and tell their personal stories. But the information medium also poses new dangers that the Army is still trying to come to terms with.

Some soldiers have found that blogging can have great benefits, and others have discovered the hard way that there can be consequences for posting things their commanders don’t approve of. Nonetheless, the number of soldiers who blog continues to grow.

Read more about the military blogosphere in the March 14 issue of Army Times.

Here are links to some of the most-read, military-related blogs:

• Mudville Gazette.

The de-facto hub for military bloggers is run by an active-duty service member who calls himself Greyhawk. Greyhawk founded the MilBlog Web ring. He told Army Times that a band in Seattle is creating a song from one of his posts about leaving his family behind and going to Iraq. The site hosts one of the most comprehensive lists of soldier bloggers.

• Blackfive.

The site is typically updated a few times per day. It was named the best military blog in the 2004 Blog Awards. Although Blackfive is a former Army officer posting from Chicago, just about every entry is military related. The site is home to a popular reoccurring feature called “Someone You Should Know,” which profiles service members with remarkable stories. This blogger, who is known only as Matt, says he is “on a mission to highlight the good that our military men and women do every day.”

• American Soldier.

A self-described gung-ho GI, this blogger is readying to deploy to Iraq for a second time. Although he refuses to divulge his real name, the blogger is a sniper assigned to a National Guard unit. He says he aims to enlighten his readers on what life as a soldier is really like, versus the misrepresentations he believes are shown by mainstream media.

• The Questing Cat.

Two specialists with the 1st Infantry Division share their lives with readers. Spc. Nick Cademartori, who is the Questing Cat, founded the site in April. His best friend, Spc. Michael Cotignola III, posts to the same blog using the handle Jersey Cowboy. The two men offer a candid look into the mental tribulations that soldiers battle in Iraq.

• My War.

A site often credited with jump-starting the “MilBlog revolution.” Colby Buzzell, who recently left the Army as a specialist, built a fan base that ranges from soccer moms and truck drivers to Jello Biafra, the leader of a punk band called The Dead Kennedys. His uncomplicated accounts of his time in Iraq continue to garner him attention as he works on a book due out in the fall. Esquire Magazine wrote of Buzzell’s work: “The most extraordinary writing yet produced by a soldier of the Iraq war.”

• Just Another Soldier.

Spc. Jason Hartley of the New York National Guard called his blog “Just Another Soldier” and wrote bluntly about everything from conditions on the base to his comrades’ high jinks. He said the Army busted him down to specialist, accusing him of operational security violations and disobeying an order to keep the blog offline.

• Life in this Girl’s Army.

The blogger refers to herself only as Sgt. Lizzie. The number of visitors to her blog spiked in early December, when she was wounded by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. Back in the United States, she continues to write about healing from her wounds and transitioning back to garrison life in the Army.

• Armor Geddon.

Tank platoon leader 1st Lt. Neil Prakash was awarded a Silver Star in January. He is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, and his blog offers gripping, straightforward accounts with photos of battle and life in Iraq. Although he is redeploying back to Germany, he continues to post new, in-depth stories from his tour.

• Major K.

An infantry officer who recently arrived in Iraq, Major K has blogged throughout his mobilization and pre-deployment training. A recent post details the first casualties his unit took.

• Pass the Brass.

Pfc. Heath J. Coleman, a military policeman based at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, often writes humorously, invariably laughing at his own mistakes. His posts, which he says are all true, often end with a message or lesson.

Other services:

• The Green Side.

This site features e-mails from a Marine lieutenant colonel On his second tour in Iraq, Marine Lt. Col. David G. Bello of 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, e-mails his father, who in turn posts to the blog. The site features e-mails and photos from both of Bello’s tours, including accounts from Fallujah.

• Doc in the Box.

A Navy corpsman on his second tour in Iraq with a Marine helicopter squadron, Sean Dustman is Doc in the Box. He started blogging during his first tour after reading other MilBlogs.

• CDR Salamander.

This blogger, who will only say that he is a Navy commander, offers his observations of the war, politics and other varying topics. Salamander vehemently protects his true identity.

• Baldilocks.

A member of the Air Force who comments on just about everything except the Air Force.

..........While you were singing.........

2005-04-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Found the following article in Star and Stripes and wanted to share.
I was back in the aor then,after a short break. It's kinda funny to think of all the dynamics involved in a war. We would get a plane in, quick turn it (work any maintenance discrepencies....fuel it and reconfigure the plane to haul whatever it is we might next be hauling)

and that could be ANYTHING from country singers to soccer balls, to MRE's, to bombs and bullets to troops to dumbo, if the mission so required.

I remember the whole summer salute tour (more on that in following article).

That time frame in particular stands out for me. It's when 1st AD was finally going home after 15 - 17 months in iraq. And that even was personal to me because a freind of mine was one of the soldiers coming home. He was 1-6 infantry. If you remember the Time Magazine "man of the year" issue a few years back, where they nominated the soldier man of the year.....(it had a picture of the three soldiers on the front) well 1st ad is that same unit.

They were within weeks of going home and then they got a short notice extension. My freind had plans for leave....plane ticket reserved and everything.It was really hard for those guys, when they got the extension.....they weren't even sure when they were going home,& worse... at the same time,work didnt slow up at all and they took some pretty heavy casualties during the time frame in which they were supposed to already have been home with their families.

i was there when 1-6 infantry stepped off the plane....to see them for the first time in a year and a half, out of iraq. I was so excited and happy for my freind & the others finally leaving. Although, he wasn't on the plane, since he convoyed up with some others. Some of the guys i talked to knew him though.

I guess i was expecting to see them excited too. But they just looked tired....and ......and distant....and numb. I thanked them for their hard out there.

i didnt understand why they didn't look happy, it seemed they should be happy because it was all over. But it seems that i was wrong... isn't like my job where i leave and everything is the same. Where i leave and so does everyone else in my unit. I have never came back to the barracks to find an empty bunk......much less endured the horrors of war. My freind has been home a year, he has pcsed to another base. He still loves being an ifantryman, but he still wont talk much about his time over there.And to be honest i am worried a bit about him, and how he may have been affected by everything. How can you not be affected by everything. He never seems happy any more.

War is a necessary evil....but it costs so much more than we realize.....so much more than anyone could imagine when they "sign the contract". I'm beginning to see that it isnt only those who are killed in combat that gave their life for their country.

Chalee Tennison and Danni Leigh and the others on the tour are great people to say the least.........

STARS FOR STRIPES SUMMER SALUTE TOUR – June 30-July 14, 2004

DAY ONE AND TWO:

We departed for Kuwait, Iraq, Djibouti and Qatar to perform for our troops over the 4th of July holiday period today. “We” being two female country music singers (Chalee Tennison and Danni Leigh) plus 3 musicians, a sound tech, my partner at Stars for Stripes and myself – 8 people total. Small manageable group so we can go into the really remote sites and hopefully boost the morale of the troops who need it the most.

Carl – my partner – and Brian – our sound tech flew in from Phoenix and Austin respectively yesterday. With weather delays, they arrived very late at night rather than mid-afternoon as anticipated. We are taking our own sound system (a small PA) since Iraq does not have this available yet. Last week I had overnighted all the Austin passengers their airline tickets, passports, ID cards, etc. This morning I learned that Brian had flown in yesterday on an “e-ticket” and never picked up his international ticket, passport, or ID card from Danni. So, we arrived at the airport for check-in and they would only allow him to check in to Memphis. There was still weather in Austin, so I was worried that we would not connect with the Austin passengers in Memphis as we had planned. If we had mis-connected, I would have had to leave Brian in Memphis since he did not have his travel documents. Everything worked out and he boarded the flight with us to Amsterdam.

When we checked in all the sound equipment, the agent tagging the cases put them on the straps. When they went through the security scanner, the inspectors didn't realize that the bag tags were falling off when they opened the cases. They found several on the floor AFTER the cases had gone through. We had to send someone downstairs to try and match the pieces with the tags. Just hope everything arrives in Kuwait with us!

I had purchased 4 walkie-talkies so that we could stay in touch in the Amsterdam airport and on the bases once we landed. I gave two to Brian and told him to use one and give one to someone in Danni’s group. He packed both radios in the equipment cases and checked them! For the record, this is Brian’s first trip out of the country. Definitely a learning experience for him.

Very short flight to Amsterdam (only 9 hours) compared to my normal trips to Japan. But, now we have a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam before we fly for 6 hours into Kuwait. I had a “chair” massage and am on my second cup of cappuccino! I know I’ll be able to get on the internet at the Radisson in Kuwait but after that, the road kill reports will be on hold until we return.

Able to get on line in Amsterdam. Wonderful thing. More tomorrow.

STILL DAY TWO:

On the flight from Nashville to Memphis, Chalee was sitting in front of me and Carl was sitting in back of me. Chalee leaned back and said, “I just want to ask you about one more thing (yeah, right J). Are there really camel spiders over there. Someone emailed me a photo of one”. Carl heard her and leaned up and said, “Yes. There are. They are nasty. They spit at you.” She started asking him questions about them chasing you and he said they run about 5 miles an hour. I was just listening to the whole thing thinking it sure wasn’t what I’d heard but I kept my mouth shut. I had seen the photos of them and they are large and ugly. But, the spitting and chasing you part seemed a little out there. When we were on the flight to Amsterdam, the subject came up again (think she had been worrying about one crawling in her sleeping bag). That’s when we realized Carl only heard the word “camel” and all his responses related to that animal!

When we started to board the flight to Amsterdam, there were lots of soldiers coming back from a 2 week leave in the U.S. and going back to Iraq and Kuwait. We signed autographs for them and told them where we would be performing. Also met a civilian working as a government contractor who invited us to their Camp. Said they have a real “bar” with alcohol. Some of our guys might be trying to hitch a ride there before the end of this “alcohol free” tour.

We had the usual “hassle” of trying to get through passport control. Were sent back upstairs to be issued “visas”. Evidently the U.S. cannot issue a temporary visa for Kuwait any longer. It must be done upon arrival at the airport. All of our luggage and sound gear made it and the ride to the hotel was less than 30 minutes. Wonderful thing!!! It’s 2 am and I’m still answering emails….

Jude

ROAD KILL DAY THREE

Not much sleep at all last night. Went to bed at around 4 am but couldn’t sleep. Finally got up and went to the gym. This hotel has great workout facilities. You have to walk outside past the pool to get to the gym. The heat is absolutely breath-taking!

I feel a little guilty that the group is getting so spoiled by the nice, air-conditioned hotel. They were expecting really rough conditions. But, I’ve decided it’s a building process. We have really long, brutal flights and layovers from the U.S. then get the perk of a nice hotel right on the beach with all the amenities for a couple of days. Then we head into Iraq for 5 days in the worst possible living conditions. Just when they think they can’t eat another MRE, we return to Kuwait for one more night of luxury. Then it’s off to even worse conditions for 2 nights in Djibouti. Finally end up in Qatar where it’s not a luxury hotel but nice conexes (individual trailers on base). I think it’s the perfect itinerary. I am REALLY going to miss my email once we leave here!

I worked very closely via email with Captain Chase Martin in Baghdad to coordinate the Iraq portion of the tour. He was wonderful but wasn’t able to escort us because he has the Baltimore Raven Cheerleaders in country (poor baby. Tough job!). We didn’t think we would even see each other. But, I was walking through the lobby after my workout and passed someone in camo with “Martin” on his shirt. I realized after I walked past him that it MIGHT be him. Then I spotted what HAD to be the cheerleaders in the lobby. I chased him down to the restaurant where he was going to look for me. It’s a wonderful thing that everyone wears their names on their clothing!

First show tonight at Navstar.

We departed for Navstar which is a “truck stop”! The huge trucks come in and out of there bringing heavy equipment and troops – most of whom are on their way home! Most of the people at the show were “transient”. We were traveling in a nice, air-conditioned mini-bus with our three great escorts. Thankfully, my first question once we boarded the bus is do you have a LOT of water on board for everyone. They assured me that there was but when we opened the cooler – it was empty! Then about an hour away from the site, the air conditioning quit! Remember, it’s about 107 degrees outside. Then, we learned that our escorts had just picked up the mini-bus when they met us at the hotel and it had not been prepped. They had to turn the air conditioner off because we were almost out of gas. I could just see us hitchhiking through the desert with the guitars! But we made it to Navstar on fumes. Once we arrived, we learned that our production had not arrived. Sound familiar, my friends? So we went to the dining facility to have an early dinner while we waited. All our shows in Kuwait are outside on flatbed trucks, so load in and sound check was pretty miserable. But by 7 pm when the show started, it had cooled down considerably. Funny how 90 degrees can seem so cool. One of our monitors was cracked in the flights over and one of the D.I.’s didn’t work. That’s when I learned that the sound company renting us the gear did not give us extras as specified in our agreement. Hopefully, everything else will work for the rest of the trip.

The show was absolutely awesome. Hundreds of soldiers attended and came up and told us how they NEVER get any entertainment up at Navstar. Said they hear about the entertainers going to Doha and Arifjan all the time but they are never included. Danni and Chalee made a point of getting some of them up to sing and play and even dance with them. Instead of a 90 minute show, we gave them over two hours. At one point, Danni jumped up and landed hard on the stage in her high-heel cowboy boots. A cloud of dust enveloped her and then covered the musicians. My partner looked at me and said, “Hey, that’s our smoke machine”!

They signed autographs after the show for almost two hours and then I treated everyone to a Subway sandwich which was located at the camp and open 24 hours. No, they did not have the low-carb wraps available and yes, we did ask. J

Arrived back at the hotel at 1 am. Have a 10:30 lobby call tomorrow. We visit one side of Arifjan for lunch, then do a meet and greet at a club on the other side that afternoon. Travel to SPOD (the Seaport) to entertain the Naval Base tomorrow evening.

Only took one show and Chalee, Danni and the musicians are “hooked”. Nothing can compare to the self-gratification of knowing you’re making a positive influence on someone’s life who is out there fighting for all of us to keep America free. Chalee got pretty choked up at one point because she has children and started thinking about all these young men and women who are away from home. Even the big Generals let us hug them and love on them without getting embarrassed.

Jude

ROAD REPORT – DAY FOUR – WE THINK!

Big note to self – DO NOT DRINK ICED COFFEE AT MIDNIGHT. Still staring at the clock at 4 am. Of course when the alarm went off at 6 am, I was ready to sleep.

Had this brilliant idea that I could run outside because there was a nice breeze. I grabbed the Gatorade and hit the street at about 6:30 am. Another big mistake. I only made it 3 miles instead of my normal 5. The heat was BRUTAL.

It’s amazing how quickly “time” becomes so confusing. I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it is unless I looked at my itinerary for the trip. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will be the 4th of July and we’ll only have 10 more days in country.

Today we went to two zones at Camp Arifjan. It’s huge and handles “logistics” – in-processing/out-processing, putting armor on the vehicles, etc. etc. Went into a lunch room and sang for about 2,000 soldiers – no PA system. The artists and musicians just “strolled” Mariachi style from table to table. Then they signed autographs for 3 hours – over 200 soldiers. Next we went across the Camp to Zone 2 and performed (with a PA system) at the Community Center. Only about 100 soldiers in there but it was nice to have a speaker system. Signed autographs and then headed to SPOD (the seaport). We had to go through 3 check points and at the first one, we stopped, signed autographs, and had our photos made with the soldiers. Evidently they radioed ahead and we had to do this at each checkpoint. I’m convinced that we went through 2 more checkpoints than necessary just so the guys could get the autographs – which is fine. That’s why we’re here.

The Tennessee National Guard was at SPOD and they have been extended 4 times. The last time they were actually packed up and on their way out when the call came detaining them. They were so glad to see us and I was so happy to hear someone talk with an accent like mine! This is another area that hears about the entertainers going to Camp Doha and Arifjan and they never get anything. So, we took care of that by giving them a heck of a show and signing autographs for them for hours.

Got back to the hotel and one of the artists had a slight panic attack. Evidently some soldier told her she was crazy for going into Iraq, that it’s not safe, and she should just refuse to go! It had to be someone stationed here in Kuwait since that’s the only Camps we visited and he probably had no firsthand knowledge of the situation in Iraq. I’ve talked to people in Baghdad 3 times today and I certainly feel safe going in. Right before her call, I was sitting here thinking what an incredible, blessed life I live. To be able to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and now the 4th of July with the finest men and women America has to offer AND to be able to lift their spirits a little and tell them how much the people back at home love them, is something that I will cherish and be forever grateful for.

I think I calmed her fears. We’re off to Balad, Iraq tomorrow morning EARLY – 8 am lobby call.

Happy 4th of July!

Jude

ROAD KILL DAY FIVE

Only a few hours before we depart the luxurious hotel and head into Iraq. We have to be at the flight line two hours prior to departure so that all our luggage and equipment can be palletized for the flight on the C-130. For everyone in the group except me and Carl, this will be their first flight on a military aircraft. “Seats” are the slings that hang along the sides of the airplane and the only “windows” are the little round holes dispersed sporadically along the sides. There are 4 propellers on this aircraft and I know from past experience that we can fly with 2 engines if necessary. The only restroom facilities on the two hour flight will probably be what they call a “honey bucket”…..a large metal trash can lined with a garbage bag. They encourage us to drink gallons of water so everyone will probably become acquainted with this type of primitive toilet. We won’t know until we start to land if we will have to make a combat landing which could be one of three things – drop from the sky like a rock, dodge and swerve for about 5 minutes, or fly 600 feet off the ground for 15 minutes. I plan to be sitting on the flight deck with the pilots at that time because I don’t like any of three options from the belly of the plane!

Yesterday I took about 5 minutes to look over a local newspaper. Most of the coverage was on Saddam and his trial. I am bringing it back to the U.S. with me. There are stories and quotes that we will never see in America. The people of Kuwait hate Saddam and love America for freeing them. The quotes of support were not from the older generation who experienced the horror of Saddam’s reign of terror as I expected. They were from young (19-35 years old) men and women living in Kuwait.

Last night I talked with so many soldiers who told me that they have lost quite a few men in their Unit. They also talked about the “personal” things that President Bush has done for the families of the soldiers…things that you will never hear about in the media. I have a renewed love and respect not only for President Bush as the President of our country but also as a loving, caring human being. To have the pressure of being the President of our country during a time of war, to be in the midst of a re-election campaign, yet to still have time to personally visit with the families of fallen soldiers simply because he cares is pretty special.

Last night, the artists closed the show with “God Bless America”. Every soldier stood and placed their hand over their heart and sang along. I know there wasn’t a dry eye among our group.

From past experience, I know that I won’t be able to send email from my laptop. So, no Road Kill Reports until we have one more night at the Radisson on July 9th. Have a wonderful 4th of July and “God Bless America”!

Jude

Today is actually July 9th. Haven't been able to send any Road Kill reports because I couldn't hook up my computer in the remote sites in Iraq. As I type this, I am sitting in one of Saddam's palaces in Baghdad. It's hard to comprehend! AND THERE IS AN INTERNET CONNECTION IN MY ROOM!

REST OF DAY FIVE - 4TH OF JULY:

We arrived at the terminal at about 9 am only to find that our flight had been delayed (imagine that!). So the artists sang a few songs for the flight line crew and then they shared their 4th of July burgers and bratz with us. We loaded up the C-130 and a crew from Milwaukee, WI flew us to Balad. I stayed on the flight deck talking to them for most of the trip and, of course, gave them one of our tour coins and a bandana. They gave me an American flag that had flown with them all over Iraq! Definitely not a fair trade for them.

We arrived at Camp Anaconda in Balad and found that housing conditions in this area have definitely improved since last December. We are in DV trailers! Really, really nice housing with all the comforts of a hotel room. There are two bedrooms with a shared bath so Chalee and I are “bunking” together.

We started to take a short tour of the base but ended up in one room for quite some time just learning about what takes place here. Every branch of service is represented – Army, Air Force, Marine, and Navy. There is a camaraderie that is amazing….a lot like I see at the Wolf Pack in Korea. Reminds me of how after 9/11, everyone in America pulled together. We had some serious ass to kick and some serious healing to do and we did it as one. That’s pretty much what you see over here.

We learned that this base is “hit” more than any of the others. It is a huge base which accounts for some of the attacks. They have lost several men, some of them as recently as the last couple of weeks when their Base Exchange was attacked. We also learned that we do not step outside without our flak vests and helmets ON, not in our hands, but wearing these. It’s over 100 degrees and the equipment is so heavy. I don’t know how the soldiers do it. They explained that a siren goes off when there is an attack and showed us the buildings where we run for safety. Then we have to stay there until the “All Clear” sounds. They told us not “if” but “when” it goes off because it goes off every night because they get attacked somewhere on the camp every night! We also learned that they rarely get any entertainment because most of the performers are afraid to visit their Camp because of safety concerns.

We were talking to the Chief when the Colonel returned from where he and his men had been inspecting a bridge. The Chief asked him how it was going and the Colonel responded, “Okay now. But you know what happened, right?”. He then told him that they had been attacked when they went to inspect the bridge. Evidently there was a “line” if IED’s set to go off in a chain reaction. The only thing that saved their lives was the fact that the first one failed to detonate! We could have arrived at this Camp on the 4th of July to find that they had just lost the Colonel and several of his men. Thank God that did not happen.

The show was held in a beautiful 740 seat Theatre with a full balcony. The stage was awesome and they even had some of their own production. A talent contest was taking place when we arrived but it was more like “The Gong Show”. The performers were actually getting booed off the stage! Sort of made our performers a bit nervous about their appearance. J

I went out front to sit with one of our escorts during the performance. Against all orders, we left our flak vest and helmet backstage. I was drinking gallons of water and really had to go outside to visit the port-a-potty but wanted to wait until the “audience participation” segment of the show was over. Right in the middle of the song, the sirens went off. I was so stunned to see all the soldiers jumping up and putting on their vests and helmets, that I couldn’t move. The escort grabbed my arm and literally RAN down the aisle with me to the backstage area. Since we were already in one of the “safe” buildings, we didn’t have to go anywhere. The band and artists put their gear on and continued with the show. I, on the other hand, was in serious trouble because I really, really needed to visit that port-a-potty. Finally this big hulking bear of a man told me he was going to escort me outside even though we were still Code Red. As any woman can testify, when you hold it that long, you’re going to be there for a very long time. I felt so sorry for him standing outside the port-a-potty in Code Red waiting for me. I can only imagine what was going through his mind. I know what was going through mine and it was basically that when it’s my time to go, I sure hope it wasn’t going to be in that port-a-potty!

We finally got the all clear and finished the show. A soldier came in during the autograph session and said that the KRB facility on the other side of the base had taken mortar fire. A couple of local workers were injured but thankfully no one was killed.

During the show, the artist who had the second thoughts last night, told the audience about her apprehension the night before and then teared up and said, “Now I get it. Now I know why I’m here and I would not want to be anywhere else”. Has your heart ever felt so full that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry? That’s how I feel the entire time I’m in Iraq talking to these incredible men and women.

Got to get to bed so I can get my standard 4 hours of sleep. Oops…scratch that….we know the sirens will go off at least once. Flak vest, helmet, shoes, passport, flashlight and water all right beside the bed!

DAY SIX – JULY 5TH:

Went to the gym at 7 am. Really nice facility but very crowded. We have two “guards” stationed outside our DVQ’s and I stopped to talk to them. While we were chatting there was a huge explosion that shook the ground. The soldier asked if I knew what it was. Considering the fact that I had climbed onto his back, I think he knew I had an idea. He said it was “incoming” but on the other side of the Camp. I’d hate to think what it would have sounded and felt like if it had been closer.

We all did an interview with the base newspaper and then went to the hospital to visit the wounded. Several of the locals who were hurt in last night’s explosion were there. Spent quite a while talking to the patients who had various injuries. Then we went to have lunch with the troops at the DFAC. They set us up in a private room but bring in lots of soldiers so we can talk to them. Evidently what we’re eating is better than what’s being served in the main dining hall because the people they bring in are pretty appreciative of getting the opportunity to eat in that particular room.

We got to check email and then went to look at the F-16’s. I wanted to meet the F-16 pilots because I have so many friends from Kunsan, Korea who fly the planes. Met one Colonel who seems to know all the Wolf Pack pilots.

Everyone else went back to the room to rest and I went to meet the lady who is responsible for distributing the school supplies through Operation Iraqi Children. She was on leave to the U.S. but I met the Colonel who is working with her. He said the project is going great and they are doing a LOT of good. They have received an overwhelming response to the request for supplies and the soldiers are delivering these to the local schools on a regular basis.

Got back in the conex in time to rest for about 30 minutes before going to the show. Had just gotten my clothes off when the sirens went off for real. Things were spread out all over the room so I was trying to gather my flak vest, helmet, water, put on my shoes AND wake us Chalee. None of the guys heard it, so I had to bang on their doors, too. We sat in a “safe” building with no air conditioning for about 40 minutes until the “all clear” sounded. My comment was that if the insurgents were smart, they would wait until the “all clear” siren sounded and then launch their missiles. That’s when everyone is outside. Our Chief said they have already figured that out. The one today landed by the flight line so no one was injured.

A couple of the soldiers that I sat with at dinner were “babies” 19 and 22 years old. One had just joined the reserves and was immediately deployed to Iraq. I asked him if he was sorry he joined and he said absolutely not. They are at Camp Anaconda to attend a class. They are stationed at a tiny base way up North on the Iraqi border and they actually “live” in the village with the local Iraqis. They have a whole different perspective on the Iraqis because they are so close to them. They told us that the little children come up to them and say, “My daddy is George Bush”! And when they are going out on a mission, the locals will discreetly follow them to make sure no one harms them. Now that’s a good news story!

Show was great and we didn’t have a siren go off between 9 and 9:30 as anticipated. We stayed and talked for hours since we depart tomorrow. The rest of the Camps are going to have a lot to live up to in order to match the hospitality we were shown at Camp Anaconda.

Bags have to be out at 7:15 am and then we take a one hour blackhawk ride to Camp Danger. We will be flying 40 feet off the ground, jumping power lines, and the doors to the chopper will be open because of the heat. Don’t think I’ll be eating anything before we fly!

Jude

ROAD KILL – DAY SEVEN – July 6th

The soldiers at Camp Anaconda thanked us again and again for coming. Evidently, they were told that Toby Keith was coming to their Camp when he was in country on a USO tour right after Memorial Day. They have a stadium that seats approximately 20,000 people and many of the soldiers we met said that they sat out in the blistering sun for over 2 hours waiting for him. There was a miscommunication somewhere and either because of safety concerns or transportation issues, he never came to the Camp. The troops said we were the first celebrity entertainment they have had in a very long time and were so appreciative that we would come to their remote location, especially with the current danger of constant attack.

Up SOOOO early to helicopter to Tikrit, Camp Danger. Nice name, huh? I gave all the helicopter pilots coins and bandanas so they hopefully would not drop us out of the sky too often. It turned out to be a very smooth ride or else I’m REALLY getting accustomed to the flights. We did fly about 40 feet off the ground but they didn’t do the roller coaster thing. Doors were open and they had the guns loaded and ready. I got some amazing photos from the air.

We landed and could not believe our eyes. Camp Danger was where Uday and Kusay lived. I can’t even begin to describe it. I have no idea how many buildings there are but they are ALL palaces. There is one that has a huge swimming pool outside but a little pass-through that goes inside and into another huge indoor pool. Everything is so “gawdy” and cheap - except for the marble floors, walls, staircases. There were a lot of “mini-chandeliers” outside our room with what looked like glass beads hanging from them. They turned out to be plastic beads. (I can show you when I get home J )

We are on the 3rd floor of one of the palaces. The guys have cots set up in one of the rooms and we are in the room where 2 Star and above Generals are housed. It has two huge bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room and a bathroom that is larger than the bottom floor of my house. The sunken tub has steps going down into it.

We took a tour of the camp and I met the person responsible for “Operation I CAN”. This is similar to Gary Sinise’s “Operation Iraqi Children” project where they are sending school supplies to the soldiers to give to the kids. “I CAN” does basically the same thing but also takes the kids toys like Frisbees and bubbles, etc. They told us if they had known we were interested, they would have arranged to let us deliver the goodies to the kids. Sure wish we could have done this.

At lunch, I sat with a lot of soldiers from Alabama. Three of them sing and call themselves the “Triple Threat”. I told them we would get them up on the stage if they came to the show.

Everyone got to play in a humvee and we took photos with them standing on top with the gun. We were going to see the Special Forces guys and let them shoot off a few rounds, but Special Forces was out on a mission.

The good news about this Camp is that we don’t have to wear our helmets and flak vests all the time. They are attacked almost as much as Anaconda, but have just come to expect it.

Our show was in what they are using for their MWR building – another Palace. The Red Cross is housed in there along with the internet café, a movie theatre, a massage parlor, barber shop, mini-mall, indoor pool, etc., etc. We all discussed the fact that we would never have dreamed that we would be performing a show in a room where Saddam’s sons had lived. It is so freaky.

The show was awesome. Probably about 200 soldiers and they had a blast. Danni and Chalee always get soldiers up on stage to sing along and that’s the highlight of the performance for the troops. We did get my Alabama boys up and guess what they sang? “Sweet Home Alabama” of course! They signed autographs for a couple of hours after the show and then we had “dinner”. I did an interview with the local newspaper for the Camp and chatted with a local contractor about life outside the camp. He spends a lot of time with the locals and said that only a very small percentage of the locals are causing the problems. Overall, they love us and appreciate what we are doing for their country. He said that Saddam did not want the country to have a communication system so it was impossible for the locals to make telephone calls to each other. One man was working an hour and a half away from where he lived. If he tried to call his family, it took him a minimum of 3 hours to get a line out. He said it was faster to just drive home than to try and call them.

I checked my email and had a message from a soldier I’ve been communicating with in Iraq. He and his platoon are stationed at the Baghdad Airport and are due to go home next week. His email said that they got hit on the 4th of July and the rocket landed less than 100 meters from him. He was okay but two of his buddies got hit with shrapnel….one in the legs and one in the spine. Hopefully the one hit in the spine won’t be paralyzed. Sure brings it close to home when this happens to someone you know and love. Everyone say an extra little prayer that they depart safely next week.

Got back from the show and went to take my shower in the HUGE bathroom. Just as I started getting undressed, the electricity went out (happens a lot here). I have never been in a room so totally BLACK….not a ray of light. It totally freaked me out that I was in Saddam’s sons’ palace in total darkness! I felt my way to the door and managed to get it open. Someone found a lighter and we were able to locate our little flashlights. Usually the power comes back on in a few minutes, but as I sit here typing this, it has been out for more than an hour. Danni and Chalee are making finger puppets on the ceiling! It’s hotter than blue blazes. The high today was 127 degrees and we’re getting punchy – “call down to the front desk and see if we can get us another palace please. This one isn’t acceptable!” I just can’t tell you how strange it is to walk on floors, sit in chairs, touch handles, that we know Saddam touched as well. He is “memorialized” everywhere – has his name etched into the carvings on the walls. Evidently there was a huge statue of him outside one of the palaces at one time. Now there is a statue of an American soldier in it’s place! But, remember how I told you everything was “cheap and gawdy”? Well, Chalee’s bed fell apart! That really topped off the evening…..

Power FINALLY came back on. I got in the shower and, of course, it went off again. But, this time I was ready. Had my flashlight right beside me. Before I could get it turned on, the power came back on. Even though I didn’t need to, I shaved my legs because there was so much SPACE. And, I know we’re in tents tomorrow night, so we’ll be using latrines with little shower stalls.

Tomorrow at 6 am, we fly to Camp Sumerall, so no sleep again tonight. Our show tomorrow is outside and must be held before the sun goes down (no lights!). That means it’s going to be about 120 degrees while they are on stage. Fun!

Road Kill – Day 8 – July 7th

A full 2 hours of sleep. Exercise is a thing of the past. Few pushups, situps, stretches and that’s about it. I feel tired most of the day because I can’t exercise first thing every morning. Maybe when we get back to Kuwait I can get in a good run.

Of course the choppers were not there when we were told so we went to the DFAC for breakfast. Had the same chopper pilots that we had yesterday. I told them to go ahead and “give us a ride” so the others could experience it. They flew us over the palaces so we could get a good look then dropped us out of the sky a few times. But, it wasstill very tame. Tomorrow I have to make sure they really get the roller coaster ride.

I thought that since I’ve seen the Summer Palace, the Presidential Palace and now Saddam’s sons’ palace that I had seen most of them. But, one of the soldiers said that Saddam had 79 palaces throughout Iraq. The greed is just overwhelming.

We landed and were taken to an air conditioned building inside a hanger. That’s where our guys will sleep on cots. The show will take place on a stage built right inside the hanger door and the soldiers will all be outside. They drove the girls over to another building where we have one air conditioned room and some bunk beds. Showers and port-a-potties are outside. Each of us had a teddy bear on our bed – compliments of our Colonel!

We were given a “brief” by the Colonel. This is the first time we have had anything like this during our visit and it was awesome. He had a slide presentation that told all about the base and what they do and then he showed a video that they had put together. The video had the soldiers in it and showed them out in the towns with the kids and locals and also showed the 3 soldiers who were killed from this unit just a few weeks ago. The soldiers from this camp work closely with the locals and they are also a part of Operation “I Can” and deliver toys and school supplies to the kids. They are also training an Iraqi Police Unit. The Unit was in the hangar and started waving and smiling at us. They are really doing some great work here. They did say that a lot of the progress they had made with the older Iraqis suffered a setback when Saddam appeared on tv last week. After seeing him, they are scared that he will somehow escape and come back into power.

This Camp just got a new dining facility 2 days ago. When we went in to eat, a large civilian told us were not allowed to come in with our upper arms exposed! Danni and I had on sleeveless tops. They did the same thing to Chalee yesterday but waived the rules once they found out we were there to entertain. This guy would not budge. I had a SFS t-shirt and gave this to Danni and I took Brian’s shirt off him because he had on a t-shirt underneath. We sat with the guys to eat and then went around to the different tables to introduce ourselves and chat with the others. I met the Special Forces Green Beret Unit from Ft. Campbell! Awesome guys.

Went to the Internet Café and it is NOT air conditioned. It had to be about 150 degrees inside the tent. The internet moved so slow and I’m surprised the heat doesn’t destroy the computers.

Back to the “room” to rest before the show. They set the show up in a hangar but instead of letting the audience come inside, they put them outside. With the little speaker system we have, all the sound went back into the hangar and no one could hear out front. We finally got it working pretty good and the show was their best ever. The “Councilman” from the city by this camp was there (city sounds like Beijing but it’s not. Have to get the correct spelling). It was pretty neat to have a local Iraqi dignitary in the audience. Got photos made with him and his bodyguards. It’s always a great show when the troops haven’t had ANY entertainment at all. Danni and Chalee brought up lots of different guys to sing and dance with them. The grand finale was with the two base commanders and some of the other higher ranking soldiers with them all singing “Proud Mary”.

Went to midnight dinner and our “bouncer” was waiting there for us. This time we were ready for him with our shirts! We had to take showers but when we turned on the lights to the shower room, there were roaches all over the floor. Danni HATES bugs. They cleared out when the light was turned on, but trust me, we took a shower in record time. Now it’s almost 3 am and we must have bags out by 8 pm. Goodnight all.

Jude

ROAD KILL – DAY 9 – JULY 8TH

Choppering to Camp Victory today. Helicopters arrived on time but our buddies who flew us the last two days were not our pilots. New crew but very nice. Carl said that they were going to give the girls a “ride”. We took off for the 1 hour flight but then we landed 10 minutes later...Fuel stop! We were flying with the doors open this time and it was so windy, you had to hang on to everything. My hair turned upside down. Don’t know why we go to the trouble to fix our hair or shower because we sweat so much. The pilots did drop us out of the sky a couple of times and the gunners fired off a couple of rounds but all in all, it was very tame! Every chopper ride we have taken, we are only about 40 feet off the ground, so we can see the people on the ground very well. Everyone – adults and children – wave to us and we wave back to them.

We have great escorts (again) in Baghdad. We arrived and were immediately taken to our quarters. It’s ANOTHER of Saddam’s palaces. The girls and I have one room and the boys are in another. It is so magnificent and of course, gawdy as hell! We went to the DFAC to eat with the soldiers and I met up with Billy Maloney – the soldier that I met last year who has been emailing and calling me every day. He and his company were extended past their original departure time and he has been trying to lift the morale of his fellow soldiers. He’s a real sweetheart. He and a couple of his buddies ate lunch with us then they had to go back to BIAP but are coming back for the concert.

Went shopping at a little Bazaar on base but the only thing I purchased was a card with some Saddam stamps, money and medals on them. The local Iraqis LOVE us girls and give us great deals. Went into the main Exchange and Chalee was talking to someone. She asked me if I remember him. It was the really LAME escort we had last December who dropped the ball when we were at BIAP. Because of him, we were stranded at the terminal from 8 pm until 1 am and then had to stay overnight. Oh yeah, I remember him! I reported him after our little trip and he is no longer escorting tours. Can’t believe he’s the first person we ran into.

I took Chalee over to the Summer Palace that we visited this past December when I was here. The others wanted to rest, so the 2 of us went with our escorts. There was a group of Japanese soldiers in the main entrance and I went up and spoke my 12 phrases of Japanese with them. Then I gave them my business card in Japanese and they really got excited. They have heard of Country Gold and Charlie Nagatani! We had our photos made with them. Then I was upstairs and a man walked up to me and asked if I was Judy Seale. He is a Chaplin that wrote an incredible email about the prison abuse and situation in Iraq. It was one of those “chain” emails that found it’s way around the world. I responded to him a couple of weeks ago and told him I would be in Baghdad. I had asked him to come to the show so I could meet him. Good thing he ran into me in the Palace as he had to work during our show. Such a sweetheart.

My dear friend who is a 2 Star General is here in the Green Zone and promised to come to Camp Victory for our show. Although it’s only about 15 miles, it takes about 45 minutes to get here. And, it’s a very dangerous part of Baghdad. He was in an armored humvee but it was an older one that they had just received. It broke down in the very worst part of the city. He was able to get into the vehicle following them but it was not armored. He did make it to the show though.

The show was held outside if you can believe it. It was at least 120 degrees when the show began. In spite of the heat, we still had several hundred soldiers attend. The helicopter pilot who SAVED us from the LAME escort (mentioned above) is still here and he came to our show. It was so great to see him again. He’s in the same Unit as Billy and is finally going home next week. He lives about an hour from me in Tennesse..

Chalee and Danni got the soldiers involved again by having them come up on stage and sing. The Commanders were in the audience and loved the fact that the soldiers were having so much fun. The little female soldier who works at the PVC Quarters where we are staying got up and sang and she has an amazing voice. Again, they signed autographs for more than an hour. I was able to talk to the General (Steve) during a lot of the show which was great. I love hearing about what is really happening in Iraq – not what you see in the media.

I was in the lobby of the palace today and met the Colonel who is over at Abu Grabi prison. He said he has 1500 soldiers over there and they never get any entertainment. He has begged AFE and USO to send them someone. I told him if we had known, we would have come over this afternoon. Our escort started trying to get it cleared for us to go over tomorrow because we found out that we won’t fly to Kuwait until 5 pm. One of the artists was a little nervous about going over, but we weren’t able to get clearance on such short notice anyway. My friend, the General, also made some calls but doesn’t look like it will happen.

This palace has it’s own dining facility AND a couple of washers and dryers! Add that to my internet connection in my room and I’m in heaven.

After the show, we all went to the dining hall to eat since we do not eat dinner before the shows. Obviously, we get a lot of stares because it’s three females in civilian clothes and Chalee and Danni are very “eye-catching”. I was watching the soldiers expressions when we walked out and saw the same look as always when they first see the girls. Then the 2 Star walks by and steals ALL our thunder! Upstaged by a General.

Came back to billeting and went outside on the patio which is on Saddam’s man-made lake to sit and talk. Steve, Chalee, Danni, Carl and I all sat around for quite a while. Steve made 2 Star this year and had a couple of Cuban cigars that he had not smoked. He and Chalee shared those and a couple of alcohol-free beers. As we were sitting there, we noticed that BATS were flying all around us. They would swoop down and buzz our heads. Scared me and Danni to death. Chalee and Steve are just sitting there puffing and chatting and Danni and I had our shoes off swatting at bats, ducking, and screaming. Then a couple of huge explosions went off somewhere close by and it freaked everyone out except Steve. He just reached over and touched my arm and told me to calm down that it was a long way off. The soldiers here actually get accustomed to the blasts. I don’t know if I ever would. I did get to talk to Steve a lot about the conditions in Iraq and how the locals really feel about us and what they want from us. Steve works closely with their government and I love hearing him talk about what he does. He arrived here last December only one week before we were here on tour and will be here for 14 months. I asked about the furniture in the palaces, what would happen with all the elaborate palaces after we vacate them, how the Iraqis are being paid, etc., etc., etc. I find it all so fascinating.

Called it a night about 1 am but the “girls” are all in one room, so we came back to chat. We were trying to find something we could take as a “souvenir” from the Palace. At one point Chalee was on the top bunk trying to get some of the ornaments off the curtain rod. I had to answer email, so I was up until 3:00 am. Going to meet Steve for breakfast at 7:30 am before he has to go to his first meeting. I want to share the email I received from the Colonel at the base where we performed yesterday (Camp Summerall).

name: LTC Kyle M. McClelland

branchservice: USA

rankoccupation: LTC/Task Force 1-7 Commander

Judes,
I just wanted to say "thank you" again for the "Stars for Stripes" visit to Forward Operating Base Summerall in Bayji, Iraq. Your visit was truly a pleasure for us all and the selfless sacrifices that you and the team make to show your appreciation for deployed troops is inspirational. The musical talents and genuine sincerity of Chalee, Danni, Michael, Mike, Adam, Brian, Carl and you made our day!!

ROAD KILL – DAY 10 – JULY 9TH:

3 hours of sleep again. Got up and met Steve for coffee before he left. A huge blast went off that shook the windows of the palace. That one HAD to be close. Worked out in my room again since it’s too hot to run and I don’t know how far away the gym is. Saw the Colonel again who wanted us to go to the prison and told him we had not been able to secure an escort. Then I got a phone call that our trip had been approved. But, it was too late for us to go at that point!

We left billeting at 1 pm and went to sign some autographs for 1st Cav. Boys got to play on a tank for a few minutes and then we headed to the terminal. Our flight was due to arrive on time, so we settled down for a 2 hour wait. My friend from 1st AD came over and gave everyone some certificates and patches. He also included flags for Danni, Chalee, and me. The flags were flown over Baghdad by the 1st Cav at various times and we received certificates giving us the exact dates and details. VERY touching. Last night, Russ (my friend) ripped his patch off his sleeve and gave it to me. It was sewn on and he had worn it the entire 15 months he’s been fighting the war in Iraq. How in the world would I ever be able to “match” a gift of that magnitude.

We flew on a C130 again but our flight crew was from Michigan. All nice guys and we had about a dozen soldiers from Australia on the flight with us. They were heading HOME. For once, I let someone else sit on the flight deck for take-off. Big mistake! We finally got that “drop you out of the sky, dodge and weave” flight everyone had wanted in the helicopter. They had to do it because a soldier was shot in a C130 several weeks ago as it was taking off from Baghdad.

Landed right on time in Kuwait and our escorts were waiting for us. I treated everyone to a fabulous buffet meal at the hotel. I’m going to iron for about 2 hours and then get some sleep. At least I’ll be able to work out tomorrow because the hotel has a great gym AND we don’t depart until 1 pm for Djibouti!

I can't believe we only have 2 more shows to perform! The time in Iraq flew by too quickly and now the depression of leaving begins. While I’m there, nothing else matters. It is so humbling to have soldiers thank us for performing when they are the ones making the ultimate sacrifices to keep America free. What we do seems so inadequate compared to their service. Visiting with them is one of my greatest joys in life. Getting back into the swing of “real business” in Nashville is not going to be easy or very much fun!

Jude

ROAD KILL – DAY 11 – JULY 10TH

I type the date and it makes me cry. (I’m sure it’s hormonal!) It’s just so hard to believe that our 14 days are going to be over so soon. We didn’t cover nearly enough camps within Iraq and I know I won’t be back until September.

I did get 6 hours of sleep and a 2 hour workout in the gym this morning. Had to do my 5 miles and use all the machines to work every body part. The little workouts in the room every morning just don’t do it for me.

The last “palace” had a washer and dryer, so we were able to do laundry. I had the hotel bring me an iron and ironing board to my room (my favorite thing to do – NOT!). The iron weighed about 20 pounds and even on the highest setting, I could still place my hand on it and not get burned. Of course, “steam” was not an option. I’ve heard the wrinkled look is in.

I wish I could put into words what we see and learn while we’re here. Yesterday I took a photo of a thermometer that was hanging outside a building we were going in to sign autographs. It was 1 pm and the thermometer was in the shade. It only went up to 120 degrees. The needle was past the 120 degree mark and as far back around as it could go. The soldiers wear t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts and pants and then add their helmets and flak vests, weapons, water, etc., etc. The flak vests we were issued are for protection again shrapnel only. They do not have the bullet-proof plates that the soldiers have. Ours are SO heavy until you pick up one of the soldiers. One soldier let me try his on but he warned me before he removed his hands. I braced myself but I still felt my knees start to buckle under the weight. Then, let’s add a nice “breeze” into the factor. It feels like taking a hair dryer, holding it as close to you face as possible, turning it on high heat and holding it there. And, they do this every day – some of them for 14-18 months at a time. Then there’s the sand to contend with, the fact that they do not have one moment of privacy because they live together in tents, shower in long buildings filled with multiple stalls and use port-a-lets for their toilets. The dining halls are nice and there are two things that we noticed – there’s LOTS of food and everything is bland and tastes the same. You can’t tell chicken from turkey. Everyone covers their food with Tabasco just so it has some taste. The one question that I have been asked the most is, “what is the name of the perfume you are wearing? It’s been so long since we smelled perfume!” The way I’ve been sweating, I can’t believe I smell like anything other than perspiration! Every morning when I shower, I find a new “bruise”. No idea where I’m getting them.

Steve commented that every day is “Ground Hog Day” (like the movie). It’s so true. But, not one soldier complained about their plight. Yes, they miss their loved ones back home and yes, they are ready to go back to the USA. But, they are all so proud of what they are doing and believe they are making a difference in the lives of the Iraqis. They also believe they are making a better world for their children, families, and the people. Remember, a huge percentage of the soldiers are reservists – they are your next door neighbors living in a $200,000 home with a great job back in the U.S., yet they are willing to come over here to serve their country in these conditions.

Saddam was like Hitler. Germany was not enough for Hitler. Iraq would not have been enough for Saddam. We saw the dirt huts that the locals live in during our helicopter rides. And the squalor that they live in right outside the palace gates. Think about it – this is a man who needed 79 palaces and must have his photo, statues, initials carved in everything and he terrorized and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Yes, the Iraqis want us here and they appreciate what we have done. Yes, they want us to train them how to live as a “free” nation because they have NEVER had this opportunity and want to do it right. Yes, they want us to leave (as we do!) once they are able to stand on their own. Anyone – Republican or Democrat or Independent or whatever! – who thinks this was only about weapons of mass destruction, needs to come over here and spend a couple of weeks with the soldiers and the locals. Listening to the soldiers talk about the caches of weapons they have found and the bombers they found buried in the sand in the desert, convinces me that we will eventually find the WMD. But, that is such a minor detail in Saddam’s overall reign of terror.

And those of you sitting there reading this report, it has to be like reading a book or watching a movie. You can’t really relate to what’s happening here. I know that I would not be able to had I not experienced it first hand. My conversations and personal observation is that the majority of the soldiers even in the remotest camps now have most of the “amenities” they need which include meals in a dining facility, hot and cold running water, heated and air-conditioned tents, an MWR building to watch movies, play games, etc., a great gym to work out in, a base exchange with a good supply of items, and some even have a Subway or Burger King. Hopefully, the portalets will be replaced with latrines very soon. There was no lack of toilet paper or hand sanitizer this trip. I know that many of you want to send “Care” packages, but the places I visited said they are no longer necessary. They all do still need to know that you care about them and pray for them daily. Some were interested in receiving items that they could deliver to the locals – especially the children. It’s HARD to see a child going without basic necessities that our children have in the U.S. And, across the board, they all want more “celebrity” entertainment. They need that little “break” where they can interact with citizens, see someone in clothing other than BDU’s, and have a chance to talk to us, tell us about their life here, show us photos of their loved ones, and get a hug from us. If Stars for Stripes had the funding, I would bring a celebrity over every week just to show our appreciation. Why don’t you take time to send an email to your address book and ask them to go on the www.starsforstripes.com site and make a $10 donation. If everyone reading this report did this, we would raise enough to bring another group over. You’re right – a $10 donation from you isn’t a big deal but if YOU will take the time to ask your friends to send the same amount, it makes a huge difference. If you’re getting this Road Kill Report, I know you have $10 you can donate and I KNOW you have several hundred “friends and associates” who can do the same! Remember, NO ONE gets paid to do these tours. All the funds go to cover the travel expenses of the tours. I’m no good at begging for money for myself, but this is for our troops deployed overseas. Okay, enough evangelizing.

Yesterday, we were in the DV lounge at BIAP waiting for our C130 to arrive. They had 4 weapons on their wall – one was an RPG launcher and I could believe that such a small “gun” could something that could cause such a deadly blast. But, there was one knife on the wall. Get this – Geraldo brought it in with him and they had to confiscate it. Can you imagine. I can just see him running around like the crazed man he is swinging the knife!

Going to go ahead and send this “half of a road report” because I probably won’t be able to hook up my computer in Djibouti or Qatar. Next road report will probably be sent to you from the USA!

Jude

REST OF DAY 11 – JULY 10TH

No problems getting OUT of Kuwait. Our C-130 crew is out of Ohio but flying an airplane from Nevada. Really great guys and they are going to be our “personal escorts” while we are in Djibouti and then fly us to Qatar on July 12th. Good thing since I haven’t been able to get our contact in Djibouti to answer one single email from me! Take off was very calm and I’m sitting on the flight deck for landing because I want to see Djibouti from the air!

Been writing my “thank you” emails to pass the time. It’s supposed to be a 6 hour flight but they got permission to fly over Yemen so it should only be a 4 hour flight. BUT, we have to drink lots of water and there is no female restroom! Should be an interesting flight. We may be cutting the tops off the water bottles before we land!

I went up on the flight deck for landing but couldn’t really see anything except with the night vision goggles. Our flight crew are just “dolls” and they are staying in Djibouti with us and flying us to Qatar on Monday.

Landed at 9 pm and were met by our MWR escort. We are staying in tents – girls with female soldiers and guys with male soldiers. The tents are very nice – have little curtained off areas with individual lights and bunks. Met the other girls staying in our tent and they are all sweethearts. One is an anesthesiologist for the Navy from Jacksonville, FL. She left a husband, 3 year old and 1 year old back home! There is one latrine with just toilets – that FLUSH and then a shower trailer. Both are spotlessly clean and our tent is only a short walk to each. This place is much nicer than some of the conditions I have stayed at in Bosnia and Iraq.

We all went down to the Cantina after getting my “lecture” on not over-indulging on the alcohol since they haven’t had a drink in 10 days. There is a 3 drink limit here but doesn’t appear to be any way to enforce it. Show will be there tomorrow night at 8 pm – outside and hotter than #*$)@! When we walked in, I touched one of the soldiers sitting at a table with his buddies on the shoulder and said hello. As I passed him, I heard him say, “Did you see that? She TOUCHED ME!”. So, we went back and gave all of them a hug.

Everyone is extremely nice at this Camp. It is Camp Lemonaire and it is a Marine Camp but there are people here from all branches of the service. Both of our drivers are employed by KBR – Dragon and Slachon – are from Macedonia. Freaked them out when I told them I’ve been to Macedonia twice. The girl working in billeting is from Pecs, Hungary where I’ve been many times as well. She said she has never met anyone over here who has even heard of Pecs, much less visited there. It’s a beautiful little city. A lot of people on the base are employed by KBR.

Maybe it’s because of the alcohol (no alcohol allowed in Kuwait or Iraq!), but the guys are a bit more aggressive here. Not rude or out-of-line or disrepectful, just bolder. At the other Camps, they have been almost “shy” until we approach them. Every time I would walk over to a table at the dining hall to sit with them, the guys would all look like deer caught in the headlights. Here they call us over! I set Chalee up with a game of dominos and a guy at the other table who had obviously had more than his three beer limit, patted his lap and told her to come on over. She declined with the excuse that she was playing dominos. He called her a “communist”! Not sure where that came from…

We had to wait until 11:30 pm for the DFAC to open back up. My group and the flight guys all walked down to eat and the food looked pretty “rough”. I noticed a long line on the opposite side of the room and went over to check it out. They were making omelets! You can guess what I had for dinner. Met another KBR employee from Macedonia while I was standing in line. Talked to him about why he was working here and what kind of salary he was paid. When I was in Macedonia a few years ago, a local met us at the airport and whisked us through Customs. He came back when we departed and got us through painlessly again. He spoke EIGHT languages fluently. I tipped him $100 and he started crying. Said that was more money than he makes in a month in Macedonia! Found me a table of cute soldiers to harass during the meal.

In the middle of the night, I got a cramp in my foot and had to leap out of bed and run around the tent for several minutes. Thankfully, no one else woke up. Then Danni dropped her metal flashlight on the plywood floor and I thought it was a gunshot! I was thinking we were supposed to be out of the area where we were being attacked. So glad we don’t have to wear flak vests and helmets here.

DAY 12 – JULY 11TH

Up at 6 am to work out. Really great gym right across from our tent. Every time I walk outside, my sunglasses fog over. You would not believe the heat and humidity. This place makes Iraq seem COOL. It will be 140 degrees today with 100% humidity.

My group and our little flight boys loaded up in a bus to go into town to “shop”. We passes these horrible little “huts” on the way in where the locals live. I think it’s worse than what I saw in Haiti. We had to go to the “bag lady” first to exchange our U.S. Dollars for Djibouti Francs. Then we shopped as a “group” with Melvin (our MWR escort) as our bargaining agent. He told us we absolutely could not give any of the little kids that followed us anything. If you give them money, they take it back to their parents so that the parents can buy this drug called “Kart” or something like that. There’s little umbrellas set up where people sell it. It’s a green leaf and it’s a stimulant. Keeps you alert for 8 hours. Sounded pretty good to me until I heard the side effects! My hair and clothes were soaked with sweat within 5 minutes of leaving the vehicle. Made for pretty miserable shopping. The little kids followed us everywhere, grabbing us and begging for money. Lots of ladies carrying babies also were begging. One cute little girl kept shaking my hand and I looked down to discover that she had my diamond ring halfway off my finger before I could get may hand away from her! Then she snatched my bottle of water without me knowing it.

We bought sandstone plates and bowls, serapes, carved elephants, monkeys, and masks – all from Kenya instead of Djibouti. Finished shopping pretty quickly because of the heat and headed down to the beach just to sightsee. Had to get back to base before the DFAC closed at 1:30 pm because no one had eaten breakfast and we were scared of the restaurants in town. Everything is extremely dirty and there is trash and junk all alongside the roads. We were supposed to go visit an orphanage today but learned that it is closed on Sundays.

After lunch I went down to check email because Jerry (the other MWR rep) had told me last night that I couldn’t access AOL from the base computers. Wrong! I had over 40 emails to answer and this is a weekend. Then went shopping at the base exchange for t-shirts and other goodies that say “Operation Enduring Freedom”. That’s what the operation for Afghanistan and the other “Stans” and Djibouti is titled. Found the MWR tent near our tent and they have great flavored coffee. Trying to get my road kill report typed up now since I have a couple of hours before show time. Not sure it will even be worth it to take a shower before the show since I’ll be sweaty again as soon as we go outside!

The troops stationed here just can’t believe we are here. The last “celebrity” entertainment they had was Robin Williams for a handshake visit last December. They have had some little “local” bands from the Department of Defense but nothing of this magnitude. And, it seems like most of the troops prefer country music. Should be a great show.

In talking with the troops stationed here, it seems that most of them don’t have very busy days. They are here for “force protection” and they also refer to everyday as groundhog day. I sat with one group of reservists from Nevada who do actually go out every day on “humanitarian efforts”. It was good to learn from them that they feel like we are accomplishing a lot of good things in this area. They travel to several countries besides Djibouti and help the locals. I love talking with the troops and hearing about why we’re here and what we are accomplishing. It’s fascinating because it’s definitely not anything we’ll ever see in the media.

We had a huge crowd for the show at the Cantina. Everything started on time and no problems with “power” this time. Several guys on the base had told me to have the girls call up on particular marine because he was supposedly an excellent vocalist. They called him up and then couldn’t get him off the stage. Instead of singing one song, he sang 3 songs. The last song was one that he had re-written the words to and he used very vulgar language. That didn’t go over well with any of our group. For the finale, they called several guys up on stage including one of our flight crew. After the show, the flight crew came up to me and said that when they heard they had to fly a group to Djibouti, they wondered why they were having such bad luck. Then they said that this trip with us was the absolute highlight of their 2 year reservist activation period. Exactly what we want to hear from all the troops we “touch” on this visit.

It was difficult signing autographs because the soldiers who had cheated on their 3 beer limit kept coming back again and again for more photos and autographs. We were on a time limit because the dining hall was only open for 1 hour and no one had eaten since lunch time. We had also promised to go to all the outposts and visit with the soldiers who were on duty and didn’t get to attend the show. I finally had to “bounce” several guys who were “repeaters” so that everyone in line could get an autograph.

We had a very quick meal – I’ve now eaten nothing but omelets and fruit for 2 days… Then the girls went to sign the autographs at the guard posts. It was almost 2 am before we finished and got back to the tent. Not going to have time to work out tomorrow because we have a 9 am bag call.

DAY 13 – JULY 12TH

Would have been able to sleep until 7 am but the wind kicked up and it sounded like the tent was going to blow over. At first I thought it was a thunderstorm but when I looked out, it was just the wind and dust blowing everywhere. Someone told us that Djibouti is CONSISTENTLY the hottest place on earth. In January, it cools down to 90 degrees! I was going to run the 5 mile trail with a female soldier and am glad now that I didn’t have time. I found out there are packs of wild dogs and hyenas out on the trail!

Wasn’t sure we would be able to take off in such strong wind but the flight crew assured us that it would be fine. I didn’t take any chances and sat up on the flight deck for takeoff. It really was smooth but you couldn’t see anything on the ground because of the dust.

Headed to Qatar today which is where Central Command is located. I was there briefly last year with Chely Wright and the huge USO/Vanity Fair tour. We were originally scheduled to depart Djibouti at 4 pm in the afternoon but our flight crew was able to get us an earlier departure. We had seen and done everything possible on that base and I wanted everyone to have a little time to tour in Qatar. We don’t have a show tonight since we never schedule shows on travel days. Tomorrow night – our last night of the tour – we will perform, shower and head straight to the airport for the flight back to the U.S. Very sad!

Bathroom is still “broken” on this plane and it’s a 4 hour flight. Of course, all the girls need to “go” simply because there are no facilities. It was a miserable flight for us. I couldn’t drink any water at all.

Arrived in Qatar and our escort wasn’t there to meet us. The flight center had told him we wouldn’t arrive before 4 pm. Took about an hour to locate him and the bus and truck. Qatar is a really nice base because this is the headquarters for CENTCOM in the AOR. The base is actually divided into two sections – Ops Town and the Coalition Compound. But, a tent in Ops Town caught on fire a few days ago and it spread to all the other tents. No one was hurt but they lost all their belongings. Supposedly, it was an electrical fire. The people at this base are predominately troops who are on R&R for a few days from one of the hardship areas (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) or it is troops coming into the country or going out of the country. They come to Qatar for a couple of days and then go on to Iraq or wherever for their permanent camp. They also stop through here en route to going back home to the states. It is the largest and best equipped base we have stayed at this tour. They are building a huge swimming pool and in addition to a really nice dining facility, there are two coffee shops, a Subway Sandwich Shop, Pizza Hut and Burger King. The troops here really have it nice if only for a few days.

We will be performing in this huge outdoor, covered area called the Plaza. Since we have to perform at 6 pm so that we can depart for the airport by 11 pm, it’s going to be HOT. Today it was 115 degrees here. The humidity is halfway between Iraq and Djibouti. 0% humidity in Iraq and 100% humidity in Djibouti.

It was sad to say goodbye to our flight crew this afternoon. Lifelong friendships are forged very quickly due to our circumstances on these tours. I’m sure I will stay in touch with a lot of the guys via email for the rest of my life. They want me to request them to fly Chely around when she’s here in September.

We tried to get our escort to get permission to take us into town tonight but the Commander wouldn’t approve it. I went over to his office to check my email only to learn that I can’t check email from here. The nicest and most well-equipped base I’ve seen and I can’t check email. AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft – everything is blocked. The only email that works is for official military addresses. I will be in a straight jacket by the time we depart tomorrow evening. But, my cell phone does work for $4.99 per minute!

After eating at the dining facility (I sat with a group of guys who are deploying to Mosul tomorrow), Chalee and I walked around the base and went in just about every building there is – the exchange, a gift shop, a café, the gym, coffee shop, night club, etc., etc. Alcohol is allowed on base but there is a 3 beer limit. This base monitors it and everyone is assigned a “card” to purchase the alcohol.

We are all housed in these long trailers and everyone has their own room. The latrines are located several hundred feet from the trailers. About 5 minutes after I got back in my room and was trying to “repack”, there was a loud knock on my door. Half a dozen guys were standing at my door asking if I called is a fire alarm. They said that someone called in and said that the fire alarm was going off in the room next door. The room next door is Danni’s room and they had opened her door and were standing inside her room. She was not there at the time and I’m sure had no idea this was taking place.

DAY 14 – JULY 13TH:

First day that I’ve gotten up and NOT seen the sun! It was still overcast at 6 am so I thought it might be cool enough to run outside. Made it for 30 minutes in the heat and then hit the treadmill in the gym for 30 minutes. The showers here are so much nicer than the other bases. They have a little dressing area behind a curtain and then a shower stall with a glass DOOR on the actual shower. Such luxury. J

Were supposed to take a “base tour” but since the base is so small, we had already seen everything last night. Went to DFAC for lunch and I sat with a group of Air Force guys from North Carolina. One guy was from Alaska originally. Before he was deployed to Qatar, he was in school and he was studying Saddam. He’s definitely knowledgeable about Saddam and his reign of terror and said we should not have waited as long as we did to take him out of power.

When you walk outside, the glare is so bad you have to squint! Everything is white or shades of light brown. They have put gravel down over the sand and it’s white. There are sidewalks and they are white. All the buildings are white or off white. The only “color” that I’ve seen is the main road that goes through the area. I have several different tan lines on my arms and legs now.

It cooled off a little bit before the show and the sound was great because of the “cover” . There weren’t a lot of soldiers there at first but when the music started, the entire place filled up. I wasn’t sure how many would attend since it is such a transient crowd. Had to keep the show to 90 minutes so we could sign autographs afterwards for 90 minutes. As it was, we had to RUSH to grab a shower and make it to the airport. It was really sad for the tour to be ending. Going to be hard to go back to everyday “routine” in Nashville.

The airport was a nightmare. We had 15 pieces of checked luggage plus our sound equipment. The skycaps grabbed it and started throwing it on little carts and running off with it. They were throwing the large speakers on top of personal bags, so I’m sure everything we own is broken. Somehow during all the confusion, I lost my cell phone! I went back outside and checked with the information counter but nothing. Hopefully no one has figured out how to use it because is costs $4.99 per minute over there.

Made it to the gate just in time to board the flight on Qatar Airlines to Frankfurt – a 7-hour flight. It was a really nice airline – code shares with Lufthansa/United. The seats were really strange and uncomfortable but that didn’t seem to bother any of us since we slept all the way. Four of us had a very short layover in Frankfurt and the other 4 had about a 4-hour layover. I went into the United Lounge and got a phone call off to Nashville and leave a message for cancel my cell phone service. While I was making the call, there was an announcement for me to come to the desk. They upgraded me to First Class. When I got to the gate, they had upgraded the other 2 business class passengers to First and the coach passenger to business! Don’t know if it was because I told them we had been over performing for our troops or if it was just the fact that the flight was so full. It was a really nice “perk” for the end of the tour though. The seats in first class reclined fully….just like lying in a bed. If I could travel like that all the time, the international trips would be a breeze!

We were on a tiny little 50-passenger jet from Chicago to Nashville. I really didn’t think the sound equipment would make it on the flight because there were 10 huge pieces, each weighing about 70 pounds. I assumed they would hold these over and put them on a larger plane. But, when we landed, all the equipment and luggage arrived with us!

It was a great tour. Already depressing to be back to “normal” everyday routine.

Jude

things that make you go hmmmmmmm

2005-04-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well the airforce in thier infinite unwisdom has taken it upon thier safety concious self to mandate the wear of reflective belts during periods of reduced visibility...to prevent non combat casulties. Yes ....so everyone must wear a reflective belt to prevent getting hit vehicle traffic. I guess that sounds okay, but i have a few questions.........

Why is it i have to wear it while walking ON A SIDEWALK in coalition city where it is well lit, and where there is no vehicle traffic allowed.

Hmmmm...i have roughly 30 years experience walking........and i have only been hit by a vehicle NEVER so if we have to wear reflective belts in a hostile fire zone........maybe we should consider who we let drive if we have to worry about getting hit ON A SIDEWALK before we so eagerly volunteer to help our enemy snipers be reflectorizing their targets.....or............

maybe we should acknowledge the fact that the belts are not safety but eyewash
......and people should worry more about things that matter.

i dont know of many people that have gotten hit by vehicles while walking around....but i am pretty sure that if there are enough of them that the airforce needs to mandate all 350,000 members to wear these things (not mention all the joint services when they are on our bases as well as contraters and coalition service members)....then maybe we should train people to look out the window and hey maybe even turn on your lights while driving. Maybe even stop and not hit pedestrians......hmmm..... you think it'll catch on?!?!!?!?

Brian Kolfage....The heros we never know.........

2005-04-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago,
I shared a story of an engine change in Balad where i was there overnight. We were attacked by mortars and rockets. i will never forget the overwhelming numbness i felt, afterword when i heard of the fate of the security forces squadron airman who gave both his legs and an arm to the fight that day. Until a few days ago i wondered often how he was doing and if he made it. I had heard he lost alot of blood and was medevaced to germany, where he was in critical condition and they did not know if he would survive. I didn't know him......but he crossed my mind often and i said many prayers for him.

a few days ago i saw this in the march 28th edition of the airforce times :
and after having been , frankly.....reading it brought tears to my eyes.

it is copied and pasted from their website

March 28, 2005

The long road back
He survived a mortar attack and a triple amputation, but he’ll work for the Air Force again.

By Laura M. Colarusso
Times staff writer

As Brian Kolfage waits for his physical therapist, he gets a phone call. He holds the phone with his left hand and flips it open with his mouth.
Kolfage, 23, a senior airman previously stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, has had to find a new way to perform even this simple task. He lost part of his right arm and both of his legs in a mortar blast at Balad Air Base in Iraq last September.

“It’s hard relearning how to do everything,” said Kolfage, who was assigned to the 887th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron in Iraq. “When you’re little, you learn to do things like zipping zippers one way. Now, I have to do that with one hand.”

Kolfage has survived massive blood loss, a triple amputation and a collapsed lung.

He has been through more than a dozen surgeries, daily physical rehab and occupational therapy. He’s had tubes stuck down his throat, through his rib cage into his lungs and where his legs were cut off. He was on a respirator because he had fluid in his lungs.

Yet despite loosing his entire left leg, all but 6 inches of his right and his dominant hand, Kolfage expects to be able to work for the Air Force again.

This time around, he’ll be a civilian, probably working with security forces at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.

Kolfage is one of 300 airmen injured in the war on terrorism. Of those, 285 have returned to duty, according to statistics provided by the Air Force.

These servicemen and women are returning to active-duty or civilian jobs within the military in greater numbers than a few years ago. Officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the hospital where Kolfage is recuperating, attribute this to technological improvements in prosthetic limbs and more aggressive physical therapy.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on March 3, Air Force Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, deputy chief of staff for personnel, said the Air Force has a policy to keep those injured in the service.

“We work to retain [wounded airmen] on active duty if it is at all possible,” he said. “If we are unable to return an [airman] to active duty, we work to get them civilian employment within the Air Force if they so desire. We owe that to these great young men and women who defend this country.”

Kolfage’s injuries were too severe for him to return to active duty. He will be medically retired from the Air Force on April 13.

But Kolfage has a team of three civilians helping him put together his resume, find job openings and talk to prospective employers.

‘I tried standing up and I couldn’t’

As he works on a painting project at Walter Reed to help him get used to using his left hand, Kolfage talks about the attack that changed his life.

It was about 2 in the afternoon. Kolfage left his tent at Balad Air Base to get a bottle of water. About 20 feet from the tent, a 107mm mortar round fell on him and, as he describes it, “ripped my body apart.”

The date was Sept. 11, 2004.

“I tried standing up and I couldn’t,” Kolfage recalls as he paints brown highlights on a plaster-cast family of wolves. “My right hand looked like a dog had chewed at it.”

He wasn’t wearing body armor or a helmet when he was hit. Instead, he wore beach shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops.

The blast from the mortar pushed him back six feet from where he was standing. Within moments, what seemed like dozens of people began scurrying around him, administering first aid.

He just lay back and watched.

As he tells the story, Caren Garner, a craft-care specialist helping the airman with his project, interrupts.

“How about some beige for the top?” she asks.

Kolfage looks at the statue for a moment and agrees it needs a lighter color. After switching brushes, he goes back to the story.

His clothes had turned red, and blood was everywhere, he said. One of his friends from Goodfellow, Senior Airman Valentine Cortez, “plugged up a lot of the holes where blood was gushing,” Kolfage said.

He had volunteered for duty in Iraq. He and about a dozen others from Goodfellow were working for the Department of Agriculture inspecting luggage and packages going back to the United States.

The group had been deployed to the base for two weeks when the attack occurred.

“I didn’t think I was going to die,” Kolfage said. “But I didn’t think it was as bad as it was.”

He was scooped up in a stretcher and put on an ambulance where people were holding his legs on.

“That’s when the pain kicked in,” Kolfage said.

That’s also when his anger arose. Kolfage questioned why it was him that got hit.

“In the ambulance, I was really pissed off it was me,” he said.

He remembers yelling for pain medication, and then waking up 36 hours later at Walter Reed Army Medical Center without his right hand and legs.

In addition to the amputations, Kolfage had been through a procedure to determine whether there was any internal bleeding. He has a foot-long scar from the bottom of his breastbone to his pelvis where surgeons cut him open to prod around.

“A lot of the doctors said I should have died,” Kolfage said.

Recovery

Physical therapy began almost as soon as Kolfage arrived at Walter Reed on Sept. 13.

“He had to start from ground zero,” said Laura Friedman, Kolfage’s physical therapist. “Just sitting up was a challenge.”

The first exercises worked on getting Kolfage to contract his muscles as he lay in the hospital bed, still heavily medicated.

He has steadily progressed to more difficult exercises, all designed to increase his core stability and upper body strength.

On this day, Kolfage, who uses a wheelchair while waiting for new sockets on his prosthetic legs, wheels over to a cushioned table and pulls himself onto it. He climbs on top of a blue disk designed to keep shifting his balance as he does his therapy routine.

He decides he doesn’t want to wear his prosthetic arm.

“I think I’m going to take off my arm,” he said. “I was doing … [exercises] yesterday, and my arm flew off.”

For the first exercise, Kolfage picks up what is called a “body blade.” It is a thin bar that is held in the middle and swings back and forth on both ends.

“It’s gotten easier over time,” Kolfage said, shaking the blade with his left hand. “Now I can pretty much get myself on the disk. When I first started, I couldn’t hold myself up on this.”

If the experience has demoralized him, Kolfage isn’t telling. He says matter-of-factly that keeping a positive outlook has helped him recover.

But there are small signs of the frustration he faces.

Before he begins the second set of exercises, Kolfage pushes up his right sleeve, but it slips back down because there is no wrist to catch it.

He tries two more times and finally lets it fall back over what’s left of his arm. He takes a deep breath and carries on with the exercise.

Kolfage’s hips are in constant motion, jerking back and forth, trying to hold his balance. Friedman sits behind him to make sure he doesn’t fall.

Friedman described Kolfage as “one of the most challenging cases I have ever seen.”

The next exercise doesn’t involve any weights or other equipment. It’s simply Kolfage trying to maintain his balance on the disk.

“Without legs, you’re basically balancing on your torso,” he said.

He uses a resistance band to work out his shoulder and back muscles.

Thirty-five minutes and several sets later, Kolfage moves back to his wheelchair. Friedman hands him a 25-pound weight and he begins doing bicep curls.

For the first time, his face gets flushed.

“I’m done,” he said.

‘I feel real short’

After he finishes with physical therapy for the day, Kolfage decides to put on his prosthetic legs.

It’s a highly coordinated event. He pushes the wheelchair up to his walker and then back a bit so he’s not too close.

With Friedman at his side, Kolfage puts his right arm in a holster and grabs the walker with his left hand, pulling himself out of the chair. He wobbles, but finds his balance within a few seconds.

With the legs locked in place, Kolfage stands at about 5 feet 7 inches. He said he started with a pair of legs that were only 6 inches tall and has slowly worked his way up.

“I feel real short,” said Kolfage, who was 6 feet 2 inches tall before the injury.

Without his prostheses, he’s only a few inches taller than 3 feet.

Kolfage stands for less than five minutes, but his hips are constantly moving, much like when he was on the blue balance disk.

He focuses on the floor. He appears out of breath.

“You have to learn how to put pressure on them,” Kolfage says of his legs. “I don’t have one [leg] to trust.”

A tour group has entered the physical therapy room and gives Kolfage a round of applause.

“Way to go,” cheered one woman.

He doesn’t move from the spot. When he sits back down, he raises the bottom of his prosthetic foot so it is parallel with his head. He jokes that the next time he goes to a bar, he’s going to ask the bartender to put his beer on his foot.

Once Kolfage gets his final set of legs, he’ll be back to his normal height and back to a relatively normal life, he says. He won’t be able to take long walks with his wife, who he married two months after the attack in a ceremony at the hospital. But he’s looking forward to being as independent as possible.

“I’ve got a deal with the prosthetic guy,” Kolfage said with a smile, referring to one of the rehabilitation specialists he works with. “If I run, he’ll lose 100 pounds.”

"Never Shall i Fail My Comrades"

2004-12-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

....it is a great bunch of guys i work with out here. These are some new people in mgmnt i am working with and i guess i have impressed the heck out of them. The flight crews i'm flying with are saying good about me, Maintenance mgmnt is thanking me and saying good stuff.........I'm just doing my job........ but if they think i'm something special who am i to argue?!?!?!?!?

The other day....Friday....was a really good day. We were getting our tails kicked....we were super busy and short handed. One crewchief, "Brad".....a nice guy from Pittsburgh.....he is younger and less experienced than me had inspected an airplane. When he was finished he had to go help on another plane. I was doing an engine run at the time to troubleshoot a problem on another airplane, and when i was finished i topped off the fuel on the plane that Brad had inspected. It was probably about 0200 in the morning then. When i was finished i was in the flight deck documenting the Aicraft forms for the refuel.........and i glanced over at a flight deck window and it looked cracked. So i went to check it out and sure enough.... it was cracked. Not good.....it is a huge job to change the window cuz it is a pressure panel and there are at least a zillion tiny screws and nuts all that have to be sealed and torqued.

Not to mention the fact that you have to reach behind flight deck instruments to access some of the nuts......and you cannot drop any.....or you have to find them when you do for obvious reasons. And there isn't alot of room to get your hand in so you will drop some.

Anyway young Brad should have caught the window on his inspection......but it was not real obvious and i dont blame him for not seeing it at nighttime. But none the less it was a grounding write up. One that, would have been very ugly had the flight crew been ready to fly ......and found it then. Especially with the inspectors on board. We would look very very very bad and we would have failed our evaluation. Poor Brad would be decertified.......and look very bad....for a pretty honest mistake.... but it was one he will never forget. He is a good guy, ...a good up and coming mechanic........and has learned to look closer at the windows. No need to make an issue of it.

So when i found it ....i told him and i told him that i would say he found bubbles in the window and he had asked me if it was good or bad....and then i had just went and finally got a chance to look at it and noticed it was cracked. That way it wouldn't look like he missed the writeup on his inspection. But i didn't be little him, he is the type that will be harder on himself than i ever could be. It is not my style to belittle anyone anyway. So we busted azz to get the window changed and we were able to be ready for the next flight. Our inspectors were impressed with how quick we got it changed, when they came in the next day. So it is ironic ....what could have made us look really really really bad, made us look good. (all cuz of me being in the right place at the right time.)

So on the way home that night, Brad said to me " thanks for finding that"........, "i would have looked really bad and gotten decertified if you hadn't"........

That was super cool 'cuz alot of guys might be thankful in that situation, but would never say so, because they would not like that a female found it. Especially cuz after that refuel we were done for the night....and some people would've gotten sent home early....and everyone thought that they were within minutes of going home early on a friday night/ saturday morning (technically i guess)

...me finding a big job like that after we busted tail all night guarenteed that we were staying the full shift. But it is the way it goes.........and it was nice that noone bitched, and that all that was said was "good find.....,and thankyou"

It is unfortunate that not every one in the airforce has the same values of teamwork as myself. I often see people running to the boss to to say how so and so screwed up.

It is unfortunate that our mgmt promotes it. In my opinion, we could learn alot from the army. In ranger school you are assigned a buddy, and if he fails ...you fail. I wish the next time someone went running to a boss saying how so and so screwed up...that they would say...."and you just sat that and watched?.....you didn't help to correct it....i'm writing you up for failing to work as a team."

We have alot of talent and alot of good people....it is scary how good our mxs team would be if mgmt promoted the idea of being a maintenance team.

Roll out... Gettin' em Home

2004-12-13T06:44:00.000-08:00

........Doing an engine run on my break 'cuz i'm one of the only ones qualified to do that out here.... yeah me!!! Especially on those 140 degree days when you are bustin' tail for over 12 hrs....

Anyway....then all the planes decide to come back all at once and everything hits the fan! So i finish the engine run and one plane came back broke for brakes leaking hydraulics....and the one behind it came back "alpha 1" or with out "writeups" ups.

This is a good thing ...because the plane that came back broke was a quick turn and it had soldiers that needed a ride. We also didn't have a spare to give today because it's a "first come first serve deal".........and another flight crew done came got served already.

So had a airplane that just came back and i "quickturned it", to give her to the crew who had the soldiers wanting to go on R&R. (Marginal nose tires....but but no time for that now......she's just needing to get the guys to baghdad....so i'll let it go and get 'em when the plane gets back.)

After the maintenance was complete....had a little waiting around (like all things military....of course) for the rest of the passengers before i "launched" the plane. The guys (pax) from the other (broke ) plane were army guys.......after i gassed up the plane i let them on their new ride. I BS 'd with them to pass the time.

They were infantry....i could tell by their CIBs. I didn' t recognize their division patch but one guy had a 2nd Id combat patch. and the way he was faced i couldn't see his other arm for his division patch. So i asked all the dumb questions airforce crewchiefs ask army guys. Which division are you with?....i forgot what they said as they listed a buch of units they were with and it was kinda hard to hear, but i think they were a guard unit out of Ft Lewis, i might be wrong , it was kinda noisy and hard to hear....but they did mention ft lewis.....weather they are currently assigned there or were previously i can't be certain. I don't know why i said it.......because it is actually pretty unrelated....but i said i knew some 1st Group guys .

And they asked me who i knew, because they have worked with some guys from 1st group out here. I said "John Donovan". And they asked "Captain Donovan?" And i said , yeah.........

Wow we have like thousands of passing thru every day at all hours, during all shifts.... and this small little group of guys (five or so).....their plane breaks.......so they swap them to another....and of all the planes here they swap the one i'm working on is the only one that can take the mission....and of all the crewchiefs here ....i'm working on that plane at that very moment when "Jonh Donovan's" guys need a lift. I think one of there names was "Brugnee"...It was a few hours ago....alot of soldiers ago....and a few broke planes ago.......

And Then.......... it's about shift change and the plane was finally ready to go........and one of the crewchiefs assisting me comes up to me and holds his hand up to me....and it is covered in hydraulic fluid. So he shows me where it came from.........in the cargo compartment......along the wall by the door (where you walk in)......oh boy ....not good !

There were several lines there hidden behind insulation and a panel.....and emergency exit light....all that i had to remove just to get at it. I was hoping it would just be a line that loosened.....and it would be a quick fix......because i knew that if these guys didn't get off the ground soon they would be stuck here over night because the aircrew would "time out"....(or run out of duty day)....and there was no one else available to fly cuz of current taskings....which is another "blue moon" type deal......but John's guys musta been going for the "murphys law for traveling" expert badge....or something.

So of course, the line didn't just loosen up ......it burst........or the ferrule cracked and it is a pressure line for the brakes and that means these guys are going nowhere until it's fixed. (another blue moon type event)......so now we had to "cannabalize" another plane for parts....becuz that particular line never bursts ....so it isn't in the supply system.

The flight crew was getting whiney about their duty day.....and i could tell that they were getting ready to scrap the mission. and let another crew fly them tomorrow.........

so i totally busted tail to make sure those guys would be one step closer to there familys when we parked the planes for the night. And i at least got them out of here..........hopefully there luck will be better from here on out.

Those guys probably don't know how close they were to spending the night here. There traveling was not a good experience for them so far.... but that would not have helped.

Even though it was sucky for them..... running into people who know your freinds ....so i can share my " this one time at band camp stories" & it gives purpose to the days that i find myself wondering .....if i went to the doc today for an ear infection.....i wonder how many bags of fluid i would get this time.....cuz today i can tell i'm dehydrated.......but it was one of the best days i've had out here.... it's little things................the people, that matter

That man's company

2004-11-04T01:11:00.000-08:00

With all the recent publicity of the elections coming to a close....my thoughts of Senator Kerry as commander in chief are best described with this excerpt from Shakespeare's Henry V:

........"Whoever does not have the stomach for this fight, let him depart. Give him money to speed his departure since we wish not to die in that mans company. Whoever lives past today and comes home safely wiil rouse himself every year onthis day, show his neighbor his scars, and tell embellished stories of all their great feats of battle. These stories will teach his son, and from this day until the end of the world we shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for who has shed his blood with me shall be my brother. And those men afraid to go will think themselves lesser men as tey hear of how we fought and died together."..........

Thanks..... Great Airplane!!!!!!!!!

2004-10-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Busy lately...working too many hours...... but nothing is as rewarding as when the crew brings the plane back without any write ups and as they are leaving they say "Thanks chief.... she is a great flier......." not something your boss will ever know as they sit in their office a gew miles away. But then..... how can someone complain about a boss that sits in their office a few milees away? I'll take being less appreciated over micromanaged any day.

The best line i have ever heard

2004-10-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a soldier today. He was from Ft Cambell, KY. When he said that... i told him i had been to Ft Cambell to do troop drops a number of times. He looked at me square in the eye and said...."Why would anybody want to jump out of a plane that you are on?"......i was expecting the "why would anybody want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane....joke.....so yeah .........that is the best line i've heard.....

Real American Hero

2004-10-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

What follows is another letter from Steve from awhile back i thought you might enjoy....

hey Nicole- well i've tried to respond to this email 2 times already and the computer keeps on geting messed up so here i got for the 3rd time. the first two responsis were very profound but i'll see what i can do this time.
don't missunderstand... there is plenty of bitching up here... but i guess there is bitching everywhere. i always tell my guys that they are real american heros and that they will be bigtime war vets when they get home.. that cheers them up. ha!
it does suck over here but let's see if i can explain it... hummm well when we got here we didn't really have time to realize the "suck" of it all and now it is just somthing that i guess we are used to. we still know it sucks but it is what we have known for 10 months so it isn't that bad.

it is great to hear that people apreciate what we do but it is just that... what we do. it just so happens that our job is on the ground. it's weird how things work out and the choices that we make and how it all develops. i think that it is how you chose to live with your choices and is the difference between happiness or not. i think that you can relate... due to your stories. somedays i hate the army and then i try to look at all the things that it has given me and all that. i wonder... would i be who i am if this whole thing didn't suck and it wasn't a major segnificant event in my life... maybe not. i remember back in july when i was in falujah and i said to my buddy... i'm glad i came and all but i'm good now. ha! i think that the army has professionally developed me quite enuf over here.

it's weird though.. all my guys chose field artillery but all of us officers just get what branch we get. i put FA as my first choice but that is not always the case for alot ofthe guys. it isn't garison artillery it is "field artillery" after all. i think that is kinda funny. some people chose to serve in the air force and navy and i think that is great... everyone makes sacrafices.... they are just different.. what would be hell for one person may be a good time for another... ya know.
i'm glad that you like my stories and stuff... i wish i could write them better than i can. i am much better at telling stories in person. there are so many and lately ... what with the redeployment we have all been looking back. the really good ones i can't really send over e mail... you know how it is.... but let me think.

this one time we were doing a TCP.. you know stoping and searching cars in the middle of the night on the highway with howitzers of all things and i was almost run over by a m. benz. all you could hear was all my guys click their wepons from safe to semi and the screeching of the tires. i stood my ground and the car stoped like 6 inches from my legs. after about 2 seconds of... "thank god" my guys proceded to search "very well". they were like..."you almost killed the LT!"

like they would know what that means. it's awsome to know that you have 40 dudes looking out for ya. or this one time when we were looking at a map on my humvee and a mortar hit like 20 meters from us and we hardly jumped... everyone just kept on doing what they were doing. it didn't seem that close but when we rolled out and looked left there were all these people puting fires and stuff out. ooops. i guess that will happen. ha!

i feel like i'm telling.... "this one time at band camp stories"but hopefully with a little imagination you can see how they could be funny. i really enjoy reading about all your stuff and the pictures are awsome. you look totally ninja in that nicaragua photo. my guys and i call anything hard core or tuff..."NINJA" kinda stupid but what ever. you know... that was totally "ninja" was the one picture of you taken back in millwakee... i don't know of any places to stay over here that look like that. those are some pritty bitchin' christmas lights you had going on too. we hung lights up too if you can belive that. we even put lights on a little tree we had sent from home. okay well i hope this goes thru and if not... hummm.... what ever... if you somehow got the last two email that resemble this one just know that i wasn't sure if they sent. steve. (my email skills are improving.... to much to ask my spelling will improve though... it isn't my fault... i was hooked on fonics.)

The other side of the ECP

2004-10-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

You never know what you're gonna get. an adventure story without an ending .That is what i love most about my job. I can get on a c130 and fly to Benning for BAC (basic airborne course) troop drops....mon they jump once "hollywood" just the chute...twice tues, twice weds (one used to be a night jump but they havn't done that in awhile while i was there. Thurs is a weather day. Even so...everytime I go to Benning the trip is way different. The planes personality is a s varied as the troopers we drop.

We might go and it might be a "skate" trip,where the planes doesn't break and we hae little more to do than refuel and inspect theplane or we might go and work our tails off, depending on what we brake for and how often. I have gone on the road and had the plane fly for two weeks without a writeup. I have left for and overnight trip, to return a week later after changing a generator and voltage regulator, the c phase loadmeter for the apu generator and a starter....on one plane!!!

I like the unpredictability of it too.....i love flying along not knowing wether you will be working all night or sitting at dinner with the crew. Cuz when she brakes.... you do whatever you can to make the next mission.

And it is something to be the only mechanic there....to troubleshoot and fix your ride home.....

no matter which country it is that you are going home from.....wether you are carrying rock stars for uso tours, political figures and cia guards, special forces, navy seals, retirees flying space a , soldiers, airmen civil air patrol, bombs, bullets, mres...whatever.......if it can fit in the back we have hauled it.

The people who maintain them are as varie as what we haul. I know guyss that joined the military in 1968....who still turn wrenches along side of me. 36 years. no lie . My 14 years (full time) makes me the new kid on the block. Say that about active duty airforce. Enough said.

Even still............

2004-10-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

...........after 14 years, 30+ countries , 3 different airframes, many holidays, even more hours of overtime, 2 wars, and numerous joint operations, more bloody knuckles,even more frustration....yet even more satisfaction .......

even still.........when i pull the chocks and the engines crank.......and i can feel the vibration of her t-56 allisons in the bottom of my boots ... and i hear the unmistakable low hum of my Herk.....as i marshall her out for her mission ...and stand saluting the pilot sharply, & watch as she taxis by..... myself consumed in the smoky swirling exhaust of her engines..............

Even still

it gives me goose bumps.

i love my fuckin' job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mogadishu Mile

2004-10-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Something that impresses me about the Army is their stronger sense of brotherhood, and honoring thier fallen and the "never shall I fail my comrades" attitiude. I'm not saying that doesn't exist in all branches....but when you take a bunch of people, throw them out side the wire for a year at a time.....it just seems that the "glue" holding the unit together is a little strongerthan perhaps other units.

Maybe since the Army's deployments are longer... Maybe because the hardships are greater..whatever the reason....But there is a definate brotherhood unlike any i have seen, and it often extends beyond the boundaries of intraservice rivalry. The first time i was really struck with this was a few years ago while i was at Osan Ab in Korea. I was there for a few months tdy, for manning assist. I was billeted in a hotel downtown, while the others i worked with were staying in the barracks on the base. I would often go out with the guys to have a few drinks at the clubs out side of the base. My hotel was not always on thier way home from whatever bar were at when we decided to call it a knight. Also not all of us would always turn into pumkins at the same time. So they would take turns with the "big brother" responsibilities of making sure i got to the hotel okay.

One day our group got split up and i found myself with a bit of a hike.....unescorted.There was a group of guys walking the other way on the other side of the street. One called out to me & then came running over. He asked "where are your freinds?... You shouldn't be walking around at night by yourself it isn't safe". After a breif discussion, he said he would walk me back to the hotel, and told his freinds to go on with out him. I said he didn't have to walk me back, especially since it is in the opposite direction that the was going but he insisted.

He was a soldier in the army at a nearby base, i found out as we walked to the hotel. He was a nice guy average build, brown hair and blues eyes ...kinda plain looking but when he talked about something his whole face litup. I will be honest, at 1st when he approached me to walk me home... i thought to myself "oh boy... he just wants to hit on me..." Only I was wrong. He didn't. He didn't say or do anything to make me even remotely think that was his intention. He was just a kind person who seemed genuinely concerned about my safety. In fact so much so that it impacted me so greatly that it has alot to do with why i "do the things i do"even still...

So ten years later, still inspired by the kindness of a stranger, i was
visiting the patients at the hospital, When i ran into another soldier who would again leave a profound impact on me. Today i was talking to John. He had reddish brown hair, and lighter skin that probably didnt do well in the desert sun. He was tall with a medium build but, then most people seem tall to me. He was young...they mosttly all are....war is pretty much a young mans sport.

He had been at the hospital a few days and i teased him instead of babied him 'cuz that's what "the guys" would do. I knew it must suck to be at an airforce base....without family....without freinds....where you know noone, and you are young....and while something pretty scary is happening to your body. Otherwise you wouldn't be there.

This soldier, John..was an infantry man, too. He said he had been out there in iraq at the begining of the war with his buddies for 6 months, before he returned home and was now sent to redeploy. I asked him what it was like, and he looked at me paused as he thought for a second.....and then his eyes lit up and he said just one word ..."adrenalin" and then he went on excitedly... never really even stopping to breath..."Theres just no other way to describe it, really... it's just adrenaline...it's addictive..."

At the end of his rant he mentioned that..."but those days are over"...
and i asked him ...." why..."?

and he said he was out here for trainup when he fell out because he had a seizure. That was a few day ago, and he got a little choked up when he said that today ...was the day his guys (the ones he was in combat with) were rolling out with out him. I told him that had to suck....and how i couldnt imagine that.... he could sense my sincerity. He looked at me a bit surprised and he said "Not many people understand that, ....the brotherhood..." . And he went on to say that others, from home mostly think he should be glad to be leaving ... that he won't have to deal with all "the evils of war". "They don't get it", he said

That may very well be the biggest compliment i get in my lifetime.

You see combat MOS's are closed to females. That is neither here nor there. It is virtually impossible to describe...but it was like that gender gap was closed because of that little understanding. I guess that is the best i can do to describe it I asked where he was from... and he countered..."originally or stateside?"
"both"...i said He was wearing pt gear so i couldn't see division patches, etc

Well I'm With 10th mtn division out of ft drum, Newyork, but i grew up in San Francisco."

"Tenth mountain....oh.... the guys that saved the rangers."
"Yeah.... I know guys that were there" he said,referring to the battle of mogadishu (black hawk down book by Mark Bowden and more recently [but not as good]the movie)

And we talked for a little and i said how tragic it was.... and he firmly diagreed saying they kicked some major ass. And he said that they killed hundreds as opposed to the 19 of our own casulties. And i said i never looked at it that way...and i wasnt saying that those who fought , didn't do an amazing heroic job...and that they didn't give it their all..... It was in my opinion that we neve should have sustained so many casulties so close to base. The battle took place only 3 miles from the base. I told him it was my opinion that it was a command error, and we should have have been better prepared for contingencies. But i am an aircraft mechanic..This is not my feild of expertise. And then to stress my point, i mentioned how i had read that one guy was told to stay put to wait for the rescue convoy from tenth mtn.
But by the time it arrived it was so full of wounded that he and some others actually ended up running.....!underfire! all the way back to base.

He looked at me and he said... "the mogadishu mile.......we do it every year"
he must have seen the confusion in my expression because he then elaborated... saying ..."yeah every year we grab all our gear, & put on full packs and run the mogadishu mile...the whole battalion (i think he said bn) "

So there i was in the hospital, with a new freind...and some wisdom gained... a few insignificant things that struck me and will always remain very significant to me. I hope i was successful at conveying that significance to you.

So to all those brave men who fought the good fight that Oct 3 , 11 years ago...and all those who gave their all in ANY battle-- You Are Not Forgotten. And YOU are why i serve. RIP

What's your MOS ?

2004-10-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well today started out pretty slow.......me and the guys were tossing a football around in the breakroom.......and i dove....inadvertantly tackled a table with my head, the table won .......(if i caught it......... is it still a fumble?!?!?!)

After that a little work....... launched a few planes..... checked email

and then....

Sparred with the guys a bit......trying out some hand to hand stuff i learned from the marines that work ATOC here.........lame......doesn't work.....( there is this one move one move that you should use -if someone grabs your wrists, a twisting type deal move..... All i managed was to twst the skin on my arm..........I was trying to get them to teach me some self defense stuff cuz there have been a lot of alleged rapes and stuff in the AOR.

Specifically a concern of mine is at Camp anywhere, where we will be moving in uhhhhh i could tell ya but then i'd have to kill ya...........and i heard there have been alot of incidences and even a girl found in a bathroom with her hands tied behind her back and gagged. But thatis what i heard---so if we are slow on the line i try to get the marines to teach me how to get out of chokeholds and basic hand to hand stuff.......and the guys i work with like to "beat me up" or something cuz they like to spar and show me how nothing i'm learning from the marines works........

Buti have a freind who is a green beret i am trying to get teach me some stuff. ...........then i can B*tch slap those Pricks and then i can say ".....yeah...i learned that from a green beret, take that!!!"....how badazz would that be?!??!?!?!?!

Had a couple of IFE's (in flight emergencies, two planes comimg back broke....only three engines still running,that seems to be the thing to do lately... one plane with a landing gear problem......& as always the poor troops were at the mercy of the airforce for a ride.........Worked my tail off to get the planes back flying and when things slowed again.....

I was talking to the guys waiting for a ride and one soldier said he was coming from korea....he only had two months left there.........and i guess he's got a year in iraq. I thought that sucked and said i was sorry to hear that. He was really young, kinda goofy looking, a tall skinny kid with a big round head, that's wasn't really proportionate to his body. But not a bad looking kid if i was a girl his age i guess......... he just had a big head.I figured he was probably infantry.not cuz he had a big head...from his gear.....he was 2nd id, wore kevlar, body armor, kneepads, had an nvg mount on his kevlar, carried a rifle that was not an m-16, i don't know what it was....not an m-4..........bigger than that... but it had a short stock like one. I'm still not good at recognizing weapons.....i do know ak47s though!

Anyway I asked the nameless soldier (too much gear i couldn't see his name).......what his mos was....and he said 11b.

I paused and looked up at him and I said thankyou........i almost think that he could tell how much more it meant than those words could ever convey, becuz he held my hand so tight and didn't let go and after i stopped shaking his hand he held on still, as we stood there in silence. And the whole while he looked at me and then finally uttered ....thankyou, after about 3 minutes or so.......before he released his grip.

Something so small and insignificant, but it was like he was scared....and he was looking to me for comfort. I see every type of soldier there is out here.I see them by the thousands. The experienced ones the young ones........all kinds, in every job. And in the pictures on the news....they show everytype. But they hardley ever show how these kids are still just kids and they might come out of a fire fight a hero.........when only weeks before they were at some airbase clutching a crewchiefs hand for comfort.

" To be a hero is not to be without fear, but to proceed inspite of it"....

I noticed he had been out in the sun awhile, when he asked if we had any water.

I was soooo mad!!! It's the same every time. Things don't go as planned, airplanes break, troops wait outside under a wing for a ride. The pilots/flight crew goes in out of the heat. The pax terminal (atoc)....washes there hands of the passengers when they drop them off. So what is left are a bunch of soldiers on the ramp....and mechanics. the soldiers are in armor ....it's freakin hot! They are sometimes there for hours. Some have their camelbacks on some don't. So i suggest that we call for someone to bring them water......

and this happens all the time.....and i hear from the line supervisor or whoever...."they are just army guys......" & "I've been told to "drop it".........& and they get mad cuz i don't drop it....i won't drop it.........and today they really pissed me off .... when they said......"that's not my job"

i went off............ btw.... these guys that were waiting were all 2nd id from korea , ( mostly- if not all 11bs) So i told the "it's not my job" Azzholez that if they were ever in a postion where we were under fire, and they were to defend our fire drawing azzes, i hope they say to you...."that's not my job"!! these guys are infantry and if they had to, they would risk thier life to defend your lazy azz's 'right' to sit on your jelly donut eating fatazz, and collect hostile fire pay for what? You get hostile fire pay cuz THEY ( ! ) get shot at (!)....and you don't want to give them water??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything was dead slient in the truck.....and then the sratching noise of the radio transmitting ..... " .......Moc Red-One, ... yeah can you get some water out to the pax on golf six....theyv'e been out here awhile"..........

What's a nice guy like you doing in a war like this ?

2004-10-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is a trip! Since I travel so frequently, i have found that i regularly work with same units at the same or different places. So i like to get contact info from some of the people i have come across. Kinda like the army Lt in the howitzer battery. We basically just fire off an email every now and then to let each other know wuz shakin' on the "other side of the fence".

This turned out to be a wicked cool deal, with all sorts of unexpected benefits. (guys who are reading....not those knid of benefits) I have found i get to do all kindsa cool azz sh!t.....that i never would be able to do other wise. Like this one time....at band camp.......we were at Ft. benning for BAC Jaats (basic airborne course, joint army airforce training) and i got to go rappelling with the basic infantry "joes" at sand hill. I'm probably the only airforce chick ever to get to do that. Rock On!!

Before i got activated, i was toolin' around the far east. We were in Thailand and we were sent to pickup some people at this one middle of nowhere location. We landed and didn't shut down the engines...we just opened up the back of the plane...and these guys with long hair, and bermuda shorts drive a truck right up to the back of the plane and start grabbing stuff out of the back of the truck and throwing it on the plane. I helped to tie it down, and then we closed up the back of the plane and we were off to the next location. It was loud, and i watched as i helped to tie down the guys equipment. Usually we only haul military, so i wondered who these guys were. They seemed to know what they were doing....with the ramp opened shortly after landing they quickly approached the plane,& one of their guys signalling the driver of the truck to approach. Something only our flight crew will do....either that or they will squash any attempt of people approaching before our own flight crew allows. But they didn't say anything to these guys. Then the guys helped to tie down their equipment.....something our passengers never do. They usually just stand there looking sorta confused waiting to be told what to next, while we finish loading the plane. These guy just pitched in and nobody even acted surprised. Well we flew back to base, and they went their way, and i the flight crew went our way.

The next morning we were fling to okinawa japan. I was at the hotel counter checking out and i saw the guys from the day before checking out as well. Then we went out to te airport and did our preflight stuff. One of the loadmasters cut his hand in the process of doing the preflight. A pretty good gash too....maybe 4" in long, and 1/4 " wide. Definately needed medical attention before the 8 hr flight we were about to have. But....only problem is if we were delayed much for the takeoff........we probably would not have enough duty day to complete the mission. Which basically means that if you add all the preflight time and the post flight duty time and flight time....i think it needs to be under 14hrs. becuz then our pilots will turn into pumpkins or something, and they can't complete the mission.

So if we took off too late.....the pilots might turn into pumpkins before we got there......and so we would not be allowed to take off .....because you can only extend the duty day requirements with a waiver in major emergencies.

One of the army guys was helping with fist aid for our loadmaster while the pilots stood by discussing the options. He looked just like the guys in the first aid training videos i have seen, surprisingly calm, his actions slow and concentrated, like he knew what he was doing. The army guy then offered, "if you wan't sir....i can stitch him up in flight....."

The pilot looked at him both surprised and confused, and reserved....and asked "you can do that?" Sorta asking because he was surprised at the confidence in the medics abilities, and sorta asking for permission ....or at least to ensure
that he wouldn't be in trouble for allowing the medic to do that in lieu of the base hospital which would take several hours (like all things military that should only take a few minutes)

One guy, a army captain asked...."do we have any lidocaine?" and the medic said.... "yeah, i was just thinking about that, we better numb this guy up."

They talked amongst themselves for a bit, opting not to stitch him up because the lidocaine was in the box with the other drugs at the bottom of everything tied down....and they had some butterfly bandages that did the trick until he could be seen by a doctor at the next base.

Good to go and next we were off on our 8 hour jaunt. Mostly everyone stretched out and slept for the first half of the flight. Army kinda on one side and the airforce people who didn't have crew duties on the otherside. i was tired and the plane was crowded but i fond a spot just big enough for me in the middle of the cargo compartment, by all their equipment. After awhile everyone started waking up and then i was talking to oe of the guys, the captain. A tall thin guy,with the build of a crosscountry runner. He had blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that sorta slanted down at the corners like Nicholas Cage. He kinda looked like a younger blonde haired Nicholas Cage. but with a smaller build. I asked him where he was from, and he said Atlanta in that very distinct sort of georgia accent. I told him i had been to Atlanta, but i didn't get to see that much because i was too busy.I had gone to engine Run School there......." He said he liked atlanta and he asked where i was from. I was sorta surprised....usually guys will talk but not reciporcate.....but he was pretty talkative. I asked him what he did. And he said "Special Forces"......And i thought i didn't ask where you worked i asked what you did.....like what is your job?.........but i didn't want to sound dumb, because the way he answered sounded like i should know what he did from that answer. And then something clicked.......and i asked "is that kinda like a green beret?" And he sorta smiled and said "yeah...sorta"

Yeah i had no idea how clueless i was then. I have learned alot since then. We contnued to talk and i asked all the stupid questions that everybody asks when they first meet a green beret......"have you ever killed anybody?" He was a oung captain.......his time on the team nearing an end. A little frustrated by the buerocracy of the army and how the conventional commanders seem to be trying to push special forces to being more conventional. (like haircuts and stuff). He is the team leader and he spoke of situations that i found surprising similar to mine. A young captain in charge of people with way more time than him in, at times sorta challenging him. It's a brotherhood that every team member would not hesitate to give there life for another........but like an any family...there is still a bit of competition amongst siblings. He was not sure if he would reinlist ecasue his time on a team was nearing an end. Yet he spoke very passionately about the army. I asked if he had gone over to the desert for the waron terrorism. He looked a bit disappointed when he answered "no......that's not my AOR" I asked what an aor was, and he said ..."area of operations".......and i said "Ok". I guess he could tell that i was still confused because he elaborated that the SF guys get language and culture trained, for a specific region or AOR. He spoke tagalag. I asked what that was .....phillipeano, I guess there was 12 guys on the team and they spoke all spoke a different launguage... japanese, thai, tagalog, and i guess they could pretty much cover all the orient. He said he needed to get some of his guys emmersion trained again because they have not gone to all the countries enough to stay proficient. He said he was getting rusty on his tagalog too. I was simply amazed by these guys. There was a certain sorta "gel" between the team members that i have not seen in observing other army guys interact with one another before. And a major difference in the professionalism. Though they had long hair, now weraing uniforms....they were easily the most professional unit i have seen....just in how they carried themselves. With about 1 hour left into the flight , the guys got up and wlaked to the back of the plane and began to help one another put on their chutes. Tugging straps and checking their buddy until every one was good to go. Nobody for a second looked like they were doing anything out of the ordinary. So i asked the captain in amazement...."You guys are gonna jump?" And he said, "yeah".... sorta smiling at my surprise in that. Then he explained that sometimes it was hard to keep his men quallified because of aircraft availability and weather. So i was a little disappointed that these guys were jumping and that our conversation had been cut short....because guys were just very different from the "rambo" movies i had seen. But then the jump was cancelled because winds and seas were too high and it would be too dangerous. We were just gonna dump them off in the middle of the ocean, and a navy boat would come to get them.

So i got their email and wrote every so often. I lost touch for about 6 mos. and then a few weeks ago i emailed my family and when i went thru the list of addresses who i wanted to send the email to i added their address just for the heck of it. And wouldn't you know it, i got a response. And just guess where they are these days..........(not their aor) Small war huh?

A Pilot's Perspective

2004-10-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

I got this from a vietnam vet...yup!! Where does he get his intel?!?!?!?,
... awhile ago you guys asked what it was like flying them..... sorry i havn't gotten back to any of you right now i'm busy pretty much just trying to restore the site..... Thanks for all your support!!!

So here ya go right from the guys in front

I'm sure you've probably seen this before, but here it is anyhow. Is it accurate?

How ya making it in civilian life? Don't forget that the offer of free beer in Texas for the whole crew still stands!

G.

A Pilot's Perspective

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I don't know where this came from but it is a good read.

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There I was at six thousand feet over central Iraq, two hundred eighty knots and we're dropping faster than Paris Hilton's panties. It's a typical September evening in the Persian Gulf; hotter than a rectal thermometer and I'm sweating like a priest at a Cub Scout meeting..
But that's neither here nor there. The night is moonless over Baghdad tonight, and blacker than a Steven King novel. But it's 2004, folks, and I'm sporting the latest in night-combat technology. Namely, hand-me-down night vision goggles (NVGs) thrown out by the fighter boys. Additionally, my 1962 Lockheed C-130E Hercules is equipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system (MWS). The MWS conveniently makes a nice soothing tone in your headset just before the missile explodes into your airplane. Who says you can't polish a turd?
At any rate, the NVGs are illuminating Baghdad International Airport like the Las Vegas Strip during a Mike Tyson fight. These NVGs are the cat's ***.
But I've digressed.
The preferred method of approach tonight is the random shallow. This tactical maneuver allows the pilot to ingress the landing zone in an unpredictable manner, thus exploiting the supposedly secured perimeter of the airfield in an attempt to avoid enemy surface-to-air-missiles and small arms fire. Personally, I wouldn't bet my pink *** on that theory but the approach is fun as hell and that's the real reason we fly it.
We get a visual on the runway at three miles out, drop down to one thousand feet above the ground, still maintaining two hundred eighty knots. Now the fun starts. It's pilot appreciation time as I descend the mighty Herk to six hundred feet and smoothly, yet very deliberately, yank into a sixty degree left bank, turning the aircraft ninety degrees offset from runway heading. As soon as we roll out of the turn, I reverse turn to the right a full two hundred seventy degrees in order to roll out aligned with the runway. Some aeronautical genius coined this maneuver the " Ninety/Two-Seventy." Chopping the power during the turn, I pull back on the yoke just to the point my nether regions start to sag, bleeding off energy in order to configure the pig for landing.
"Flaps Fifty!, Landing Gear Down!, Before Landing Checklist!" I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat ****ting on a sheet of ice. Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the NVGs, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch.
Finally, I glance at my steely-eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin forms on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am. "Where do we find such fine young men?"
"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aimpoint and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there' are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky.
Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid, Baghdad air. The huge, one hundred thirty thousand pound, lumbering whisper pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet. Let's see a Viper do that!
We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home.
Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, I look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army.
Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?" Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ***. Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention, chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there too. But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this ****-hole ..
"Hey copilot clean yourself up! And how's 'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist."
God I love this job!

Hit the Ground Running

2004-10-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

By Herkiechick
As i got to work, we had an inbound with an IFE, (in flight emergency).... The plane had just took off, and they were transporting a bunch of marines. #1 engine got a engine low oil light after takeoff, so the crew shut it down and returned.

The plane taxied in, with the prop feathered....as it always is with emergency shutdowns. The marines watched as we worked the writeup, to get the plane fixed so that we wouldn't have to generate a spare.....which means go to another plane to complete the mission.

It turned out that the oil filter "p" pin popped and so the oil bypassed the filter, too much pressure built up, and the oil was bled overboard. No big deal. These new filters suck, ad so we get this fairly often. We just changed the filter, serviced it up and i did a quick m.o.c. (maintenance operational check), and leak check. Everything turned out good, so we loaded up the plane with the passengers again....told the pilots "if they can't play nice with the airplane, we won't let them play at all....." The pilot (who sorta reminds me of elvis with his sideburns [I know, ...Damn reservists!!] he laughed and gave me a "hi five", & off they went.

He broke the other outboard engine by the end of the day. We had like three I.F.E.s for engines in the same day.....

The thing about engine inflight emergencies......they aren't like landing gear emergencies. The passengers can tell........If you look outside and an engine stops turning, you don't have to be an aircraft mechanic to figure something ain't right.

All in all nothing too exciting...... but it was pretty funny to see the marines expressions watching a little chick fix there ride. I'm 62" tall, and 120 lbs. So i don't look like an average mechanic, not to mention the fact that i am a female. I'm not doing anything different or weird, i have been doing this for 14 yrs. But from the marines _expression it was different or weird to them. And the pilots and flight crew are pretty funny, because it goes against their "instinct" to ask the smallest chick around...."can you fix my airplane for me?... and just stand back because they don't have anyidea what to do"..........Don't get me wrong.....They are all great guys, and for me it is like having 100 big brothers,.....but sometimes the "stereotypes"....are very funny. But then, maybe you'd have to be there.

Haulin' Brass

2004-10-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

By Herkiechick

We once had a whole plane of Marine "O's" pass thru as a sort of "site survey" team for troop swapouts. The lowest ranking guys i saw were majors. I thanked them and told them to tell their guys thanks, for doing what you're doing out there. They were infantry and i talked with them for a bit and told them i had some freinds in infantry, and i think the job is really cool, and exciting...but i also realize and appreciate that it is alot of hard work and sacrafice.

A General asked what my job was. I told him a C-130 crewchief, and he said.... "well that must be really cool." And he thanked me for serving.

Doesn't matter if he was just being polite or not.....that is one of the things that i will always remember.

I once read in Stars -n- Stripes about a soldier who was killed a few days before. He was filling in for another soldier who was on R&R when his convoy was attacked. He had a wife, and he was barely old enough to drink. He was supposed to be going home on R&R the following week.

The week after i read that article, i saw others soldiers from his unit coming back from R&R. I sat there and watched them as they lined up to board the plane to go back in country, and realized that the soldier thats was on R&R...instead of the convoy, will be coming back.....and might even have been on that flight. I thought to myself how difficult it must be to go on leave & have to leave your family to return to war. I thought how difficult it must be just to serve there. I thought about how difficult it must be to have to lose a comrade. I thought about the soldier returning from R&R.....having to bear all the inevitable emotional burden, that he must for this situation which he had no control of......And i realized that the story of the soldier's memorial service didn't even come close to touching the actual loss & suffering that these guys endure.

God Bless our Soldiers

56 Souls on Board

2004-10-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Old Ironsides 1st Ad

By Militarybrat (bare with me...restoring some old posts)
Another typical day if there is such a thing in the land of the humble herks. This morning one of our planes came back broke with an engine write up for fuel flow flux. Nothing out of the ordinary. We had to get it ready to go out again by lunch. We had to "quick turn" ....which basically means.. inspect it, gas it, and fix everything we find and have it ready to go out again in a few hours....it's a race against the clock to get our soldier boys a lift.

I did a short engine run (maintenance operational check), for troubleshooting and found the fuel flow transmitter to be bad......changed it and did another m.o.c. engine run....and it checked out good......but i found my # 1 engine oil Qty guage just stopped reading anything ......so i swapped gauges during the engine run with another of the planes & found that the transmitter was bad ....then we changed the transmitter....did another m.o.c., and #1 engine had a hung start......that's sorta like starting an engine ....but it stops half way thru ...."hangng up" at 60% power output and thats not good here. Because like all things mechanical that rely on air for performance.... when it gets this hot the air molecules become more sparse and performance decreases to begin with. Not a good deal.... When we are operating heavy heavy to begin with. So i went for another start.....played with bleed air and talked nice to her (the airplane....) and she lost her attitude and finally started behaving like good airplane. One of those mornings where before you fix one thing....something else breaks.

It's HOT out here, 130+ degrees.....it is bearable for me..... but the planes really get moody in this sorta heat.We are seeing the planes do all kinds of crazy stuff.
Flights with no write ups are a thing of the past. Goofy stuff like hung starts and compressor stalls are a common occurance as the sand gradually erodes the compressors , and therefore alot of the ability to develop power....

no big deal, we'll just swap an engine......but then we delete all our spare engines........ and we end up playing musical parts to try to keep all but the "cann bird" flying. ( the cann bird.....is the one waiting on parts that go back ordered......so if another plane breaks....and has back ordered parts......then we steal from the other parts to try to keep all planes but one flyable. It works but when you get into Cannabilizing engines that is alot of extra work just cuz we dont have parts.....(about 4 people 16 hrs work)
But we do what we have to......to provide a safe ride.

When i was at lunch i heard a call for fire dept emergency response teams over the loud speaker "request assisstance, inbound C-130 with an in flight emergency, landing gear failure .....56 souls on board...command post out".....and the the fire dept guys scramble like mice out of the building into their vehicals/fire trucks....and down the hill towards the flight line.

They got the gear down by an alternate method, we have emergency extension proceedures, for a safety backup.....and made an uneventful landing. As a mechanic i knew that they would. I have seen it a bunch of times. But this time i was actually a little concerned. When they said 56 souls on board i knew they were our army guys going for R&R. And I was here for the Chinook crash....for the 3rd acr guys going home on R&R a while back. And that just sux in a bad way. In fact my Lt freind from third ACR, his driver was on that crash, and he turned out to be okay....but ended up going for something relatively minor months later....and my lt freind found the irony sorta funny.

So after the in flight emergency, followed by a safe landing...the plane taxied in..... the soldiers on board deplaned and looked at the firetrucks as they walked past, completely unaware of the aircrews "pucker factor", or that anything was wrong at all, and/or that those fire trucks were all for them......

They were smiling and happy stepping off the plane, and taking pictures with their freinds in front of the plane....as they waited for the bus to come and pick them up.

Misc.......

"Area 51"-----a place the troops gather waiting for a bus ride out to the plane........it's sorta in the middle of know where....this mysterious place where busses of army and marine troops appear and disappear to/from. They even have a sign painted in red "Area 51". Our wing commander also calls it that......am i the only one that finds it sorta funny?!?!?!?!

Yesterday i saw an army guy waiting for others to board first at the back of the plane (which was headed to places more hostile) ....BECAUSE HE WAS ON CRUTCHES!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!.........hello!!!! ....WoW!.....

Somewhere out there, there is life...but nobody noticed

2004-10-06T07:12:00.001-07:00

What follows is a story found on military . com That came across my mind one day while i was in kuwait city. I was there with some other guys to fix a broke airplane. It had engine problems and were running the airplane (engines) for various tests for trouble shooting. Were were on the control tower frequency monitoring in cases they needed to cantact us and vise versa. Pretty much nothing different from running in kuwait or the us.....except the heavy accent of the controller. We were at 900 tit (turbine inlet temp)....with all four....which means we were pulling some power, making some noise......and i was sitting left seat....and two others were on headset in the right seat and engineers spot and one on the ground........and all of a sudden i heard a radio transmission to the control tower from an inbound. "Dustoff" requested emegency priority over the airfield for medevac. The pilot sounded very matter of fact about it. He was comming from a war zone why shouldnt he?
It was strange to hear as it was happening. None of the other guys in the flight deck even knew what that radio call meant......and as that blackhawk helicopter approached i watched and said a prayer to my self for those guys, and i thought of this story i read on military.com:

Kent Sapp, 236 Med. Co.

Thursday – December 15, 1999, Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo

Photo: Kent Sapp with his father, Ron Sapp.
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I’ve spent the past two days pulling “1st up” MEDEVAC coverage for KFOR (Kosovo Forces). I am in aircraft 88-26023, a UH-60A Blackhawk configured for MEDEVAC operations. The crew of “Dustoff 01” is as follows:

CW3 Kent T. Sapp - pilot-in-command
CW3 Christian Larson - co-pilot
SGT Keith Burns -crew chief
SGT John Thomas - flight medic
The “1st up” crew sleeps in an Air Force “temper-tent” (temperature controlled tent) next to our flight operations “temper-tent”. Our normal quarters are located ¼ of a mile away in the newly built SEAHUTS (Southeast Asia Huts). The 1st up crew stays near the operations tent during the normal day unless they are eating at the dining facility tent. This is necessary to have the fastest possible response time to an Urgent Medevac call. The only mission we received on the 14th was a patient transfer to Skopje Airport. We had to transport a Polish soldier that had been injured in a grenade accident a few days prior. He was the lucky one. The other Polish soldier involved in the accident died in one of our aircraft on the way to the Combat Surgical Hospital (CSH).

The normal procedure when crews pull “1st up” or “2nd up” is to preflight and run-up the helicopter prior to 0900. Additionally, we pre-flight and perform an operational check on the rescue hoist to ensure its operability. The longest run-up of the day is the first one due to the checks involved. After the aircraft is ran up for the first time, subsequent starts are much shorter as we use the “Thru-flight” checklist. This pre-flight and run-up procedure is identical to the way we operate back in garrison in Germany. In Kosovo, we are required to fly with body armor and to have our sliding-armored panels extended. These panels protect the side of the body closest to the cockpit door. We also wear our 9mm pistols under the armor with a magazine inserted but without a round chambered. The aircraft are suppose to have a ballistic armored sheet on the cabin floor to protect the cabin, however, ours have yet to be installed. The body armor is very cumbersome to fly with. It is even more cumbersome when using night-vision-goggles as the collar interferes with head movement. Just one more of the many stressors Army aviators must “deal with”.

When a MEDEVAC mission is called in to our operations personnel, they immediately inform the flight crew on our Motorola “TalkAbout” walkie-talkie radios. “MEDEVAC, MEDEVAC, MEDEVAC, all 1st up flight crews report to Operations”. The crew chief and co-pilot run to the helicopter and remove the pitot tube covers and disengage the main rotor gust lock. The co-pilot struggles into his body armor and straps into the seat. His task is to prepare the aircraft using the checklist all the way up to, but not including, engine(s) start. The pilot-in-command and flight medic report to operations to receive patient information, landing zone (LZ) location, call-signs, frequencies, LZ marking, etc. via what is called a 9-line report. The pilot-in-command then plots the grid coordinates on the operations wall map to determine the best flight route (usually direct), and checks the “known” mine map to ensure the LZ isn’t located in a “known” mine field. Simultaneously, operations personnel call the weather office to receive an immediate weather brief to ensure legal weather minimum requirements are met. The flight medic uses the patient information to decide what medical equipment and aircraft configuration are necessary to most efficiently perform the mission.

2000 hours

I’m playing chess with CW2 Chris Frey in the 1st up tent. Christian is watching Armed Forces Network on the unit’s newly purchased TV/VCR combo. We’ve already had one NVG mission this evening. We flew an infant with pulmonary edema from the Kosovo village of Strpce to Pristina University Hospital. While sitting on the landing pad at the hospital, Christian and I were given the Serbian “finger” by some older teenagers loitering near the helipad. We felt naked as both the crew chief and flight medic were inside the hospital at the time – where is SGT Burn’s???????? Our pistols are buried beneath our body armor and survival vests. We couldn’t get to them if we wanted to. The aircraft engines are at idle to reduce noise and save fuel so taking off is not an option. It’s great to feel ‘welcome’. We return back to Bondsteel without incident and feeling happy that the baby should be ‘ok’.

2108 hours

“MEDEVAC, MEDEVAC, MEDEVAC, all 1st up flight crews report to operations”. SGT Thomas and I run next door to the operations tent while Christian and SGT Burns run to the aircraft. The patient: URGENT surgical U.S. soldier MINE victim. HOLY SHIT! I plot the grids on both the operations wall map and the mine map. CW2 Chris Frey calls the on-duty weather briefer to help me out and save me some time. I copy down the grid coordinates, callsign (Empire), and frequency and run to the aircraft. The grid coordinates I am given are not for the accident site because the site is still unknown. My instructions are to land at the grid coordinates given and pick up a Special Forces Captain who will get us to the accident grid coordinates. SGT Thomas finishes copying the rest of the 9-line report and is not far behind me. I get to the aircraft (out of breath), take off my flight jacket and throw it behind the crew chief and flight medic’s seats. I put my body armor on over my 9mm pistol and my survival vest over the body armor. I step up onto the landing gear support faring step and ungracefully enter the cockpit. Strapping the seat belts and shoulder harnesses on is difficult because of the bulk of the body armor. While I am strapping in, Christian is starting both engines simultaneously to save time while I “monitor” the flight controls. Once we start the engines, I program the grid coordinates into our Global Positioning System (GPS) and program Empire’s frequency into the FM radio.

2119 hours

We are “off” in 11 minutes. Not bad considering it’s night and we are using night vision goggles. Christian in flying the aircraft and I am “running” the cockpit. We are talking on or monitoring 4 radios. (1) UHF radio (1) VHF radio (2) FM radios. Christian makes the Air-to-Air advisory calls on the VHF radio while I navigate and talk to Bondsteel tower on UHF and our operations and Empire on the two FM radios. We fly a nearly direct route to the grid coordinates from the 9-line. We are about 1 kilometer from the site when we see all of the vehicles in the landing zone lighting it up like a Christmas tree. As we turn onto final approach Christian turns on the landing light – WIRES on the approach path! He is forced to use a steep approach angle due to the wires and numerous trees. This is a poor excuse for a landing zone! In addition to the wires and numerous large and small trees, there are Russian troops and vehicles everywhere. CHAOS! After a few seconds of ensuring the clearance of the tail rotor, Christian lands the helicopter near the “H” marking the LZ. Time: 2129. It took us 10 minutes from takeoff to landing. As soon as we land, the aircraft is rushed by Russian and Special Forces soldiers – a definite NO, NO! Too many people for the crew chief and flight medic to keep away. We’re not happy! Operating around a helicopter at full rotor RPM is not a safe place to be. Normally the crew chief directs approaching personnel to ensure their safety. Tonight there are simply too many people and only one crew chief. The Special Forces Captain jumps onboard and tries to talk to us on the troop commander’s headset, or “dogbone” as we call it. It’s not working. Shit! “SGT Thomas – give the Captain your flight helmet so we can talk with him – we’re WASTING time! “Roger” he says and gives the Captain his helmet. One of the first things the Captain says to us when he finally talks is “DO NOT LAND”. OK I say – I asked the Captain if we need to prepare for a possible hoist extraction and he told me ‘yes’. SGT Burns and SGT Thomas commence to rapidly reconfiguring the cabin and litter carousel for hoist operations. This seems to take an eternity. The Captain gives us a set of grid coordinates that they think is the accident site. I enter the coordinates into the GPS as SGT Burns and SGT Thomas finish reconfiguring the aircraft. Reconfiguring complete, I have to wait for SGT Thomas to retrieve his helmet from the Captain so I can have his “eyes” as we depart the LZ enroute to the first set of grid coordinates.

Photo: Polish medics work with American medic, Sgt. Paul Yocum, flight medic, 159th Medical Company (Air Ambulance), to simulate calls for the MEDEVAC teams.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We depart the Russian base camp at Kosovska Kamenica enroute to our given grid coordinates. The coordinates are only 2 kilometers away so we are there in less than 2 minutes. We see nothing but a village with absolutely no lights on whatsoever. No accident site here. SGT Thomas has to give up his helmet again so the Captain can communicate with us. I tell him that we see nothing and that we need some new coordinates. I call Empire Base on the FM radio and after what seems like another eternity, I receive some new grid coordinates. They finally have the actual accident site grids. I program these into the GPS – 2.5 kilometers northwest of our present position. We fly direct.

As we crest the next ridgeline we see headlights from the vehicles on scene. The vehicle lights are shining through the trees. Of course the accident vehicle is in the trees alongside the dirt road running through the tree covered valley. Christian sees the accident vehicle as it is on his side of the helicopter. All I see is a wheeled armored personnel carrier of some type with its lights illuminated. Time stops. The dirt road runs east and west from the accident site. Except for the accident site itself, the dirt road has sporadic trees lining the sides of the road. The dilemma: Where are we going to land? We don’t know the extent of the patient’s injuries so a hoist is not the best solution. Additionally, a hoist mission takes time to perform. Precious time. A landing must be made on the road. But where? While I am deciding the best place to land, SGT Burn’s is recommending hoist operations to me, we are orbiting low over the ground so all eyes are focused on terrain/obstacle avoidance. The Captain is trying to talk to me with SGT Thomas’ helmet and Empire Base is trying to talk to me on the FM radio. Adrenaline’s pumping through all of our veins. Senses are heightened, time appears skewed. After another eternity, Empire Base tells me that the road leading west has already been driven on and thus should be mine free. “Roger”. Christian sets up for landing. Problem: Numerous trees are lining the road and SGT Thomas still isn’t wearing his helmet because the SF Captain still has it. Another orbit is required to buy time for SGT Thomas to get us helmet on and NVG’s down and in use so I have an extra set of eyes to help clear my side of the aircraft. We land on the downsloping road with a brisk tailwind and stop with the rotor tips about 3-4 feet from a nice 15 foot tree. Due to the tailwind and downslope, Christian has full aft cyclic control to keep the aircraft from sliding into the tree because in our haste, we forgot to set the wheel brakes. I hear the vibrations and assume that we’ve hit the inboard portion of the rotor system on the Infrared countermeasures device that sits directly behind the main rotor system. Damn!

2150 hours

We are down on the road and positioned 200 meters west of the accident site with the nose of the helicopter pointing directly towards the vehicle lights of the accident scene. SGT Thomas, SGT Burns, and the SF Captain exit the aircraft as I scream to them “STAY ON THE ROAD – MINES!!!!!!” In no time flat, a white Toyota Landcruiser comes HAULING ASS up the road towards us! I can hear Christian scream STOP! although he is not transmitting on the intercrew communication system (ICS). I just know that the vehicle is going to rid the rotor system as the driver skids to a stop. The vehicle stops with the hood UNDERNEATH the rotor spinning at 100% RPM. JESUS CHRIST! A split second later, bodies literally fly out of all four doors of that vehicle and disappear behind it as the open the back hatch to retrieve the wounded Special Forces Sergeant. Another split second later, the men are carrying the lifeless soldier by his legs and torso past the right side of the helicopter towards the cabin door. I didn’t get a good look at the Sergeant, all I saw was his shirtless body and arms dangling lifelessly along side of him as he past. We had the landing light on to illuminate the front of the aircraft and the vehicle. The soldiers placed the wounded Sergeant onto the top forward facing litter pan – there wasn’t even time to put him on a litter. He went directly onto the litter pan. The first thing to register to my senses was the smell when he was placed on board. The smell sent a pit to my stomach and shot some more adrenaline into my blood system. Christian later told me that he noticed the same thing and felt the same way. We both knew it wasn’t good for the home team. As soon as the Sergeant was placed onto the litter pan, SGT Burns, SGT Thomas, the SF Captain, and an SF medic from the scene jumped on board. SGT Burns, SGT Thomas, and the SF medic immediately restarted CPR while we prepared to take off.

2153 hours

Three minutes have passed since we landed on the road. Seemed more like 30 minutes. Everyone is secure in the cabin, although both of our crewmembers are performing CPR and unable to assist with obstacle clearance on departure. As we prepare to takeoff, one of the ground Special Forces soldiers attempts to give us hand and arm signals to takeoff. I’ll never forget the look on his face. It was if he wanted to kill us for not taking off 5 seconds ago. PAIN and AGONY written all over his face. I did an extremely fast before takeoff check and Christian blasted off straight up dusting off our ground personnel. As we departed, the left cabin door slid open because it wasn’t latched. Another eternity passed as we slowed to 100 knots airspeed to allow SGT Burns to crawl over everyone to get to the door before something fell out. An eternity later, the door was secured and Christian pulled the collective control until our torque gauge registered 100%. On that day, 100% torque was the maximum power available which yielded approximately 155 knots or 180 miles per hour. We flew direct to the Bondsteel CSH as fast as the aircraft would go. I had Christian fly higher than normal because our crewmembers were “eyes inside” attending the patient. We normally fly at 200-300 feet above ground level with night vision goggles. Due to the good weather, we were able to fly at 500-800 feet above ground level. While enroute, another UH-60 aircraft was able to relay our patient information and status to our operations so that we would have personnel waiting for us when we landed at the CSH helipad. I called Bondsteel tower 25 kilometers to the northwest and requested priority landing at the CSH helipad and was given that approval. We landed on the helipad at 2205. 12 minutes from takeoff at the accident site to landing. The second we touched down, the four personnel in the cabin lifted the patient up and out of the aircraft to the awaiting medical personnel. We watched through our NVGs as they disappeared into the tentflaps of the surgical hospital. The adrenaline letdown begins. We had to wait on the helipad for SGT Burns and SGT Thomas to return from inside. Our job is over. We flew to “hot” refuel where we topped off our fuel tanks and then returned to aircraft parking. “2nd Up” assumes “1st up” while SGT Thomas cleans the mess in the cabin and recovers his medical equipment that was left at the CSH. Christian and I head into the operations tent to start our three page after action report.

We finally get to bed at around 0200. At 0255 we get the call for our third MEDEVAC of the day. All three have been at night and flown using NVGs. Eight minutes later we’re in the air heading to the same LZ as the first MEDEVAC of the night. This time we pick up an ethnic Albanian woman with labor complications. We fly her to the CSH where they triage her and determine that she would be better off at Pristina University Hospital. After dropping off the patient, we return to Bondsteel, refuel, and shutdown. Time 0445. In bed at 0530.

Unfortunately, my crew has the distinction of having EVAC’D the first U.S. Soldier mine casualty in KFOR. God Bless that 26 year old Special Forces Communications Sergeant from Pennsylvania. Thank God that he did not have a wife or children. My condolences to his family. We did our absolute best.

what will i remember

2004-10-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

what will i remember?
By Herkiechick

a while back i asked a soldier ......what will he remember about his tour?...... he's the 3rd acr soldier, Steve, (who i have shared another of his letters previously).... in howitzer battery, i'll share some of what he had to say...Sorry it reads kinda choppy i am pressed for time and cut and pasted from some of his letters:

i've realized a lot of things over here but the bigist
thing
is that things are what you make them. being pissed off and angry
isn't
going to get you home any quicker and it doesn't help anyone. every
stituation presents an opertunity to have fun. i strongly belive that
you
can have a blast doing whatever as long as you truly believe.
- as for cows... yeah they all have horns aparantly... wierd huh?
- beer, milwakee- yes.. didn't they film "strainge brew there?" "ole
milwakee"- we got coors in colorado but i grew up with raineer beer or
olympia in seattle.
- as for what i will remember most about this tour... we'll the quick
response is the "heat" but the true answer is not just so simply put.
it
has been a tour of ups and down do to the loss of good friends and the
creation of new ones. i remember the little kids, the fear in the eyes
of
the unknowing, the long hot nights sitting up wondering if we are going
to
be attacked with mortars and if we are going to have to shoot
counterbattery, the checkpoints, the searches, the recons, the raids,
the
shitty phones in ramadi, the mad mortar man..... there are a lot of
things i
will remember but the thing i will rember most are the people.... iraqi
and
coalition.... the people after all are where all the other stories stem
from. we are what make up this experience. more will follow....
time up.

i couldn't have
asked
for a better group of guys to deploy to war with... they really are
great.
every one does what they do. no one is less or more importaint it is
just
different. that is what i say to everyone who says how great the air
force
is and how they have it so nice. it is just he nature of what the job
is.
naw mean. not better or worse ... just different. shit... we would be
suckin' without the air force and even the coast guard for that matter.
(thanks though for all that you've said... your right we don't really
realize it i guess... maybe when we get home and we can chill out for a
bit.
hummm.)

yeah that whole leave thing... kinda a good thing but also a bad thing.
i
didn't get to go... along with a lot of other guys so i wouldn't really
know
but it seems to me it would be hard to leave your family and kids and
all
that.

as far as us being covered in dirt... well we had been in arif john for
like
a week and that was the cleanest we had been in like 8 months so it is
good
to know that we still looked filthy. ha! i guess we didn't wash our
armor
and kevlars though so that may be why. we just try to keep the
importaint
stuff clean... you know... teeth,feet, sun glasses... etc. ha. it's
all
good... liveing conditions are much better now but are a far cry from
what
you got it seems

-as for my mos i'm a 13 Z.. or A or something. 13 B are my gun guys
and 13
E are my fire direction guys and 13 F are my forward observers-fisters.

-so more army stories huh... well i gotta have my tunes and we do a lot
of
driving so when ever i'm rolling out or cruisin' out down down in
wonderfull
iraq i am sure to pump my beach boys or biestie boys. i've found that
the
localls love a little beat with their security. little kim also gets
the
kids dancin. my driver wired up some speekers in my humvee so we have
getto
iraqi suround sound. kinda funny driving thru mid day falujah with a
little
limp biskit or john denver! ha. gotta keep it as much fun as we can i
guess.

- or let's see... there was this one time we decided to park, occupy,
this
old iraq training camp... or so we thought. it sounded like a good
idea
untill it turned out to be a big ass ammo supply point that started to
blow
up. the iraqis like to take the ammo apart and use the powder to cook
their
food and the brass to selll for scrap. the only problem is they smoke
while
they do it... hummm.. problem.... yes.... so this whole place started
to
blow up under us. lame. it was okay... big shock waves and stuff but we
decided to move out when the rockets started to cook off and fly over
our
heads. we were all... what is that wooshing sound... those are f'ing
rockets man... time to get the f out... naw mean. yeah so that was
kinda
crazy... also kinda weird when you see the explosions and it takes like
10
sec before it hits you.

-or lets see... when we first came into country we got hetted up north
so we
wouldn't have to drive our tracks and the het drivers stoped 40 miles
south
of bagdad and said ... later! "bagdad is 40 miles north... have at it"
we
were all what the helll.... we of course had no oporder or anything...
eventually my smoke(platoon sgt) showed up and lead us into our PAA.
kinda
a trip... just getting dropped off and shit. all we say on our way to
our
PAA were blown up tanks around every corner and little dudes running
thru
the woods. we made it though with out a scratch.

as for the hood thing. we sleep on our hoods to get out of the sand
flees
and also because that way i could still moniter my radios. we never
new
when we would move and it was just best. also the buildings were all
blown
up and full of dog crap and old iraqi trash, cloths etc. not exactly
the
best... most of my guys would just sleep on thier guns or on cots next
to
them. we didn't really have a place to call home. itwas where ever we
stoped. also... it was kinda to hot to worry about anything but eating
and
the missions at hand. i did get a wickid tan though.

how rude! right?! sorry i had to cut that short. one of my guys got
a red
cross mesage... his little kid is in the hospital with a respritory
infection but... it sounds like he is going to be okay. it is hard when
we
get those mesages because they only say so much... naw mean?!

as for if i've killed anyone and if i've been shot at well.... i don't
really like to talk about all that... i try to focus on the good that
has
come out of all this place. i will tell you this though... bullets do
make
that cartoon sound when they get really close.

all of my really good stories are good because of how the operation
developed and well... i can't really talk about that stuff... at least
on
the phone or over the computer... you know how it is. it is weird how
the
best stories always seem to be the worst time at that time and later
they
seem okay cause it is over.

as for other army stuff... well... i started out as an LT as a FIST
team
leader. in this... i was a FSO or a Fire support officer. i rolled
with
the manuver forces and called and planed artillery fires.... kinda a
balls
to the wall deal and then after a little over a year i moved to FDO or
fire
direction officer.... in this i was responsible for doing all the math
and
shit in order to hit what the observers called. we transfered data so
the
guns can hit what they need to. after about a year at that i moved to
PL
platoon leader and that is what i'm doing right now and in that i
preety
much worry about he fireing platoon of howizers and emplace ment and
all
that. i'm also kinda XO too right now since as soon as we get back i
take
over the position. no big thing. our current XO is rolling out soon
to set
things up in the rear... lucky bast. whatever. so yeah that's a
little of
whats up with the whats up.

again thanks for the pictures... you seem so happy and modivated.. that
is
awsome. you sure have a grip of stipes on your uniform....that's cool
though. if your gonna do it mines well do it right. ha. i don't
really
know all the airforce rank but from what i can figure a crew chief is
kinda
like a staff sgt or an E6 or E7.. right? i don't know. do you guys
where
civilian clothes when you are off duty? inthe one you have an old navy
shirt on..... i haven't worn civ. clothes for 10 months... crazy. i'll
try
to dig up some more pics... pictures say so more than words... even if
i am
dirty in them. ha.

okay well... i'm off to screen my guys for emotional stress... for
redeployment... kinda lame we have to do paper work when i know my guys
so
well and they are all okay... its good though i guess.

picture this......flip flops....humvee....crew served
wepons.....chasing
"evil dooers" across the iraqi country side. ha!

You'll probably get a medal or something for that....

2004-09-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

"You'll probably get a medal or something for that...." the other mechanic said. And i looked at him, knowing he meant well, but still unable to speak. I just thought to my self how much he really didn't get it.

We had a plane that needed an engine change ....broke somewhere "on the road".I worked my normal 12 hr shift and was informed that i would be leaving later that evening on the recovery team. So i went to pick up my gear.... my kevlar, gas mask, flak vest, m-16......& ammo ...& then I packed an overnite bag....ate chow, showered, put on a fresh uniform and went to get my intel breifing......... I tried to doze off for half an hour..... trying to get some sleep, because i knew whatever i could sneak in right there was about all i was getting that night. & i waited some more...i waited & waited...... waited....For paperwork, manifests,for all things buerocratic.....we're leaving in one hour,... no two.....no tomorrow......no ... "your ride is inbound!! ten minutes out! ... grab your gear, i'll take you out to the plane"... Damn i was almost falling asleep!!

Never quite did understand the whole way military keeps time. If you are supposed to be there at 0800, that means 0745. If someone else is supposed to be there at 0800, if your not ready it means 0700, if you are it means like 0930- 1000. So while i waited that hour and a half for the ride that was "ten minutes out".... I thought about how tired i was..........how long a day or two it would be......and I hoped that nobody would make any mistakes that could damage anything and or/ anyone...............and then.........

i thought about how .....however tired i was, there are people who have been more tired and have done more important things. My brother in law is a doctor.....& his residency, was alot like like ranger school, from what i gather.....but with scalpels instead. He'll preform surgeries after being up a day and a half straight....food? may or may not eat ......it depends.

But when i was sitting there waiting for my ride.......trying to doze a little laying on the pavement.....I thought about all the guys out there, doing what almost seems humanly impossible......."soldiering on" long after the sleep and food reserves have been exhausted. I have some freinds in infantry, some that are ranger tabbed, but i'm guessing just about everyone who has wandered out side the wire far enough can relate to what i'm saying. But i can hardly say that this was the norm. for me. I know that however, for many it is. But thinking of my infantry freinds out there, put things in perspective. To them this would probably be an easy day. Finally, it was time to go.

So i got on the plane for a relatively short flight, i hadn't flown in awhile and i forgot how good it felt. We landed and did an engine running off--load of the mxs team and our gear.........and 24 hrs into my day we got to begin our engine change.

Although, nothing in the world of the military is quite that simple. We were parked off by ourselves and we would need an escort to get to our plane, because you had to contact the control tower to cross active taxi ways. The wings over hung the dirt/sand/ rocks which made it difficult to push the stands around. Some broke airplanes were parked behind ours...so when we were done fixing ours we would have to tow it to a runup pad (so our exhaust didn't pelt the broke aircraft in back of ours....)...and of course we would need an escort for that too... to be on tower frequency. Really very typical, though nothing hard or complicated about this one.. Our plane is just too big to be able to be completely self reliant, on a job like this. No big deal but whenever you need someones help....more waiting....

The engine change was no small deal in itself.......with a fresh team, under perfect conditions we would be looking looking at 12 hrs (before its ready to fly). And this particular location isn't ideal and the mxs team wasn't fresh.............that spot gets mortared regularly, and all i could do was hope we weren't gonna have any attacks to slow us down. I was hoping for the best but not counting on it.

We got the engine changed without much incident. The mxs team sent were all good guys willing to work together, & all knowledgeable in our trades (which is unusual under these circumstances.) I disconnected the engine from the plane while two of the guys removed the prop, and one drove the crane. The Army airfield commander made us take lunch after about 6 hrs of work cuz he wanted us out of the sun. But we were other wise just planning to eat an MRE. This sucked too cuz we had to take a bus.......then we were waiting for a bus ride back to stand in line to get something to eat...oh we had to stand to eat too....they were redoing another chow hall so this one got all the overflow....and couldn't accomodate everyone with seating......then we waited at a bus stop... and no bus came, and after waiting for about 20 min....we deicided to hoof it back....and got lost ....and of that.....all we seemed to accomplish was losing probably an hour and 1/2 (cuz it takes like 10 min to eat an mre)....and as a bonus we ended up feeling like crap ...'cuz full bellies on tired mechanics in the hot iraqi sun isn't exactly a pick- me- up.But we "soldiered on" ....or i guess "wrenched on"..... I hooked up the lines on the engine while the guys swapped the prop from one motor to the next, and while they did that....in the process they pinched a seal, so we were about to do our ops checks and the prop started leaking. We had to yank the prop back off to reseal it. Bummer. What was looking to be about an hour till we were ready forthe ops checks before lunch which was at o-lunch-thirty, now looked like it would be more like beer-thirty ...after the lunch fiasco and leaky prop. The later it gets the fewer the chances of getting a ride home that night too......

But we wrenched on, and resealing it turned out to be pretty smoothe. We finally finished...and went for an engine run ops check........ all of which took one second to say....but an hour or two to do .

Anyway, the engine change checked out........ we did a really good job...

And i suggested skipping the buerocracy and getting a ride back "home" now.....begging forgiveness later....but in keeping with military tradition....the ranking individual was not privvy to the traveling system, and bias to getting his azz chewed. (and a litle annoyed with my suggestions......."they are already working that" and.... "they said the only plane we can take is at oh-what-thirty local, there is no other way".....i have a hard time swallowing the bullshit that they feed the rank of the moment, when i personally know better. But i bit my tongue... as every good "knuckle dragger" should, and i just left him to think inside his box.

So we spent the night WAITING TO BE MORTARED because there, a whole day without an attack is pressing your luck. So we were there spending the night after a 36hr shift of working straight, probably about 40 hours till we were able to sack out. Nothing like working a day and a half straight...to find your self lugging your flak vest kevlars, weapon, ammo, overnight bag, around the base in the middle to a night to stumble into a tent...to try to find a vacant spot to sleep. By vacant i mean a bed without a body in it....because there was too much left over trash to really consider it vacant....oh.....they forgot to tell me when i check in at billeting....no linens. What the heck did i check in for? We dont pay....they dont take a credit card.....basically you tell them that hi im here i will be staying overnight. And they say ok....go try to find an empty spot...... they couldn't have told me then to pick up linnens. And now i have to go back to where i just came from....AND Nope!!! cant leave your weapon...or your ammo...or your anything...so back i go stumbling around IN THE DARK... to go pick up my linnens....but actually by this point i was so tired i was numb...beyond numb....and i didn't even care. Then i pick up my linens and stumbled around again by this point the straps from my pack pushed the sling for my rifle down on my arm, and i'm shortto begin with so the butt of my rifle was dragging in the stones----but.YUP!!..you guessed it!! wasn't caring!!...too tired and my hands were just too full to adjust. And if i stopped i didn't think i'd ever get going again...

So i got back to the empty spot at my LOVELY new home. Threw my junk down....by this point i was pretty much foaming at the mouth in need of water...because it is all non potable.....and it was now ending up to be a really long time since we had any access to water that we knew of. So i went to find some one (me and my trusty weapon and ammo and...)to ask where they had water available. Of course the places they pointed out were a hike and a half, and when you get there...."oh that's were we used to keep it.....now we keep it over there......" Arrrrghhhh.... I was about to say "screw it" when some guy came up and asked me if i needed any help.
I was about to ask him to marry me.... but i figured it would freak him out and i would never get any water..... so i just told him how happy i was to hear those words and asked if he had a bottle of water or new where i could get one. By this point my desperation musta been pretty evident, cuz i dont think he would have been more startled if i had gone and asked him to marry me. That was a looooooong day.

I passed out in my grease covered dcus....with my linen in a pile next to my bodyarmor and rifle on my bed. I did unlace my boots though. I have a question for you been-there-done-that's? What the hell do you do with your weapon when you shower? Do they have somewhere in the shower bay for you to put it so it doesn't get wet? Cuz this shower bay may as well not have curtains at all....if it was anywhere in there it was fair game..............

So yeah... i was just wondering.....

Our ride back to our ..... i guess.....rob..... rear operating base...landed at oh-what-thirty local..... almost 24hrs after we were done fixing mis piggy (the broke herk)& dropped off the flight crew. Then "persco" (people in charge of screwing up travel throughout the military from what i gather ) fed the rank more crap . (Did you notice...i just found how to make italics today)

Now............ they said that there was a plane coming in at almost-tomorrow-thirty local and maybe they can take us, and persco then said we couldn't get on that plane that we just fixed and fly back to our base with it because there wasn't enough time to do the paperwork. This was almost 19 hrs they had to do the paperwork. I have seen people get manifested in ten minutes when persco is trying to cover one of their screwups.......

Meanwhile, I did the stuff mechanics do, assisting the flight crew with the inspection to get the plane ready to go. The flight crew said that they had room to take us .

When our boss breifed us that almost-tomorrow-thirty local or ...(another-night-in-this-shithole-thirty zulu) ...was the only option......... i again tried to change his mind......because i knew other options.....and then was promplty reminded to bite tongue........

And Thuunk......Thuunk..Thuunk....then we got hit......and i was wlking in the direction of the bunker at the time anyway, and about maybe 30 ft in front of me i was now looking at this big cloud of dirt and smoke that seemed toto keep shooting upwards, and keep shooting upwards and keep shooting upwards....But no sirens, no one seemed particularly alarmed. WTF? No one looked even to be taking cover. And i look at the smoke and sand shoting up in the air and i said "is that what i think it is" to someone walking by without their armor...."thuunk ...Thunk....thnuk....." and he said Yes....as he began to move a litle more expeditiously now...... I wasn't wearing my kevlar or flak vest or anything, I heard a couple more "thunks"& i decided i wasn't gonna wait for the military to decide to sound the alarms......(back to that whole timeliness thing again)..... After all this was an airbase & Alarm red to the airforce usually means "last call"....... & probably that taking cover is a precautionary deal.....something that you do....but there is never a real actual threat!!!! That is pretty much the mentality ....or so it seemed.....

It was surreal....noone was taking cover.Like i was the only one who saw/heard it...I'm a cherry what can i say? I thought.... are we getting attacked?!?!?!? WTF?!?!?! No sirens.....???? (Maybe it's just EOD with UXOs or something....no sirens?? or nobody taking cover.?!?!?!?!?...).and i was looking at the smoke and then i heard more thunks and then finally sirens and sombody yelling in the most desperate chilling tone i have ever heard in my "high rent military career" "Is anyone O negative?!" and then people started taking cover.........but it was wierd .......you'd think people would take cover quicker cuz they get attacked and hit every day. The smoke and sand i came to find out was indeed a UXO or rocket that didn't go off...a dud. One airman wasn't as lucky as me..... one detonated 10 ft from him....and he lost both his legs and one arm.

We sat there in the bunker....... And i said to the ranking guy...."you know they didn't take off yet....we can still catch them, if we hurry" ....(after alarm yellow). Now he listened.....So i went to let the guys know we were gonna need transportation out to the plane to try to catch them (the flight crew) before they takeoff becuz they will be in a hurry to leave to avoid further delays due to any subsequent attacks that may or may not occur. And so after we got the all clear......we went out back to the plane but before we got there.............we were getting hit again............... so we went back to the bunkers .....this time with the flight crew ..... which became our new ride home.

While we waited that one out.... i wasn't afraid nor was mostly anyone else, around me....there was nothing you could do but take cover... and we were.... from what i have seen fear is anticipating the things you cant control.....and bravery is not the lack of fear but proceeding in spite of it....So there i was...not brave , and not afraid ...just there.

......and the other mechanic said........."you'll probably get a medal or something for that"... WTF?!?!?!? And i looked at him, knowing he meant well, but still unable to speak. I just thought to my self how much he really didn't get it. of my freind Adam who had his ears blown out....who didn't want a purple heart........and of the airman who was so badly injured..........I knew he would get a medal or two...but no medal is great enough to award sommeone for sacraficing their limbs, or their life. How did he think by doing nothing i could have deserved one, much less have even wanted one.....especially in comparison to all the great sacrafices that have been made by so many....................

Well i'm here in iraq............

2004-09-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hey XXXXX,
Found this on CombatLeadership.com and knew you'd like to see it. This Lt. has a knack for writing!

--------------START OF THE LETTER-----------------

Well, I’m here in Iraq, and I’ve seen it, and done it. I’ve seen everything you’ve ever seen in a war movie. I’ve seen cowardice; I’ve seen heroism; I’ve seen fear; and I’ve seen relief. I’ve seen blood and brains all over the back of a vehicle, and I’ve seen men bleed to death surrounded by their comrades. I’ve seen people throw up when it’s all over, and I’ve seen the same shell shocked look in 35 year old experienced sergeants as in 19 year old privates. I’ve heard the screams-“Medic! Medic!” I’ve hauled dead civilians out of cars, and I’ve looked down at my hands and seen them covered in blood after putting some poor Iraqi civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time into a helicopter. I’ve seen kids with gunshot wounds, and I’ve seen kids who’ve tried to kill me.

I’ve seen men tell lies to save lives: “What happened to Sergeant A--?” The reply: “C’mon man, he’s all right-he’s wondering if you’ll be okay-he said y’all will have a beer together when you get to Germany.” SFC A-- was lying fifteen feet away on the other side of the bunker with two medics over him desperately trying to get either a pulse or a breath. The man who asked after him was SGT B--, bleeding from two gut wounds and rasping as he tried to talk with a collapsed lung. SGT B-- made it-SFC A-- didn’t.

I’ve run for cover as fast as I’ve ever run-I’ll hear the bass percussion thump of mortar rounds and rockets exploding as long as I live. I’ve heard the shrapnel as it shredded through the trailers my men live in and over my head. I’ve stood, gasping for breath, as I helped drag into a bunker a man so pale and badly bloodied I didn’t even recognize him as a soldier I’ve known for months. I’ve gathered my breath, stood up straight and walked out of a bunker where everyone was taking cover to check the trailers for my men. I’ve run across open ground to find my soldiers and make sure I had everyone.

I’ve kicked in doors to houses and seen them fall flat at my feet-like in every action movie you’ve ever watched. I’ve raided houses, and shot off locks, and broken in windows. I’ve grabbed prisoners, and guarded them. I’ve looked into the faces of men who would have killed me if I’d driven past their IED an hour later. I’ve looked at men who’ve killed two people I knew, and saw fear. I’ve seen that, sadly, that men who try to kill other men aren’t monsters, and most of them aren’t even brave-they aren’t defiant to the last-they’re ordinary people. Men are men, and that’s it. I’ve prayed for a man to make a move towards the wire, so I could flip my weapon off safe and put two rounds in his chest-if I could beat my platoon sergeant’s shotgun to the punch. I’ve been wanted dead, and I’ve wanted to kill.

I’ve sworn at the radio when I heard one of classmate’s platoon sergeant’s call over the radio: “Contact! Contact! IED, small arms, mortars! One KIA, three WIA!” Then a burst of staccato gunfire and a frantic cry: “Red 1, where are you! Where are you!” as we raced to the scene, as fast as our HUMVEES could take us, knowing full well we were too late for at least one of our comrades. I’ve sped through towns, guns at the ready, my gut tight, as we drove down the only road we could see towards an ominous black cloud of smoke rising on the horizon. I’ve seen a man without the back of his head and still done what I’ve been trained to do-“Medic!” I’ve cleaned up blood and brains so my soldiers wouldn’t see it-taken pictures to document the scene, like I’m in some sort of bizarre cop show on TV.

I’ve heard gunfire and hit the ground, heard it and closed my HUMVEE door, and heard it and just looked and figured it was too far off to worry about. I’ve seen men stacked up outside a house, ready to enter-some as scared as they could be, and some as calm as if they were picking up lunch from McDonalds. I’ve laughed at dead men, and watched a sergeant on the ground, laughing so hard he was crying, because my boots were stuck in a muddy field, all the while an Iraqi corpse not five feet from him.

I’ve heard men worry about civilians, and I’ve heard men shrug and sum up their viewpoint in two words-“F***** ‘em.” I’ve seen people shoot when they shouldn’t have, and I’ve seen my soldiers take an extra second or two, think about it, and spare somebody’s life.

I’ve sat in a sandstorm and spat grit out of my teeth. I’ve slept in a thundershower in the desert. I’ve seen vehicles disappear into the wind not ten feet in front of me-not even their lights visible. I’ve seen the dawn, and I’ve seen flashes of light brighter than the dawn at midnight.

I’ve heard things that sound surreal-things you tell yourself you’ll never hear, never say. “We’ve got a bird down!” “Light ‘em up!” and “There is no such thing as a white flag.”

I’ve been the new guy-“What are those for?” “Stops RPGs, sir.” And, in a month, I’ve been the veteran-“Why do your men have a .50 cal round tucked in their body armor, sir?” “They say the big bullet keeps the smaller ones away.”

I’ve bought drinks from Iraqis while new units watched in wonder from their trucks, pointing weapons in every direction, including at the Iraqis my men were buying a Pepsi from. I’ve patrolled roads for 8 hours at a time that combat support units spend days preparing to travel ten miles on. I’ve laughed as other units sit terrified in traffic, fingers nervously on triggers, while my soldiers and I deftly whip around, drive on the wrong side of the road, and wave to Iraqis as we pass. I can recognize a Sadiqqi (Arabic for friend) from a Haji (Arabic word for someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, but our word for a bad guy); I know who to point my weapons at, and who to let pass.

I’ve come in from my third 18 hour patrol in as many days with a full beard and stared at a major in a pressed uniform who hasn’t left the wire since we’ve been here, daring him to tell me to shave. He looked at me, looked at the dust and sweat and dirt on my uniform, and went back to typing at his computer. I’ve stood with my men in the mess hall, surrounded by people who’s idea of a bad day in Iraq is a six hour shift manning a radio, and watched them give us a wide berth as we swagger in, dirty, smelly, tired, but sure in our knowledge that we pull the triggers, and we do what the Army does, and they, with their clean uniforms and weapons that have never fired, support us.

I’ve heard people who’ve been the Army fifteen years longer than I have thank me a thousand times for providing them security when their vehicle broke down even after I told them they were in a pretty safe area. I’ve heard my soldiers laugh at what other people consider dangerous, and heard them make jokes about death.

I’ve given a kid water and Gatorade and made a friend for life. I’ve let them look through my sunglasses-no one wears them in this country but us-and watched them pretend to be an American soldier-a swaggering invincible machine, secure behind his sunglasses, only because the Iraqis can’t see the fear in his eyes. I’ve taken off my helmet and glasses inside someone’s house, just trying to calm them down, to reassure them that I’m not the robot I look like with my gear, and my weapons, and my radios. I’ve waved at little kids who smile and wave back, I’ve winked at little toddlers who hide behind their mother’s leg when we come inside, and I’ve seen coy smiles from doorways as girls in their teens peer at us when they aren’t supposed to, and, occasionally, if they think they can get away with it, wave at us-the exotic, dangerous, foreigners. I’ve seen a woman give roses to my senior scout, who was quite unsure what to make of it, and more than a little worried that her husband or brother or father was back inside the house, looking for his AK.

I’ve said it a thousand times-“God, I hate this country.” I’ve heard it a million times more-“This place sucks.” In quieter moments, I’ve heard more profound things-“Sir, this is a thousand times worse than I ever thought it would be,” and, “My wife and SGT C--’s wife were good friends-I hope she’s taking it well,” and “Sir, I know I said I wanted my CIB, but now I think I’ll be okay if I never get it.”

I’ve told men to get in their vehicles and do what I say or I’d send them to jail, and I’ve asked the same soldiers how they were taking it. I’ve had my men tell me they couldn’t trust me one day, because our mission ran long, and had them run to me and ask if this or that was true two days later. I’ve had them tell me I’m not afraid enough for them-and had other soldiers laugh, because they know, like me, that they’ll come through it all right. I’ve heard my soldiers who were so scared only a few days earlier that they told me they wouldn’t go out on patrol get angry when they heard another soldier actually did refuse to go out on a mission. They say they’re scared, and say they won’t do this or that, but when it comes time to do it, they can’t let their buddies down, can’t let their friends go outside the wire without them, because they know it isn’t right for the team to go into the ballgame at any less than 100%.

That’s combat, I guess, and there’s no way you can be ready for it, it just is what it is, and everybody’s experience is different.

Just thought you might want to know what it’s really like,

2LT, North of Baghdad
------------------------------------------------

......Most have seen this, i think CBFTW even had it on his blog.........
but somethings never get worn out..................... Author unkown......

The average age of the Infantryman is 19 years.

He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country. He never really cared much for work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's; but he has never collected unemployment either.

He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of sport activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left, or swears to be waiting when he returns from half a world away.

He listens to rock and roll or hip hop or rap or jazz or swing and 155mm Howitzers.

He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk.

He has trouble spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him, but he can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less - in the dark. He can recite to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either one effectively if he must.

He digs foxholes and latrines and can apply first aid like a professional.

He can march until he is told to stop or stop until he is told to march.

He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity.

He is self-sufficient. He has two sets of fatigues: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry. He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts. If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food. He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of battle when you run low. He has learned to use his hands like weapons and weapons like they were his hands. He can save your life - or take it, because that is his job.

He will often do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay and still find ironic humor in it all. He has seen more suffering and death then he should have in his short lifetime.

He has stood atop mountains of dead bodies, and helped to create them.

He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and is unashamed.

He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. In an odd twist, day in and day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful.

Just as did his Father, Grandfather, and Great-grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom.

Beardless or not, he is not a boy.

He is the American Fighting Man that has kept this country free for over 200 years. He has asked nothing in return, except our friendship and understanding.

Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.

....Not much new here, a convoy got hit...........

2004-09-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Below is more email correspondence forwarded to me by another of my freinds. He (John an aircraft crewchief), and his cousin (Chris --works in supply) are activated reservists both serving in the desert, for different services, at different bases.I work with John, and know Chris well because they were roomates for quite some time. Long before Sept 11th.

They were not born of priveledge...as stands true of most of the enlisted ranks that i have seen. And i would have to say that each of them is just a little to kind to others, a little too eager to lend a helping hand, not as confident as they should be, and a little too giving and too quick to trust others, all of which, too much for their own good. Thier similarities seemingly end there. Chris has a medium build, shorter blonde hair and works as a delivery man. John Is larger framed with dark hair and is a mechanic. Both have blue eyes. Both are very shy and neither have been very popular with the ladies.

I'll never forget the summer Chris shaved his head. Chris has the funniest shaped head i have ever seen. He shaved his head before his two week drill, to discover that his head was horribly cone shaped. He was very embarrassed and wouldn't ever take his hat off. Of course in the military your getting away with wearing a hat indoors so during his drill he took alot of hell for it. Out in the desert he shaved his head again....though i heard him swear he never would. same as before only this drill is lasting alot longer than that last...........and there more important concerns than the shape of his head...but mostly it's covered in kevlar anyway

How's it going, John? This weather just kicks my ass, it's hotter down
by you I guess. Just wanted to thank you guys for the package, I won't run
out of reading material for awhile. I will return the favor next year
when I get back home. Would you rather get your time done all at once or do
you like your situation now? Saw your mom and dad when I was home. As usual
time flew by. Take care for now and thanks again. I wasn't sure which email
address to use.
Chris*****
*****, Iraq

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we
shall pay any price, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe,
to assure the survival and success of liberty."-John F. Kennedy

Hey Chris how's it going? Are you used to the heat again? I work
nights . That is so nice I would hate to work days. I'm almost
half way done with this rotation over here but I think I'm going to
*anywhere* for a month over and then back over here again next
*anytime* yee ha.

Stay safe
and talk to you later John

What's up, John? Not much new here. A convoy I was on got hit by a suicide
bomber last week. I ended up with minor injuries. It seems to be
gettinga little cooler here lately, if you consider 105 cool. I guess were
looking at 4 more months here and then hopefully home sometime in
*any month*. How are things by you? Take care and I'll talk to you later.

*****Chris***
****, Iraq

Ordinary people doing ordinary things....just trying to stay alive.

Underneath their kevlar helmets............

2004-09-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

.....and beneath the body armor ....there are people. Something the media rarely captures............

A letter from Josh:

Hey Nicole how are you doing. I am sorry that i sent you an email with
just pictures. I wrote about a 3 page email yesterday to you, and then
the computers crashed because they run off of generators, and they had
ran out of gas. I WAS SO HOTT. So now I have to retype it all. But that
is ok too. So how have you been doing. I was so worried that you
wouldnt write me and email back. But I am so glad that you did. That story
with the little boy in the grocerystore was really cute. I went to the
website that you gave me, and it WORKED. WOW you look like your all of 25
at most. The picture of you in Kuwait in the tent with an old navy
shirt on, you look like 19! I bet you get hit on alot by airforce guys, as
well as army. It looks like you have been everywere in the world. I was
amazed to see all of the pictures you had, with all the places you have
been. That is something very special. Not everyone gets to leave there
state more or less the country. My step father is at the same place
lace you are. He is leaving there in June. I
believe. Is going back to pope for a week before he deploys to Rammestein AFB
in germany. He will be there for about 4 months. He is there with the
53rd APS. he is 6'7 so you cant miss him. He says he works night shift
though. Anyways the reason that I didnt go to Ft. Bragg, is because in
my contract, I didnt have airborne school guarnteed to me. So by not
having that I wasnt promised a slot. The recruiter told me if i wanted in
guarnteed that I could not have left for basic until Dec. 2003, but he
assured me buy taking me to get an airborne physical, that he drill
sgts at he end of AIT would ask if anyone would like to go to airborne
school, well they didnt, so thats how I ended up in texas! I havent really
done that much in texas though I was only there for like 2 and a half
months and then I came over here. Things are going preety well here. The
usual missions, going out and looking for stuff to do. I am on a
PST team ( Personell Security Team) for our Battalion Commander, and
Battalion Command SGT Major. So anytime they leave, I am with them. I
guess you could say that I am kinda like a body guard. thats how come I
am always going to BIAP, or the green zone, or sader city. Its because
usually they have meetings up that way. As far as my address in Iraq I
can give you that. But i dont need anything at all. My church send me a
huge box every 2 weeks, and my mom sends a box everyweek, but here it
is. It usually takes 2 weeks to get mail over here. In response
to how we got over here, we flew out of Ft. Hood on a Commercial
Airline. It was one of the biggest planes that I have ever flew in. We flew
from Texas to maine, and stayed for about 45 min, due to ice on run way,
then we flew from there to Frankfort Germany, and stayed at like a
little military airport. I saw alot of Airforce there, and then we fle
w into some Kuwait Airport. It was at Camp Wolverine, which ever one
that one is. It was about a 22hr flight overall. I will never forget it
eighter. So how have you been? How do you like the airforce, I no you
just love you job. You are a really sweet person. WOW. you
seem like one of those " cool moms" you no the kind you see in movies. I
dont no. Maybe your not to busy today. I hope you got the email with
those 4 pictures. I have sent about 5 dissposible cameras home and my dad
put them all on a CD. He is sending it to me as we speak, so when i get
it I can show you some more RECENT photos of me if you wish. Well,
thats about all thats going on for now. I hope your doing well, and are
staying cool. It is really hott over here. You take care, and i am so glad
we got to talk again.
Always
Josh

Who are they?

2004-09-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

A letter from Steve:

Hey , how are things? i'm sorry it has taken me so long to get
back to you. before i continue with mindless army banter let me first say
that it was great to get a ride from sombody/some unit that wasn't a total bummer. you guys really were a breath of fresh air. i try to smile
and stay positive and it is really great when you get a smile back. after
all things always could be worse. anyway thanks for that and thanks for all the
wonderful words in your email.

i have to admit that i was somewhat put back when you came up on the
c130 and asked if we had email. i was expecting you to say something
like... we need a new manifest...or.... not all the bags will fit....or... we need
to put our kevlars on. that was not the case, so if i was a little
speechless, it just took me by surprise. all my guys were all... what the???
what's the lt doin? "i bet we have to where our kevlars, lame. so yeah....
you difinately gave them somthing to talk about.

i don't have much time today but here goes.... i'm an LT in howitzer
batter, 2nd squadron, 3rd armored cavalry based out of ft. carson colorado.
what that basically means is that i'm a cav trooper just like any other who
does what ever the infinate wisdom of the army dictates. i may be raiding a
house on tuesday and setting up elections on friday. who knows maybe
we'll pass some candy out or arest some "evil do'ers"! ha! we've been over
here since hummm. let me see.... apr.3rd. yup... so it has been a bit. we
sould be getting out of here in a couple of months but you know how that
goes. as a squadron we have spent our time overhere doing just about evrything.
if it was on the news chances are we had some of our guys there. we
operated out of the ramadi, falujah area for a few months and that was totally
bogus. then we left, and then, we went back. now we are out west holding
down
the borders and expansive "nothingness of iraq". okay well i gotta go.
i'll write again later when i have more time. i would love to here
more about what you guys are up to or where you guys are from. is your unit
flying us out of this joint? i know, i know,- opsec. lame.

if there is anything you would like to know spacifically just drop in
down. i'm sorry for the somewhat random ness of the email and overal poor
grammer/spelling but that is how i do it. ha!

"get up with the get up and get down with the get down!" later, steve