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!