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.

Dust H 70 L 55