Sunday, December 26, 2010

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!

Friday, December 17, 2010

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.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

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.