Things have been going well here. i am back on the day schedule again and i am flying a lot. i have been on our steady day mission the last two days and have logged at least 5 hours of flight time each time, and tomorrow i am on the mission that flies a little less often, but it is flying tomorrow. i am excited any day that i get to fly. not that maintenance is a bad thing, i just like to fly better...
i figured that i would let everyone know a little bit more about what it is like to live here, since most of what i talk about is missions and flying. we as lower enlisted live 2 to a room. it is about a 12x12 room, not too big not to small. when you move in you have a bed, a wall locker and two sets of chests one with 3 drawers and one with 2. both about a foot wide with different heights depending on amount of drawers. right now in our room we have all of those things, but we have built lofts for our beds so that we can a little bit more space in the room. we have both also built desks for our computers and such things. there is a TV, and a mini fridge like the ones that you buy for a dorm room, and some gaming consoles. i have my side of the room and my roommate has his, but we get along really so everything here is cool. we have known each other for about 3 years now. we met right after i signed up for the guard, and we have been working together ever since. we were both in the same AIT he was one class behind me, the we were both in the same med unit. and we both got transfered here to the Air Assault unit. when we started flight training we went through most of it at the same time so when we get to fly together on the rare occasion (which happened today) we can judge what the other person is going to do most of the time, and we often say the same thing at the same time. so we get along real well.
chow happens here 4 times daily: breakfast, lunch, dinner and midrats. it is all free, or you can go eat at one of the fast food places that they have here, that are open most of the day. the food here is decent, the fast food is just ok... not as good as it is back home, but it is still a nice change of pace from the defac every once in a while.
we don't have to do our own laundry here which is a perk. there is a service that you can take no more than 6 kg of laundry and turn it in every other day and have clean clothes. now 6 kg may not sound like a lot, but i have gone 10 days without turning in laundry and not hit that number. so what they do for free for us is really good.
well, i need to get to bed! i hope that all is well back home and i miss you all!
Signing off
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
hello all,
things are going well here, i had my first mission flight in 3 weeks yesterday, that was a lot of fun to get back into. i had lost the system that i had all set up for getting ready to go fly, but once i got that going, everything went smoothly. we went through the test fire area and the 1st sergeant managed to hit a bird. we basically did two separate missions last night. we moved people around bagdad last night and then we moved people around north east iraq. we even had a break in the middle. we were all over getting to where we needed to be early. last night we would get to the places early enough that we would have to sit for 5-10 minutes before we left to the next place, then we would still have to sit there. but it was pretty cool because we had a good crew and had some good conversations. after our trip to bagdad we came back here for a break, the crew here had dinner for us, they had a bunch of food for us, and because two of our pilots had their birthdays yesterday they brought us a cake from the chow hall too. it was pretty entertaining. after that we brought a bunch of people to NE iraq. we did that pretty fast too. we landed in one place and they told us that the people that we were supposed to be picking up were going to get on a set of snooks that were coming behind us. so we got out of their really early. and that pushed our entire timetable forward. we got home really early and the guys back here were so bored that they did our dailies for us and we got out of their really fast. after that i had to try and stay awake for a while because i have to be at work until 0630 tomorrow morning. but i don't start til 1830 today so it shouldn't be too bad.
well, i need to get ready for work so i will talk to you all again soon!
hope everything is going well for everyone, and stay safe!
Signing off
things are going well here, i had my first mission flight in 3 weeks yesterday, that was a lot of fun to get back into. i had lost the system that i had all set up for getting ready to go fly, but once i got that going, everything went smoothly. we went through the test fire area and the 1st sergeant managed to hit a bird. we basically did two separate missions last night. we moved people around bagdad last night and then we moved people around north east iraq. we even had a break in the middle. we were all over getting to where we needed to be early. last night we would get to the places early enough that we would have to sit for 5-10 minutes before we left to the next place, then we would still have to sit there. but it was pretty cool because we had a good crew and had some good conversations. after our trip to bagdad we came back here for a break, the crew here had dinner for us, they had a bunch of food for us, and because two of our pilots had their birthdays yesterday they brought us a cake from the chow hall too. it was pretty entertaining. after that we brought a bunch of people to NE iraq. we did that pretty fast too. we landed in one place and they told us that the people that we were supposed to be picking up were going to get on a set of snooks that were coming behind us. so we got out of their really early. and that pushed our entire timetable forward. we got home really early and the guys back here were so bored that they did our dailies for us and we got out of their really fast. after that i had to try and stay awake for a while because i have to be at work until 0630 tomorrow morning. but i don't start til 1830 today so it shouldn't be too bad.
well, i need to get ready for work so i will talk to you all again soon!
hope everything is going well for everyone, and stay safe!
Signing off
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Finally!!!
i would like to begin by saying that i hope that this is the first of many posts that will be coming. and second that with, i am sorry that the past posts have been few and far between.
we just recently got the internet hooked up in my room so things should be getting better.
me, being the nice guy that i am (and the only computer nerd in the group) have been setting up everyone's internet. so since the internet has been up i have had about 30 minutes of time to get anything done on it. i actually had to stay away from my room tonight just so that i wouldn't have to fix anything or make sure that someone didn't screw up their connection already. i don't mind helping, but i need to get some time off too. if you count the time that i spend setting up the internet after work it is about a 16 or 17 hour day for me. so i can use a day away from all of this. luckily i am going to nights for the next two weeks so i am going to be off from most peoples' schedule and i can work on their problems on my time. ok, rant over.
other than the internet things have been going well here. i haven't been flying, but i have been learning a lot about what goes on in one of the major maintenance events that the helicopter goes through. i have been working with the civilian contractors on one of the birds that is going through what we call phase. it is a two part inspection occurring about every 350 hours. alternating different inspections on the 2 different types. basically we did one of the two thorough checks on all of the aircraft systems. it takes about 12 days to complete at the fastest. but we had some major things need to be changed so it has taken a little bit longer. i learned a lot of different things about the aircraft and a lot of different things that should be checked on our daily maintenance too.
sorry that this one is a little short, but they will be coming more often now so i am going to go to bed right now. i will talk to you all soon.
i hope that everyone back home is doing well
Signing off
we just recently got the internet hooked up in my room so things should be getting better.
me, being the nice guy that i am (and the only computer nerd in the group) have been setting up everyone's internet. so since the internet has been up i have had about 30 minutes of time to get anything done on it. i actually had to stay away from my room tonight just so that i wouldn't have to fix anything or make sure that someone didn't screw up their connection already. i don't mind helping, but i need to get some time off too. if you count the time that i spend setting up the internet after work it is about a 16 or 17 hour day for me. so i can use a day away from all of this. luckily i am going to nights for the next two weeks so i am going to be off from most peoples' schedule and i can work on their problems on my time. ok, rant over.
other than the internet things have been going well here. i haven't been flying, but i have been learning a lot about what goes on in one of the major maintenance events that the helicopter goes through. i have been working with the civilian contractors on one of the birds that is going through what we call phase. it is a two part inspection occurring about every 350 hours. alternating different inspections on the 2 different types. basically we did one of the two thorough checks on all of the aircraft systems. it takes about 12 days to complete at the fastest. but we had some major things need to be changed so it has taken a little bit longer. i learned a lot of different things about the aircraft and a lot of different things that should be checked on our daily maintenance too.
sorry that this one is a little short, but they will be coming more often now so i am going to go to bed right now. i will talk to you all soon.
i hope that everyone back home is doing well
Signing off
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
some questions answered
I wrote this a couple of days ago but i was too tired to get here and put it out on the web. so i am putting it out now! sorry about the delay between posts!
Hello all,
Things are going well here. Uncle Gary asked a few questions that I thought that I would try and answer so that you can understand without being too specific so that I don’t say or give away anything that I shouldn’t. First, most of the flying that goes on here is done at night. There are a few missions that go out during the day, but most of the time they are specific missions with very little flight time, just moving someone important from one place to another. I have already accrued about 20 hours of night flight and I have only been on about 8 flights with 3 of them being during the day.
We take precautions when we fly that we start long before we start flying. Even the missions that have the same basic principal keep changing so to stay a step ahead of the enemy. Once we have a mission in our hands so that we know what we are going to be doing, the pilots plan out a route, avoiding all sorts of known bad areas and entering high traffic areas differently each time. Once that planning is done we get the whole crew together and we do a mission brief. Walking through what we will be doing and where we will be going. One of the things that happens is we get a brief from the intel guys about what has been happening along our route to keep up on our toes when we go into an area where we know that bad things could happen.
Once we get out and flying there are a lot of different things that keep us safe. For one we never fly the same route twice. We don’t take a canned route that has been planned and just go the same route over again. We also do what is called three dimensional flight, moving left and right, up and down so that we aren’t an easy target going across the sky. Now this doesn’t mean that we fly like Tom Cruise in top gun, just simple altitude changes or direction changes that keep out flight path moving. All of our night flights are done under NVGs (night vision goggles) so that we can see in what would be almost pitch-black conditions. The helicopter has different countermeasures both passive and active that keep us safe from some of the bigger weapons that could be used against us. It has a system to dissipate heat from the engines. Different IR sensing equipment and flares to thwart off missile attacks. The flares go off right past the crew chief windows, and though I had seen them go off before in the daylight, last night was the first time that I had it happen under NVGs and it was quite an experience. They look like fireworks that don’t go off with a bang at the end.
With all of these things going on before and during a flight I feel pretty safe. I doesn’t make me feel like I am not threatened, because I know that every time that I get into that helicopter there could be a chance that someone is going to try and shoot at us, but with all of the precautions that we take things are pretty safe up in the air.
Just last night was a good example of the reason why we can’t get complacent when we are flying. Everything is ok and nobody was close to being hurt but it was just the idea behind what happened. We were flying out of Balad when someone on the ground decided that they wanted to shoot at us. Now, you have to understand the people who are trying to hurt us sometimes aren’t that smart. When we fly at night if you look out under the NVGs it is pitch dark, so they can’t see anywhere near where we actually are, but they can usually hear us. We can’t hide that, so they shoot at our sound. The guy probably unloaded a mag of AK rounds up into the air, but he had no chance of even coming close to hitting us.
Well, it is getting late here; I have to get some sleep because I have to fly tomorrow. I hope that everyone at home is doing well and staying safe. Gary, I will try and answer some more of your questions when I get a chance if i didn't already answer them. If anyone else has any questions feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer them.
Signing off
Hello all,
Things are going well here. Uncle Gary asked a few questions that I thought that I would try and answer so that you can understand without being too specific so that I don’t say or give away anything that I shouldn’t. First, most of the flying that goes on here is done at night. There are a few missions that go out during the day, but most of the time they are specific missions with very little flight time, just moving someone important from one place to another. I have already accrued about 20 hours of night flight and I have only been on about 8 flights with 3 of them being during the day.
We take precautions when we fly that we start long before we start flying. Even the missions that have the same basic principal keep changing so to stay a step ahead of the enemy. Once we have a mission in our hands so that we know what we are going to be doing, the pilots plan out a route, avoiding all sorts of known bad areas and entering high traffic areas differently each time. Once that planning is done we get the whole crew together and we do a mission brief. Walking through what we will be doing and where we will be going. One of the things that happens is we get a brief from the intel guys about what has been happening along our route to keep up on our toes when we go into an area where we know that bad things could happen.
Once we get out and flying there are a lot of different things that keep us safe. For one we never fly the same route twice. We don’t take a canned route that has been planned and just go the same route over again. We also do what is called three dimensional flight, moving left and right, up and down so that we aren’t an easy target going across the sky. Now this doesn’t mean that we fly like Tom Cruise in top gun, just simple altitude changes or direction changes that keep out flight path moving. All of our night flights are done under NVGs (night vision goggles) so that we can see in what would be almost pitch-black conditions. The helicopter has different countermeasures both passive and active that keep us safe from some of the bigger weapons that could be used against us. It has a system to dissipate heat from the engines. Different IR sensing equipment and flares to thwart off missile attacks. The flares go off right past the crew chief windows, and though I had seen them go off before in the daylight, last night was the first time that I had it happen under NVGs and it was quite an experience. They look like fireworks that don’t go off with a bang at the end.
With all of these things going on before and during a flight I feel pretty safe. I doesn’t make me feel like I am not threatened, because I know that every time that I get into that helicopter there could be a chance that someone is going to try and shoot at us, but with all of the precautions that we take things are pretty safe up in the air.
Just last night was a good example of the reason why we can’t get complacent when we are flying. Everything is ok and nobody was close to being hurt but it was just the idea behind what happened. We were flying out of Balad when someone on the ground decided that they wanted to shoot at us. Now, you have to understand the people who are trying to hurt us sometimes aren’t that smart. When we fly at night if you look out under the NVGs it is pitch dark, so they can’t see anywhere near where we actually are, but they can usually hear us. We can’t hide that, so they shoot at our sound. The guy probably unloaded a mag of AK rounds up into the air, but he had no chance of even coming close to hitting us.
Well, it is getting late here; I have to get some sleep because I have to fly tomorrow. I hope that everyone at home is doing well and staying safe. Gary, I will try and answer some more of your questions when I get a chance if i didn't already answer them. If anyone else has any questions feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer them.
Signing off
Monday, September 3, 2007
hey all, things are going well here, i just spent the last couple of days on day maintenance. we have been getting a lot of things done. we just had the change of command ceremony from the 108th to the 2/147th here and now we are on our own. we are getting ready to switch to a new set of missions, and we will be getting into our schedule that we will be following for a while soon. i have a few flights coming up, which is going to be nice. i am going back to night shift for a while so things are going to be a little cooler while i work.
well, i just have a little bit of time today so i have to get going again. sorry for the short post, but things are going well and i will update more when i get a chance.
hope everyone is doing well at home!
Signing off
well, i just have a little bit of time today so i have to get going again. sorry for the short post, but things are going well and i will update more when i get a chance.
hope everyone is doing well at home!
Signing off
Saturday, September 1, 2007
hello all,
I am safe in balad, sorry that i haven't updated my postings in a while, things have been kind of on weird schedules and they have been changing a lot so most of the time i get just enough time to check my e-mail while i am on the net. things are going well here. we have been getting a lot done in the short time that we have been here in balad. we are all moved into our housing, it was good that we got to move in right away it is nice that we won't have to move until right before we leave. it is nice to know where home is for a while. other than that. we have 2 12 hour maintenance shifts so either you are on during the day or you are on at night. the last couple of days i have been on during the day, but most of the time you are on during the night, the day crew is small because there isn't a lot of flying going on then. I had my 2 train up flights a few days ago, they were pretty interesting. we got to fly over bagdad the first day and we transported some people to work on a downed umanned aircraft the second. the second mission was really cool because it is a little different than the normal mission that we will be going on, which is hopping from FOB to FOB bringing people back and forth. we got to land off base and help people recover some equipment and then load the UAV onto a flat bed.
well, sorry this was short, but i have to get back to work. I will post again soon!
Hope things are going well at home and everyone is safe
Signing off
I am safe in balad, sorry that i haven't updated my postings in a while, things have been kind of on weird schedules and they have been changing a lot so most of the time i get just enough time to check my e-mail while i am on the net. things are going well here. we have been getting a lot done in the short time that we have been here in balad. we are all moved into our housing, it was good that we got to move in right away it is nice that we won't have to move until right before we leave. it is nice to know where home is for a while. other than that. we have 2 12 hour maintenance shifts so either you are on during the day or you are on at night. the last couple of days i have been on during the day, but most of the time you are on during the night, the day crew is small because there isn't a lot of flying going on then. I had my 2 train up flights a few days ago, they were pretty interesting. we got to fly over bagdad the first day and we transported some people to work on a downed umanned aircraft the second. the second mission was really cool because it is a little different than the normal mission that we will be going on, which is hopping from FOB to FOB bringing people back and forth. we got to land off base and help people recover some equipment and then load the UAV onto a flat bed.
well, sorry this was short, but i have to get back to work. I will post again soon!
Hope things are going well at home and everyone is safe
Signing off
Monday, August 13, 2007
another short one
I figure that i will give a little explaination of the posts that i just put up. i haven't had internet on my computer for a while so i have been doing most of my internet work from a public computer. now i have finally had a chance to get my computer on the net so i am posting these for you. things are going well over here... i am on the night recovery crew today so i don't need to be out to the airfield until about 8 pm. so i am going to relax today and just chill for a while.
still missing everyone and i hope things are going well at home
Signing off
still missing everyone and i hope things are going well at home
Signing off
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