The crew from Walls' last flight (L-R) me, Walls, Bagley, Jackson, and Serio. It was a pretty standard flight but we had a lot of fun. So often you never know when the last time you are going to do something you love so it was a treat to be able to savor it.

These are two of our standard loads that we move daily. In the foreground are tri-walls that are basically collapsible cardboard boxes with plastic tops and bottoms. The Marines use them a lot since they fit in all their aircraft and they slide easily across the floors. We can carry 12 at a time but the problems arise when they load them up. We have had some over 2000lbs and they fall apart when we try to move them (not to mention the strain on the crewmembers). In the background is a 463L pallet (with 4 tri-walls on it). They work really slick with our rollers installed and we used them all the time on our last rotation. These are the same ones the Air Force use so they can take the cargo directly from the airplane to the helicopter. The problem is none of the Marine helicopters are wide enough so they don't use them at all. It has been a slow process but we are getting the Marines to use them more and more when our unit gets the mission. They are by far the best way to move heavy loads. We can load up to 7000lbs per pallet and even with that much weight they slide easily on the rollers.

Three pretty cool guys - Chastain, Walls, Rieck

The set up for musical chairs. They divided the rounds based on rank so there wouldn't be any hurt feelings (things are always a little different in the military). People really got into it which made it a lot of fun.

Christl hanging out with the two main grill masters - Moore and Flournoy. They did a great job making up mean BBQ sauce with limited ingredients. Moore is drinking one of his Christmas presents (non-alcoholic of course). In the background is the outside of the hanger.

We had our party inside our hanger which is basically plastic over a steel frame. The Marines added front and back just a few weeks ago, good thing because it was right around freezing outside. On each table were games and candies - the whole thing was much more elaborate than I was expecting.

This was Christmas day - working on 176 just like the day before :) Weather-wise it was a beautiful day and a real pleasure to fly. Walls is up on the engine, Ford (our engine mechanic) is right below him and Crow (my pilot) is watching them both.

29 Dec

I haven’t been very motivated lately (at least when it comes to journal writing). It always feels like work to me which is too bad because this is a good way to keep in touch with people, not to mention as a way for me to remember what happens. I am amazed at how much I forget just from week to week. In light of that I am sure I have already forgotten things since my last writing but here is the rest. Christmas day itself was pretty much like Thanksgiving – I did a couple of test flight and ate way too much. We had missions both day and night so it really wasn’t much of a break. At the dinning facility they did a good job with the food and the decorations were once again over the top. I must say that the last couple of weeks have not been good for me health-wise. People have been getting boxes of stuff from family, friends, and strangers and they end up setting it out in the common areas at work. Most of it is really good so I find myself snacking on it all day. I am a little surprised my teeth haven’t started falling out. I made the decision to start cutting back then realized it was Christmas eve. That didn’t work out too well but now I am working on it. We get a maintenance day (no missions) once a month and this month ours was the 27^th so we decided to have our Christmas party that day. It actually felt more like a holiday since only a few people went to work (I had a test flight I needed to finish). The party was mandatory so there was some grumbling about that but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Three women planned it all (those of you who have seen the TV show The Office will appreciate the humor in that) and they did a really good job. We had all kinds of food donated (they even had smoked salmon dip) and then we BBQd more ribs, hamburgers, and hotdogs than we could ever hope to eat. The evening culminated in some wild rounds of musical chairs – fortunately the chairs were the only causalities. I have no idea if people are really bothered about not being home at this time of the year. As I have said before – missing home is almost never a topic of conversation. One thing this experience has shown me is just how manufactured the whole holiday season is. Once we remove the reason for the holiday we end up celebrating an experience (being with family, gifts, food, ect) rather than an event (Christ’s birth). Often the experience doesn’t live up to expectations so it all feels rather empty. Over here all the experiences are different so you are left with the decision that either the event is worth celebrating or it’s not and with most people it’s not so it’s just another day at work. Yesterday I flew with Terry Walls on his last flight (he’s going to flight school). It has been quite an honor to work with him and we are really going to miss him around here. He is going to make a great pilot.

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This is Streva (one of our Marine medics that fly with us) trying to catch the hydraulic fluid that is being pushed out as we bleed the system. The goal is to purge all the lines of air so the pump doesn't cavitate when it starts. We made somewhat of a mess but then helicopters usually do.

This is Rigdon and Joice installing the new pump. Once we received the pump it was only about 1 1/2 hours before we were ready to head home - they did good work.

Our Marine friends coming to the rescue. It was a nice sight.

081 is patiently waiting for our aircraft to get fixed. That is unusual in itself because in the recent past 081 is usually the one getting fixed. God was watching out for us because if something was going to break it wasn't a bad time or place. There isn't much to look at but at least we weren't out in the desert somewhere and we were home by dark.

This is all of us hanging out inside the broke aircraft waiting on a new pump to arrive with the old pump sitting on the floor with all its gears shredded.

Moore rearranged the battle scene to honor the movie "A Bridge Too Far". The snake in the river and the truck are a liberal use of his artistic license but after all this is Iraq. Moore was so moved by work that he promptly went inside and watched the movie.

Another project by Tomlinson. He renamed the PC/QC building to Moosehead Lodge and stacked a small pile of white rocks to signify the mountains of Alaska. He is now adding grizzly and moose tracks across the barriers - he says anything to keep him busy.

19 Dec

It has been an interesting couple of days. I flew another day mission yesterday that started out pretty smooth. We hauled several good sling loads of water and food out to a FOB in beautiful weather (the food was for their Christmas dinner which always makes us feel pretty good about what we do). Everything was going good and we were actually going to get home early until on approach to our last stop our No 1 flight hydraulic pump started making some bad grinding noises. We shut down hoping the pump would decide to behave after taking a break. But it was not to be, after starting up it sounded even worse and chewed its insides to pieces before we could get it shut down. It actually worked out pretty well because two CH-46s were just getting back from a mission so they stopped by TQ, picked up a new pump and brought it out to us. We replaced the pump but there was still concern about all the pump fragments floating in the hydraulic system. The last time this happened we had to replace the entire system but we couldn’t do the maintenance where we were so the decision was made to fly it home. It was the first time I have ever flown on just one system – I was glad to be back. Later that night we had another aircraft lose a hydraulic pump but this time the shaft sheared (as it is designed to) before the pump came apart. Once again two CH-46s came to our rescue. We’re not going to hear the end of this for awhile. That night we also had the holiday tour come through with Lance Armstrong, Robin Williams, Chris Black, Kid Rock, and Ms. America. It was an entertaining show. I wasn’t going to go but I decided this was probably my only chance to see these people in person. I am always struck by how small celebrities are in person. I always expect them to be bigger than life. It just reinforced for me the thought that the only power people have is what others choose to give them. Yesterday our guys flew the group over to the next base for a show and flew them back. They were able to talk with them quite a bit and get some good pictures. If I can get my hands on some I will post them. We had another dust storm kick up tonight but besides that it has been clear and cool. I can tell it is getting colder because for the first time I had no hot water in the showers tonight.

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14 Dec

In my last entry I was talking about time passing and what do you know, it has been over a week since I last wrote. I am still focusing on the days way too much – I feel like I did as a kid on Christmas Eve. I would lie in bed trying so hard to go to sleep and the hours would drag slowly by. It wasn’t until I would focus on something else besides time that I could go to sleep. The first people are coming back from leave – they have all appeared pretty upbeat but so far no one has said they are happy to be back. I guess it would be sad if they did. On the flying side I did my last night flight on Sunday. I slept most of Monday and felt pretty good Tuesday but then crashed on Wednesday and I had to take a two hour nap in the afternoon. I feel sorry for the Marine CH-46 pilots – they switch between days and nights every two weeks. My first day mission back was yesterday, it was long but so nice to be back in the sunlight. It was another sling-load mission out to a FOB by the Euphrates. Pierce got some really good video footage of the other acft picking up a HMMWV but the file is too big to post online. I knew I was going to be tired by the end so I got one of those Monster drinks from Brian. Several of the guys live on those things here – they can’t be good for you but they sure do the trick. I drank mine after about the 7^th flight hour and by the time we landed I was ready to go for another 7 hours.

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This is a real tree that Wendi sent me. Very cool and a nice touch in the desert. The smell is what I miss the most so this was quite a surprise and a real treat.

This is our office Christmas tree. McKean has put a lot of work into it - she made the paper chain, star, and brought in most of the ornaments. It's plastic of course but we even added air fresheners to make it smell like a tree :)

My newest piece of wall art. Ken sent me this as a present so I wouldn't forget what he looks like during my long absence . It is much too priceless to keep to myself so here it is (you really have to click on this to enlarge it and get the full effect). I must admit it was a little disconcerting when I opened the door after getting back from work and there he was. But it does give me someone to watch TV with so thanks Ken.

This is the yellow men fighting the green men (and a snake). You can't really see it but some of the green men are a little worse for wear with legs and arms missing. They have been fighting the snake and rat (which someone snatched recently) for several months and it is taking a toll on them. But in this scenario the snake is giving them a hand against the new invaders (kind of reminds me of something - oh how life imitates art).

This is a sandstorm that hit us a couple of days ago. It was clear when I went to bed and when I woke I could hear the wind hitting the trailer and smell the dust - there is no keeping it out. Earlier two of our acft launched on a mission after being told the visibility wouldn't be lower than 4 miles. Fortunately they had just made it to the other side of the runway when it hit and it was bad enough they ended up having to be towed back across the airfield. Fun stuff.

A close up of the ornaments, both painted and not. We are going to have an impressive tree.

This is Ennis and Daniels (two of the people that get all our aircraft parts for us) painting Christmas ornaments that Mckean got sent to her to hang on our tree.

This is Steve arranging his new shipment of Army guys. Every few days people rearrange the rocks into battlefields that include plastic Army men (which I didn't even know they made anymore), trucks, a giant rat and a snake. I will have to post some battlefield pictures. It's something else to pass the time with.

5 Dec

Weather is starting to affect our missions more and more. Up until now it has just been the occasional dust storm kicked up by wind but the last two missions I have flown were cut short by thunderstorms. The first one was impressive – it’s amazing to see a desert lightning storm through NVGs. It stayed just north of us for most of our mission but once it turned south we shut down for an hour as it passed over us then started back up and finished the last leg of our route. It was a perfect dry thunderstorm for starting fires but there is nothing to burn here so I guess that isn’t an issue. The next night it was more just dust kicked up as the front moved through but we actually had clouds lower than the usual 12,000 feet. I’m still working late on the aircraft (by that I mean sitting there while other people work – the only tool I get is a screwdriver) as we are now having some strange rigging issues. I am wondering if we aren’t going to be forced to undo some of the adjustments we have made over here before we head back to Alaska. It’s hard to believe we are approaching Christmas – everything is so out of context over here. I try not to think about it but I keep remembering that two years ago today I was flying the last acft south to Kuwait and heading home for Christmas. But just like that time passed so will this so I had better get the most out of it. On a sad note one of our pilots (Eric Minter) is going home on emergency leave. His son who is five started having seizures a couple of days ago that knock him out and cause him to stop breathing so they have to keep him in the hospital. Up until now he had every appearance of being a healthy boy. The family could sure use your prayers and I will pass along the son’s name as soon as I remember it.

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