Happy Easter! and Helocopter Rides

Wow, what a week! Let me start from today, Easter, then pick-up earlier in the week. As you know Sunday is the day we don't report to work until 1400hrs (2pm), but today was Easter. I got up around 0530 and headed to the gym to register for the "Run for Jesus 5-Miler" which was organized by the Chaplains here on Bagram. They did a very nice job with it, as once registration was over at 0600, they did a 30 minute sunrise service and actually incorporated the run into the story of the Resurrection. How did they do that you might ask? Well in John 20:1-18, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found that it was empty, she RAN back to tell the disciples about the news, and then Peter and the other disciple RAN back to the tomb and the other disciple out RAN Peter. The first 500 to reach the finish line received the T-shirt pictured below, so he told us at the end, every time you pass another runner say something along the lines of, "see you at the tomb Peter".

Here we are in our Easter best. LTC Meyer, LTC Head, LT Morales and myself before the service. Disregard the date, the camera must still be on East Coast Time.

Pretty good turnout, about 570 people.

The Chaplain conducting the service with the band just behind.

Runner Number

Back of runner number had the service printed on it for the Sunrise Service before we ran. Pretty good idea for this type of event.

The t-shirt that was given to the first 500 that finished. I did pretty good finishing in 41:37, just over an 8 minute mile pace. Not bad for running on a treadmill for the last six weeks. I will see if I can start to chip away at that time.

And here is my little man all dress for Easter himself at 8 weeks old.

Ok, so now the rest of this past week. Well, I had to make a trip out to one of our remote sites with one of my guys to troubleshoot a satellite up-link for computer network and VoIP phone access. When traveling, most of the time you take rotary (helicopter). For the trip out we took a UH-60 Blackhawk. I didn't get any pictures of the one we took, because you cannot take pictures of the flight-line. I did get a pic of myself on the bird, but that's about all you get, along with some of the scenery. By the time we landed it was dark.

Flight on UH-60 Blackhawk.

A view of the Kabul, Afghanistan suburbs from the air.

A view of the countryside.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Stanley, and I hit the ground running once late evening, and worked until about 0230hrs in the morning. Since everything is 24hr operations, we had the guys on from the command center on the phone most of the night working the issues. We racked out bout 0300hrs and woke up at 0600hrs to see when our flight was coming in to take us home. We then hit up breakfast, pic below, as you can see it was very hearty. Then took care of some other business before out flight arrived mid morning. The Forward Operating Base (FOB) I was on butted up right next to the city. So they are right in the thick of the population. Much different from where I am at the larger air field. You definitely keep your good eye open there.  I have placed some pictures of the trip to give you an idea of what it looks like. There is some wildlife as well.

Yum, french toast, sausage and eggs over easy!

PO2 Stanley (Navy) and I in the concrete room where the equipment was until the wee hours of the morning.

Some of the local wildlife, dogs. They were on FOB, just hanging out. Cute to look at, but most all dogs here are rabid. Do not pet the wildlife. The dogs hate the Afghans. They do not treat them very well.

Just basking in the sun.

 

They guy in the middle is who we were there to help out with the communications issues.

This is when you know your not in all that friendly territory. Afghan sitting behind a machine gun pointed toward the city. Yes, that is an Afghan flag on the right. This is one of the Afghan training centers.

For our return trip, we took a CH-47 Chinook. They picked us up on the morning and we were on the bird for 5.5 hours because they had other missions to preform before they went back to Bagram. We did a sling load mission (carrying cargo slung below the helicopter via a cable), dropping off supplies to other location further south and picking other passengers up. Not to mention refueling 2 times. Fun ride, but man, after 3 hours sleep and being in an egg beater all day, I was pretty much out of it by the time we got back.

And there's our bird just prior to getting pelted with every piece of lose gravel and piece of sand as it landed.

Our chariot has arrived!

Look at all that leg room, this is like the military's version of 1st class. Remember, Stanley is a Navy guy, so please excuse the expression.

Here the two crew members from the Michigan National Guard are watching the sling load we are carrying below the helicopter to make sure it stays directly below us. The floor is opened up and we also have the back door open to allow air to flow through the cabin.

Somewhere over Afghanistan from a CH-47.

As usual, I ended the week with dinner at the Aviation Dining Facility on Friday. Had two lobster tails, fried shrimp, scallops and asparagus. While we were standing in line I snapped this picture of the moon hovering over the mountains that surround us and that ugly B-hut. 

Well, that is my last week in review. Hope every one has an awesome Easter and a great week. Until next time, TTFN!