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.