Christmas

Well Christmas has now come and gone.  I ended up flying most of Christmas morning.  We flew for about 5 hours from 3:00 AM to 8:00AM.  We had to escort a CH-47 around as it made its various stops for resupply/logistics.  The good part was that I was off the rest of Chrsitmas day and the 26th as well.  That gave me time to skype with the family and see the kids receive their gifts.  I also opened my gifts that I had received. Thanks to everybody for the great gifts.  I was also able to skype with all family members in Florida.  All seemed to have a great day.  I cant wait to be home for the next Christmas!

Working with the Air Force

The last two days we have done in-fil/ex-fil missions with the ground forces.  We had the Air Force as well overhead.  In the last two days I have worked with B-1Bombers, F-15, F-16, F-18, A-10, and AC-130's.  It is really amazing the capability that some of these aircraft have.  All the missions went well.  We did respond to a TIC (Troops In Contact).  when the AH-64's arrived, the US troops stopped taking fire from the insurgents.  The insurgents are smart enough to know when to hide.  The ground forces love to have us overhead.

Slowing Down



Deathstalker status wall



It seems that the winter slowdown has started to happen.  There has not been as much incoming mortar rounds (which is good).  Missions for the last 2 nights have been significantly reduced.  there still has been some action since I posted last.  The "Deathstalkers" did take out a insurgent with a RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) who was hiding in a tree at night (from about a mile and a half with the 30mm). Also our day Air Weapons Team responded to a base that was taking enemy fire.  The ground guys talked the AH-64's to where the enemy was located.  The enemy were firing mortars, RPG's, and machine gun fire at the base.  The AH-64's made a "gun run" with the 30mm cannon and killed 2 insurgents and wounded 4 others.  We will update our "status wall" located outside the Command Post with our latest victories.  I took a picture to post, but it doesn't reflect the latest actions yet.  We were waiting for the exact number of enemy killed on the last mission before painting.  Other than that, Christmas is approaching and we have started to decorate the Command Post.  Packages are arriving everyday with goodies.

Not much new

There has not been too much new going on here.  Missions have been the standard set.  Escorts, In-Fils, Ex-Fils, Medevac coverage, and looking for lost UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).  The "Deathstalkers" did get 3 more insurgent kills, along with 2 wounded and captured.  I have been told that missions will slow down in the winter.  I then can concentrate on completing some of the pilots APARTS (Annual Proficiency And Readiness Training).  It is a once a year training flight where the rated pilot flies with his instructor pilot just to confirm that the rated pilot is proficient in all tasks and manuevers that are required to operate and employ the AH-64D.  Right now we have 3 pilots that are in their APART "window".   While waiting for missions we have all been busy playing "Tiger Woods Golf" on the Xbox in the CP (Command Post).  Everyone has designed a player that looks and acts like themselves.  It makes the time go by fast.



Tiger Woods Golf



Chark

This week there has been action in the bowl to the south of Shank called Chark.  There is a US outpost there and they have started to patrol the city area on foot.  A few days ago one of our day AWTs was flying in support of the ground element, when the ground guys started taking fire.  The AH-64's followed some of the "bad guys" across the river to a urban area where they thought they had refuge.  As the AH-64's circled, the bad guys on the ground still had possession of their weapons and seemed to move tactically looking at the helicopters as if they were trying to get in a position to fire.  The AH-64's got clearance to  fire at the group of insurgents and launched a F/A Hellfire (Blast Fragmentation) missile and put it right between two structures where the bad guys were. The end result was 4 enemy killed and 2 wounded.  Hopefully that will be a lesson to those guys that we can find, follow, and engage them, even when they think they are protected by the urban area.

Everybody in place

All of our pilots and crew chiefs have arrived and everybody is getting to work.
Tonight should be the last orientation flights for our new arrivals and they will
be put on the mission schedule as either day AWT or night AWT (Air Weapons Team).
I flew the last 2 nights.  Last night/day we provided air cover for a 20 vehicle ground
convoy that was providing resupply to a nearby base.  The convoy route had a history of
IED's and ambush points.  We screened ahead of the convoy and reported to them anything
that seemed out of the norm.  They arrived at their destination and we broke station and returned

back to Shank.  They rest of the shift we were able to catch up on Monday night Football. 



After returning from convoy escort



IED emplacers "Terminated"

Last night a surveillance system identified some people placing an IED in a road not
to far from here.  An AWT (Air Weapons Team) was launched to the area and completed
a handover from the surveillance system for positive identification.  The IED emplacers were
then "Terminated" with a Hellfire Missile.  As far as Shank goes, operations are normal.  I did
download some movies from a friends hard drive.  I downloaded the entire collection of "The Twilight Zone".  Those are always fun to watch.  Some (3) of our pilots also arrived last night from Baghram.  It was good to see them arrive.  The rest should arrive later tonight. Then they will go through 2 days of
academics, 2 flights of the local area (day/night), and then put on the schedule for normal missions.

Starting to get a little chilly

Well I have been on a consistant schedule now for a few weeks.  Still on the 2400-1200 night air weapons team (AWT) shift.  Every night we have flown usually at least 2 missions.  Usually a escort mission for CH-47's to deliver supplies and people to various bases as well as a deliberate air cover for an infiltration of ground troops to search villages.  The weather here has started to change to being much cooler.  The days are comfortable but the nights are chilly.  I recieved some boxes from my wife Son Mi and my parents filled with all types of things that I needed.  Thank you guys very much!  Everything made this place a little more tolerable.  I took a few pictures of my living area.  It isn't much but I thought you might like to see it.  I will start taking more pictures soon. 





Long Day

Show time for work today was at 11:00pm.  I was one of 4 pilots assigned to the night Air Weapons Team.  We are suppose to be a quick reaction force and be "on call" to respond anywhere that they need attack assests.  When we recieved our brief, they already had 3 planned missions for us to work.  The 1st mission had us depart at 0050am to provide cover to 2 CH-47's as they dropped infantry into a landing zone near a village where a believed weapons cache was located.  It was our job to observe the landing zone and make sure it was safe for the CH-47's to land.  Then we provided overhead cover as the guys on the ground searched the cache.  We left overhead cover and returned to Shank at 0230am.  Our next mission began at 0430 and was a simple overhead cover as two CH-47's delivered supplies to a observation post.  The landing zone was considered a "moderate threat" and the CH-47's were happy to have attack aircraft overhead.  We returned back to Shank at 0600.  Our final mission had us depart at 0850 in order to provide overhead cover for General Petraeus as he landed at a nearby FOB (Forward Operating Base) and walked out into the local area to meet key leaders.  We were on station until 1100 and then returned to Shank.  All in all it was a long night/day of flying night vision system (NVS), night vision goggles (NVG), and daytime.

Getting settled

We arrived at FOB Shank on the 13th of October early in the morning by C-130 flown lights out with the pilots wearing NVG's (Night Vision Goggles). The FOB itself is a lights out area. We immediatley received classes on the layout of the FOB and its standard operating procedures.  For the next 2 days we had aviation related classes.  On the 14th, we had our first IDF (Indirect Fire), usually a rocket or a mortar round land just inside the FOB.  We went to the bunkers and waited for the all clear.  I flew my first flight on the 16th.  It was a flight that took us out to the live fire range to test the weapons of the aircraft.  We shot 30mm chain gun, 2.75" rockets (Point detonating, Flachette, Smoke, and Illumination). We did that both day and night and returned to the FOB for dust/brownout landings. I flew again on the 17th for a local orientation flight that covered the area that we will be operating in.  It was a day/night flight and lasted about 4 hours.  We were routinly operating above 10,000 feet and using supplemental oxygen.  On the way back to Shank, operations called us that another IDF round impacted the FOB and we were sent to the area where they thought it had come from.  We took a quick look and saw nothing.  We then did a perimeter sweep around the FOB and returned for landing.  While eating a late dinner after the flight, we heard another loud explosion.  We were told that a person (enemy) exploded an IED while trying to move or emplace it nearby.  I will now have a day or two to get myself on cylce to take over as a AMC (Air Mission Commander) for a flight of 2 AWT's (Air Weapons Team - 2 AH-64D's) on the night schedule.

Long Trip

Well after a long trip, I have finally arrived in Afghanistan.  We left Fort Drum, New York on a chartered DC-10 for Ireland.  From Ireland our next stop was in Romania then to Krychtstan (Spelling?).  We spent about 2 days there waiting for our next leg of the trip (a C-17 flight) to Bagrham, Afghanistan.  Once in Bagrham, we did some general academics on Rules of Engagement and other aviation related topics.  Bagrham was a very busy and sprawling airfield.  There were aircraft from Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Army all operating from there.  After a day and a half we were getting on a C-130 for the flight to FOB Shank.  All totaled, it took us a week to arrive from Fort Drum never spending more than a day and a half at any location.

Let the journey begin!

Tomorrow will be the official start day for my journey.
This week was filled with packing and re-packing.  There is
just so much required stuff to take and not enough baggage to
carry it all in.  I tried to spend a lot of quality time with the family.
We took our family photos, had pizza at Cams, and played laser tag
at Velocity with my girls.  Next post will be from the vicinity of
Afghanistan!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Blog that I will update thoughout my journey in Afghanistan.  My plan is to at least update on a weekly basis and keep a record of the events throughout the year.  Since May I have moved the family from Savannah, GA to Fort Drum, NY.  Once integrated into the unit (A Co. TF 2-10), we did a rotation at JRTC (Fort Polk, LA), a Hellfire Shoot, High Altitude Training (Colorado), Gunnery, multiple ranges, progressions of new aviators and so on.  We have now conducted our last flights in the US and have all aviators current in the aircraft under the "night vision system" and "night vision goggles".