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My journey to Ass-crack-a-stan.
JANUARY 2003
By Brian M.
1st January 2003.
Happy New Years. Got my local area orientation flight today. Went to Gardez, Oragun-E, and Skhin all for re-supply and mail. Very mountainous to the north were I’m at, Salerno is around 3700PA but the flying to day was 6000 to 8000PA. Most of those areas had snow on the ground. When we got back we refueled and did a local around the bowl. These guys in the tent are packing up, because the rest of my crew is arriving tomorrow morning. HESCO barriers. These are barriers that surround most of the camps. They come in different sizes, made of wire type metal. When they are formed they look like metal cages or baskets. They then put the right size pillowcase in it and fill them with dirt and rocks. They are pretty cool, great idea. There’s 4 little Hodgie stands right out side the gate, Ill probably explore that tomorrow after greeting the inbound crew.
January 2nd
Helped B Co crew bring there bags out to the helipads to wait for there ACFT that was bringing them back to KAF and drop off my crew. Got to see Willie, Fred and the commander. They dropped off CPT Meyer, SGT Dellavecchia, and SPC Clawson. We unloaded their stuff onto a gator and brought them over to our tent. We have a generator for electricity; we use it during the day and turn it off at night. For heat we have a potbelly stove that disperses heat about a 5 ft radius, but the tent stays warmer then the outside. Once back at the tent we did some well-needed house cleaning since it will be our home for a while. Just got back from our daily 1500z update brief were we find out from all the key players what happened today and what’s on the agenda for tomorrow. Took a shower today, this is to cool. Picture in your mind a Greek bathhouse, but not really. I guess first I should describe KAF showers, that are run be Brown and Root. You walk into a tent with wooden floors, benches and 6 sinks and mirrors on either side. Continue through that there is a cargo container (like the ones that come off ships) that holds the showers. There is about 8 Korean size little plastic cubicles with shower curtains, the ingenuity, plus it’s all heated. Now Salerno, The Greek Bathhouse. You walk into this small tent, benches alone the edges with a potbelly stove in the middle. Continue through this narrow corridor were there are 6 showers either side. These smaller cubicles are made of ponchos/tent type material. You get inside, no curtains, turn around, say hello to your neighbors in front and then reach up and turn on the water. Now try this at home, turn on your faucet until just after it stops dripping and becomes a stream. Yep that’s our shower. After you get the important parts clean, you mossy on back to the potbelly stove tent, nodding your head to your neighbors’ goodbye. Back in this part of the bathhouse you all stand around the potbelly and dry off. No outdoors adventurous group could replicate this. The shitters, piss tubes, and the showers you got to see it to believe it. I think its pretty cool. Just another part of life’s little adventures, plus it makes for good stories. Lets have free tickets over here for all the people back home that don’t appreciate their military and what they do for them. Then maybe they’ll realize how good they have it in the great US of A. Have to fly tomorrow. First part resupply second part recon. We have to check out some of the NAI in our local area, just got a new one today. They found a land mined on a road were in the past a group of SF got ambushed, no one hurt I believe. We’ll take pictures and then look for illegal checkpoints alone this long road. If you have enough guns and want to make a little extra money set up a checkpoint.
January 3rd
Flew our resupply to GarDez with our 64 escort. Came back dropped off pax and continued on with second mission, recon on the NAIs. Took down some grids for the S-2 to sort out. It most be a special day we had steak for dinner and it was pretty good. After that we went back to the tent and our generator kicked off the load. We filled the oil, fuel and even have the apache electricians working on it as I type, since they slave off of it as well as others. It’s been two hours and they figured out how to temporally give us power to night until tomorrow when the sun comes up. The generator is our life for electricity and coffee in the morning.
January 4th
Last night a special Op C-130 landed here to pick up a PUC (Personnel Under Control) that we have been holding for a couple of days. He’s not one of the big wigs, but every time something bad happens he seems to be there. Now everyone is wondering if there is going to be any retaliation. I’m glad I’m up here because we hear rumors about the anal crap going on back at Kandahar. The change over is going on with aviation and infantry and everybody wants to implement new and sometimes bullshit rules. Some people can’t fall right in on how we are running things over here. What would they put on their OER if they didn’t change anything? Unfortunately most of its self induced even down to the company level, even my company, and some is from higher probably not even in country. Hopefully they’ll work out all the bugs before I go back to KAF. So being away from the flagpole even up here in primitive land has its advantages, while they work out their childlike power struggles. Another unfortunate day. While on patrol about 5-7 miles from us a soldier stepped on a land mined. The MEDEVAC bird got out there pretty quick and did the first hoist operations in country. They brought him back here, stabilized him and waited on the C-130 from Bagram with two A-10 escorts. They said before he flew out he was in good spirits considering the injuries he received. He was even making jokes and asking about his men. I hope the best for him. Found out at the up date brief that the land mined had only been there for the last two weeks. EOD came back and said they couldn’t find any more. More than likely someone figured out a pattern and laid one out. Forgot to tell you about our Hodgie prayer. Every couple of times day we get to hear Hodgie prayer/singing over a loud speaker coming from over our HESCOs. We’ve been told it’s the call for prayer, the ones who practice it have one hour after this 15-minute calling to begin prying. I figured out why Hodgie lays their cloth out on the rock beds after washing them. Because they’re probably hot from the sun and there washing machines suck. We have six washers for the whole camp. Three are American and the others are Hodgie’s. You pick up the lid on Hodgies and there is a tub. Throw you cloths in and add water. It agitate itself and then drains the water out, no spinning. Since the four dryers have a long wait, you either throw your cloths in the American one in between soldiers on the spin cycle or bring it back to your tent. First I ringed out most of the water and now I’m currently watching my cloths dry on a make shift cloths line, that’s in front of the potbelly stove.
January 5th
Easy day, no flying. Did some tent cleaning, took a nap, and went on a run. Tent cleaning is so we don’t fall into the slump the last group did and become slobs. The nap because I was tired. I know I’m not getting the right daily nutrition’s that I would if I was back in the states. Today I got a little light headed, so I know I have to be more religious in taking my daily vitamin supplement. It also doesn’t help that I’m not a big eater, usually back home a banana, cup of coffee and then what until dinner around 1800. On the weekends I would eat just a little bit more. Unfortunately over here you forget there are weekends we work off of the number of the day not the name of the day i.e. the 3rd 4th 5th. If someone says its Saturday it really doesn’t mean anything. The run is to break up the down time and to exercise. Still running a little bit slower than normal due to the altitude. When I was down in Honduras it took about a month to get use to it, but I also had the chance to run every day while I was there. Went over to the ASP today, got to see a bunch of confiscated weapons, mortars, rockets, RPGs, land minds, tons of ammo, most of it old Russian left-overs and a couple had NATO stock numbers on it. Remind me to tell you about what some of B Co crews did with their empty water bottles. Totally unprofessional as aviators and crewmembers. People throwing rocks at you from below while your flying aren’t going to hit you in a million years. What they did would only make them want to find a gun or RPG a lot sooner than if they hadn’t done it at all. I have to live here for the next 6 to 8 month; half of them only spent 4 months in country. Don’t get me wrong the minute Hodgie puts a weapon to his shoulder and aims it towards us, its game on. No love loss for the other company leaving though.
January 6th
Flew another resupply mission to Gardez and swapped out soldiers. They continue to improve their firer base; more and more big HESCOs go up daily. After our two lifts into Gardez we were tasked to pull a CASEVAC flight. The patient was an Afghan and was bleeding from every opening in his body. They think he was anemic; the Doc from Oragun-E firer base thought our camp could help him. Our Doc said he hadn’t seen any stage like this before. He couldn’t help him and we had to fly him back to his village before he died in order to be berried before sunset. On our way back from Oragun-E we spotted an illegal checkpoint and reported it to the S-2, not sure what’s going to come of it. On each flight we always debrief the S-2 on what we saw and anything unusual. My friend Gordon asked me about the snow. All the snow right now starts around 7500MSL and gets thicker the higher you get. We’re at 3500MSL so it just gets freezing cold in the morning and night. The afternoons right now are warm enough not to need any cold weather gear; you can run in shorts and t-shirts. Laptops are great if you can afford them. People play games, write letters, and watch movies on them. The floppy drive and disks are useless, the sand and dust eats them alive. CDs, CD burners, and pin drives are the only thing that works. Pin drives are great, after you write a bunch of letters down load it to your pin and bring it to one of the few computers with internet access. It’s really the only way to do it, you cant set on those computers and type letters. Plus there tough, people have washed them and they still worked. The only other thing is to find good insurance for it; because there’s no guaranty it’s coming home the same as when you brought it. They have an ACFT coming from KAF tomorrow; hope it has some mail from my wife. JoAnne has sent a couple of boxes just haven’t seen them yet. Received one from Mom and Dad. It’s kind of like Christmas each time you receive something in the mail. Got to us the phone last night, it was great to hear my wife’s voice even though there is a 3 to 5 second delay though the phone line. JoAnne is my saving grace, I hope I always show her the love she’s shown me and that I never take here for granted.
January 7th
Today we waited for the ACFT from KAF to arrive. The Saber CAV CDR, Corsair BN CDR, Pegasus BDE CDR, and Blue Devil BN CDR were suppose to be coming to check things out and to do a hand off with there respective counter parts. With in the next couple of days Saber will be fully switched out with Corsair. Either our CPT reverted back to what we would consider a stereotypical commission officer or she was showing her true colors. Knowing that these people were coming she was spun up like a top. She had us out there waiting on them and worried about not having a second gator for them in case they wanted to drive to the TOC, which is only 100 to 150 meters away at the most. You can hear any rotary wing ACFT a half mile out, then they have to cycle through hot gas before parking plus shut down. Never the less we were standing tall in the parking area waiting. Since we heard them farther out then normal we knew there were more then we expected. I guess a blessing in disguise, because it was a site to see all those ACFT coming over the horizon and through the haze. Three CH-47s, three UH-60s and one AH-64, can you imagine what Hodgie thought. Once in parking you’re surrounded by big HESCOs and they cant tell if you’re picking or dropping people off, in this case a little of both. Come to find out the only CDR on this trip was Saber who ended up walking in. Tons of supplies, mail and personnel were coming off the ACFT, but guess what, they forgot to put our supplies and mail on them back at KAF. They finished offloading and on loading, swapped out a fresh ACFT for us and were on their way. Three more ACFT would arrive 2 hours later carrying Corsair CDR and maybe our mail and supplies. You guessed it; we were out there standing around for this group as well. Strike two, no mail or supplies with them either.
I did however have my OER out brief with the BN CDR for the one I signed before coming over here. We went off to the side and he told me everything that I have done for this Battalion I was definitely a top block soldier but “I cant give you one because your getting out of the Army” and he held those blocks for people he could retain in the Army. The conversation was professional and I respect that he was honest. Doesn’t mean I agree with it though. The OER is based on job performance not for what you think the Army’s calling is or for personal reasons.
After they left we returned to the TOC, at one of the gates entrances we saw some people bringing in a PUC. Once at the TOC I checked my e-mail and had a smile on my face for the rest of the day. This old crusty COL (Retired) e-mailed me and referred to me through out the letter as Private. The funny thing is, when I knew him I was a Corporal or Sergeant at best. My team leader of a six man team was a light cornel, another great / commonsense leader. He told me when we arrive in Haiti (H+7) beside from the other jobs I would do is to keep the Old Man (means endearingly and respect) safe. The Old Man told me to keep an eye on the Wild Man John (my LTC). I have a lot of people to watch and haven’t even started my real job. The team consisted of the Old Man COL, LTC SF, MAJ SF, CPT Ranger, E-8 SF, and me Ranger, pretty cool team. All in all I wasn’t sure who was keeping up to whom. The Old Man keeping up with me or me keeping up to him. Ill always remember that team and the times the Old Man and I had in our own little Shangri-La. We would drink coffee together each morning before heading off to work, mostly I would try to absorb all of his life experiences, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and life in general. I wish I had time to tell all the interesting trips we had together while in Haiti. For the rest of the day all I could hear in the back of my head was ‘Hay, Private”. COL James LaRue thanks for the memories and mentoring, wish you were here in my little Shangri-La.
Got to witness my first interrogation of the two PUCs they brought in. Went twice to see how the process works. Ill probably go a couple more times in order to see the end result. All very interesting and very civil. Plus a lot of sleep deprivation. One is bad enough that he’s going to Cuba. The other one they are still trying to figure out.
Found out from KAF that they were really sorry our stuff didn’t get on the ACFT. Fortunately they forgot stuff for Saber and have to return tomorrow. Plus swap an ACFT again, for the one they gave us is do for a wash. They’ll get it right sooner or later.
January 8th
Our replacement ACFT arrived this morning, looks like will be able to fly it for a couple of weeks before it needs to be swapped out. You’re not going to believe this they forgot our supplies and mail again today. Right now I’m trying to stay in my happy place because I’m a little pissed. When I called back the excuse I got from my commander was the mailroom was locked. They had plenty of time to get it out yesterday, plus the mailroom is an aviation mailroom right in the TOC. How hard is it to get the key and open it. We were later told that the mail should be up there, no such luck. And yet again another story, there was no mail that came for us yet. We called the SPC in charge of the mailroom and she told us that she has a bunch of boxes for us. Well there’s another ACFT coming tomorrow for another reason maybe third time’s a charm. Found some wood out by the dump so we are building a porch out side our tent. Ordered some meat from Hodgie yesterday, we pick it up today. Going to make a stew. If Hodgie doesn’t have it he’ll find it and bring it the next day. Most of the stuff at the four stands is pots, pans, potatoes, onions, smokes, and a lot of fabrics. Blankets, scarves, rugs and there style clothing. They are monitored be the US, so they are scared to be thrown out. The meat we received was lamb. Looks like the end of the legs, probably the parts they don’t eat. They must not have meat saws or hacksaws because the small pieces of bone that were with it were splintered. After boiling it in the stew with potatoes, onions, carrots, and zucchini, it only really gave the stew flavor. Must be what the sheep eat over here that gave it a gamy taste and its toughness. We all eat a piece of lamb and had seconds on the stew portion. Sure hope that was lamb. Wish I could get my deer meat from my buddies’ freezer over here.
It’s amazing over here, all the key personnel you pretend to have at your ACMBs or field exercises are actually here. Before each flight commo goes out to your ACFT and loads your KIT-1C and on a certain day of the week he loads the radios. At each brief the SWO briefs the WX, S-2 briefs the threat, CDR briefs the mission, FLT lead briefs his part, air support and ground support brief if there is any, the ground task force CDR will brief his intent, and then the Chaplin will say a couple of words.
Found out through the S-2, yesterday two fuel tankers were sent away from the front gate at KAF and about 2 kilometers away they blow up. Not sure why they were turned away, not the right paper work, scheduled time or what? The same day BAF got rocketed, they hit an OP guard tower but no one was in it and no one got hurt, this time.
January 9th, 2003
Another came up from KAF today; they brought up Sabers computers and our mail. Received one box from my wife, the other three remain in the mailroom. Talked to the mailroom clerk and he is just waiting on someone from my company to get to class on mail handling so he can sign over the certified mail to them. If not he would be the one in trouble if any certified mail got loss after handing it out, regular mail no problem. Later CPT Meyer was asked to play along in the interrogation today. They wanted her to act as the interrogators boss and give orders to the PUC since females are second and third class to them. After asking him about the rockets they found at his house and him responding with another different answer, she started giving orders. Made him clean his cage; fold his blankets and other things. He didn’t like it at first but that didn’t last long. We then flew a bag of gas under goggles for CPT Meyers to stay current in conjunction with checking out the NAIs with the Apache.
January 10th, 2003
We got word that they are swapping us out tomorrow, will be nice to see the rest of the Redhawks. Plus take a clean shower and wash some clothes. The news motivated us to finish the map books for this area. We plan on leaving one for future crews.
January 11th, 2003
We finally made it back to KAF. Took off from Salerno, refueled at Orgun-E and landed at KAF. We were rushed to shut down in order to get to the chow tent, I really only wanted a clean shower. Outback Steak House sponsored the food with their people walking up and down the tent handing out Blooming Onions and talking with us. My stomach is so small I still managed to eat everything on my cardboard plate. Had a thick steak, potato with sour cream, corn on the cob, shrimp, and a loaf of bread: not a half but full loaf. It was incredible and for deserts a slice of real cheesecake and a cup of coffee. I’m going to sleep good tonight. The guys showed me to our new tent location since they had to move while I was up in Khowst. Farther away from the ACFTs, not sure who wanted it like that and who didn’t fight to keep us were we where. Fred got me a good spot in the tent and now I just need to build some shelves to make it my little corner of the world. Looks like I be flying a lot more being back here, they have me on the flight schedule quit a bit.
January 12th, 2003
Finally got all my bags from when the main body came in. Since I have a day off before I fly again, I decided to dig out my tools and build a shelf unit next to my cot. I even built a sliding draw on an angle for my laptop. My buddy Scott who owns Carolina Custom Cabinets would be proud. With my new cabinet complete I am now unpacked. The CAV walked by while we were building and saw that most of the wood had CAV stenciled on it. They weren’t too happy, telling us that it was their wood. I told them that I thought A Co 2-82 was part of CAV while we are here. The conversation was going no were, so I told them to leave our area and we would find replacement wood for them tomorrow. Tomorrow the flying starts back up again.
January 13th, 2003
Great day, glad I’m back from Salerno. Flew day and goggles. Helped the IP’s train some of the younger guys on multi ship dust landings, pinnacles and free cruise techniques. We started our training during the day since you have more visual acuity plus to get them use to landing in almost full brown out conditions. We showed them high app, low app, fast, slow, lead ACFT, trail ACFT and then we give them the controls and let them try to kill us before moving on to the more demanding flight mode, goggles. Goggle flying is like looking through a toilet paper roll while flying. You see everything in light green. You have to constantly scan for visual references, your instruments inside in order not to become fixated on any one thing and loose focus on landing and the ACFT in front of you. I love it, this is where we make our money. I have a pretty big comfort level so I will let a young guy screw it up to a point in order for him to learn from it and for the cocky guys it brings them back to reality. They want to make me a Unit Trainer again, definitely stay busy. Tomorrow we start again on some more guys.
January 14th, 2003
Another environmental training flight, dust, pinnacles and free cruise. Had two pilots for day and goggles. I think they are trying to kill me. I don’t think they know what a rate of closure means and at night under goggles it comes much faster. They come screaming in for their approaches so then I have to take the controls and try to save us. About every third one I have to demonstrate the approach and on the others I talk them through it. Practice practice practice and more gray hairs because there not getting any. Those are the days I wish we could have a beer at the end of the day. You definitely sleep well after being drained.
January 15th, 2003
Built hanger racks for all our flight gear we keep out by the ACFT. We have half of an ISU 90 (small metal structure) we keep all our gear in. Their use to be a table in it to act as a shelf, but with 28 guys our gear got staked on top of each other’s and moved around. It’s a little bit better now. Temp hasn’t changed that much yet sometimes 32F in the morning and it warms up enough in the afternoon to take off the long johns. Food is better down here than Khwost, half real half T-rats. They want to make me the Task Force Safety Officer, not happy about that in the least. Long story but it seems like they brought there guy over here just to get the T-shirt and leave because he has orders to Korea and he had the orders three months before he got here. I want to stay down with my guys. Not sure why they don’t send one of there other safety officers back from Ft Bragg over here. Well not sure how its going to turn out and I’m not sure I’m going to have much choice in the matter.
January 16th, 2003
Living conditions and daily life here in KAF. Daily life for us aviators if we’re not flying nights starts around 0300z. I get up about an hour and half early to make coffee shave and wake up before heading up to the company CP then to the Task Force CP and then work on up in coming missions or additional duties. We work 12 hours a day seven days a week. The days for the most part go by pretty quick. At 1400z we have a daily company meeting and then we go over to the chow tent. In-between all that if I’m not flying I try to get a run in. After all that we all head back to our living quarters (tent). We all live in tent city. They are air force tents so they’re not that bad. They all have plywood floors to keep us off the bugger dust. Each one has an ac/heater unit attached to it, thus climate control. It does not mean the dust stays out. It does mean you stay warm or cool depending on the Temp that day, manually of course. We all have our little piece of the tent, which we build shelves and bed stands to personalize it. We bought a TV from one of the guys leaving and a DVD player. I night we try to find a DVD we haven’t seen recently and drink some hot coco. If there’s not enough time for a movie we’ll tell stories about each other’s flights that day. DVD’s are great, its mindless entertainment that relaxes everybody before going to bed. It doesn’t matter if it cost a dolor, old, new, drama or action. I really think it keeps people from getting on each other’s nerves living so close to one another. Some days Ill walk to the PX tent, not to buy anything but to see what silly stuff they put on the shelves. Laundry now is pretty good, about 1 or 2 day turn around. We put our clothes in a bag fill out a form and one of our guys drops it off and picks it up. Sometimes Ill bring my laundry to the open wash tents and do it my self. Keeps from being board.
January 17th, 2003
Was flight lead on a mission to transport five PUCs to two different locations, plus resupply some of the firebases. Any time the PUCs are transported they have hoods over their heads, hands zip tied behind them and ankles shackled. The usually have two security guys for every one PUC. They smell terrible, the security guys even handed our crew chiefs white facemasks if they wanted them. I had to brief 2 UH-60, 1 CH-47 and an AH-64. When we all went to fly it all came together and we acted as if we were all in the same unit. Nice to see that we can put our differences aside and make it happen. What’s really cool is the AMC isn’t always a commission officer like in the rear; it’s actually the guy with the most experience not the rank. It sounds like common sense but I guess us Warrant Officers have to go to war to get used properly, and since I’m usually flight lead I’m leading from the front. Lead, Follow or get the hell out of the way. Our crew chiefs are getting really proficient with the M-60. We test fire it every time we fly. We find any area that’s not populated and spit bullets down range. Its great when the PUCs are on board because they cant see anything, so we test fire a little bit longer then normal with some left and right banks for the effects. I’ve been avoiding having to sit down with the Cav CMDR because I’m trying to figure out how tactfully to tell him that he’s screwing me for his mistake in bring a safety guy that can only stay a month. Why does a problem on someone else’s part become a crisis on my part? So you can tell I’m pretty upset and bummed out about the whole thing. I really wanted to stay with my guys at the company level. Plus I have to move up to Cav headquarters and live up there. I can’t believe they can’t send for another one back in the rear. O well enough venting.
January 18th, 2003
Had to safety our rifle range today, it went relatively smooth. Then I had to take a last minute flight for more dust training, they are getting better little by little. After that I cleaned my rifle went to the 1400z daily meeting and now I’m back in the tent in my little Shangri-la. I think this week has finely caught up to my, I’m exhausted.
January 19th, 2003
Well since I’m flying nights today and don’t have to get up early, I finally got eight hours of sleep. I’m rejuvenated and ready for another couple of days. Had time before my flight to jot down some notes on what I need to get and organize for the company safety program. Picked up my goggles and walked out to the ACFT for the aircrew brief. I’m flying second, its what we call a hot swap. My flight is to get HUD trained and to be trained as a goggle UT. The HUD (Heads Up Display) is a monocle that attaches to the end of the goggle and displays certain information. You can dim or brighten the info you see so as to not get too fixated on it. It’s a great piece of equipment but the saying teaching an old dog new tricks is somewhat true. It really takes some time flying with it in order to develop a good crosscheck of all the info displayed. Thus not getting fixated one bit of info and forget about flying the ACFT. The UT (Unit Training) is to help our one IP Fred with the training of our new guys. The flight went well, since I was a UT before it’s starting to come back to me. Got to talk to my sweetie after my flight, its great to hear her voice and now she doing well. Tomorrows flight is more UT training and HUD familiarization.
January 20th, 2003
Went on a four-mile run this morning with my buddy Fred the IP. Next I went to a briefing on the up and coming air assaults out of Khowst. We leave for Khowst on Wednesday to perform some missions close to the Pakistan border. They have Intel on some bad guys up their and some cache sites. Then I study for my UT ride later tonight. Tonight the IP that will be evaluating me is going to play the roll as a brand new pilot. He caught me off guard a couple of times but the UT ride went really well. One landing would be perfect and the next one he would want to crash it into the ground, but it looks like I’m going to be a UT again. Of course more work comes with it but the boredom stays to a minimum. Tomorrow no flights just prep for the jump up to Khowst.
January 21st, 2003
No flying today so I got caught up on a lot of stuff that I’ve been too busy to get done. Got a little more sleep then normal, all recycled for the next mission set. Fred and I worked our way up to the laundry tent in order to take care of some last minute dirty clothes for the Khowst trip. After that I went to Saber TOC to plan for the flight up there. I finished the mission packets and briefed all the crews for tomorrow’s flight. We will have a flight of 5 UH, 1 Med UH, 2 CH and 2 AH’s tomorrow. We went to the mess tent and then returned to our tent to finish packing.
January 22nd, 2003
Had a quick update brief then went to our ACFT and packed up all the equipment needed for our missions while up in Khowst. Flight was un-eventful, stopped at Skhin to drop off two boxes and pick up two soldiers. Made our way to Orgun-E for gas and then on to Salerno (Khowst). Upon landing we all cycled though gas and made our way to parking. Our one crew that rotates in and out of here met us out in parking with a gator to transport our rucks to our tents. I was told that evening that I was going to be flight lead for the first air assault with 3/504 PIR. That’s pretty cool because that’s were I like to be, up front leading the entire assault into the objective. Started gathering some of my planning material for tomorrow and then got some shuteye. Well, its official, SABER 06 made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. His choice of words made it hard to say I would like to stay down at the company level with my boys. I am now Task Force Saber Aviation SAFETY Officer.
January 23rd, 2003
That morning I waited for the RAVEN to arrive from KAF in order to have the IPC for the first mission. They finally flow him up and we began. After that I started planning because now I knew what the infantry wanted and how they wanted to accomplish it. I assigned different people for different tasks and by the end of the night I had a complete packet in hand bar any last minute changes tomorrow. Fred being really good buddy stayed up late that night while everybody else was asleep to help me put my briefing book together. We eventually got some shuteye but it was hard. All night I keep thinking about the mission.
January 24th, 2003
0200 we had the AMB. That’s were we basically review everything and make any last minute changes. It’s kind of like a handshake with the infantry and all other parties involved. I made notes on all changes and then 0330 I had to brief the ACMB. This one was pretty long since we had a lot of players involved. At the end of the brief there wasn’t too many questions so I guess I did a pretty good job. At 0500 all the PC had to attend the CAR and then after that we had the AVN Reh. After all the briefing, rehearsals and static load training out at the ACFT, we inspected our ACFT and repositioned them for tomorrows mission. You can see all the planning and prep work makes for a long day.
January 25th, 2003
Mission day, Objective Lion. 0030 PI’s and crew chiefs go to the ACFT and get it ready. 0100 PC’s go to the update brief, no changes mission still a go. 5 UH, 2 CH, 2 AH, 1 UH C2, 1 UH Med. 0210 APU, 0215 TF commo check with C2 aircraft. C2 departs for the ROZ, 2 AH take off for their over watch positions. 0241 UH’s taxi/line up, 0244 take off and 0300 time on objective lion. I led the first lift of 5 UH followed by 2 CH, 1-minute separation. I led the group up to the combined RP were we all broke off to our respective LZ’s, all averaging 7400msl. I took a team to a ridge line for over watch on there in coming brothers landing down below them. Once cresting the ridge we kicked the doors open for them to get a better feel and gain situation awareness. Since I didn’t get a call 7 min out from the AH on a new grid for my LZ, I thought it still had to be good for a three point landing. Unfortunately I could only place my tail wheel down and they all had to jump one at a time. Chalk 2 and 3 landed down inside the bowl to their LZ and 4 and 5 landed to theirs about 400 meters behind 2-3. One minute later 2 CH crest the bowl and landed down to their LZ about 400 meters right of 4-5. I saw 2-3 take off through all the dust as I was getting a thumbs up from our guys we dropped off. We then took off and passed 2-3 on the left side for link up and correct order. Once I got a closing call from 5 I bumped it up from 100kts to 130kts and brought the flight back to the PZ for our second lift. This lift I had to bring all UH to were 2-3 went to. When we arrived back to the PZ I got a quick up date from Fred on the condition and landing direction they used. Ingress 2, once we crested the bowl we s-turned to the left and then one big circle to bleed off all the altitude and keep the rotor over-speed in the yellow and out of the red. It kind of was like an autorotation. We landed, the dust settled and we were all there. Off load went quick and off we went end of infill. The CH’s did one more lift and end of mission for them.
Exfill was the same day since bad weather was rolling in and we couldn’t provide them any aviation support once the wx came down. Exfill was the same except all UH go to one LZ and CH another. CH’s would go in first, dump off some humanitarian stuff and draw the crowd. UH’s would pass on the right and land to our LZ. Sounds good on paper. While leading them inbound I hear over ABN net that two CH couldn’t fit into there LZ and one had to bump forward. Well it turned out on my approach that one was in our LZ. I had the flight still offset to the right when I figured out that he was in our LZ. I thought about doing a Woe Boy, but no since in screwing the flight. I decided to do a go-around but didn’t call it for the whole flight, figuring they were seeing the same thing I was. I called out “SC31 Go-Around”. Not hearing anyone else I thought I screwed up and the LZ was down in the dried up riverbed. I commenced in doing a long leg for the go-around still thinking I was right on what I saw. I had just enough room for a small s-turn left and happened to see one other aircraft catching up to me. I called to see who it was and would you believe it, SC33, my buddy Fred in chalk three position. He saw the same thing and didn’t want me flapping out their by myself, (never leave your wing man) even though he was two aircraft back, boy that felt good. We continued our go-around, collected up the rest of our flight that were on the ground, waited for the confusion on the ground to settle about our LZ, and then continued on our mission landing in behind the CH. On take off we went from IGE to OGE pretty quick because of the CH in front of us, but all was well. What a great feeling. Leading everybody in to drop off our troopers and bringing them all out safely again. Since I use to be on the ground when I was enlisted, I know how hard their job is and will do anything for them. Resupply missions are fun but Air Assaults get your blood pumping. Plus how can you not feel like a great American after those missions.
January 26th, 2003
The weather moved in, so it’s a re-group day. Did some aircraft maintenance in the morning and some laundry in the afternoon. Finally got to take my first shower and catch up on some sleep after all that mission planning. Basically a calm day, we got rocketed that night but none made it in the camp. Saber Safety hasn’t been that bad. LTC Morgan is a really good commander one I think Ill like working for. From what I’ve seen so far he doesn’t make unnecessary quick decisions. He will huddle his staff or speak to them one on one to make the right decision. We are all kind of like his right-hand men. Many leaders are too quick in make decisions, which puts them against the wall and makes it very hard for them to change it after it’s given.
January 27th, 2003
Well we started planning for our next mission set when we got word that an AH got fired upon down by Spinbuldak. Two RPGs and some small arms. Nothing hit the aircraft. SF were on the ground and the AH returned fire toward the cave. That type of threat is the first in a long time. They kept coverage on it all night engaging throughout the night. Saber staff tried to get back to KAF but WX was too bad.
January 28th, 2003
Well the battle is still going on down by Spin. They say CNN knows about it, but we have no feed up here in Khowst. Saber staff is going to try again to leave. All missions have been bumped to the right; the focus is down to the south. The infantry BDE CDR sent in two hundred troopers and wants to send in more. We are packing up and heading back tomorrow in order to help and reconsolidate our aviation assets back to KAF in case this gets drawn out, if weather permits. There’s a big cell moving in from Iran.
January 29th, 2003
Well I briefed the update and we are letting the CHs go 15 minutes before us in order to cycle through hot gas quicker at Orgun-E. One AH will stay with us and still be able to help the CHs if any thing should happen. WX, low ceilings but still legal. We take off, 3 UH, 1 AH and start our journey back to KAF. WX in the Khowst bowl was pretty good and the Orgun pass had low ceilings but visibility was crystal clear, which was nice since we had mountains on both sides. We made it through the pass and headed to Organ-E. Inbound we could see the three CHs still in hot gas, so we landed to the holding area. The CH finally loaded up their packs and departed, we repositioned to the three hot pad points and took on some petrol. Two and three repositioned and the AH slipped in. We took off 30 minutes behind the CHs now. WX starting to look bad, kind of like fog. Now as flight lead I’m all over the map, and off the GPS. Making sure I don’t lead them down a dead end or higher terrain. Immediately I change course, more west, the south is socked in and if we can make it the big SW valley all would be well or I hope. We jumped over a ridge and headed SW but still had to get over one more ridge to the big valley. At this point we are flying 50ft 50kts so not to out run our limited visibility, trying to hug the western ridgeline; maybe there will be a break. We continue and weather was terrible, if it wasn’t sleeting it was snowing because slush and ice was forming around our windshield. We are forced to turn on our engine anti ice, windshield anti ice and our pitot heater, which is going to cost us extra fuel burn. I worked the numbers and even at 50ft 50kts we could make it, plus I kept checking Orgun-E distance just in case. Knowing the Task Force Commanders intent and the situation going on near Spin we continued. It times decelerating to 40kts and looking for the next little mogul and pressing on, my mined going a mile a minute, cockpit and comms between aircraft getting quieter and quieter. Not a good feeling. We can’t turn around because it’s socked in behind us and were at the point of no return. Right then and there the aircraft behind us loose site of each other and call out over the radio while turning to the non-formation side. We continue about two hundred meters forward so no one would run into us and then stopped and hovered. Pretty scary feeling right about now. We got a grid on two aircraft that managed to stay together and one at a time hovered over. We finally saw them about 75 meters out. The next aircraft finally made it over and we regrouped. We reviewed the map and options, which at this point were small, do to fuel. We had to continue down this bottleneck and hope at the end would be favorable for passing. I still hugged the right side because I saw a stream and possibly a road that passes over the ridge mid way down. If that didn’t pan out, to the neck we would go. It stopped snowing but the visibility stayed the same. I immediately turned off eng anti-ice to save a little fuel. The rest was electrical and wasn’t costing us any fuel. We continued, my finger moving ever so slowly over the map since we were creeping along. Three miles, two miles, one mile, here comes that stream/road that might help. It’s looking good, I told the others to slow back I’m going to check it out. Hurry hurry we can make it, clouds are moving across the top of the ridge from left to right, hurry hurry. We all made it across into the big valley, ceilings were still low but vis was great. We bumped up our airspeed to max range and someone most of been on our side, for we had a 20kt tail wind. I contacted KAF tower once close enough and told them we were inbound. He told me that we had to hold out side his airspace cause he had a fix wing down on the hammerhead finishing offloading and then taking off. “O” no my good man, we are fuel critical and need to continue inbound. We finally got into the traffic pattern, winds were 12 gusting 20kts, we were really really light and power wasn’t in question but I still wanted to land into the wind. The fix wing was ready for take off and I told tower to launch him cause I wanted runway 050. What a great feeling seeing our home base airfield and seeing your two low fuel lights flashing on approach. A flight that’s only supposes to be 2.3hrs took us 3.4hrs. I almost wish I could have been in one of the back aircraft, follow the leader, less stress, less gray hairs. Those are the days I wish there was a nice Irish pub to go to.
January 30th, 2003
We got some new intel from our S-2 and then got ready to bring resupplies out to our boy fighting down in the Spin area. Intel, all the flickering lights we report back to ops at night aren’t flashlight signals, there muzzle flash. I guess the enemy is adapting. They use-to-use tracers rounds from the last guys that were here and the apachies would return to them bigger tracer rounds. Now they don’t use any tracers, a couple of flashes in one area and a couple in another. Are they running from one area to the next or is it coordinated. We loaded up ammo and explosives for the caves and flew out to the LZ, dropped it all off, and got the hell out of there.
January 31st, 2003
Flew flight lead on the Purple ring route. Resupply all the firebases and plus them up in case intel is true that they are regrouping. After that I had to fly my annual ERFS eval. Rolling take off, rolling landing and answer some questions. The IP showed me a technique that added some gray hairs until I got the feel for it. A two wheel take off, with the tail off the ground in order to get max speed for a heavy gross weight aircraft. I had to finally move all my stuff up to the big house to live, now that I am Saber Safety. Its not to bad, I live with our former SIP. He got picked for Saber IP. Just the two of us occupy our quarters. It’s a farther walk to the showers but a shorter walk to work now, just walk around the building and inter it from the front and hang my hat at my desk when I’m not flying. Its strange not being down there at night with all the guys.