This is an older photo but one I thought was a good one to end on. We had landed somewhere in the desert and I found a sage plant so I broke off a piece to take home with me. It's always nice to find those little things that link your present to your past. It's good to be home. Until next time - take care.

This is Brian and Tony hanging out in Bangor Maine waiting for our final leg back to Alaska. The people there were really nice - they had a big group there to meet us and hand out free cell phones and snacks.

These are some of the huge houses on the outskirts of the city. They are built in big development sections like a Kuwaiti version of our suburbs. I haven't figured out if they are single family or not. They appear way too big but there are a lot of wealthy people here.

This is Adkins, Sutton, Navy customs guy, and Tomlinson (L-R) relaxing before the final loading of the aircraft.

This is Barneby and Sena after a long hot day at the port. You can just see the blades from both aircraft stacked along either side of the cabin.

This is Geda at the port with some of our stuff we downloaded off the aircraft. We had to take everything off then load the blades, have customs inspect everything and put it all back on.

This is an aerial view of Kuwait City as we are heading into the port. The rest of Kuwait is pretty much open desert with scattered houses. As far as population goes - the city is basically the country.

This is me sitting on the ramp. You can see the harness I am wearing and the tail off the back hooks into a ring on the aircraft floor. The ramp is by far the best seat in the house and I sit back there any chance I get. Sena and I had a great time - it was actually more fun than flying (at least for small doses :)

This is Sena - one of our FEs. We are in southern Iraq on the way to Kuwait - there isn't a whole lot out there except scrub brush and sand.

5 Aug

The only thing left is a couple days of waiting and a long flight home. I flew out with our last two aircraft on the morning of the 1st just ahead of a dust storm. We got to work at 3AM in order to launch as soon as it was light enough to see. We departed at 5:15 and later learned that 10 minutes after we left the airfield visibility went to ½ mile. I was so glad we made it out of there – it is such an ordeal to get everything packed up that not leaving is pretty demoralizing. The flight down to Kuwait was uneventful (I actually rode on the ramp, which was even more fun than flying). We stayed ahead of the dust and by the time we stopped in Talill for refuel the skies were clear. We landed at Udari a little after nine and unloaded our bags, stripped off the equipment that stays in country and moved the aircraft over to the wash racks. By that time it was 11 and the temp was 129 in the shade. My crew and the other pilots were all about eating, taking a nap and starting on the aircraft in the evening but Potter and his crew on 168 wanted to get started so they stayed out there. We didn’t get much sleep since the A/C in our tent wasn’t working right and it was over 90 inside but at least it was out of the sun. We went back down to the aircraft around 6 and started working – it was still 112. In order to pass customs every thing has to be stripped out of the aircraft and washed to include the entire aircraft – all the nook and crannies, hidden ledges, under the floor boards - everything. As you can imagine after 13 months of living in the dust they collect a lot of dirt and it’s mixed with oil and hydraulic fluid but you can’t use anything but water – no soaps for environmental reasons. I spent the first hour on my back under the aircraft with a pressure washer. Once I was completely soaked with dirty water it wasn’t bad. The pilots worked until about 1AM and the crews stayed there all night – sleeping on the floor or in cots in a small break room. At nine the next morning we had our initial inspection and they pointed out all the areas we missed so we cleaned for another four hours and passed the second time. The crew members had the aircraft put back together by five PM – it was a couple of long hot days. The next morning we flew down to the port. We landed there at 11 and over the next 5 ½ hours we stripped the blades off and loaded them inside, had customs inspect all our gear then loaded the aircraft back up so they were ready for shipment – it was only 118 at the port. After eating we got back to our tents at 9PM. Yesterday was nice – I did almost nothing. The main body arrived last night so now we are packed in like sardines but it is only for a couple of days. It’s hard to believe it is almost over. We met some of the guys in the Blackhawk unit from our Battalion in Alaska – they are in Udari getting ready to head north. It’s sure starting to feel like a cycle.
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Here are two of the main guys responsible for getting all our stuff moved back to Alaska - Hale and Martin. It is a pretty thankless job because it is instantly obvious if you don't do something right but they have performed admirably. They are leaning on our little KA which is a great deployment car because it is something you don't ever plan on taking home. It was sent to us from Al Asad and is going to stay in country for the next unit.

This it the terex loading up one of our last two containers. I am always amazed at the equipment they have over here and to think that they have these (actually multiples of these) at all the big bases and large forklifts at almost every base. These last containers hold most of our aircraft parts which we held onto as long as we could to keep everything flying.

The guy in civilian clothes is the TASM (theater aviation single manager) who handles all the equipment we sign for in country. Here he is inventorying the aircraft ballistic armor sets so we can turn them in.

Some of the flight guys laying out the aircraft armor sets so they can be inventoried and turned back in. There is quite a bit of stuff that stays in country and a unit will sign for it when they arrive. Mostly stuff that is only used over here so there is no reason to field all of the units with the equipment.

This is Tomlinson and Joice loading up the other aircraft. It is always a good feeling loading for the last time.

These are the two ISU-60s (don't ask me what ISU stands for) that will be loaded onto the aircraft. They contain a selection of parts (the ones that most often break) and all the tools we will need to prepare the aircraft for boat load and then to build them up again once they reach Anchorage.

This is a little village out by the Syrian border. I imagine these are more like an extended family but I'm not sure. Another one a few miles away had a full size combine like they use in the wheat fields back home parked in front of one of the houses. I have never seen anything growing out there that would require more than some grass trimmers or a couple of hungry sheep to harvest but maybe this isn't typical.

This is Barton - one of the new pilots that joined us a few months ago. We have tried to get these guys on the schedule more often to make up for the time they weren't here and as a result I have flown my last four flights with him. He does really well and is very entertaining - one of those guys who can quote endless movie lines.

This is on my last flight out west. We are a little farther south than usual and there some trees out in the distance. The only trees out here are ones that were planted. They are usually around a well and the people grow them like any other crop.

30 Jul

This will be my last entry in Iraq. The last of our containers were moved out today and we are packing the aircraft for the flight south. It is a little sad only taking two back with us. We flew our last mission a few days ago and the last couple of nights we have been shuttling people and aircraft between here and Balad (we had guys up there tearing down aircraft to load onto airplanes to be flown back to Washington and start reset). I flew my last mission last week and it was a good way to end. I got to go out by the Syrian border one last time and the whole mission went really smooth. Time is going slower now. It started on the 22^nd – the day we laid out all our gear we are shipping home so the customs people could inspect it. I think that finally made the going home real for me. The last few days have been a little hectic as far as emails go – I have been coordinating the timeline and method for the transition between Alaska and Egypt. Everything was pretty much worked out until yesterday when all the plans were reversed. Now it looks like I will go to the fixed wing course first then on to Egypt. That actually works out a lot better for us. It will give us more time to get things settled and give me a little more green time in between desert trips. As usual God is working everything out.

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Here are some pictures of my room before I packed up most of it for the trip home. The pictures on the walls are all from Alaska that have been a great help in reminding me of the other side of the world :) The rooms are actually quite nice for one person. They are a little tight for two people because of the way they are aligned. They are long and narrow with the door at one end so it's difficult to divide it up. It especially becomes a factor when the guy stuck by the door is on night shift and his roommate is on day shift.

You can see my recliner chair in the background that I bought off Werner when he left in May. It has been pretty nice to say the least but since I can't have it at home I am giving it to Brian.

I really like my tiger blanket.

This was another July 4th display that is a little more fitting. I offset it so you can see the Oregon flag in the background. In between holidays they put up all the states flags.

This is a toucan that was made for the July 4th display. Not too sure how it fits in but it was well done.

This was taken on the first day of test flights on 176, our last aircraft out of phase over here. The guy on the left is Martin. He is one of the lead guys on the day shift for the maintenance squad and here he is signing off the last write ups so we can go fly. On the right is Penley who was my flight engineer for the day. He is a former Marine crew chief on a C-130 who has given us a lot of insight on how the Marines operate.

19 Jul

Surprisingly enough this month has been going by quickly. I’m not sure why since I have been anything but busy (at least as far as work goes). We haven’t had a maintenance flight in weeks and yesterday was only my second flight of the month. We have been busy packing stuff up and figuring out how everything is going to get moved. I think we are in such a routine that the days all start to blend together. We are getting more missions but the dust is keeping us in check which is probably a good thing since we are getting low on hours. We are not going to have as many hours on the aircraft coming back with us as I had hoped but based on the latest boat date rumors they may not even make it back to Alaska before I leave there. Overall our morale is quite high – I really am amazed at how well we have worked together as a unit.
My flight yesterday was one to remember. We knew it was going to be a long day from the start since it was a two part mission with four hours of down time in between. The weather was supposed to be good all day but the dust started to pick up right after take off. Because of the type of mission we were doing we were approved to fly in worse weather than usual but it got down to those limits on our way to our destination and on our return home after completing the mission it got even worse. It was the worst weather I have flown in over here but at least it was during the day so it didn’t really bother me. It just makes flying more work. It was hard to get motivated to take off again on the second leg in the heat of the afternoon. Especially since the weather was only slightly better. It was still bad around our local area but we tried a different route farther out west to get to Al Asad and that was a lot better. We got back home right at sunset. It was a good feeling to be able to finish everything but I was pretty much exhausted. I had a good crew so that really helped to keep things relaxed.

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This is Dimon, our task force commander. I'm not sure I have posted any other pictures of him so I decided I better make sure I included at least one. In case you were wondering that isn't real beer on the table. It is the non-alcoholic type with all the bad taste and none of the effects.

This is Brian telling stories about his time at the Chinook users conference. Every year there is a big gathering of all parties involved with Chinooks in Huntsville Alabama. It is geared towards the military but a lot of private companies are there selling products designed to make our jobs easier. It is a good opportunity to discuss what is happening in the field and changes that are coming our way. Brian was able to schedule his leave so that on the way back over here he attended the conference.

You can't see any of the faces but I like the colors. We sat around talking until well after dark. L-R J.R., Morford, and Gray.