I've been slacking in Afghanistan...

Sorry for the lull in blog posts lately.  I don't really have any excuse, other than sleep has been harder to come by for various reasons, so at the end of the day it has been harder and harder to have the motivation to write a blog post.

I had a court-martial a few weeks ago.  It was another case that I got put on at the last minute.  But it kept me busy for the few days leading up to the trial which actually ended up being a guilty plea at the last minute.  The Soldier plead guilty to assaulting a female marine who questioned him regarding being out of uniform when he tried to enter the DFAC.  She suffered some pretty serious injuries, as during the attack her head was slammed into a cement t-wall barrier.  The accused ended up being sentenced to 8 months confinement and Bad Conduct Discharge.  So it was a pretty good result, and the victim was happy with the outcome.

Then, as I last blogged about, when I got back from the court room, I found out that we had an aircraft go down while I was in court.  As I already said, everyone on board was killed. 

I've been working out a lot since I deployed to Afghanistan, as it is one of the only ways to pass time around here.  I've even signed up for a few runs, as I am trying to get back into running even though I end up in a lot of pain when I'm done.  But it is one of the better cardio exercises. 

My shoulder just recently started hurting me, and then started getting progressively worse.  I finally went to the doctor yesterday as I couldn't raise my arm without being in extreme pain.  I really hate going to Army doctors, as I don't have the best track record with them, and for the most part they will generally just give you ibuprofen and send you on your way.  Surprisingly, the doctor I saw yesterday actually did something.  After his examination he said that I would most certainly need an MRI when I get back (apparently I can't get one here) and possibly surgery.  Apparently, he thinks that I have really bad arthritis in my soldier and from my time as a gymnast for some reason my shoulder doesn't sit in its socket the way it is supposed to.  The medic who originally examined me thought that I may have torn my rotator cuff, but the doctor didn't think so.  Anyway, he injected my shoulder with a concoction of different stuff to help with the pain and make it so I could move my arm again.  I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but it is a little better.  Hopefully, I can just make it through the last months of this deployment without too many more issues from my shoulder.

Yesterday, we also had a BBQ.  BBQ's are good around here, as it is the only time that the food is worth eating.  Although, right before the BBQ I had just ran 5 miles, so I wasn't in the mood to eat.  It was a shame, as it smelled really good.  However, I was able to manage a piece of cake.  There is never a bad time for cake :)

Wings Legal with the new peeps

Half Way Home BBQ a little late as we are thankfully further than half way now...

This was my favorite part of the sign, and the part that I am focusing on...

Never Forget.

On August 16, 2012, Task Force Wings had a blackhawk helicopter go down.  Everybody on board was killed.  All together, there were 11 people on board the aircraft, 4 of those people were the Soldiers from Task Force Wings.  2 pilots and 2 crew members.

Unfortunately, this is our second aircraft to go down killing all those on board.  I can definitely say that it never gets easier.  2 nights ago was the Dignified Transfer Ceremony.  This is the ceremony where the transfer cases that are draped in American flags are transferred to the Aircraft that will take them back to Dover Airfield for the fallen hero's family to meet the body.  Along with our Soldiers, there were 7 other military members that died in the crash including Navy Seals and Afghan Soldiers.  All together, 11 transfer cases were unloaded during the ceremony.  It was definitely an emotionally draining event.

Today our BDE held the Memorial service for the 4 fallen crew members.  Other Soldiers who knew them well spoke about them and remembered the good times they had.  2 of the Soldiers left behind small children, and the other 2 were survived by their parents.  I did not personally know any of the 4 Soldiers, but as I sat there listening about their lives, I couldn't help but be affected.  I just kept thinking about how their families said goodbye to them in January and didn't know that they wouldn't get a chance to welcome them home next January.

I know that when I get the chance, I will hug all of my family a little tighter the next time

Tarin Kowt and back in 24 hours...

Our task force that is located up at TK had some new pilots that needed to receive their Rules of Engagement briefing, so I had to travel up there to give it to them on Saturday.  I had to be on the other side of KAF at 0400 to manifest for the flight, which meant that I had to be up at 0230.  Needless to say, my day started quite early.

Once I made it out to Mustang Ramp (the place where we keep all our helicopters) and got manifested, it was just time to wait around for the flight.  In the Army, we do this a lot.  The Public Affairs Officer was traveling on the helicopter too, with a camera man from animal planet.  I'm still not really sure what that guy was shooting.  We hung around by the helicopter while the crew was getting the aircraft ready and had their pre-mission brief.  The camera man was mounting his cameras so he could get certain footage.  Still don't know what that had to do with animals, but oh well.

This crew was newer, so we didn't end up taking off on time, as the crew chief decided he didn't want to rush the new crew in their first mission.  The crew all recognized me, as I had given them their ROE brief when they had arrived at KAF a few days earlier.  One of the Soldiers made it a point to come up to me and tell me that my brief was the best brief he had all day.  That was nice of him.  One of the pilots came up to me and asked me if I wanted to sit in the jump seat.  I have been asked this before, and for some reason I always turned them down.  Well not this time, I took them up on their offer.  I don't particularly like riding in helicopters, so I thought maybe getting to sit in the cockpit would help as I could look out the front window like I can in the car.  Let me tell you, it is so much better in the jump seat than it is in the back of the aircraft where you have to sit sideways and don't really have any window to look out of.  I didn't feel airsick once.  I may have to look into always riding in the jump seat...

Once I got to TK, my paralegal picked me up at the PAX terminal and we went to breakfast after we dropped off my stuff.  After breakfast, I got an hour nap in.  Then the marathon briefing day started.  I first thought that I would only be giving one brief, but I soon found out that I would need to give 2 briefs.  Then the first brief started and that turned into 3 briefs.  The brief is about 2 hours long, so that was a lot of briefing.  After the 1st brief, I was able to grab some lunch.  Then shortly thereafter, I started the 2nd brief.  At the end of the 2nd brief, the TF CDR came and pulled me out there to go to dinner with him and all the Company CDRs.  He wanted me to brief them on any trends in the BDE right now, and then any issues that they need to start thinking of now before redeployment.

After dinner, I had another brief.  At the end of this brief, the Master Gunner wanted to sit down with me and go over one of the guntapes from a recent engagement.  When that was finally done, it was around 2130.  My paralegal took me by the PAX terminal so I could see when the flights to KAF were scheduled for the next day.  When I got to the PAX terminal, the Soldier working the desk informed me that there were no flights out the next day.  However, he told me that there was a flight scheduled to go out any minute.  I really didn't want to get stuck at TK for a long period of time, so I rushed back to the room where my stuff was and then rushed back to the PAX terminal.

I finally ended up back at KAF around midnight, which means I didn't get bed until an hour or so later.  It was a very very long day.  Thankfully, this morning was Sunday, so I didn't have to be at work before 0700 like I do on other days.

Waiting for my flight to take off, watching another bird leave

My hair is not doing good things in the wind...

Decided to have a seat while I wait

Almost time to leave

Up in the jump seat

Flying towards the mountains

A rare body of water in Afghanistan

A few photos from my trip...

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much while I was in Germany.  So in turn, I didn't take too many photos.  But here are 3 that I did take, so you have something to look at.

A church that I thought looked cool in Landstuhl

C-130 flying over the barracks 

Sun setting in Germany

Back in Afghanistan...

Well I got back to KAF on Thursday.  The trip to Germany was fun while it lasted.  I didn't get to see too much, as the Soldier I was escorting was kept inpatient and wasn't allowed to do much.  And, since I was her escort, I needed to be available for her.  She was able to get a 2 hour day pass and we walked down in to Landstuhl one day, so I feel like I at least got to see a little of Germany besides the military installation.  I also was able to go see a the Dark Knight Rises while I was there as the movie theater at the PX was showing it.  Very good movie, I definitely recommend if you haven't seen it.

Coming back to Afghanistan was an adventure all of its own. (as most travel with the military tends to be)  I set out for the PAX terminal at Ramstein Airbase on Tuesday morning at 0600.  There were a few flights that left directly to Afghanistan that day.  They came and went without any seats being released on the flight because they were too filled with cargo.  So, at about 1400 they bused us over to some Barracks to stay in. It was very similar to being in prison.  We were back up at 0445 the next morning to head back to the PAX terminal.  This time the guy working the flights had some brilliant idea that instead of trying for more direct flights to Afghanistan he would put us on a flight to Qatar and once we got to Qatar we could try to get a flight to Afghanistan.  For some reason this sounded like a good idea to him, I'm not sure why.

The first flight to Qatar came and they started the roll call for the flight.  There were only 10 seats available and there was a group of 19 of us trying to return to duty.  I was the first of the 19 to sign up for the flights the day before, so I should have been the first name called, as the Air Force prioritizes its passengers based on the order in which they sign up, and other factors but none of those were in play here.  Of course, the roll call started and I didn't hear my name.  The roll call ended and I didn't hear my name.  I went up to the desk to inquire and somehow my name was at the bottom of the list.  I showed them my time stamp on my orders and they agreed that I should have been first on the list.  Of course by the time they were able to comprehend that, the roll call had already closed and there was nothing they could do about it.  So I waited some more.

The roll call came for the next flight to Qatar and this time everyone got on as there were 186 seats available as it was a chartered civilian aircraft.  The only problem with this flight was that it was stopping in Italy on the way to Qatar, so we weren't going to get to Qatar until early the next morning.  We got all ticketed, and waited for the flight.  2 hours after the time we were supposed to leave, they finally boarded us.  Once on board, the flight attendants started a head count.  Apparently they weren't very good at counting because 30 minutes later they were still trying to get a head count.  The head count turned into going name by name of the manifest and everyone raising their hand to indicate whether they were here or not.  Of course someone along the way went to reach for their air vent and was counted here when someone else's name was called, so even the name by name roll call didn't work.  Finally, one of the flight attendants counted the whole plane herself instead of just having each flight attendant count their own section.  Turns out that everybody was on the plane and they weren't missing anyone.  They were just really bad at counting.  So after almost an hour and a half after boarding the plane we were finally ready for take off.

When we landed in Italy, there was a group that was providing free food to all of us in the terminal.  It was very thoughtful and very welcomed from all us still travelling on to Qatar.  We were only in Italy long enough to service the plane and refuel, and then we were back on board.  Luckily, the crew switched out in Italy, and this crew was much better at counting.  So we were able to take off pretty quickly.

Once we got to Qatar, the real fun began.  As soon as I stepped off the plane I was hit with a wall of humidity.  It was very hot, and probably 1000% humidity, if that is even possible.  We were all herded into a line to go through customs.  And of course they didn't really have a good plan so everyone was standing around while the Air Force tried to figure out what do.  There were only like 10 of us at this point out the 200 or so that flew to Qatar that were actually continuing on to Afghanistan.  And the 10 of us didn't want to go through customs in Qatar as we weren't planning on staying.  We just wanted to be pointed in the direction of the PAX terminal so we could catch a flight into country.  This simple notion was too much for the Airmen that were working outside of customs in Qatar that night.  They told us that we had to go through customs or we would be deported.  I thought about inquiring into where I would be deported to and see if would be worth my while.  A free trip back to the US sounded like a good idea.  At that point though I would have even been happy with a deportation back to Afghanistan.  Qatar was too hot for my liking.  It was literally the middle of the night and just standing outside we were all drenched in sweat.

We were finally able to find an airmen with a brain and he escorted us over to the PAX terminal and put us on the next flight to KAF.  So we hung out in the PAX terminal with strict instruction that we could not leave and wander around or we would be deported as we didn't go through customs.  No problem, it was too hot out there anyway.  I got about 1.5 hours of sleep in a chair while waiting for my flight to KAF.  It finally came time to load up the C-17.  Unfortunately, when flying on a military aircraft, you don't board and then shortly take off.  You sit there and wait, and it is usually at least an hour.  The aircraft are always hot (unless its winter, and then they are freezing) because they can't turn on the A/C until the aircraft starts moving.  So we were baking on the aircraft.  Luckily it wasn't too long of a flight.  The beauty of flying on military aircraft is that you have a lot of freedom of movement once in the air.  You can even lay on the floor of the plane if you want, and a lot of people do this to get comfortable.

When we finally landed at KAF, I was actually happy to be back in Afghanistan.  I really don't mind travelling, but when the Air Force is involved my levels of frustration just go off the charts.  Plus I think they make the trip back from Germany long and arduous on purpose, so those returning to duty will be happy to finally get where they are going.  Oh and I forgot to mention, as we were boarding the plane in Germany, they were calling for passengers for a flight straight into Afghanistan...