Return to the USA!!

Well I made it back to the good ole USA. It was a very long day for me but as the plane lifted off of the runway in Iraq, I felt many people throughout the airplane give a sigh of relief. My day started out just like any other. Early morning explosions rocked the base about 4am, but my replacement was already up and trying to get over his jet lag. He just wanted to know what to do and I groggily said to listen if the explosions are getting closer or are they getting farther away. So, that's what he did. It was just a short burst of 3 mortars, then silence. I rolled over and went back to sleep, but he got up and left the hooch. I finally got up at 0800 on Friday, 7 Oct and smiled as I walked the 200 steps to my shower, FOR THE LAST TIME. I went in to work and tried to get my replacement to get the hang of what he would be doing for the next few months. But he still was in a panic mode. I can't blame him but what am I gonna do, I already gave him 3 days to catch up and that is more than enough time to get your feet wet. He has to learn that most things happen when you don't expect and you just need to roll with the punches and laugh along the way. But, I actually found myself running behind schedule as the day went on. Before I knew it, it was 5pm and I needed to out-process and finish the packing, before I had to report to the passenger terminal at 8pm. I still needed to eat dinner, since I didn't know when I would get a chance to eat again, and I needed to finish making sure I had all the documents I needed to bring back copied onto my thumbdrive. But, I also needed to go watch Sumo Wrestling. The Mission Support Commander had been talking trash to the senior enlisted man in our wing and had challenged him to a Sumo Wrestling match. I wanted to see the Mission Support Commander get his tail kicked. He was not a nice guy and he promptly got his tail handed to him rather quickly. Nice. I quickly finished all that I needed to do and was dropped off at the passenger terminal (a tent) at 8pm. It took the next 1.5 hours to go thru customs where they looked at everything. Everything. But I just laughed and knew that they weren't gonna find anything worth the effort but who cares. I then went into this secured area for the next 4 hours. They kept telling me that the flight was delayed and then delayed. The flight was a medical flight or better known as medievac flight. I knew that they would be patients onboard and that they needed to be handled with care, so that is why there were delays. At 3am we finally took off from Iraq. As we flew north toward Turkey, I went up to the cockpit to chat with the pilots. As I was up there, 2 people I knew from the Balad Predator squadron came up to the cockpit. These 2 people were airmen that actually did some impressive things in the last few months and I took the time to tell the pilots stories of what awesome things these two people did with their job. The young lady that is just a year or two older than Melody watched the insurgents all the time and noticed some trends that they were doing. This information was passed to us at the General's staff and we made some changes to the way we prosecute the war. And so her initiatives ultimately saved lives and allowed us to shift the war to kill them before they killed us. That is the bottom line in war. I survived 92 attacks with 213 direct impacts on my base. Yeah

The sun was coming up over Hungary as we continued to fly to Ramstein Germany. I sat up front in the cockpit as we descended into Ramstein. It was foggy at the airport. My plan was to land at Ramstein, take a taxi to Frankfurt Airport. But the fog started to make me wonder if my plan was gonna work or not. Since we left Iraq about 2 hours late, I now have 2 hours to get off this medievac flight, cab it to Frankfurt Airport and get on the flight to Detriot then Phoenix. We landed in the fog and had trouble finding the terminal but with the help of a pickup truck with bright light, we followed him to the terminal. It is 8am and there was nobody around. The terminal has carts to help me with my 5 bags but it costs money. I haven't had money in my wallet for 4 months, where am I gonna get $3 to get a cart to help me get my bags to the curb. I am ticked off that there is nobody around to help me. So I lug my bags to the curb and wait for a taxicab. Finally, one showed up and we loaded up and off we go to Frankfurt at 220 kph, I think that is around 125 mph... in the fog. The fare is unbelievable. It will cost me 170 Euro which I think is $212. It is only a 1 hour drive but what am I gonna do, so I pay it. I get a free baggage cart at the Frankfurt Airport and go up to the Northwest Airline counter, 1 hour before my flight is scheduled to leave but they tell me it is oversold and that I can't get on that flight. No big deal...I just go over to Continental Airlines and get on a flight that leaves in about 1.5 hours to Newark. I check 4 of my bags and off I go. I finally get on the airplane and we flew 9.5 hours to Newark. I watched 2 movies since I couldn't fall asleep. I go into the bathroom and notice that I look tired and nasty. So I shave and actually wash my hair in the sink and then laugh since I don't have comb with me. SO I end up improvising and use my patches on my uniform to comb my hair. I look and feel better now but I still can't sleep. After we land at Newark, I have about 1 hour to go to baggage claim, grab my 4 other bags and go thru customs, again, and then recheck my bags to Phoenix and then go thru security to the gate. whew! But I am being paged over the airport system to go back to customs. They just wanted to find out if I knew I had a gun in my bag....Duh!!!!, So back thru security etc...to the gate with about 7 minutes to spare. I had a whole row to myself for the 5.5 hour flight to Phoenix. And as we descended into Phoenix, the sun was starting to set. It was now 7pm Phoenix time and the sun that I saw rise over Hungary was now setting over Phoenix, what a day. It was a total of about 46 hours up and nearly 24 hours in the air. I got a great reception in Phoenix, and was very surprised to see Matt had made the trip from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Very nice!! All in all, I think I am glad that I had the opportunity to volunteer to help do my part with the war on terrorism but I really feel bad for all of the people that had to either learn something different about their job and/or work way beyond the normal scope of their job to help me get to and from the war zone. I have a personal debt of gratitude to my unit's administration section (1 Person office, I won't say your name here but you know who you are...thanks, she will my guest of honor at a very nice dinner here in Phoenix soon). Thanks to everyone again that prayed and supported me during this time. This is that and that is now really that.

Last Night of Vacation

Well, this is it, my last night in Iraq. Although I won't leave here until tomorrow nite, I am considering this my last night. I will be up tomorrow at 0830 and probably not go to sleep until I get to Phoenix at 4:45pm Sat afternoon. I'm flying Northwest Airlines from Frankfurt Germany Saturday morning and stop in Detroit, change planes and then on to Phoenix. I had a great send off here tonite with all of the new people that just got here and we laughed like we were on a Southwest overnite. The general here is absolutely one of the best commanders I've ever worked for. He is direct, fun, motivated and has complete situational awareness on everything. It reminds me of the commanders I had in Oklahoma in the reserves. This general loves to get down to the business of fighting the enemy and keeping them from ever thinking about bringing the fight to us in the US. We need to continue to do what we can to ensure these evil doers do not bring this terrorism back to our land ever again. And just so you know, we are fighting them really well here and are making sure they don't have a chance to run away. We are fighting the good fight here and you can be proud of the men and women that are doing our countries business over here. I'm not talking about me, but the young men and women where the rubber meets the road. That's the tough part but we are doing it in an awesome manner. I'm glad to have been a small part of this. I have a sense of accomplishment, something good not only for me personally, or for the Iraqi people, but for what we have done to ensure our nation's security and freedoms we all enjoy. Thanks for the ride folks, it has been fun writing in this blog. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed re-living my experiences during this Vacation In Iraq. That is really that.

Humvee

Well today I cleaned my hooch and packed all of my worldly goods into my bags. But I need to mail home about 5 boxes. I don't know where all the stuff came from but I have too much. Most of the stuff is really so that I don't jam all of my belongings into a bag. This is not a good packing technique, so I decided to mail some stuff. I also mopped my hooch, so now it smells like Pine Sol. I wonder if my replacement will mind the smell. I have to room with him until I leave on Fri nite. But that really is ok since I don't usually spend too much time in my hooch. Especially now that my laptop does not work. It's been broke for about 2 weeks now and it's driving me crazy. But at least I'm at the end of my vacation here so I can live with it for a few more days.

The picture today is from a Humvee that I had to drive around here lately. They really are very basic vehicles. Not much room and very wide on the road. The systems in it are, well, non-existent. But it goes off road really well, which of course is always fun.

My replacement is enroute as I write this. He should arrive here later today around noontime. His arrival got...you guessed it....moved back, but I know he is airborne and almost here. Regardless I have to leave fri because my AF Reserve orders are already extended somewhat and they don't like to do that very much so I need to get back to finish these orders. I probably will make one more entry before I leave so expect something great on the last post. That is that.

Arizona State

I am sitting here watching a live broadcast of college football. Arizona State vs University of Southern California and ASU is winning! It's halftime and #14 ASU is winning against #1 USC. The bad part about this is that it is nearly 1:00 am and I'm gonna finish watching the game and it'll be probably 1:30 or 2am when its over. But I like college football and it's great to watch it live.

I saw a cloud yesterday. That is the first cloud I've seen since I left Phoenix in May. No kidding, even in Phoenix we get to see clouds every now and then, but this place was the exact same every day of every week that I've been here except yesterday. I saw 2 clouds and even smelled rain somewhere. They say when it starts to rain over here, that it never stops until after the first of the year. There will be mud everywhere; the moon-like dust is just like concrete when it gets wet and I hope I get out of here before the rain starts in a few weeks. My luck, I will leave on the day that it rains here and I'll be nasty for the trip. But I'll still leave. They have me leaving Balad next Friday nite on a medievac to Ramstein Germany, then on Saturday afternoon I fly on a commercial flight to Phoenix. That may change based on my previous experience so I'll see what happens. That is that.

Packing

I finally feel better with my cold mostly all gone, the weather is below 100 degrees and there hasn't been any dust in a month. I understand that I might have had a bad attitude in my last post but I felt that I needed to let you guys know alittle bit of what I'm going thru here as I wait for my replacement to get here. But I prayed for guidance and wisdom to just let me not worry about things I can't control and to go on with my normal bubbly attitude. I think I have done ok in that respect.

My last few weeks here have been very busy with several congressmen and other VIPs. The entourage of these people are impressed with themselves. I love that I can stand toe to toe with them and let them know that you need to treat people better and you'll get better service for whatever you want. Honey and flies concept I think. But, it has been fun to talk with some high level folks in our government. I think things will continue to be busy up until the time I leave.

I started packing up my room today. I have so much stuff that I probably need another bag or so. I don't mind that I have dusty and dirty bags to put the stuff into as long as it all fits. I will probably be throwing stuff away when I get back because they are so dirty. And the dust will never come out of the stuff anyway. It's too far gone. My socks are clean but they have a brown hue to them, and my t-shirts are fading to purple. But it's nice to be packing stuff. Next project clean my hooch and release all of those dust bunnies.

Life in Iraq could have you living in a mud hut with a satellite dish on top like in the picture today. That is that.

A Mess

My desk is a mess. I am so glad that I don't have to a desk for my normal job because it is messy. I don't know what that means about my personality and such but I can't seem to keep it cleaned off. As soon as I clear it off, another pile is started. In fact, I'm not sure I even clear it off, I think I just move it from one place to another. So let me summarize....my hooch is a mess, my office is a mess and now I've come to realization that my desk is messy. Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe it is me that is a mess. I know many of you would agree that it is me that is a mess and right now I have to agree, I'm a mess. I am going through a tough period here now for me and I can't seem to concentrate or focus on things for too long. I find that when I HAVE to do something I put maximum effort to accomplish the job, but my mind just shuts down. I worry too much about things I can't control. So, I am gonna get up tomorrow and work at just getting thru the day without shutting down too many times. I'm ok but my head and stomach hurts right now. So I'm off to my hooch to take a Nyquil and drift off to na na land. I have been fighting my first cold over here and I feel like someone has hit me in the head with a 2x4. Sorry about the past few posts but you guys wanted to see the life of someone in a combat zone, and I'm ready to turn over this war to other people. It will get better. That is that.

Don's Replacement

The continuing saga of my replacement has taken another turn. He now scheduled to get here around Oct 6th. Not that big of a deal but it would be nice to seem something consistent so that my travel plans can be made. But I'll keep everyone laughing at me being goofy. What else are you gonna do?

I can't believe how fast it gets dark here now. And how cool it has become in the evenings and morning. And I didn't bring anything cool weather clothes, not that we could wear them. We wear only uniforms, exercise uniform or our work uniform. No civilian clothes allowed. That is that.

Baghdad Fun

I had a very long day yesterday. I made my weekly trip to Baghdad for my usual meeting at one of the Palaces and so as the day went on and on, I began to wonder if I should have gotten up from bed. The early morning flight went smoothly until we had a fire in one of the engines on the helicopter. First off, I’m a fixed wing pilot and I didn’t know that helicopters had engines must less two of them. I guess I just thought that the rotor blades turned by something other than an engine. We were cruising along at 30 feet and 165 mph with the sun just coming up over the horizon. The air is cool, finally, and the windows are open, so you really feel the breeze. The helicopter was full of passengers, 10 of us in this UH-60 Blackhawk, and 10 in the other Blackhawk that was flying with us. By the way, Billy Blanks was in the other helicopter, you know him from TaeBow...neither did I. But the calm of the morning was interrupted by a bright FIRE light followed by lots of activity from the door gunners and pilots. The door gunners would hang out the window to look up at the rotor blades. The pilots were trying to figure out if it was a real fire or not. Me personally would have started a climb and then go heads down to read checklists. But here we are a 30 feet with a possible fire. Not to mention we are over bad guy territory in the Sunni Triangle. I know these guys are doing a great job but I feel for my gun to make sure I have ammo already loaded...I do!! The other helicopter falls back to look us over and I guess we look good because we don’t land immediately, but we keep flying towards Baghdad. After we land, I look at the helicopter as I walk away and see that there is no damage on the helicopter. The mechanics are standing by to fix the problem. By the time I walk to the palace entrance to go to my meeting the helicopter is cranked up and flies away. The meeting was the best part of the day, it was short. I then meet up with some US Army guys that show me a system I need to evaluate to see if it would work at Balad. I spend the next 5 hours in different locations all around the Baghdad Airport. As I go from place to place, snipers are shooting. So we duck into buildings, wait until it is clear, wait a bit more, then we go about our business. Then another sniper pops up and he starts shooting again in our direction. We are near the place we were going so we speed up and go into the building. Now we do what we need to do in this building and let’s just say that the sniper stops. I finish my evaluation and head back to the helicopter pad. I have to wait 2 hours for the next flight back to Balad. ZZZZZZZ, nope...people are slamming doors. Then the news comes that our helicopter has crashed and we need to just wait and they will try to get us another helicopter to fly us to Balad. Now the 2 hours has turned into 5, then 6…it’s dark now...very dark. But finally another helicopter arrives, we load up in the dark and off we go. Hmmm I wonder, night flight, over Baghdad at night.. I just hope the pilots have the helicopter’s lights off. They do and the pilots are flying on night vision goggles. As we fly over Baghdad, it looks like any other city in the world. But if you focus on the streets you see people everywhere. They are in their cars in gridlock at street intersections. There must be 100,000 people all in the streets. So I’m thinking are they nice or are they ticked off at something. I see people shooting rifles in the air, so I’m thinking they are ticked off at something. Then as we work our way out of the city lights and into the dark desert, I see more things flying around than I like. But I finally see Balad from the air and I notice something, it has way too many lights, bright lights. I think in a combat zone, you don’t want to use very bright lights because it makes for a good target. As we cross over the fence of the base, the door gunner’s gun is lowered into the safety position and our wheels finally touch down at Balad and we unbuckle ourselves and leave the helicopter, I start to laugh at the whole day. The guy I went with has his glasses on crooked and his helmet is on backward and he lost his ear plugs, all on this last flight. He told me that as we boarded the helicopter in Baghdad, he was having trouble getting strapped in and in fact probably wasn’t strapped in as the helicopter lifted off. We get into the truck to drive back to our HQ we finally get to take our bullet proof vest and helmet off, and we notice we stink. I mean we stink bad!! But what are you gonna do when you carry around an extra 45 pounds that is strapped close to your body. All in all not a fun day in Iraq, exciting but not fun. I have just another 10-12 days and I’ll be heading away from this vacation garden spot. Thanks for the prayers, and keep em coming. The picture today is from our base, it shows mileage to spots all around the country. That is that.

High School Friends

Today, I got an email from a dear ole friend...Dawn. Notice I didn't say old because we aren't old and in fact when I wrote back to her I was mentally in high school again. It's nice to have long term friends like that. She gets to work with another HS friend Brenda and I think that it's rare. Rare to go thru life with people you grew up with. Sandy is also one of those rare people that can hang out with her childhood friend. It is nice to see them stay in touch with each other. I wish more people did that. Melody has a dear friend, Beth, from 2nd grade that has been with her ever since then and it has been great for me to watch them grow up and turn into beautiful ladies, ladies with class and taste. I have the occasional Christmas card from childhood friends but I don't really have any close friends from the childhood days, except my brothers, and well, they have to like me. A few of my friends from the early days have passed away and that is tough sometimes for me to look back and wonder what it would have been like to go thru life with these guys. I have found that being in the USAF for all these years, and flying fighters etc...you try not to get too close to each other because of the inherent danger of flying fighters and any airplane for that matter. But we all have fun with people we've met along the way. I have developed some great friends since I left the active duty USAF and have some long term friends now from my reserve duty at Tinker AFB, Vance AFB, Williams Airfield and even SWA. But that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the childhood friends that stay friends forever, that are special and worth anything you can do to keep that friendship alive and going strong. That is what life is all about, friends and family. Everybody changes either good or bad and it is how you change and the manner in which you change that makes people want to stay in touch. I have developed some friends here in Iraq that I know we'll stay in contact because of what we've done here. We've experienced some highs and lows and we've even had the look in our eyes that's either terror or incredible exhilaration when our plan worked...well. So those kinds of moments are rare and times like that make a common bond that will have people making the effort to stay in contact. It's worth the good memories, thanks Dawn. So everyone go call someone from High School and say hey!! That is that!

My Bad

I can't believe I haven't written in such a long time. It seems to me that I wrote something just the other day, but I can't really remember what I wrote about. So my bad. My fault for not taking the time to relax and write about things here in the middle of the Sunni Triangle.

Things are getting interesting as the Iraqis approach the vote for their constitution. The insurgents have increased their attacks on our military as well as the civilian population. I find that the people of Iraq are eventually gonna get fed up with the insurgents killing innocent people and fight back themselves more. We have been training the Iraqi Police and Military at a fast pace, in fact there are approximately 300,000 Iraqi trained to protect and fight for their country. This number is getting bigger by the day, but they still need our help to help them stabilize their country. We are definitely doing that but it's a tough and difficult task. It took our country a long time to approve our constitution but people are expecting them to approve their constitution within a year. The fight for their country and how we help is accurately recorded in The Stars and Stripes. This newspaper is available overseas including here for free. In the US you can subscribe to it at www.stripes.com. I have read it more than a few times and can tell you it is accurate and non-biased.

I've heard from my replacement and he says that he'll be leaving his home in St Louis on 26 Sep. So a few days later and he'll be here. I'll give him 2 or 3 days spin-up and then I'll head on the Freedom Bird. So somewhere in the first week of Oct I'll leave Iraq for good. I have had the opportunity to see old friends since I've been here. I just surprised my buddy from 10 years ago who is flying in the Homestead Reserve unit. They just arrived here a few days ago. Boy has he gotten grey headed. haha... Not me. I look like I'm 28 years old. And that is really that.

New Recruits

This war is going badly. Not really of course but when the new people arrived and if they have to start asking me questions about things then the war is in big trouble. It is strange to me that I am the old guy here. Even the General has two months less time than me. I get a kick out of how guys are trying to figure out their ritual in the showers and that aren't quite getting it right just yet. The way they mess up the ritual and kind of look around to see if anybody noticed their foulup. Like watching someone try and figure out how to do the feet ritual. Like how to go from taking off your shoes and socks without touching the wet and icky floor to putting on your shower shoes and taking a shower without the icky shower curtain hitting you....well anywhere. Then to watch them try to brush their teeth without using sink water is funny because how else do you get rid of the foam from the toothpaste. Ahh the new beans..seems like yesterday when I was going thru those hurdles. But being the old pro now, I'm in and out of the showers and walking back to my hooch in less than 8 minutes. The best part of the new guys and gals is that .... you aren't gonna believe this..... they are asking me how to do Powerpoint. That is a crack up. I was presented with a patch yesterday by one of my buddies that left, it was a patch I can wear on my uniform that has "1000 hours Powerpoint" on it. I got a little bit teary. Ha. I can make a briefing in less than 14 hours now.

Not much activity from the bad guys lately...guess we did some good work last week. The new guy haven't seen an attack yet. That is that.

Football and Laptop

This is weird to be over here and watching football. It's 11pm and football is on. Weird. It's just hard to believe that it's already football season. But that's ok by me. I like football, either college or pro, it's all good. But I don't know how much longer I can stay up and watch football. I have to be back to work early tomorrow morning so I think as soon as I finish this blog I'll be heading back to my hooch. The folks on tv are saying that AZ Cardinals are gonna be the surprise team of the year. I hope so!

They have pushed my return date back further now, to early Oct. Of course the frustrating part is that the AF has not officially told me anything. I'm hearing all of this second hand and I need to tell the folks here so that travel arrangement can be cancelled and made for a different day. At least I get to watch my friends leave.:( My hooch needs a cleaning before my replacement gets here. I definitely have a bachelor's pad. With no roommate I just leave stuff everywhere. Stuff is everywhere. I take out trash routinely but there is no method to where I put my clothes. The only place I keep uncluttered is the spare bed. I have to iron my flight suit daily because Haji-wash cleans my clothes but they also just wringle the heck of them. My nitestand is crowded with Orange Crush, and 7Up full or empty, sunflower seeds, almonds, and chip ahoys. Wow as I write this I'm thinking that I'm a true pig; but it's making me hungry. The other night I knocked one of my Orange Crush cans off the nightstand and it made a big noise. I heard my new neighbor next door hollar out and hit the floor. Speaking of noise, I guess I'm getting used to attacks. I slept right through them last night. I woke up to the "All Clear" signal.

My laptop is failing me. It seems to have gotten too much dust inside the guts of it. Even though I used "dust off" every week, it seems to be just quitting on me. I need it to work 3 more weeks till I leave so I can have something to do in my hooch. If that quits completely on me, I'll go crazy. That is that.

Vince Vaughn

I believe the computer problems are fixed. The internet here is running very well now and everything looks to be back to normal. It has been 4 days since I wrote on this blog but it seems like yesterday. Time is flying by and things are getting done over here. We've had some great successes with using our awesome military power over the past few days and if you saw Fox News sometime on weds you might have seen some video of an attack that we did with our Predator. It clearly shows some guys carrying mortar tubes and setting up and shooting at our base. They got some shots off before we took care of them. They got exactly what they deserved.

The actor Vince Vaughn is here for a day or so. The picture today is the setup staged photograph session he would allow. I thought it was kind of odd that he dictated how the meet and greet would go. I was like he was afraid of things around here. Nice guy though. We talked alot before and after the photo thing but he is here for the premiere of his latest movie "The Wedding Crashers". But I don't know why he would not let people take photos when he was just standing around. Before the show, the General and I were up on our roof top talking and having a cigar when Vince pops up and sits down and just shoots the bull with us. Nice enough guy though, very tall. He’s just weird on the photos. Oh well.

My replacement saga continues. First off, the last word I got was that he was gonna be here on the 10th of Sept. Then on Fri, 2 Sep, he emails me and says that he can't make the 10th but that he was trying to push his report back to the 26th to take care of things. I immediately sent an email to the people in the know about replacements, and I asked them if they knew anything about the extension of my replacement. So with the 4 day weekend back in the US, I thought when everyone returned to work on Tues the 6th, someone should have replied back to me by now, but nope. So my flight that is scheduled to leave on the 12th probably will not happen. In fact, it was funny...kinda, yesterday, the 7th, I show up at work and there is a travel itinerary on my desk to leave with all of my buddies that night. I can't leave without doing a face to face in brief with my replacement with all of the things going on here. So I told them to push it back while I try and figure out what is going on with the swap out. But it was tough to see all of my buddies leave. It was a big tease. I kept the piece of paper just in case I just wanted to stow away later in the night. It was odd seeing most of the people I've worked here leave. To see them just go into the night is strangely uncomfortable. It's like you've become great friends with everyone because all we do is work and then you wake up the next morning and they are gone. We've spent all this time together, thru the good results of our hard work and thru the bad results of insurgent successes. We laughed at all hours of the day and night, and even saw complete terror in these faces; they probably even saw it in mine. But I am very happy to see them go away from this war zone. They all did tremendous work and I know that they will never forget their time at Balad AB. I'm sure I'll stay in touch with some of them for a long time. And as I was talking with the General last night, he said that it was tough to see his friends leave. He will watch 3 of these rotations before he gets to leave. He's here for a year. The new people bring that new energy and enthusiasm we all had when we arrived. They are already running with the ball here. There is no let up and I can tell my energy is not what these guys have right now, I'm tired and need a break, but I have 3 more weeks, tops. That is that.

Sandy's Birthday

Well, the computer problems continue here in Iraq. It is the computer like pipeline for this area that is causing the problems. It makes it terribly difficult to do our jobs. The computer is a great thing but when we don't have it we feel like we are really handicapped but actually we aren't we just have to things differently and more efficiently. I am getting pretty good a powerpoint presentations. I like the way you can kind of freak people out with the flying, zooming or twirling photos or words. But it takes tons of time to make it look good. I would rather not be so impressive and use the extra time elsewhere but where am I gonna go here?

I've also gotten word that I may be staying alittle bit longer than what I told you. The USAF is telling me now my replacement will be getting here around the 26th of Sep and that I'll get to leave a few days after that...So standby for more changes. It's unusual these days to get so many changes to a troop movement but I am the exception. I'll just keep going and going till someone says go away.

Sandy's birthday is today and I hope she is having a great birthday weekend. I think she probably will be having fun with her family, which I think has gotten closer over the years. I like that. But I don't know how she got way older than me haha. She's been volunteering to help out with an animal rescue group that specializes in dogs. She takes them in for a day so that they get the exercise they need. She then will take them back to the rescue ...place? after she watches them for the day. Most of the time she'll get a new dog every time she volunteers. That way she doesn't get attached to a particular dog. Although she's getting attached to a dog named Patti. That is good, it keeps her busy. Melody I think is taking her out to lunch also sometime this week as well, I think that's what she said, sorry Melody if you didn't.

Well, I leaving work to go watch a movie..Herbie Fully Loaded rated G. Should be so much fun!! :( That is that.

Katrina

Due to the hurricane, the USAF computers are jammed so I'll limit the blog for the next few days. Thanks and that is that.

My Replacement

Well I heard yesterday that I have a replacement. He was tasked short-notice to come here after my original replacement became medically disqualified. This guy is coming from St Louis and he didn't sound excited to be coming here to Balad. He was set to retire next year and was getting ready to ease into retirement. But I've emailed with him and let him know that it's a great way to end a career in the military. It is the center of the military's presence here in Iraq and the position will use every bit of his experience to effectively make contributions. So hopefully, it will be a positive time for him. He is due to be here on the 10th of Sep and my flight out is scheduled for the 12th. So we'll see how the travel arrangements go since many people leave here and spent time in either Qatar, Frankfurt, Shannon Ireland, or Norfolk, or Baltimore before they connect you to flights to your base or city. Some people are spending 22 hours on a plane just to get to the US mainland. So this should be interesting.

Well, everyone here has concerns for the people on the Gulf coast. We are watching the news reports about New Orleans and Gulfport and we can't believe that actually happened. I'm asking that you direct your prayers toward these folks in all of these areas since they really need the power of prayer to help them. Then the reports of the Baghdad protests and subsequent deaths just makes you cringe. I was in Baghdad today and saw the masses in the streets. An unbelieveable amount of people. But I was in some high level US leadership meetings that are great to attend to but no cameras were allowed, unless you were the official press corp. But it was something to remember. That is that.

20 minutes

I went to church today and I came right back to my desk to write this blog. I wanted to write down my gut reaction to the sermon. That doesn't sound good does it, gut reaction. But this is good. One of the base Chaplains, a 30 year old USAF Captain, gave the sermon today. The sermon lasted 20 minutes and I firmly believe that he changed many people's lives, all in 20 minutes. He talked about Grace and Faith and how it has related to his life. What I've noticed about the sermons over the past 3 months has been that they are sermons of life. How things relate to life. I guess all of the sermons I've been to in my life do that. But I guess with all of the war and death and distance from loved ones and friends, I've been paying more attention. But today's sermon struck close to home to everyone in the Chapel tent. He laid his life of Grace and Faith out on his sleeve for everyone to see and feel. Most of the sermons here cause people to get misty, especially the pastors, but this one sermon seemed to keep people from moving in their seats. He talked how his young life was like many young boys growing up except that his family liked to argue. So he sought refuge in a hidden place in his house and just got away from it all. He wasn't scared or anything like that, he just said he wanted to get away from all the arguing. As he grew up he realized that life is not what you expect it to be. He thought life was suppose to be like what you see on tv or suppose to be like how you see a neighbor across the street lives. As he lives his life as a Chaplain, he feels like people believe he is living a perfect life. That people see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. He is always smiling but when he doesn't smile, he believes people think something is wrong with the Chaplain. Chaplains aren't supposed to have a bad day. He says that he is not perfect, that he has made mistakes and continues to make mistakes in life. His first marriage failed because he failed his marriage. It was only after this failed marriage that he felt the need to be honest to himself about his life and to be honest about his life with God. Then he said something in his sermon that struck me hard. He said as a Chaplain, he doesn't feel worthy of God's Grace. A Chaplain said that, wow! That's how I feel; and he is immersed in the ministry all the time. I think we all try to live up to the expectations of God but of course we all fall short. But to hear a Chaplain say all of this, I think, puts our world into perspective. We have the Grace from God no matter what, if we have Faith, God will direct us to do what he wants from us in the manner and direction that God wants us to go. We choose to walk with God knowing that we slip during the walk, or we choose not to. The acceptance of that fact is the very core, I believe, of Faith and the acceptance of God's Grace thru Jesus. It is that simple...yes or no. That is that, Amen.

Good Times

I am so sorry that I haven't written on this blog lately but there has been alot of activity around this area; and it's all been good. But it makes for some very strange hours that involve working the long hours going to my hooch only to return to work about 3 hours later. So I finally have time to write and I have to tell you I'm energized by everything. This place is incredible. There is so much going on here that if you want to be somebody in the Air Force, this is the place to get your ticket stamped. The quality of work that goes on during combat operations is also incredible. The results of your work are immediate in most cases and the action taken made someone else in the field very happy. So I'm glad I'm here but I'm tired and need a rest.

There is no word on my replacement, but they are continuing to plan the transportation for all of us to leave in the next few weeks. I just don't exactly know when I'll leave.

Oh in case you haven't heard, the Iraqi government has renamed their cities. I've attached the new map as the picture for today. I hope it comes out ok on the blog. That is that.

Another Crazy Day

Thank goodness I'm a Pilot. I know my limitations. I know that I cannot do anything associated with electrical work. I know that I cannot do woodworking. I thought I could do comedy...you know the one-liner type. Like a stand-up comic only I would be a blog comic. Nope, I can't do that. My last post really was suppose to be funny..really. But I got at least 12 emails that asked me if I was all right, or that it's good to vent in combat, or that you really need a vacation or my favorite "chill brother". Oh well, enough of that.

Today was one of those days where the bad guys decided to stir us up again. At least it was not in the middle of the night. The attack came right after another change of command ceremony in a tent. There were nine mortars hitting in our housing area. The best part is the initial radio call over the brick from my buddy. He was out of breath when he made the radio call and his pitch was high like a girl (Don no jokes, see para 1 above). His call went something like this "...I over here at ..uhmm this tent..and hmmm..... i've been hit by something hmmm.....(higher pitch) i've been hit by a mortar". Now of course everyone heard this radio call. The tent is right next door about 100 yards away to my office building. Me and my office mate got up and started for the door to go check on him. We heard other explosions coming from all around but we wanted to go check on him. The alarms started sounding and the explosions were all outside. These attacks don't usually last too long and they had at that time already launched about 4 or 5. We were stopped by a close one that hit nearby and we decided to take cover. After about 3 minutes or so, a radio call went out to him to check on his status. He said "oh yeah it hit close but I'm ok". So when it was all over about 1 hour later my buddy and our unit's Lt came back into our building and he was still pumped up. We went to the site and took photos of the blast with him pointing at it. He was driving his pickup truck and he said he felt someone crash into his truck. As he looked around to see who hit him, he saw no other vehicle and a plume of smoke right outside his window about 6 feet away. I got out of his truck and started running toward a nearby tent. This is when he made the radio call. But .... the tent was locked. So he runs back to the truck, mortars hitting all around, he jumps in the truck, jams on the gas and off he goes in a cloud of dust. Off to the safety of a nearby building. There were some injures around the base and some pretty good damage but still nothing serious! We were lucky...again. Keep the prayers coming, because again here is proof of a protecting spirit. That is that.

Why is it?

Why is it?

That my shoes seem to untie themselves everytime I have my arms full of stuff?
That I always forget something in my room immediately after closing the door?
That people brush their teeth in the bathroom that has 3 sinks and 15 toliets and never use the bathroom with 15 sinks and no toliets? This one bothers more that it should?
That my hair will not train itself like it did when I was younger, in fact it goes opposite of the direction I want it to go?
That the places we go to eat here smells like a locker room?
That people stand in line to eat at this place?
That people here do not wash their cars or trucks?
That people use the windshield wipers to brush off the dust instead of a carwash?
That drivers here do not remember any training they received in the US about parking?
That parking spaces can be anywhere including on a sidewalk or street or half of each?
That there are people that just read books all day?
That most people just smile all day long?
That my laptop just turns off during a DVD without any cause?
That I can't fix my DVD from doing this?
That we eat three times a day even though we don't need to eat? BTW I eat once a day
That I go to meetings that last 2 hours without anything getting accomplished?
That the Army offers a $50,000 bonus to join? The Air Force hardly nothing?
That the Air Force has no recruiting problems, the Army does?
That I keep wondering why?

By the way... I need to apologize about the Mr Badknee comment. I vented for a moment and that is not the right thing to do. It is not his fault that he had surgery in July. I should not have made that comment, sorry!
That is that?

Trip Report

I have been out of town for a few days so I haven't had the opportunity to write in my blog. I miss that. It gives me a chance to relax and put things down on paper that might or might not be interesting. But I found out I like to write, and that's ok. I have been writing Medals for guys here and it's a privilege for me to be a part of that process. I know that people are not in a safe, stateside place, doing a job that is dangerous to begin with, but now in a combat environment, doing more than they would normally do because of the mission. I want to recognize those people and I think they should get everything they can get. But as we wind down this tour of duty for everyone, we are all getting our travel arrangements that may or may not happen. We are all getting excited to leave. BUT, my replacement yesterday emailed the powers that be and said that he was medically disqualified to come here. He had knee surgery in early July and he was not recovering fast enough. Ugh! So they are scrambling now to find someone on short notice to fill his spot. That's bad for me, bad for the guy that is shortnoticed to come here and I guess good for Mr. Badknee. Oh well, I will keep going and going and going until they say go home. Then I'm taking some time off to relax.

My trip to Tallil again went well, even got to see the Ziggurat again. I think I would never get tired of going to that place. It affects me like no other place on earth. To walk on the same grounds as all of those people 4000 years ago is truly amazing. I look around to try and get a sense of that place and to see what was there. It is strange to see broken pottery everywhere. It looks like rocks but it's pottery. There are literally millions of pieces all over the ground. And the stories of the Kings and Queens and their servants, it really is something. I guess on that spot nearly 500,000 people lived there. Now 6 people, one family lives there. But at the base 4 miles away there are plenty of people. I had to spend the night and that was different. It was in a tent that was cool enough, but I felt like I was camping. The wind blew about 20 knots all night and I could hear every sound outside the tent. So I slept about 3 hours....maybe. And the flight to and from this place. Well let's just say that I am recommending that no Air Force people fly on this plane. I am writing the Army Flight Safety folks about the way these pilots fly their airplane. 12 of us went down to Tallil. We flew on a C-23 Sherpa. It's a twin engine prop transport. Not very big, but very ugly. We took off and flew below treetop level for the first 40 minutes, then we climbed to 10,000 feet, then we did a combat descent to 20 feet again for the last 30 minutes. They did this going to Tallil and coming back to Balad. The would climb up and over powerlines then push back over to nearly zero g to go back down to 20 feet again. Crazy! It's not a fighter with one person on board, it a transport. These aircraft aren't designed to do all of that hard yanking and banking. So, I'm glad to be back at Balad. The photo was taken out of the window of the C-23. You can see the shadow of the aircraft. You look at the wing and the ground shadow and there is not much distance from the shadow to the wing. That's way too low. That is that.

Baghdad Trip

I just got back from my weekly trip to Baghdad. This trip was fun because I got to see new sights. I had to go to the International Zone today for some meetings. This zone is the hotspot of the city and many many things are happening in this area. This is also the area that the Saddam trial will be held. The picture today is of a building that was damaged from our bombs a few years ago. Notice it is right on a freeway and the main part of this building is damaged. Very precise bombing. In fact, you can go down into this building now and see the effects that the bomb did to the building. Way Cool. Sorry Vicki. But it just goes to show you that our technology is very good now and we try to be precise as we can when we hit buildings in a city. Anyway. I made a film also of the flight over Baghdad in the Blackhawk helicopter that I think is really good. I hope to be able to put music to it to make it even more interesting. The sound from my camera recorded the buffeting of the helicopter as we flew low and fast and that doesn't make for a good sound. I like how the helicopter pilots fly these Blackhawks all around the country. They fly them lower than you can imagine and they have to climb up and over the power lines. Way Cool. But I keep thinking about that movie "Blackhawk Down" and how easy it is to take one of these down. So...low and fast is good in my book. I'll try and put a Blackhawk picture in this post as well. Most of these Blackhawk army pilots and door gunner, and mechanics are from the Arizona Guard. Pray for them, since they are always flying, everywhere. I hope to be able to see those guys when they return to Phoenix. Life is good anywhere back in the good ole USA, believe me! Everytime I go to the other cities around Iraq, I'm reminded that we have our problems but all of these problems can be solved if people remain tolerate of others and help one another, even if it's just a little bit. That is that.

Getting Ready

All day today I've been a mood that probably is not good. I've been thinking I can see the end of the road here and that I'll be back in the land of the real free and home of the brave soon. And I've been thinking that it wouldn't take much time for me to pack up my stuff and head right for the passenger terminal here. The picture today is that terminal/tent. It's pretty high tech stuff as you can see. I think it is not even chalk, I think it is magic markers. Fancy huh? I'm getting moody and want people to hurry along and not drive the speed limit or I hate standing in line waiting to get ice cream. I want things done now! I want Ice Cream NOW! But I'll have to wait and see if my replacement shows up on time. I'm sure he's trying is best to get here on time but the military travel arrangment thingy doesn't always work as well as Southwest Airlines. But at least there are planes leaving all day and night, every day and night, loudly, going somewhere else. I know everyone is still doing there job and I am too but everybody is counting the days. And mine is 17 days until my replacement gets here yippee. That is that!

Peace and Quiet

I am so glad that today has been very peaceful. Not too many airplanes taking off, no attacks, no phone ringing off the hook, no visitors and not too many meetings. Whew! I think I'll sleep in late tomorrow and just start my day after church. Then maybe I'll go home early. The peace and quite is strange, something that you get used to quickly. I keep telling people don't get complacent with the bad guys. You have to think they are smart and can outwit us into thinking they aren't gonna hurt us, but they can and will. The next few days will be tough, so pray that things go well with the Iraqi people and their future.

I have found that the best thing so far in this war is the ice cream. We get such an unlimited supply of ice cream here that I'm concerned I'll gain weight while I'm here. I hope not. It's Baskin Robins 31 flavors, but they only give us 3 flavors, but I love them all. I probably will not eat any ice cream when I get home since I know I have other things to eat that I love. Wings, bar-b-que, steaks, french fries, you know all the good stuff. I better stop thinking about this stuff, I've got some time left. I don't want to say for sure, but it looks like my replacement may be showing up here on the 1st of Sept. So, we'll see if that actually happens but I'm hopeful and I'm already thinking it might happen that soon, that's only 19 days away. I saw the new Deuce Bigalow in Europe last night, thank goodness it was free, but it was funny if you like gutter stuff like I do....sometimes. But I'd wait till the $1 movie starts showing it if I were you. Well, I'm off to my hooch on this Saturday night in Iraq. Enjoy your Saturday and I'll enjoy my sleep. That is that.

Sleepy People

Today, I got a chance to shake the hands of some powerful people that are within our government. In fact I got to give them a briefing on our mission here at Balad. In fact, I think I put them to sleep. These powerful gov't people are visiting and I just have to say that we are doing a great job getting them to see very important missions here and I am usually the one that gives the Wing's mission briefing to all the muckiety mucks. I like doing it and it is a good briefing but today, there was one guy that kept nodding off. The other guys were awesome but it just makes me laugh that the one guy on the other side of the aisle just couldn't pay attention. Kinda funny when you read between my lines with this stuff. But they are having a great time here and enjoying the dusty air as much as we are.

Now to the important stuff, why aren't my pictures getting thru on this website, anyone, anyone, bueller, bueller. So I'm gonna try to sent the last few this time and see if this blog with pictures works. We have been having some internet problems and this I'm sure is the reason it is not sending the photos. So here goes. I think I owe you the U-2 picture, and the cigar on the dusty roof picture. So wish me luck and that is that.

Religious Talks

First off, I don't know what is going on with the internet, but it is making me angry because I keep losing my masterpiece here. I have to re-write this wonderful reading material from my memory. And if anyone knows me well you know my memory is faulty at best.

I got the opportunity to brief the Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force in charge of the religious climate within the Air Force. I thought the whole briefing and the following discussions were good. We talked about how people need to set an example for their people by leading by example. Understand that religious diversity is not bad and that we all must have tolerance for each other and what we bring to the war fighter. No two people are alike yet we expect the warfighers to look the same, act the same, to accomplish a common mission with a common goal. It has always been tough to get people to work together that are from different environments. I think maybe the way is not break people down when they enter the Air Force to rebuild them back up the Air Force way, may not be all that good of an idea. Each and every time I give people the authority with the accompanying accountability to accomplish a goal that may look to high to achieve, they exceed that goal. That is good for them as well as the mission. Empower people and they make themselves proud and their bosses. Whew!!! Sorry. That hurt my head.

Also today I had the pleasure running around this base trying to get all of the pieces of construction I've been setting up together so that when I leave..... The next guy will have a pretty good idea where this base stands with the construction projects. I know that this isn't very warlike but with everything I do here this is just one of the things that keeps me busy. All of this construction is good for the infrastructure of the base and the surrounding communities. It also applies to the other bases this Wing is responsible for within Iraq. This kind of work is like the Department of Commerce and Department of Public Works within a city back home. But I also have include the military necessity or military defenses capabilities. I know this is very warlike but it is the hardest for me to gather groups together to make things happen, when they need to happen, without losing any body that is in close contact with the enemy. We all understand about making sure it is the right thing to do and the proportion of firepower must be measured against the risk to the friendlies closeby but the sensors we have available to us to make sure that no friendlies are nearby is truly star wars like. This is a good thing.

And I don't know if the pictures are working out. I don't get the normal confirmation that a photo has been placed in my blog. But here goes anyway. I found today's picture from our photo files and think it is one of the best pictures I seen here. It's a picture of Balad, Iraq. If you notice the square just left of center that is our base. The Tigris River can be seen running along as it snakes its way south and east. The picture is from an aircraft that flies really high and takes pictures, I'll let you guess. But the picture shows that there is green along the Tigris and the green is really spreading out and into the farmlands. This is a good thing. And that is that.

Dust Again

I don't know if you've been watching the news lately or not but there has been a great big dust storm over here for a while now. I hate to bring up the dust stuff again but I have to. I don't think I'll ever get used to these dust storms. They roll in and settle for days. We are in our 4th day of this stuff. The picture I have today is from our rooftop looking toward our flags. I got a package today from my buddy Spike in Phoenix who sent me 12 cigars, a hat, and a box to store the cigars. So I wanted to take a picture and send it to him to let him know how much I appreciated the gifts. But if you notice on the tiles on the ground in the picture, you'll see the dust. The dust went flying around when I sat down, and it really does make imprints in the dust like you are on the moon. And walking around outside is tough. You can't breath in deep because you will suck in enough dust that it feels like you have a brick in your mouth. I hate to feel dust on my eyelids also, it puts a grit in your eyes and it makes it difficult to focus on something. I wonder long term what is going on inside me and my lungs full of dirt.

We have been getting attack daily during for a while now. It makes sense for them to do that with this dust, and we still are able to fight back with the howitzers. I really like the sound of those counterfire shells as they leave the gun. It literally rattles the room or building and makes a definite sound that you know it's ours. I was involved in the improving the way the counterfire battery gets approval to shoot. It was a little cumbersome until I got the principle players together to make sure we knew all the players and what each of our parts were. We have alot of different types of aircraft flying out of this place and the restrictions for counterfire were ineffective for fighting against a moving enemy. All I did was to facilitate a discussion and we all agreed that we need to get better at what we do. I hope the changes we are making will make a difference to how many attacks we are getting. We need a let up. It is a good tactic by the bad guys to keep us up all night but we keep the pressure back on them and we are getting much more of them then they are of us. They have only hurt a few of us lately with the mortars and rockets. That is that.

Mike's Birthday

Today is my much older brother's birthday. He is so much older than me (14 months). He lives in St Augustine, FL, the oldest city in the US. He just became a private pilot last fall and he took me flying with him. He did an awesome job considering I didn't shut the door very well. But I was proud of him in how he handled the door opening, he just calmly turned the airplane while coordinating with the tower for a return to landing. After a brief stop to shut the door we were off and back into the air again. The photo today with this post is from us goofing around while flying around at 2000 feet looking looking at the beach. It was a fun day for both of us. Flying with Mike was one of my two favorite flights ever. The other flight is when Matt got his Private Pilot's License right before he left for the USAF Academy a couple of years ago. He took me flying with him as well. It's neat for me to see them as Pilot in Command and awesome to watch as they both did an outstanding job.

Yesterday I also got to see a free concert from a "Country Eastern" group (that was their joke) called the Rascal Flatts. They are on a 5 day tour of Iraq where they go to many military places and put on a concert. They played for nearly 1 hour then they stayed for 2 more hours signing autographs, taking pictures with everyone, and just talking with the troops. They did this 2 times yesterday. They did not leave until the last person left the place. They probably took 700 pictures on each of the concerts. The last concert of the day ended at 10:00pm but they didn't leave the venue until after midnight. Then they were up early to catch a 7:00am helicopter flight to Baghdad where they were gonna put on 3 concert that day. We are all glad to see things like that. It diverts our attention from the daily grind here and allows us to relax and enjoy ourselves. Everyone enjoyed the concert and the music was really good. That is that

Change of Command

I went to my 6th change of command ceremony today. We change commands all time since we are at an AF Wing level here which means we have 8 Groups that report to our Wing. So we are all over this country because we have people all over. But the good news is, while we were right in the middle of today's ceremony, which was here at Balad, we got attacked. It was funny to see the leadership look at each other and smile knowing that people in formation would have to be leaving immediately to run to "attack positions". The leadership continued with the official change of command ceremony just like nothing was going on outside. The whole process takes usually around 45 minutes but today we had to stay inside the venue until the attack was over. They have to send people out and into all parts of the base to check for unexploded ordinances. This process usually takes about 25 minutes. But when the all clear is given everybody leaves and goes about their business.

I like to watch people. I like to see how they react in stressful situations. It says alot about someone when they are put in a stressful situation and they become someone different than they normally would be otherwise. I notice office politics and how they affect other people as well. I guess since I don't usually work in an office I don't see dynamics of different characters working or not working together. I see people that for one reason or other try to make other people look bad. This is really high schoolish. I've recently watched some lady captains that are in respectable positions act like they are truly in high school. It is amazing to me to listen to what these "girls" talk about and how they act. I decided that I won't play their game. I will just sit back and watch them make idiots of themselves only to watch how they will get out of the situation they put themselves into. And they think that their job is THE most important job around. It just cracks me up. I almost got caught up in their little game by having to interact with them during my PowerPoint briefing. I had to spend a little bit of time with them during the preparation. I felt bad for the people they were talking about and felt bad that I was inside their little conversation. I was shocked. I tried to say what I thought would stop them but nothing matters to them. So, I'm glad that I don't typically have to work around people like that. I wonder if it is everywhere. People making themselves feel good by talking badly about someone else.

My picture today is of me... or least the top of my head. I thought this actually depicts how deep I was in PowerPoint. I felt like I was over my head and sinking. My head is right above the computer screen. But, notice the trashcan, it's full, and all of the water bottles. I'm a pig! That is that.

PowerPoint

First let me apologize for not writing for a few days. I actually took a little bit of time off the other day to enjoy some time away from my desk. I'm paying for it now though. I've been involved in setting up a briefing for some visitors and the briefing requires the use of a program called "PowerPoint". I know probably most of you have heard of this program since it's been around the military for more than a few years. I even heard of it, it's just being a Pilot, I've never had the desire to learn to use the devil program. It is a program that the USAF uses to present slides and pictures within the slides. Let me back up a little bit. I started the USAF when they had manual typewriters...no electricity for the thing. Then we got the IBM selectric I and II with an erase button. And briefing slides were on clear sheets of plastic viewed on an overhead projector. That technology is like open cockpits are to modern airplanes. So, I've been trying to figure out this "wonderful" program because it makes words fade in and out or swirl around to the center of the screen. whoppee!! But that is the way of the Air Force, so I'm learning how to get people dizzy, at least that's my goal, when they have to listen to my briefings. In fact I have to get up every 15 minutes and take a break or else I'll fly right out of my chair. I will try to make a PowerPoint slide show for everyone when I get home to show you what I learned in the war.

Oh a side note, they tell us that there is a shortage of Gatorade back in the US since there is so much over here. I believe there is a possiblity of that being true since I never seen so many pallets of Gatorade. But we have no more Red Bull. I think that might have been an insurgent tactic since we've had some attacks lately and no energy to do anything about it. Haha. I bet they wish that were true, since we are making great progress with our fight over here. And remember don't believe everything you read in the newspapers about things that are going bad here because it is so far from the truth. That is so that.

0300

Two nights ago we were attacked at 3am by mortars from the same guy. We call him the "mortarman". He sent 9 mortars into the AF housing area. He's not too precise with his mortars but then how precise do you have to be to get inside a small area. He got off these 9 rounds and escaped before our counter fire could return the favor. But the whole attack took less than 3 minutes. It is a strange feeling to wake up to explosions all around outside your bedroom. Each one either getting closer or farther away and you wait to hear the next one because you know it didn't come thru your roof if you hear it somewhere else. It did come thru the roof of an AF hooch. In fact it was a room with two guys. The picture today is from these guy's hooch. One guy at just got called to work at 0230 to work an urgent issue and the other guy stayed in his bed asleep. When the mortar hit their hooch, it detonated at contact with the roof, spraying shrapnel onto the next hooches in an up and out kind of blast pattern. Luckily it didn't spray down and in or else the guy sleeping would have probably been killed. Most of the blast damaged happened on the side of the hooch of the guy that went to work. It's an amazing thing to see, the damage from a 82mm mortar. The guy that went to work had photographs of his family taped to the wall beside his bed. The wall had damage from pieces of shrapnel but amazingly his photographs were not touched. I can only believe that a higher power is watching over us when so many of these things happen in a location that a higher probability of casuality should have resulted. This is to me a physical touch of God, the results of prayer from people all over this world praying for us to safely do God's tough work for the people of Iraq that can't or don't have the ability to overpower these evil people. Of all the 9 mortars there was only one person hurt. He had minor injuries to his arm and side, when one of the mortars hit right near him as he was walking to the bathroom. No one else was hurt. Keep the prayers coming and I'll keep the good reports coming home. That is that.

Visitor

I'm glad that nearly every day we get to meet people that we otherwise would not have met. I got the opportunity to be involved in the planning for a visit from the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. He came to this region and made a visit here to see the troops as well as visit the Air Force Theater Hospital. Of course the entourage that follows him is huge and the personal security detail is much larger than the one that follows me around but it is cool to watch the process of planning a visit like this, making the itinery work for us and him, and making the security arrangements as simple and detailed as possible. He gave a 20 minute talk to nearly 500 troops then he spent time taking photos with everyone. My part was to ensure that the aircraft/helos arrived with no impact on the combat missions that were currently ongoing and that his motorcade made it from the flightline to the venue for his speech. I also had to work with the PSD (see above) to make sure that the flightline had no unauthorized people in the area. It is was a challenge since the flightline area is under construction and the contractors are ... local nationals or TCNs, third country nationals. So I had to get them away from the area without letting them know why. A little bit touchy since they are under contract to do something for the Air Force but I had to get them to stop work without breaking the long-term contract. But once the Secretary got to the speaking venue, my job was over, so I got to relax in the back of the venue and talk to his staff. As he was leaving, I was talking to his staffer and he came over to ask him a question, shook my hand and asked if I wanted a picture with him. So it was kinda cool to get a picture with him. Then off he goes into his car to continue his motorcade to the hospital. I went back to the office and grabbed my gear and left for my hooch. I was wiped out. That is that.

Haircut

I went to the barbershop yesterday and I have to tell you that I look alot like Brad Pitt when he had really short hair. The picture today is what I look like after the haircut. This will be the last time I ever cut my hair this short, unless Universal Studios offers me a lot of money. But the whole process here to get a haircut is very funny to me. The army guys get a haircut that I don't quite understand. They go bald all the way up the side of their head to a spot that is right at the crown of their head. Then they have a patch of long hair. And as I watch the barbers cut their hair, the barbers don't usually get it exactly straight and since it's on the back of their head, they don't know it is not straight. Looks funny. So I'm trying to get a new type of haircut for this place. I wanted something that was like a crew cut but not too bald. The guy did ok I guess, but he asked me to close my eyes then he started cutting my eyebrow hair. Boy, that hurts your self esteem. I think of my Grandfather. I guess I need to "watch" that in the future.

At midnight last night we went into body gear. I thought, another attack and geez, I was alseep. So as I do what is required to protect myself from the mortars, I grab my brick and listen in to what's going on. As it turns out, and I feel sorry for the guy, this guy was driving his humvee around the base and his tire blows out. He grabs his brick, calls the alarm for attack and he goes running into a ditch with mud from ...... liquid from..... a porto potty leak. And then as the security force show up to checkout the damage, they find the blown tire and no other damage. He did the right thing but wow, he woke up the whole base. And that is that.

Amazing

I have been limiting what I say primarily because I don't want people to worry too much. But I've been getting requests for more information about what actually is going on. I will try to give more details but you still need to remember that what I say is not current or useable (hopefully) since the enemy can use this information against us. Mom is not gonna like this change but I think it is important to give a proper perspective of what goes on here and what I live through on a near daily basis. Like even as I write this, we are under mortar attack. I've really gotten used to the attacks, if you ever can, but I know that one of them may have my number on it but I really don't worry. I am cautious and I wear the protective equipment but if I went around worrying about the attacks we get, then nothing would get done. A little bit ago, there was 9 mortars that hit close that nearly caused a huge amount of damage but all it did was make some huge craters. One guy got injured but it wasn't life threatening. I am keeping a separate, accurate record of the attacks, the effects of the attack and what I was doing at the time of the attack. It is interesting reading. I like reading back over that log and see where I've been in the last two months. This place is full of awesome and amazing people. With the specific attacks we get, people continue to work hard at their duties. I can say without a doubt that I can't think of anyone that I dislike. Well that could be said for everybody everywhere, I can get along with everybody. Don't know what that says about me or my character, but everybody here is nice to be around. Everyone gets along with no bickering at all. Everyone respects everyone. We are here to do an important job and everyone does it very well. Practical jokes happen all the time and people are always having fun, it's a great work environment. But let me assure you that the work we are doing is amazingly important and that people's lives are at stake with nearly every tactical and strategic decision. I am also amazed at the quality of work that is done the first time around. Cuts down on the actual amount of time and energy to accomplish something. I know that Mom will not like this new trend in this blog, but maybe Dad can filter it for her. And I won't have bad stuff daily because I think a lot of the stuff I encounter is funny or at least self-induced. That is that.

The Pool

Yesterday I spent a relaxing time at the Iraqi Olympic Training Pool. This is a pool that Uday Hussein used to train/beat up the Iraqi Swimming Team. It is an odd structure in this part of the world. It is a top quality facility complete with a 10 meter dive platform for the high dive routines. But if you leave the facility, the people of this area live in mud houses with reeds for the roof. What a way to live.

But the water was cool and I was hot. I needed a break from the military stuff, plus I needed to wash my physical training (PT) uniform. They are the shorts and t-shirt I have to wear to and from the bathroom each morning. I usually send them off to the free cleaners a twice a week but, that leaves me either buying another set of PT uniforms so I can wear that pair while the first pair is at the cleaners or just wear them...ewwww dirty. So recently I've been wearing them dirty ewwww. It's mainly dust since everything gets dusty even when I carry my clothes from the free cleaners. By the time I get back to my hooch, there is a layer of dust on my clothes. That drives me crazy. But the pool was a good time to get them wet and dust them off, so why not!! As soon as I got to the pool, I knew I was in trouble though. Because, everyone there is tanned and well.... much younger and well....in shape. Here I am almost 45 years old, wearing PT shorts that are too short for my comfort and these white, almost cast like sticks with shoes on them pointing up to a belly that looks like the Michelin balloon floating above a football stadium. Not a good feeling for me. But of course, at this point what are you gonna do, so I pretend to strut around like you are very comfortable and confident and just walk to the pool and dive in. Well, I guess when you are younger you don't worry about diving into a pool. I found myself at the edge of the pool trying to figure how to get into the pool without making a big splash or causing more attention to myself than I already am with my white chicken legs. So picture me with these white, no let me say blinding white skinned legs and belly, standing at the edge of the pool trying to stick my toe in the water to see if it's too cold only to realize again that this is a dumb idea since it's 120 degree and no matter how cold the water is I have to get in. Mostly because everyone is reaching for their sunglasses to shield their eyes from the reflecting glare of me. Then I try to make a cool guy entrance into the water because I know I can't make a graceful dive into the pool without a big splash. But I feel like I have to make a dive since everyone else is making dives But as I start my dive I learn the momentum of the belly, white as it may be, is not easy to control. The belly actually leads the way and you fall way short of your intended water impact point. Making the belly flop sound that we all love to hear, on someone else. Then of course as you are screaming underwater from the pain you want to keep swimming underwater in another direction so that when you do surface people can't recognize it's you that just did the belly flop. Of course, that doesn't work because you are old and white easily recognizable and you can't hold your breath as long as you would like. So you just swim to the side, confidently get out of the pool and go sit down. I was in the sun for 14 minutes and I felt like I was getting sunburned. So I move to the shadows of the pool area and I notice I'm the only one in the shadow. I stay in this area of the pool for a good 10 minutes before I just get up and strut out like the proud man I want to be. That is that for now.

Too Busy

So sorry I haven't written but the pace around this place is fast and the days don't seem to end. We are working on a few issues that won't make this blog but it's all good stuff and there are plenty of people who like what we are doing. Right now I'm in my 18th hour of work today. I'm drained beyond believe and I have to be back to work in 5.5 hours from this moment. My boss was on the news today giving a press conference and it was neat to watch the whole process. I sometimes wonder how or why the press ask questions that they have to know will never get answered because it's a dumb question.

I promise to provide a much better blog report tomorrow when things will calm down a bit and I can relax and enjoy my vacation here in Iraq. That is that for now, sorry.

Electricity

As luck would have it, right after I wrote my last post, we have electrical problems on this base. This problem is self-induced however. The local electrician cut thru a main power line and well, there goes the electricity. The generators cranked up with no problems but overheated after running in 125 degree heat for a few hours. So, the generator would not work, the main power was cut and getting fixed and our hooches were well over 100 degrees at 11:00pm. Plus we had a huge fire in a helicopter hanger, then a plane crash (no injuries), all in the hour or so after I got back from my trip to Kirkuk.

The trip to Kirkuk was highlighted by the stellar landing by our army pilots. Not!
The runway is nearly 10,000 feet long, but we didn't land until the runway remaining sign said 2,000 feet remaining. We landed and got on the brakes real hard. The general I was with was alittle ticked off. I'm having to get with all of the flying airplanes here, 17 different types, and help make them understand that this type of flying is unsafe and unacceptable. I guess they think they are gonna get shot down on short final. I don't think so.

Here another picture of the

The City of Ur

Yesterday I went to Abraham's house. I was part of a group of dignitaries that got a tour of a base close by and of the Ziggurat. The Ziggurat is a 4000 year old Pyramid like structure that was built well ummm 4000 years ago. That's some 2000 years before Jesus. It was amazing to be in the presence of such old history. The time of this era was in Genesis 12. Now that's a long time ago. It was a special tour that the Iraqi people set up with an Iraqi tour guide. This tour guide's age was anywhere from 30-65. We could not figure out his age. He taught himself English from a dictionary. His great-great grandfather was one of the few people that helped to excavate the area. Abraham's House was on the property of the Ziggurat and it was huge. It had 27 rooms with a 2nd floor for two rooms. It had a remarkable rain collection system that enabled them to catch and use water every time it rained. The area is very desolate now but the guide said that there was water all around the area. In fact he said that the Garden of Eden was close to this area. Hard to believe now. The picture with this post is of me on the Ziggurat steps. The tombs of this area have not been completely excavated, only a portion of the tombs are open. We walked down about 30 feet below ground level into a tomb. They buried Kings when they died and also their servants alive in these tombs. The guards also were duped into believing they would be let out of the tomb at a later time but when they excavated these tombs they found the guards at the door. I took lots of pictures so I'm gonna put them up for view when I get home.

I've been flying all over this country and get to see this place at night. If you didn't know it it could be any place in west Texas. Not too many lights on the ground, and then all of a sudden a big city. Baghdad has lights just like any other city in the US. They say in the newspapers that Baghdad is without electricity most of the time. That's not true. They have electrical problems occasionally because it's so dang hot here and the electricity system can't take it, just like Phoenix. When I was walking around the Ziggurat it was 120 degrees. The electrical load varies all over the country and they don't have the best electical system but they have electricity. The towns are spread out just like our towns and you see street lights everywhere as well.

Tomorrow I'm gonna go to the pool on base. It is an Olympic sized pool with all of the diving boards. Uday Hussein was in charge of the Iraqi Olympic Swimming Team and they used this facility to train. Should be neat to see. I'm so white though I hope I don't blind anyone or make them sick when they see real chicken legs. That is that.

Fun Times in Iraq

This has been one of those weeks where you just sit at the end of each day and say to yourself, what did I do to deserve that. I hate that most of the things that go on around here has to be filtered by me when I write this stuff because it would affect the security of our missions here but I can say that I'm keeping good notes and I expect someday to let you guys live a few days in my life here.

I went to a Combat Memorial Service Weds and was incredibly moved by the whole experience. I had a reserved seat up on the front row at our base theater for the service. Now I've been to military memorial services before, in fact in my F-16 days, I had to go to at least one a year for guys I knew. But to be in this huge theater that is packed with mostly army guys and girls and to not hear a sound is quite impressive. As the Memorial Service began the Army Band played music. Some soldiers got up to say a few words about their fallen buddy. The soldiers that got up to talk were this guy's friends from home that were servicing with him here, they were his Commanders and of course from other squad mates. At the end of the ceremony the Squad Leader gave a roll call to his troops. As he called out each name in his squad, each person yelled out from the silence, "Here Sergeant". As he called out this soldier's name, of course, there was no answer. He called out his full name....no answer. He called out his name one more time...no answer. Then there was a 3 gun shot salute, followed by taps. At the front of the stage was this fallen soldier's boots, with an M-16 sticking up from the boots. Then they placed his helmet on the M-16 gun and wrapped the dog-tags so that they dangled down. Then one by one the front row slowly walk up to the boots, and give a slow salute. The whole theater did this. I hope to never witness this ever again.

This week also has me traveling around this country. I got back from Kirkuk late last night. I was in Kirkuk for some strategy meetings and I have to say that the pictures I took were the type that someday I'll look back at say, now that's a great shot. If you know what I mean. Whew, that is that.

I Need a Real Vacation

I find myself thinking of the hurricane approaching Fla and of course I think of my family that lives in Fla but I also think of the rain. I would love to be in some rain. I know that Arizona doesn't usually get a lot of rain but I don't understand why this place makes me want rain more than normal. It's a bit more humid here since the Tigris River is about 1/4 mile away. The thoughts of rain, water, and I naturally think of beach, boats, and beer. When I think of these things I think vacation and that is what I really need. A good long vacation. Well we all know that's not gonna happen anytime soon, so Don just get over it. I even wouldn't mind doing a trip for Southwest Airlines, since they provide a good hotel with good food, usually, and nice company to visit with on the trip.

I gave a briefing to Central Command people today. They are from the Tampa HQ and they liked to hear all the progress we are making here in Iraq. I know the hard work of all of the young people is the tough work. I just have to sit back and plan for the actions as it relates to use of the land for airpower. But in the time that I've been here, I've witnessed tremendous progress. But the good part of the briefing was that I had a 'flash drive'. I needed to use a computer at the briefing and when I got to the tent for the briefing, they did not have the ability to use the internet where I have my briefing saved. Thankfully, I also put the briefing on a little biddie stick or a flash drive. It is smaller than a pencil but it can store up to 1GB of data. So luckily I put put the briefing on this stick...just in case. And all I had to do was plug it in and off I go into my briefing. Technology is great. Sorry not much to report today, this even bores me. But that's the way things are here. Really jammed packed with lots of excitement following periods of boredom.

Also I saw something in Aviation Week and Space Technology, thanks Rick, that I must reply to the editor. It was an letter to the editor that was published June 20, 2005 from Mr Milavic entitled "Enough is Enough". It basically said that the security of airports and pilots with guns in the cockpit is primarily for the pilots's ego and it does not have anything to do with keeping the airplanes out of terrorist's hand and away from national interest targets. And I can assure you that what Mr. Milavic said in his letter is completely untrue. So I plan to write soon to that magazine and give Mr Milavic a piece of my mind. And that is that.

Patriot Detail

Yesterday, I left rather quickly from my desk. The call came over the brick for a Patriot Detail. This Detail is when there is a fellow American that was killed in action and they have prepped the body for transport back home...to the United States. This soldier was from this base. He was returning back to base from a mission outside the wire when a VBIED, Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, detonated as the Humvee drove over it. He was the driver. The others in the vehicle suffered non-life threatening injuries, very lucky but still...
The Patriot Detail is a ceremony that honors the fallen. Every time that a soldier comes through this base on the way home a Patriot Detail is called. This call came yesterday morning. All types of military members from Airman to Sergeants to LTs to Captains, Majors, Lt Colonel, Colonels, Brigadier Generals, from the Army, to Navy, Air Force, Marines, British Soldiers, Aussie Soldiers. Any and all walks of life on this bases came out to send this soldier home with a dignified ceremony and justified respect. We formed up in parallel formation, from smallest to tallest. Rank does not matter here in this formation. We marched silently toward where a Baltimore Guard C-130 was parked on the ramp. We marched past the C-130 then turned back to come back straight toward the aircraft's back ramp door. As I was marching, I noticed that the formation line was incredibly long as I was near the back of the line. It was something I will never forget, seeing the 2 long lines of nearly 300 soldiers, marching silently is one of the most heart wrenching ceremonies I've ever been a part of or witness to. As we got to the aircraft we were directed to march on either side of the door. We came to attention, did a facing maneuver to face the inside. At the designated time, they brought the flag covered casket slowly up between the formation. A slow hand salute was given as the pall bearers made their way up the ramp and onto the aircraft. It was noon time, the heat was intense, the sweat was rolling down everyone's brow, but not one person moved. A Chaplain gave a 10 minute ceremony, then it was over. And as we all filed out, and away from the aircraft, I felt emotionally drained. I did not want to do anything else for the rest of the day. I went to lunch and regrouped my feelings. I noticed that you must put that emotion into a small corner of your gut and move on. There are many people here counting on you to do your job. And we must not let tragedies like this or what happened in London affect our resolve to keep the fight IN THE BAD GUY'S BACKYARD NOT OURS. Please remember we did not start this war but we will finish it. That is that.

Yippe

Yea!! We are finally out of our equipment which is good for everyone. We have lightened our load and it feels wonderful. I don't care how hot it is now since it's not nearly as hot with all that stuff on your body. It's like wearing a 45 pound jacket in 112 degree heat. Glad to not have to wear it anymore.... until????

Had an opportunity yesterday to go shoot a couple of machine guns. It was a really fun time because you usually can't shoot these things in the automatic mode except while in combat. I was at shooting pit at the edge of the base and we got to shoot as much as we needed to get familiar with the M-4 and M-16. The picture today is of me and my trusty M-16. I probably shot upwards of 300 rounds of ammo. The shots were making the gun very hot of course so it was difficult to hold on to. Everyone forgot their gloves. Plus the blazing hot sun added to the difficulty in handling the weapons. My favorite weapon is the M-4. I didn't get a picture of the M-4, I forgot my camera as well. Let me explain first how this happened. A call came over the brick for help on a redeployment issue at the shooting range. The HQ staff has been involved with mission tasks and there were missions that were left uncovered by those redeploying home. So there are several positions in these missions that may need to be filled by qualified shooters. These missions will probably never happen but we needed to have bodies in these spots, just in case. HQ is where I work and couldn't see assiging an additional mission somewhere else. I like to lead from the front, by example, and not by the power of ordering others to do something extra that you could do yourself.

In my next post I will talk about what I'm about to leave my desk to go do. It is my first experience with a Patriot Detail. More on that when I get back. Prayers for the Detail. Mom I'm not leaving to go outside the wire. That is that.

Still Dragging

I don't know what the deal is but everyone is dragging. As I said yesterday, everyone has the look I haven't ever seen before. It is look of being overworked and under stress. We know that this place is "under construction" and the enemy is close but we are just operating on adrenaline or Red Bull. I am watching people just go about their job in the exceptional fashion they usually do but the moment they leave their job, you see them just sag and look as though they just been in a fight. As I watch TV today and see the London attacks I see the eyes of the close victims and recognize that look.

I saw an F-16 takeoff earlier today. It was a normal take-off except that one of his landing gear did not come up. Now normally this problem is not a big deal. But now combine that with the fact that you are flying over some bad guy terrritory and it changes the way things are played out. You can't go too fast because the gear is not made to go very fast. And you can't go too slow because you're an easy target. What's a fighter pilot to do? I know he or she did a great job and I watched the landing without incident. But you hope that someone else on the ground doesn't need that plane. That is that.