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(Mike Griffin is a Chinook pilot who is currently conducting operations in Afghanistan.)
Hello Everybody,
Sorry about taking so long to get back with you. We
have been very busy the last couple of days here. I
have flown 100hrs in 35 days, consisting of 20
missions. Our days are long when we fly, and everyone
has become short with one another. It all comes with
lack of sleep and people not pulling their own weight.
I have flown to several different places over the
past week. I'll send you a picture of this lake that
the Russians built a military post next to. They also
built this amazing lake house on it for their general.
I haven't even been able to run but 1 time in the
last 11 days, because we have either been flying or
planning and briefing the next day's flight. There is
rumor one day that I may be home by XMAS and then it
changes to FEB the next day, so I am trying to not get
my hope up. At the rate we are going, I'll get about
400 combat flight hours in 6 months. I have only
averaged about 250hrs a year back in the states. So
as you can see we are truly flying our butts off
here.
The living conditions are about to greatly
improve. They are bringing in a contractor, Brown & Root,
they have all the contracts for laundry, fresh food ,
and billets for places like Bosnia and Kosovo. That
will be a treat, because right now if you turn in
laundry it comes back dirty, wet, and wrinkled, when
they don't lose your stuff. It will be nice to eat
real food again after eating what they call T-rats,
which is food that was prepared up to 2yrs ago and
sealed in metal containers and reheated. Life is
pretty much routine now. If we are not flying we get
up and run, eat breakfast, fight each other for e-mail
access, wait in line for the 2 phones that we have for
about 150 people, use the bathroom in these
porta-potties that would never pass inspection in the
states, and stay out of the sun here as much as
possible. Now, that brings us up to lunch. By this
time of the day it is pretty hot and unless you are
out flying or turning a wrench on a aircraft not much
is going on due to the heat. We either eat Meal Ready
to Eat, MREs, or make PB&J sandwiches. We have
meetings throughout the day for the following days
missions.
For every mission we must turn in a power
point slide show where the generals and colonels above
us can see what we are doing. These slides consist of
your timeline a 5 paragraph Operations Order and copy
of the routes on a digital map showing the routes that
we will be flying that day. This whole process makes
a normal planning cell go from 1.5hrs to about 6hrs
every day for every mission. When we land we have to
daily the aircraft, which the flight engineer's job is
to check all the moving parts and ensure that all the
fluids are full, and the pilots pre-flight, which is
where we thoroughly examine every part and piece of
the helicopter for the next flight. Once that is done
then we scurry to get back where we don't miss dinner
which is the famous T-rats.
After dinner, we once
again scurry for the phones and e-mail. If it is
early enough and we are not flying the next day we try
and watch movies, play trivial pursuit, and try and
figure out what we are going to buy when we get back
home to the US. But most of all we talk about home,
our families, how lucky we were to have not been born
someplace like here, how good we have it back in the
US, and how we all can't wait to get home. Everyone
has pictures up of their wives, family, friends, pets,
houses, and cars. Most of us feel bad for the people
here, but there is a growing discontent by everyone at
getting shot at. Most of us do not hate them. We
understand that most of the people here are not
educated and have been told that we are here to kill
them, so at least I understand why so many of the
Afghanis do not want us here. I'll send some new
pictures of us flying over this beautiful lake and our
living conditions tomorrow to everybody. Take care and
I can't wait to do some fishing and hunting.
Take care,
Michael