Travels and other things

This a Marine A6, easily the noisiest jet here. This squadron does a lot of flying, I don't know what missions they do here, but I know what they did years ago when I was in the Navy. This model of aircraft can carry very technical communication equipment. It is a stretch version of a traditional A6, notice the second window for additional crew. The windows have a special film put on them so they look goldish.

Does your mailman have one of these? The mail moves back and forth from the FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) by way of air, in this case a Chinook. It moves in and out of Bagram by large cargo airplane.

We delivered a helicopter back to its unit today, so now we have just one to work on. After three weeks of working 2 at the same, its a relief.

A couple of Blackhawks going out on a mission.

We were towing an aircraft back out to the flightline when I saw these 2 leaving.

We have been working with a group of young soldiers ( 19-24 years old ) who are mechanics, but assigned to the maintenace unit, not the flight unit. They don't have the experience yet of a lot of deep maintenace, so they get it working with us. At some point they will become a crew chief on an aircraft with the flight unit.

The units do the day to day stuff and when its time to do a major inspection or something really involved, we get it.

Moving around as a room opens up is OK, this room I had to purchase. Not the room really but everything in it. The air conditioner, small refridgerator, stereo, office chair, DVD player and the built in item came along. Its closer to the showers and restrooms also.

We started working on a new aircraft yesterday, so now we have one on the flightline, testing it, one in the hanger getting close to moving out and the 3rd. The chow hall had Girl Scout cookies, is it that time of year and what extra income for the Girls. So I got my Thin Mints even here.

On this day, 4 young Americans were returning home, not like they had hoped I imagine.

When the dirt, wind, smell, long hours and long days get to me, I need a reminder that my little sacrafice is nothing compared to some.

I hope the history books of the future tell of the Americans bringing freedom and peace to this country and its proud people in their very humble circumstances.

Pray for those, like these 4, around the world protecting the cause of freedom for all.

This is actually the wrong barrel for this old anti-aircraft gun. It is just plugged in, resting where the real one would go. We aren't sure what the barrel goes to, probably a bigger mount than this one. Stuff like this is found all over, mostly now as decorations around buildings or in mine fields.

The 2 aircraft that we are currently working on have this painted on both engine cowlings. They use the radio callsign "Archangel". It looks a lot like the Led Zeppelin album cover I think.

Yesterday afternoon it started to get windy, so windy that we closed both hanger ends and some put on dust masks as this front came through. It lasted for a couple hours and the temp dropped at least 10 degrees in that time and then it was pretty much over.

This Camel Spider was caught in the hanger a couple months ago and a guy decided to make it a pet. The green plastic scorpion keeps it company. My hand is there to show its size. Fully extended legs would be about the same as my hand with fingers spread apart. It turned around to face my hand through the plastic cage. I wish I could get a close up of the mouth with its stingers/pincers or whatever they are.

I had to take a picture of the first clouds that I've seen in almost 2 months. It was really nice when they rolled over and the temp went down a bit. I so much like being far away from Kuwait on a day like today.

I got back here less than 24 hours ago and already I have it just like home (almost, sort of, maybe? alright, not even close). Everything in plywood and the blanckets all over the wall were here for my enjoyment. As it shows the room is about 6 feet by 10 feet. My bed is a mattress on plywood on an army cot. Semi stable. I have plenty of shelves and a desk, but the camp chair I got today isn't quite tall enough to fit. I signed up for my internet service also and its working great, a little better than dial up but not near what we have at the house. Its 35$ a month but look where I'm at, and that seems cheap. The guy who lived here when I was here last time was named "Wingnut" and you can see why with the coice of wall decorations. Its partly for noise to not travel so well with all this plywood. Yes those are dolphines by the bed and not shown are the koala bears on the door. I also got a new pillow, because I'm used to one now, right Susan?

This is how the aircraft came off this ship. As you can see thats a MEDEVAC helicopter on the hoist, they all will have the red cross on the cabin doors. It was just a bit slower than being able to haul them out the back down the ramp. The other picture is a partial line-up of what we had to do. Today is my last official day in Kuwait, my transfer finally was anounced so I'll be trying to fly out tomorrow to Bagram Afghanistan.

Its hard to see in the background is the grey cargo ship that brought in these aircraft and a lot of other stuff and was loaded up with equipment returning from here. That overhead structure is a very long conveyor belt that I'm heard is for crushed rock being off loaded form ships. Its very noisy when its in operation. Again a lot of sand but no rock.

Day 1 at the port. Apache's come off the boat with no blades on them and the small 58's and Blackhawks have the blades folded. In the background is a cement ship being unloaded, so if the wind is wrong it makes for a dusty day. If you can believe all this sand but they have to import cement.

We are done with this ship, it left today and the next one is already here. This shipment was around 65 aircraft and the next is just as big.