First Flight!

Alright! I finally got to do my first flight. Everyone has to do CCTs (Combat Crew Training) before we're mission ready. It consists of a few pinnacle landings, some dust landings and an instrument approach, all during the day and at night. Here are a few pics I took from the jump seat before I did mine. I'll be on night shift for awhile so these will probably be the last pictures I post in color for quite some time. Everything else I see for the next few months will be a nice shade of green... I may get to see the sun again in a few months!

Thanksgiving Day!

Here are a few pictures I took on Thanksgiving day. The chow hall was decorated up a bit, but it's still really hard to get into the swing of the holidays when you're so far away from home. The meals were really good and the weather was beautiful. It's hard to look at the mountains and realize how deadly they are. Not only for the weather, but for the evil people lurking up there!


A few of our door gunners itching to go. Don't let the looks fool you... they're killing machines!

Matt was watching our tiny TV in the corner of the room. Pretty interesting about the couple who crashed the white house party!


This is Brian, our reflective belt ninja in action. There are so many rules they've come up with for us here we have to have fun with it. We have to wear our reflective belts between sunset and sunrise wherever we are on the base. Oh, unless we're driving a gator... then reflective belts must be worn at all hours of the day. Along with eye protection and a helmet. Even if it has a windshield. You can NEVER be too safe!


Mmmmmm.... it was pretty nice to have two Thanksgiving meals. One for lunch and one for dinner. I changed it up just a little, but not much.


Ham, turkey, dry corn bread, sweet potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, chocolate cheesecake, a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie (amazing!), sparkling cider, and some eggnog. All in all, it was a pretty decent meal(s).

Fox News Photos!

Well, I made it to the Fox News website. We were eating Thanksgiving lunch when a whole crew of people showed up with cameras in our faces. The American Ambassador to Afghanistan was visiting and wanted to talk to some of the troops, so I guess it was a pretty big deal. Somehow we managed to make it on the website! Here's the link:

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/world/2009/11/26/troops-celebrate-thanksgiving-afghanistan?slide=1

Finally made it!

After our layover in Germany and a quick trip through Kyurgyzstan, we finally made it! For some reason they felt the need to move us in the middle of the night so we didn't get much sleep for the three days we were traveling.



Here we are squeezed into a C-17... literally, squeezed! When we first sat down, my bag was on my chest and I could hardly breathe. We had to sit on the ramp for about an hour and a half waiting for maintenance to fix the flight control problems they were having. After our 24 hour stint in Germany, this was no big deal.


When we finally arrived at 6am, we opted to stay awake the entire day so we could get a jump on fixing our sleep cycle. That was a rough one. We all ended up heading to bed around 6:30 that night, but couldn't sleep past about 3:30 the next morning.


The magnificent entryway to our mansion. Astro was attaching a bungee cord to the door so it wouldn't stay open.


This is my hole... my home for the next year! Thankfully we have internet up and running in our rooms so we don't have to wait for an hour to use the gov't computers.


There's not much to it. But we're constantly reminded that it could be worse! Today we heard about a unit up north that was without showers for six months! They were doing baby wipe showers and bathing in the river until their commander put a stop to it. Supposedly they were getting shot at whenever they did it. Better smelly than sorry, I suppose.


Hopefully I can snag some carpet soon. I'm waiting on a package from my mom and dad that has something I can use to cover the walls. I hear it's some type of fabric with fish on it. Should be pretty awesome!



Jeff informed me after the fact that I shouldn't be letting a bald guy cut my hair! In the end, everything worked out alright. It was only a small trim to hold me over for a few more days.

The first few days...

The trip thus far... D-day started at 7:30pm Sunday night. Loaded bags, said goodbye to family and headed to the terminal... sat around for awhile, then got on the plane.



Leyna and me...


With Matt and Astro.


After an eight hour flight to Germany, we landed in Leipzig for a 2 hour layover for fuel, that turned into eight hours, that turned into 24! Supposedly there were problems with one of the engines and they didn't have the tool to fix it...? That was the story we got.
So we looked at mugs and beer steins for awhile...


Sat around for awhile longer...


... until they finally told us we'd be staying over night. Let me introduce you to my bunk mate. They had us packed in there like sardines. Last time I slept this close to another dude was in SERE school. Thankfully the sleeping pill knocked me out...




... But not before we had a little midnight chow. They were supposed to feed us on the plane, so we ended up eating the in-flight meal. Mmmm....


Finally made it to Manas where we had to search for an open bunk at 4am, then fight over bandwidth. Thankfully we only have to be here for one night!



Enjoying my bunk-top computer session.

One more day...

Only one more day till we're heading out... Our living room is evidence of my procrastination. Still have quite a few things to pack, but I really think it looks worse than it is. I have everything I need, just need to find a place for it!
We'll be heading out soon to go look at guns! Haley's is coming along and might actually start packing soon! We'll see how that works. Then we need to finish the bathroom drain... just a few more things and we'll all done! Please keep us in your prayers... This may be a pretty rough year. Stay in touch!

Here are a few more pics we took on our way to the port to drop off aircraft for the long trip across the 'pond'. I flew with our commander, Cpt Guinn. I'm still proudly sporting my state flag on my helmet.

Waiting to go.

I had to put one in of our amazing kitty doing tricks. Supposedly cats are lame and can't do anything cool. I beg to differ. They'll do anything for a snack.