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.