Saturday, November 25, 2006

 

Air Force PaveHawk


This is the Air Force version of the Army Blackhawk. They are sharing the hanger and ramp here at the Medical Hanger. The Pavehawk has a few more features, like that long spike out the nose, thats the air refueling pipe. An Air Tanker like a C130 will refuel these in flight for long haul missions. They also have more electronics and have better guns in the crew positions. And its grey instead of flat green.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

 

More About Mines
















This was the first time I saw this type of MineHog. At the end of the boom was a large rotating screw. They don't dig up the whole field but concentrate on spots. It exploded 2 mines as we watched it for only a couple minutes, which leads to how they know where to dig. One way is the Dog. The dogs are trained to detect a mine by its smell of explosive. I think this operation was a UN job, because all the equipment was white and the dog handlers didn't speak english.

Monday, November 13, 2006

 

Drive around the wire


After a garbage dump trip we drove around the perimeter of the base and saw these kids tending goats. As soon as we stopped they came running, even the little girl holding a red-headed baby. None of them was older than 10 it looked like. The little one could stand but didn't run after the bigger kids.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

 

Iraq picture.


Since Saddam has been in the news again this week, I got an old photo of me with one of his jets at Al Asad in February of 2004. Can it be really almost 3 years ago?

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

 

Its Hip.
















This is a Soviet Union era "Hip" helicopter. Its very suited for the work done here, high altitudes, hauling anything, powerful engines. It was originally built for the military but as a lot of ex-soviet equipment, now civilian. At least thats what the paint job wants you to think. Here you never know what kind of work they are doing. This one was dropping off some one to the hospital.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

 

Cargo in and cargo out


This is an example of another delivery aircraft, but its from the days of the Soviet Union.

Note the unusual bit behind the tail. It didn't always look like that. Originally this was a military airplane and it had a gunner crew position in the tail, that would have been mostly plexi-glass instead of a solid structure like now. The nose still has its glass for the forward looking position.

I began wearing long pants the first of November, Its pretty chilly when the sun isn't out. By 10 in the morning we are in the 70 degree range. I haven't worn long jeans since August. It felt strange at first.

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