Less than 1 month left!

Well we are down to less than 1 month remaining here at FOB Shank.  We have already packed 2 containers with our personal gear.  It was nice to actually free up some room in our living area.  Our X-box video game system finally decided to quit on us due to all the dust and dirt.  We have found a new game to play-darts.  We held a tournament and world rankings were established.  I got into the tournament late and had to start at the bottom (19th).  I quickly worked my way up and took on the top seed (CPT Hart) who had successfully defended his title numerous times.  I finished him off with a double bulls-eye to take the #1 spot.  All else is going well.  Here in Afghanistan they had harvest season (which seemed to slow down some of the enemy activity).  Fall is in the air and it is getting a bit cooler.  I believe that the fighting season is starting to dwindle as insurgents are starting to head to Pakistan for the winter.  Hopefully all our timelines will fall into place and we will be back home soon.

Accident Investigation

Last month our sister unit at FOB Salerno had an OH-58 crash that resulted in deaths of both pilots.  I got assigned to conduct the accident investigation for our brigade.  Once assigned, I took a UH-60 Blackhawk ride down to FOB Salerno and spent 2 days gathering up all the information.  I was able to meet up with the Combat Readiness Center's accident investigation team from Fort Rucker as they were already there.  Even though they are two separate investigations we were able to share a lot of the data.  It was nice to get to see FOB Salerno as that was were my buddy Rob from 1-3 in Savannah was stationed.  After 2 days, I was able to return to FOB Shank and spent the next 8 days preparing the report.  It was actually a nice break from the normal routine and it was interesting work.  Once the report was complete, I was back on the flight schedule.  Since I was already now reversed out to a day cycle and we have people on that shift going on leave soon, I am now back on day QRF (quick reaction force).

Enemy Commander!

Sorry that it has taken so long to get back on the blog.  We have all been very busy.  One night earlier in the month my wingman and I were escorting some CH-47's into a landing zone.  As the CH-47's were landing they started to take a lot of enemy fire.  The fire was so intense that they had to abort the landing and leave the area.  Our flight of 2 Apaches were able to find where the fire originated from and made 2 straffing runs on the position.  We both observed a pretty big secondary explosion.  The CH-47's then returned again to infil the ground forces.  Once again, they came under heavy fire even as we provided a close escort and laid down suppressive fire around the landing zone. We found three more people that were out and about when they were not suppose to be ( 2:00 AM) and acting in a tactical manner.  We made a another straffing run with the 30mm cannon and hit the target very well with about 60 rounds.  The ground forces went to the first engagement site and found the three bodies (with RPG's, AK-47's, and cell phones).  We then talked them onto the second engagement site where they found the other three bodies. One of the bodies there was the target of the actual raid and was a high level commander.  It was believed that his presence was why the defense was so intense.  We learned later that his sub-commander fled back to Pakistan the next day due to being so scared!

7 Months down / 5 to go!

We have completed 7 months so far.  Most of our pilots have already taken their R&R.  We still have a few more to go.  This month was the "official" start of the Taliban spring offensive.  Activity did pick up during daylight hours around the area.  We did break up a battle between the Taliban and another faction of extremists "The Hiquini" who were fighting each other.  It was noted that one side (Hiquini) had a anti-aircraft gun.  The air force bombed that and we came in with a flight of 2 Apaches to take out some Taliban to make it even and not look like we have favorites.  Our lead Apache got credit for 2 enemy KIA. Another task force had a OH-58D shot down in a valley to the north.  It turned into a all night/day rescue attempt to retrieve the pilot (1 was killed on impact).  We provided overhead cover for our pathfinders who were on the ground in the area.  Our Apache ended up shooting a Hellfire missile into the wreckage of the OH-58D to destroy it. I now have moved back to a night schedule supporting SEALs and Rangers.  The weather has been very nice. Low 80's during the day and a comfortable 60's at night.

Back from R&R!

Wow!  What a great time I had back at Fort Drum.  I can't believe that the whole process took almost a whole month.  It took 6 days to get home, 15 days at home, and 7 days to get back.  The wife and girls  treated me like a king.  The highlight of the trip home was a weekend at Six Flags Great Escape Indoor Waterpark and hotel.  It was located near Saratoga, NY and was beautiful.  We all loved the warm waterslides and lazy river.  I also enjoyed the great food (both at home and at some of our favorite restuarants).  I purchased a 30-06 rifle for hunting which I look forward to using when we return this fall.  The trip went by way to fast but there were plenty of  great memories made during the 15 days at home.  It is really a great  army program (15 days of free leave and round trip air travel to anywhere in the world that you wanted to go).  Now its back to work and hopefully the next 6 months will go as fast as the first 6 months.



Arrival at Syracuse



Six Flags Great Escape



Sighting in the 30-06

Heading home for some R&R

Well tonight I should find out what time my flight out of Shank leaves.  I can't wait to get home and see the wife and girls.  I am not looking forward to the extreme hassle of the travel though.  I have heard that it should take days to get home.  Oh well, at least I will be on my way home. The weather here has started to heat up pretty quickly.  I no longer need to wear a jacket everywhere which is nice.  I have been able to go on a couple of nice long runs around the perimeter of the base.  The altitude here is almost 7,000 feet MSL.  When we first arrived running for more than about 6 minutes was almost impossible. Now it doesn't seem as bad.  Well next time I post I should be back in the states!

Weather Fronts / R&R around the corner

The weather here at Shank for the last month has been a few days of snow followed by a few days of sun and then the cycle repeats itself.  It has slowed down our flying quite a bit.  Also the ground forces are not patrolling as much in the weather as well.  We have had some more folks head out on their R&R leave this month.  My leave will be mid-March and I am really looking forward to being home for a few weeks.  Looking forward to seeing the family and eating some good food.
 February is always a busy month for me as it is my birthmonth.  That means that I have to do my APART (Annual Proficiency and Readiness Training).  I have to fly with another standardization pilot and be evaluated on all manuevers and tasks that are required to fly the Apache.  In addition to all the studying there is a Flight Physical, Aircrew Cordination Training,  Computer-Based Aircraft Survivabilty Equipment Training, Recognition of Combat Vehicles Test, A test on the Operators Manual for the Apache.  On top of all that we are starting gunnery.  So there is another Threat Vehicle Test,  HGST (Helicopter Gunnery Skills Test), and Gunnery flights that we must do all on top of our 14 hour Quick Reaction Force duty days. So February is always a busy month for me and it is the shortest month.  Oh well, March will be here soon.

Snow

The last 3 days it has been snowing nonstop.  It has actually been a nice break for us.
It is suppose to keep snowing until late Sunday of Monday.  We still go out and pre-flight
the aircraft and run them up to make sure all are working good. Usually there is a snow-ball
fight along the way.  Then we return to the company command post and either watch a movie or play
the Xbox for our 14 hour shift.

crazy 2 weeks

Well the last 2 weeks have been crazy.  First my wife had to be admitted to the hospital for a leg infection.  She ended up having to stay there for almost two whole weeks.  Thanks very much to my parents for quickly making a trip to New York to take care of the kids.  Also thanks to all the support that my wife got from all of her army friends/family.  They did a great job (visiting her in the hospital, taking inital care of the kids, cooking meals, and shoveling snow).  Also thanks for her mom for making the trip up tomorrow to continue to let her get much needed rest.  All of that put my mind to rest knowing that everything was taken care of.
All is still well here at FOB  Shank.  The "Deathstalkers" added 1 more kill to the wall.  It was a high value person who was on the "kill or capture" list.  He was spotted out in the middle of nowhere and since nobody was there to capture him he was killed!  I guess that is one list you dont want to be on.  The weather overall has still been good for flying.  We also gave 2 checkrides that made 2 more Pilot-in-Commands for us.  That will be a big help for scheduling since we have now been sending pilots back on 2 weeks leave.

"Chark Attack"

January 7, 2011

We were doing our preflight this afternoon, when we received a message that we needed to launch in response to a MRAP (armored vehicle) that had hit an IED (improvised explosive device).  We arrived on station in the Chark valley and saw the burning vehicle.  The vehicle had its combat locks on (door locks that can only be opened from the inside) and nobody could get the crew out.  while US forces were trying ro rescue the crew, they started taking fire from a qalat (Afghan house).  This was a complex ambush and the ground forces were in danger.  We established communication with the ground forces radio operator.  While we were getting all the information on where his people where, he got shot in the leg.  We saw the qalat where the enemy was and turned outbound so we could engage the enemy. We selected a N model Missile (Thermobaric Hellfire) and turned inbound.  We launched and destroyed the two story structure.  The thermobaric did a great job.  I saw fire and smoke come out of every window on every floor before the structure collapsed on the left side.  The new radio operator told us they were no longer taking fire. A few minutes later they started taking fire from another qalat down the road.  We turned outbound again and let our wingman select his N model missile (our other missile was a F/A Blast fragmentation).  Our wingman engaged the 2nd qalat and the result was the same.  The battle damage assement for our qalat was 3 enemy killed in action.  2 men were captured from the 2nd building.  One of them being a known IED builder.  To top it all off, we were flying a helicopter that just returned from maintainence and had a shark mouth painted on it!  YATZEE!!



After returning from the "Chark Attack"



Deathstalker "Wall of Death" with 3 new kills!



HAPPY NEW YEAR & "Special Forces" Dan

"2011"

Happy New Year to all!  Its hard to believe that it is already 2011.  Well the new year was marked just like any other day here at FOB Shank.  There wasn't even any type of special meal.  Oh well at least the new year is underway.

"Special Forces" Dan
 Dan is a CW2 in A Co. who was previously Special Forces in his military career.  He is truly amazing.  Fluent in Russian, great with weapons, and etc.  Anyway, Dan decided to build a extra structure next to our Command Post.  From the time he recieved the "go ahead", he had a fork lift move some cargo containers, procured wood and had the 1st picture up within 5 hours all by himself with just a handsaw and a hammer.  he has since had a little help from others, but still only used a handsaw and a hammer.  The 2nd picture is the structure in progress.  next will be the roof.

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.