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A YEAR IN HONDURAS
March 26th - July 8th, 2001

---Day 1 (March 26, 2001 Day 1 of 365) --- 

3:50am Alarm goes off. 

4:00am Phone alarm wake up call. Would have slept through if the phone alarm didn't ring.  I had turned off the alarm clock and didn't realize it (what’s new).

4:31am Arrived at the terminal.  Checked in.  They signed me in and told me to report back at 6:50am.  When back to our hotel room and relaxed watching the news.

6:00am Woke the family up and got the kids dressed.

6:30am arrived at the terminal with family.  All sitting together waiting to load the aircraft.  I am sad. 

7:20am they begin boarding.  I am standing in line waiting for my last chance to see everyone before I leave.  Many kisses and hugs for everyone.  A few more kisses and I am next in the gate.  Sad.  Lump in my throat.  The kids all say goodbye and wave to me.  I give Stef and Anabelle one last big hug and kiss.  I walk into the departure lounge and Stef and the kids walk away out of the terminal.  The kids are yelling "goodbye daddy" as they walk away.  I watch them walk out of the terminal.  I am very sad.  I sit down and wait for the bus to take us to the aircraft.  I look out to where Stef and the kids went and can now see the van driving away.  I feel tears well up in my eyes many times but I do not allow them to fall.  My throat is full with a huge lump and I am trying to look strong.  I am all-alone now.

7:40am The bus won't start.  It is coughing smoke.  Finally gets started and we all board and are delivered to the steps leading into the giant C5.  We climb the large steps that take us directly to the cabin seating and I find a row of seats all to myself near the bathroom.

8:16am  The C5 takes off.  On my way to Soto Cano Honduras now. 

9:00am I get my boxed lunch and am reading my UH-60 study guide.

9:27am I open my lunch (maybe should call it breakfast).  Inventory:  Doritos, chicken sandwich, apple juice, Canada dry soft drink, Oreos, chocolate pudding, peanut m&m's, fork, knife, spoon.  Great-no chocolate until Easter due to Lent promise.  There goes half my meal. haha.

I am thinking about how long a year is and even how long 4 months is.  It seems an eternity.  To not be with my family for so long, to not be able to talk to Stef at night...to not hug the kids...seems a long time.  I know that the sadness will eventually dissipate and we will all become accustomed to life apart-not by choice, but by necessity.  "Some points in your life you just have to enter." 

Opened my apple juice.  People are sleeping.  Flight is 3.5 hours long.  Opened my Doritos.  Opened my sandwich.  Looks good: chicken, Swiss cheese and a nice wheat sub roll. First bite is mostly cheese and bread, but it is good.  Second bite-ouch--cold.  Frozen chicken.  Initially, when I bite it, it is cold and frozen but after I chew it a bit, it softens up and is ok.  Half of my sandwich is left.  Another crunchy, frozen bite.  Canada Dry is good.  Oh, found a mustard packet. 

About 30 people on this flight.  Have a row of seats to myself.  Mostly young military but there are a few older, apparent, civilians and a few couples also. 

I was very impressed with the Airport Terminal (which is an Air Force Terminal).  Not sure what I expected, but it is just like a regular civilian airport.  I dug my hand into my pocket to retrieve a note that Stef and the kids wrote to me while we waiting for my departure.  I was not allowed to open it until on the flight.  Very touching.  Tears welling in my eyes again but I still strain to keep them back.  In nearly 10 years of marriage we have never been apart for this long.  It is particularly tough because I have been with them all for 1 year straight with no interruptions.  Wake up with them every day, it is hectic for sure, and many times I wish for peace, but nothing is greater than the love and companionship that I am now missing.  Consolation--will be surrounded by people I know in Honduras--Brian M., Matt B., Joe Hodgson, Val Asuncion, Tony A....

Another crunchy bite of my sandwich.  Peanut m&m's look really good.  Throw them out or keep them?

10:30am local time, the aircraft comes to a halt and taxis off the runway.  The huge ramp lowers and we all climb down the inside, steep, ladder and are greeted with 90 degrees and sun like you wouldn’t believe.  Mountains everywhere.  Very hazy in the distance, but beautiful for sure. 

This is home for a while...

---Week 1 (March 26-April 01, 2001) ---
The C5 landed and parked on a taxi way and the ramp was lowered for us to deplane.  I stepped out and was immediately impressed by the towering mountains all around me.  Clear, sunny day and warm.  We were bussed over to the Customs Agent who simply stamped our Passports and issued us a visa.  I linked up with CPT B. (my former Platoon Leader) quickly and then moved my baggage out.  Gave him my peanut m&m’s and Oreos.  Waited in line for the customs agent to issue my visa and then went to lunch.  After lunch I moved into my room and put a uniform on ready to fly (as a passenger) around the local area.  The flight didn’t happen so I continued to get my things sorted out.

Received my baggage the next day (was told I wouldn’t get it til Friday so that was nice).  Put my room together.  Room is about 15 deep by 30 wide.  I have a full fridge, microwave, wall unit AC, 19” television (I brought), twin bed, 2 book shelves, a recliner, computer, speaker system, fan, 2 wall lockers, 2 end tables, one dresses, one desk, a computer chair, another chair, a 5’x8’ rug and a 3 drawer chest.  I have a picture collage of my wife and kids and some other pictures that I brought as well as some pictures that the kids made to decorate the room.  I have cable TV with many channels.  HBO, TMC, Showtime, Cinemax etc.  They also purchase pay-per-view movies and events for us as well.

I received maps of the area (for flying) and was given a briefing that I am not allowed to write or publish things that happen while I am here.  I am sure it is in reference to any missions we may perform so I will have to be discreet on some things.

Learning Spanish as I go along.  It is cool to learn and be able to talk to the people (although I still can’t).  I order all of my food in Spanish as much as possible.  They have little tags at the dining facility that has the American name and the Spanish name for the food so I stab at the language.  The servers help out also.  Like putting a puzzle together.  Very fun.

Found my office space and computer where I will make my home at the flight line.  It is away from the pilots lounge and actually is in the IP’s office.  I sit next to Val Asuncion my former neighbor from Flight School and he will be my IP as well.  My computer and desk area is quite large and very sufficient.  Very nice to have my own computer to work on as most of the others are sharing systems for general use.  I got lucky in that area.

Signed up for Basic Spanish classes, which begins on April 9^th and continues, 3 days a week, 2 hours a day, until May 23.  I may miss a good portion of that class if I deploy to Trinidad.  They are currently working on a rotation plan.  Hope it works.  I need to get flying and refresh myself.

Thursday I went to an In briefing at the post theater and was taken on a bus tour of Comayagua, the nearest town.  Many places off limits there and it is very poor and different than anything I have seen.  Farm animals at the town square.  People freely carry some sort of weapon from machetes to rifles.  Driving is out of control and very aggressive or you wont get anywhere.  Garbage is everywhere on the roadsides.  Although it doesn’t smell horribly, it does smell at times.

Tried some different food:  Guacamole that Brian made…it wasn’t bad but didn’t eat much.  I had Avocado, spinach and cheese dip at Tony Roma’s and that was good.  I also tried a Jalapeno popper and ate half of it.  Wasn’t bad, but nothing that I would eat often.  Also had onions on a hamburger by accident.  They were small but didn’t make it taste better.

Friday:  Mike helped me build a screen door out of two broken screen doors.  They have a self-help here, so I was able to get screws, screen, tape, insect spray and so on.

Dining In.  It is an Army Formal dinner with people from the unit.  Everyone dresses in their dress uniform and the dinner is very ceremonial but fun.  Travis is a bike rider and he shaves his entire body.  So, as a joke, during the dining In, I was instructed to bring up a point of order that although I have only been here 1 week, there is a sanitary problem in the bathroom.  Well, we needed some evidence so Brian, Mike Siler and I “donated” some of our hairs for the cause…only hair we had was down below…anyhow, I produced the evidence at the dining in and it was kind of funny but backfired a bit cause one of the companies was being loud as hell and therefore it didn’t make as large of an impact as intended.

After the dining in we went home and changed and then off to the Lizard Lounge, which is our locally run bar.  Many people were there from the dining in and we all just hung out for hours and continued to drink.  I only had one beer but others had many more and by nights end, Brian’s shirt had been eaten and ripped off by peoples teeth and eventually he was drunk enough and pissed enough to hit someone with a beer bottle.  Fortunately it hit the guy in the chest and at that point, we escorted him home. Which is only 50 yards away or so.  We reconvened the party at Brian’s and eventually beer bottles filled the volleyball court and of course, one broke in the sand.  Then someone tossed a bottle at CPT Joe Hodgsons door and it busted then even later, Mike baseball pitched a bottle near Brian’s door and it shattered too…out of control I have to tell you.  In the meantime, I hung out…only so I wouldn’t get my door rattled or broken for going to sleep.  We went to bed at 4am.

Saturday morning I was woken up at 10:30 am and CPT B. and his girlfriend, CPT Newhouse drove to Tegucigalpa which is an hour or so over a few mountain ranges.  Very poor country in most places.  Driving in interesting.  Reminded me of Jordan.  No real lane markings.  Largest vehicle has the right of way.  Saw some random farm animals on the side of the road: Donkeys, cows, bulls etc.  Went to a wealthy part of town and had Tony Romas for lunch and it tasted just the same as at home.

Saw a lady washing clothes in a river and saw a little kid come out of his house with no clothes on.  Looked like the normal thing to do.  He lived in a clay brick house with openings for doors and windows but nothing to close the house up.  Saw another house with a part of a wooden fence for their door.

Lots of fruit stands.  People were selling car accessories on the street corners in Tegucigalpa.  Another kid wanted to wash our windows.

Seems like most people are walking around with some sort of jug to carry water (I assume).  People carry old oil containers or old antifreeze jugs.

Sunday went to the flight line after chilling in the room for most of the morning and into the afternoon.  Got on the Internet and weeded through my 4 email accounts (need to consolidate that stuff).  Spent a few hours there and came back.  Went running 3 miles with Brian and CPT B..  Was a slow pace but feels good to have done something finally.  Went to eat at the chow hall.

Sprinkled lightly, but there was thunder and lightening all around the “bowl” which is the mountain range surrounding us on all sides.

Today was daylight savings time in the US.  We do not change our clocks here, so we now change from Central time to Mountain Time.

Watched Eco challenge Borneo and Wrestle mania 7 I think.  Studied a bit.  Going to try to organize PT and studying in the evenings.  As it is, we just sit around after work and most people drink beers.  Big waste of time, but hard to do something when it is so easy to do nothing.

 Wake up whenever I want to and go to work around 9am.  No big pressure or formations.  Do what I need to do and that is all.  No one seems to question it.

 Going through a bit of money trying to gather basic supplies.  Have a full sized refrigerator so it’s easy to try to stock it up.  I have basic items and lots of water.  That is what I drink mostly.

Fixed up my room a bit and rearranged it twice.  I think I will move into a larger room if given the chance.  I have everything I need in this room and it is right next to the bathroom, but I would like a couch and coffee table.  LT Mark Wyckoff is moving out in May so maybe I can get his room which is just on the other side of Mike Siler closer to the Lizard lounge (which means nothing to me).

Lots of drinking going on here but having been there, done that, I will try to refrain from getting out of control like I do. 

Calling home is very easy but during peek hours, all the outgoing lines are busy.  Easiest to call in the mornings I guess.

Lots of beautiful singing birds here.  Also there is a plantain or banana trees all around our area and especially outside of my room.  Saw Mango and coconut trees also.  Not extremely tropical like jungle in this area but there are exotic birds and plants. 

Typical weather (remains a constant so far): Sun rise around 6:30am?? (not up that early to know).  Warms up quickly into the low 90s or so and is very, very sunny.  I lost my sunglasses on the 2^nd day.  Very dry and brown in places.  I am told that the rainy season will bring much greenery and the place will become much more beautiful.

Next week’s agenda:  Continue to in process and integrate into the unit and get ready for my first flight in over a year.  Been a while and although I haven’t forgotten a lot, I think I have found I just never knew that much anyhow.

---Week 2 (April 02 - 8, 2001) ---
Monday:  Took malaria pills (take them every Monday).  I flew with some people out to the coast of Honduras on the waters of the Caribbean Ocean.  Beautiful!  The picture is from the beach and it is outside of a little restaurant that we had lunch at --  Gringos.  I thought is sucked.  Hamberguesa con queso y toccino y papas fritas (hamburger with cheese and bacon and French fries).  Yuck!  Think it must have been cat or something!  Lol Someone else ordered fish and it was the whole damn thing fried up in oil!

Saw many grass houses and huts and people walking in the jungle along thin trails that spider everywhere you can see.  Landed on the beach to fix some stuff that was getting sucked out of the aircraft.

Tuesday:  Volleyball in the morning against the crew chiefs.  We beat two teams.  Was pretty fun and it was the earliest most of us (Pilots) had been up in a while.

Hot day.  The sun is very draining and very hot.  90º + every day this week with a low in the 70’s.  The Ultraviolet code is 10+ for extreme caution or danger.  It seems that no matter how much I drink I am still dehydrated.

Went to my personnel office (PAC) and submitted a DA Form 4187 to request follow on assignment to Germany, the Instructor Pilot course and Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion Course. 

Picked up my green flight suits and had all the patches sewn on.  Tried them on after work and found that they are not the right size.  My crotch hangs down to my knees.  Haha…well now I need to strip all the patches off and go back to CIF (which is open by appointment if you believe that) and pay to have them sewn again.  It is only $6.00 but just makes me mad.

Ran tonight after work.  Did 2 miles of interval running.  We started at 8:00pm and it was still a bit hot.  There was a light breeze blowing from the east and it smelled peculiar.  Kinda sweet, but kinda noxious.  Seems that there is a chemical plant right outside the fence.  Smells like Simple Green or something.

Wednesday:  In the morning I went to the 9mm Berretta range to fire my pistol and get qualified on it.  The range is at the north end of the runway down in a ravine.  Nice little spot.  I shot about 40 or 50 rounds, qualified and went back to work at around 12:30pm.  Received a message that the LTC wanted to speak with me so I went to his office and we talked about the website and dial up internet access.  He wants me to find a way to get commercial access for our battalion.  Next up is the CS chamber where I get to test my protective mask to make sure that the seal works and it will protect me from various gases used in warfare.  We drove back out to the place where the 9mm range was held at and we gathered in an open field.  We all put our masks on and gave one last minute check to see that there were sealing properly.  Then, SSG Ray pulled the pin on 2 CS grenades and dropped them around us.  Thick smoke instantly billowed up and we all walked around in the smoke waiting for any painful effects of not having a sealed mask.  Almost instantly I could feel neck and hands (all exposed skin) starting to burn-a definite indication that the CS is working.  We took some pictures while we were in the smoke.  The smoke dissipated and we all took our masks off.  Unfortunately, the CS sticks into your clothing so when we took our masks off, we all got a shot of the gas and we all teared up and our noses ran.  The key at this point is to NOT touch anything, especially do not rub your eyes.  A few did and they suffered.  Eventually the effects went away.  We drove back to the airfield and went into the pilots hangout where I took my coat off and shook it out…haha…people felt the pain of residual CS right away.

Thursday:  Started off with a class on the electrical system of the Blackhawk.  Good class.  Then Paul Druse and I talked about my Proficiency Flight Evaluation (PFE) that I will be taking tomorrow.  Basically, I fly the helicopter and do specific maneuvers and when I do them correctly and to the standard, he marks them off.  Took my flight suits back to the issue facility and got the next size down and then took them over to the sewing shop and paid another $5 to get my patches sewn on.  These fit properly and look good.  I feel better.

Spent the majority of the afternoon seeking answers about dial up.  I talked to CPT Alexander and she introduced me to all the civilian contractors on post (the ones who deal with computer issues).  As I met all of these people, I asked them what they knew about dial up and got various responses.  Seems like a lot of ideas but no one is linking all the key players up to solve the issue.  Finally I was told about the AFFES (PX) manager and that she may have some info on obtaining dial up.  Mrs. Hall told me that she has been waiting for some key information from CPT Alexander’s office in reference to dial up.  I took the information and I will seek the answers she needs.  That will be my goal in the future: provide the necessary information to her so she can talk to AT&T about getting commercial dial up access here for the soldiers.

End of the day, I went out to the aircraft with CPT Matt B. and we went through a pre-flight of the aircraft.  My first time really looking over a Blackhawk in a year; a little rusty but not bad; a great refresher.  We finished up and gathered up to go to dinner.  Since the time change, Survivor begins at 6pm so we have to eat quickly so we can watch it.  We get to the chow hall around 10 minutes to 6pm so we change the channel on the TV there (I think there are 5 of them in the chow hall) and we watched survivor until we were done eating.

Friday:  Flying today.  Went to the flight line at 7:30am with CPT B..  Paul (my IP) was already there.  I dropped off some books and went to breakfast then came back to begin my flight.  Excited!  First flight in over a year.  We moved out to the aircraft after filing the flight plan and checking the weather.  Slowly went through run up and taxied to the south ramp and finally took off at 10:45am.  Paul flew me around and oriented me to the local area.  This country is beautiful but the houses and towns are so run down.  Flew south the the low level training area and weaved our way around the mountain valleys, draws and river beds.  Landed in a field and then went up 4,000’ up the side of a mountain to the TACAN site.  Basically, it is a landing pad on top of this mountain that has a view of then entire country (so it seems).  We landed there and sat looking around for a few minutes then picked it up and nosed it over, down 4,000’ to the valley floor and proceeded north to Siguatapegue (think that is how you spell it).  It is a large town north west of Soto Cano.  Circled over that city then turned around and headed back to the airfield to do some emergency procedures.  I did the typical emergencies – Stabilator failure, ECU lockout, Boost off, single engine failure…etc.  For my boost off approach (boost off is flying without the aid of the flight control boost pumps.  Makes flying very hard and requires a lot of force to do so and therefore you get really tired.  Anyhow, I flew it around the traffic pattern and brought it back in to land.  After hovering around for a while to get my control touch back, I was challenged to land one of my tires in a 3 foot circle.  Slowly I pressured it down to the ground and made it in the circle!  Enough for today lets shut down.  Flew 2.2 hours and got a lot done.  Need a night flight and some instrument refresher training (flying in the clouds).  For the rest of the day I checked my email and caught up with Stef on the phone and then called it a day.  We have a tag in/out tonight at 7:30pm.  Tag in is where new guys (like me) are welcomed to the battalion.  We have a bar that is ran by people in the unit.  It is called the Lizard Lounge.  Beers are $1 and hard liquor is $1.50.  When you are “tagged in” you have to ring the bell.  To ring the bell you have to (are supposed to) pay $20 to the bar.  By the end of the night there is a large sum of money and the bar is opened and everyone drinks for free (until the money runs out).  When people leave, they are “tagged out” and during that process, they nail one of their nametags to a large board while people are pouring beer on them.  Of course, they ring the bell too.  So, the time came and tag in commenced with the entire battalion gathering at the Lizard Lounge.  The Battalion Commander called Roll call and everyone sounded off, Talons (my company), Sugar Bears (Chinook company), Phantoms (HQ Company), and Witch Doctors (Medical Evacuation company).  Tag in began with me…CPT B. introduced me and then said for me to give a speech.  Well, I knew their plan, so just tossed my hands up and walked to the bell…rang it and dropped my $20.  What they will do is let you start talking and then just tell you to shut the hell up and rung the bell.  There were a few people tagging out (leaving) and then they call for any alibis.  During alibi time, anyone can call someone out to ring the bell for doing something stupid, going TDY (temporary duty)..etc.  Well, Pete Barr, had an alibi and stepped up.  He had a Blackhawk checklist with him and proceeded to talk about how someone obviously had a problem reading and understanding the words in the checklist.  Pete said, I will give you amnesty if you ring the bell.  The LTC stepped forward and said, “Shut the hell up Mr. Barr” and rang the bell!  Everyone laughed.  It was funny.  You see, what happened was that they were getting ready to take off for Belize this morning and when the LTC (Lieutenant Colonel – Battalion Commander) and Travis Haley got in the aircraft and began to run it up, Travis looked at the fuel gauge.  It was only ¾ full.  He looked at the LTC and asked him if he checked it.  The LTC said, “what?  No one checks inside there.” Haha…So they had to get gas.  

The night continued on with everyone enjoying free drinks and popcorn.  We all stayed out at the Lounge and laughed and joked for a while.  Eventually we left and went looking for people.  CPT Joe Hodgson had disappeared so we went to his room to get him.  He wouldn’t answer the door so I checked his windows and found them unlocked.  I pushed one up and climbed in through his curtains and onto his couch.  Everyone outside was laughing.  Once inside I lay quietly and listened for Joe.  Couldn’t hear him.  Outside, I could hear everyone yelling for me to open the door so I jumped up and opened the door and turned the light on.  When the light came on I looked in the corner and saw Joe on his bed with the covers pulled up to his nose.  He was laughing and so was I.  I jumped up in the air and landed on his bed.  He got up and came out with us.  That is the bad thing about being around drunks—you better not sleep.  So we went to Matt’s room and listened to some mixed CD’s.  Also took the privilege of beginning my first step of paybacks on someone. 

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:40 am after going to bed at 2:00am.  Matt and I were driving some bike riders out to the base of the Mountain where they would being their day long journey of riding up it.  On the way, we saw some Papaya trees and a huge Mango plantation.  We also passed a bridge that is being built.  In the water under the bridge, people were bathing and washing clothes.  We dropped them off in an area that looked like a dump.  As we drove through there, we saw an old man, a donkey and 2 kids all picking through the garbage.  We came back home.  My stomach was cramping from the local food…so I was hurting by the time I got back.  Almost didn’t make it.  On the way back, I saw a kid carrying 2 large coca cola bottles full of what appeared to be fresh milk.  We got back on post and then I jumped back in bed and woke up at 12:50pm.  Drank lots of water and some oral rehydration salts.  We were supposed to pick up the bike riders around 3pm.  This time I drove the truck and we headed out to get them.  In most places there are no speed limits at all.  On post it is 15mph, but off post, out the gate, it is as fast as you can go.  There are not many painted lines on the road and there are essentially 2 lanes.  The largest vehicle definitely has the right of way so it becomes a weave-in-and-out race.  Pretty fun.  Lots of buses and bicycles and donkeys for transportation.  We found our way back to the drop off point and the bike riders weren’t there yet, so we continued to drive closer and closer to the mountain to find them.  Soon we saw them racing down towards us so we turned around and followed them out.  The road was all dirt with many boulders, rocks, and ruts.  A bouncy ride to say the least.  They loaded the bikes up and we took them back to post.

Around 4:30pm we went to the local church on post for Palm Sunday mass.  It was very small and only 5 people were there: Me, Joe, Matt, Jennifer (Matt’s girlfriend), and another girl who is Jennifer’s friend.  From there we made plans to go out to Comayagua to eat at La Ming, a Chinese Restaurant.  We all went to the PX and exchanged American dollars for Lempiras.  The exchange was 15.2 lemps for 1 dollar.  We walked to the front gate and hailed a taxi cab.  We had 5 people going down town so we got 2 cabs.  The cabs here are not very well marked and definitely do not resemble a taxi that you would be used to in the states.  The taxis here are just personal vehicles with a number hand painted on the side.  They are small cars that barely fit 4 people.  We talked to the driver and agreed on the price:  20 Lempiras each.  That is about $1.30 American.  Off we went down town.  The ride took about 15 minutes and he dropped us off right at the front door (which is the recommended practice due to the potential danger of some of these places).  For dinner I ordered Pollo Agridulce con arroz (Sweet and Sour Chicken with rice).  Wow!  Very good and to much too eat actually.  Also ordered a coke.  They still have glass bottles here and actually, the funny thing is that the bottles are clearly used over and over as shown by the worn labels (the painted kind).  My dinner was 98 Lemps which is just under $7.00.  We headed outside and got a taxi to take us back to post.  This time we stuffed all 5 of us in the cab.  Jennifer had to squish on Matt’s lap and the car was so small that I had to sit sideways and Jen’s head was hitting the roof.  The man who drove us back was very nice and knew some English so we all traded words back and forth.  I was joking and said, “Pollo frito iglesias” and he said, “Crunchy!”  I said, Churches Fried Chicken.  I didn’t realize they actually had those restaurants here, but they do.  We all laughed when he replied. 

From there, we came back to the hooch and watched TV.  Then Matt and I hooked out computers together and played Delta Force: Land Warrior until 2am.

Sunday:  Woke up at 8:30 am and laid in bed watching TV for a while.  Matt came over and we played Delta again for a while and I had some cheerios for brunch.  Matt said that we were invited to Jen’s hooch to have pasta for dinner so we were just waiting for the time to roll around.  At 4:45pm we gathered a group:  Paul Druse, Tom Gibbons, Matt and I.  We walked over to the other side of post (only a few blocks really) and had pasta and bread for dinner while we watched The Gladiator.  Dinner was good.  I love garlic bread!  After dinner, they had Tiramisu for desert but I think it had chocolate so I had none (to keep my Lenten promise).  After that we went home.  I stopped by the ATM to withdraw a few bucks to hold me over till payday on Friday.  Time to clean up and get ready for work this week. 

Coming up:  Night flight on Tuesday.  Spanish classes begin on Monday and Scream 3 is on Saturday!  Brian and Mark Wyckoff returns from Belize on Thursday and Matt, Tom, Mike and others leave for Trinidad on Thursday as well.

---Week 3 (April 09 - 15, 2001) ---

Monday:  Began the morning with a three-mile interval run.  I took off at 6:45 am and after a brief warm up, alternated the speed of my running-1minute fast, then 1 minute at normal pace.  I did this for three miles and by the time I was done I was pretty tired.  From there I went to the pull up bars and alternated push-ups and sit-ups for four repetitions.  Then crawled back to my room and did some abdominal exercises.  After that I took a shower and shaved then got dressed for the day.  I took my malaria pill and then ate some cheerios for breakfast.  After that I rushed on down to the flight line and laid all my books out to study.

Got on the computer and checked my email then went to flight operations to file a flight plan for tomorrow nights flight.  Sometime during the morning, Marta, the cleaning lady came in and gave me my morning Spanish lesson.  It is funny cause I don’t know much at all and she definitely knows some English but not enough for us to communicate effectively.  So far I can say hello, how are you doing and some other basic things.  It is fun.

At lunch time I called the DSN operator and got a phone number so I could call Momma.  DSN is the military’s phone system.  It is essentially a direct line to every post in the world (nearly).  I got a DSN number for Detroit Arsenal in Wayne and they connected via a local call to Mom.  It was nice to talk to her.  She really works hard and needs a break from everything that is going on in her hectic life. 

Well, I had great intentions to study today but really didn’t get much done.  I did do my computer job today.  One of the civilian workers needed help installing a new printer so I helped him put it together and install the software.  He was happy and it gave me something to do.

Tony A., another guy who I served with at Bragg, returned from leave today.  He got married while he was gone.  He is here for 2.5 more months.  We talked for a while and he caught up on his email then I gave him a ride to his hooch.

Went to dinner at the chow hall and had some burritos.  They were really good, but I could only eat one!  So, unfortunately, I wasted the other one.

Spanish classes started at 6pm tonight.  I was supposed to be in the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday class, but some people didn’t show up so I got into the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday class.  It is from 6pm to 8pm.  Val is in the class with me and it is actually pretty good.  Learned the alphabet and how to pronounce the letters.  Mostly the same letters, but there are sound differences that make it a bit different.

Just had a small gecko crawl into my room.  He climbed up my door and eventually went back outside.

Tuesday:  Tonight, Paul and I are supposed to fly at night to continue with my qualification.  I slept in to keep within crew rest and showed up to work at 9am or so.  Spent the day hanging out and looking over the Performance Planning charts for the Blackhawk.  I haven’t done that in a year so I got Paul to explain some things and refresh my memory.  Once I completed the first one, I did a few more to help keep it in my mind.  Still need more practice.  At 4:30pm we went out and pre-flighted the aircraft and then tried to work out our take off time with Base Operations.  Honduras is very strict on flying at night.  In order to fly at night here, you must first file a flight plan prior to noon the day before the flight.  Then, they will pass it to the Honduran military who will authorize the flight.  If granted the night flight, we must be back on the ground by 9:00pm.  Once a month there is a week where we have extended hours and can fly till 11:00pm (or something like that).  Anyhow, we worked out our take off for 6:30pm.  In the meantime I saw SGT Conyers outside the office with his digital camera.  His camera is a high speed Sony camera that costs about $700.  This camera takes beautiful pictures and he is going to let me borrow it soon to take whatever I need.  So I got him to take some pictures of me on the flight line and at the aircraft with Paul.  Nice pictures.  The camera really uses the ambient light to it’s advantage.  It was near dark when we took the pictures and they came out clear as day.  At 6:15pm we strapped in the aircraft and slowly went through the run-up procedure.  Unfortunately one of the checks failed and it stopped us from flying so no luck there.  We stayed in the cockpit and practiced “blind cockpit” where you try to identify switches in the cockpit without looking.  It was a good session but no flying.  Went back and emailed out the pictures that SGT Conyers took.

Couldn’t sleep so at midnight I heard Mike come home from the flight line and I got up to go see what he was doing.  Matt B. was there too and he and I played some darts!  We played until 2am and had a good time.  He beat me in the first game, but I took him in the next 5!  He wants a rematch!

Wednesday:  Woke up early and went for a 3 mile run around the short perimeter.  Left at 6:40am and it was a peaceful, cool morning like usual.  Very tiring running the perimeter, the 2,000’ altitude makes a hell of a difference on your body’s performance.  Returned from my run and did a portion of Eric’s 30 minute workout—push ups, pull ups and sit up repetitions.  Tired but feel very good today.  Pretty uneventful day and went to Spanish class at 6pm.  Came home and hung outside with the boys drinking a few beers.  The people deploying to Trinidad are leaving tomorrow morning so we all had a mini party for them.  Brought everyone into my room to show them a point in Saving Private Ryan where this guy looks just like Brian M..  We played it over and over and everyone was laughing so hard.  Then, Matt and Jen and I went to Mikes to have a rematch in darts!  He beat me this time (think he wanted to prove to his girl that he is not that bad haha) but I am still up 5 games to 2!  We will resume this in a month when he returns.

Thursday:  Last work day of this week.  We have a 4-day weekend for the Easter holiday.  I am supposed to fly with Tony and LTC Ciluffo this evening.  I went into work at 9am and prepared to give a class on mountain operations and performance planning.  Everyone was out loading the Blackhawks onto the huge Air Force C-5.  They had to fold the blades back on the 3 Blackhawks to get them into the C5.  It will hold 5 or 6 Blackhawks inside of it’s huge belly. 

Surprise, surprise, went to the Lizard lounge after work and started working on some beers.  Had a lot of new faces over here and was introduced to most of them.  I introduce myself as Gordon but I let them know that the person they will see later on is Gordo.  Gordo is my out of control alter ego! Like Bizarro Superman.  Jen came over to hang out with us and eventually she wanted to do an upside down shot.  Mark and I looked at each other like she was crazy, but she explained how to do it.  Mark held her upside down and I held the cup.  I am not if she did this before or what, but something didn’t go as planned and I think I poured it to fast—oops.  It overflowed and went all up her nose and in her eyes.  She got up and eventually rinsed her face off but it was still burning her eyes and nose.  She also had contacts in so it hung in here eyes and kept burning.  Mark and I convinced her to go over to the water spicket and try to rinse her eyes out but she was afraid she would lose her contacts so she didn’t.  She was trying to act all strong, but you could tell it hurt bad.  We talked her into going home and Mark and I walked her to her hooch and then came back to our area and went to bed.  Matt just left and we are already hurting his girlfriend!

Friday:  Day off.  Woke up and did my push-up/sit-up routine.  BBQ for dinner.

Saturday:  Woke up at 7am and linked up with Travis and a few others and we ran the entire perimeter of the airfield which is about 6.2 miles.  It took 48 minutes and we had to rest once along the way.  Wow.  Very long and tough run…that damn altitude change getting to me again.

At 9:30am I linked up with Jen and her friends.  We are going to Tegucigalpa today to buy some supplies for my buddies.  I took a list of things that wanted and although Pete was supposed to go with us, he cancelled.  I think he is going to do some woodwork in the woodshop today.  Well, in order to go off post you have to get a pass and the person who issues our passes was no where to be found so I had to wait for a while to find him.  We got the Explorers (the Staff trucks) and they drove me back to my hooch so I could find the pass guy.  I found him around 10:30 and we got underway to Tegucigalpa.  All the guys who are supposed to be going are still sleeping or getting ready so I get stuck driving with 3 women down there: Jen (Matt’s girlfriend), Kristine, and Cel (both Jens friends).  Cel is Puerto Rican and is a bit abrasive but is ok.  She is one of those people who knows how to do everything and has no faults…no, not that harsh, but she is stuck on herself for sure.  It made for a funny ride down there.  This is Easter weekend so there is a greater amount of traffic.  There are still all the donkeys on the side of the road and trucks packed with people sitting in the back.  Along the highway (CA5 I think), there are medical tents and stations set up in anticipation of any problems or accidents I guess.  There are also a lot of Police checkpoints set up but as usual, we just pass right through them.

So, an hour later we got to Tegucigalpa and Kristine wanted to get her hair died and cut.  We parked the car in the Mall parking lot and went in looking for the salon.  Well, to her disappointment, it was closed for Easter so we went across the street to a very nice hotel and asked the concierge if there were any other places.  Cel used her mastery of the Spanish language to get info from the guy and off we went walking down the street.  We found another place, but it too was closed.  No hair dye for you. 

We went back into the mall and we find the guys.  Paul, Anthony, and some other guys who I do not know.  We decided we were going to eat lunch at TGI Fridays so we went in.  Another nice restaurant just like you would find in the US except that there is an armed guard (with a rifle) in the parking lot.  Looks funny.  I ate a large breakfast after my long run so I was not too hungry and I just ordered a salad.  Paul got a sampler platter and a “juicy hamburger”.  He is a funny guy…reminds me of Emeril or someone like him.  They also ordered some Avocado, spinach and cheese dip and although I had it before at Tony Roma’s, I decided it didn’t look too good this time.  I ordered a house salad and was happy with that.  I also ended up finishing off some chicken that someone else couldn’t eat.  After we finished lunch, we all went into the mall and looked to see what movies were playing.  Nothing that anyone wanted to see because it finished too late and we would lose our ride back which would have been a bus.  We walked around and the girls went into a store…can you guess which one?  A shoe store of course.  Haha.  Eventually left there loaded up with high heels and sandals and worked our way over to Pricesmart which is like a Sam’s club.  We go in there and go to exchange our American dollars for Lempiras…only to find out that the back is closed to.  Great.  They do not take American cash here so now what?  Well, Jen and Kristine are buying supplies for the Zone that is the post Officer club.  Cel let them use her credit card and they just traded cash and spent $400 US!  I didn’t want to ask Cel to use her card since I didn’t really know her in the first place so I got nothing, nada.  About midway through shopping, Kristine and Jen said that they were feeling really sick and they both were turning pretty pale so Cel and I sent them to the car and we finished paying for and moving the groceries out to the car where we found the other two laying back with their feet on the dash board.  We concluded that the cheese dip stuff was bad.  Cel and I were the only ones who didn’t have it so we were spared.  Cel went into a Mercado (market) and got 2 bottles of water for the sick kids and we got on our way back to Soto Cano.  Everyone perked up and although there stomachs were grumbling, they were fine.

Got back to the base and helped unload groceries at the Zone then I went to the PX to get some groceries for myself since I had no luck at Pricesmart.  Returned back to my hooch and found the boys outside BBQ’ing!  Time to get my eat on!  I put my groceries away and decided to head to the flight line to check my email then came back up and had a kielbasa…mmm good!  Hung outside with Brian, Pete, Joe, Keith, etc for a while then came back in for an early night.  Made plans with Joe to get up and meet at 7:30am to go to breakfast and Church.

EASTER Sunday:  Joe and I got up early and went to breakfast at 7:40am.  I had a lot of fruit and an egg sandwich.  Church is at 8:15am and only a few blocks away.  As Joe and I walked there we ran into Jen and some of the guys who we went to Tegucigalpa with yesterday.  Mass was nice and there were about 30 people there.  After we were done we were invited to breakfast at the Zone.  The Zone is an Officer/Senior Enlisted club that is on the other side of the base.  It is a very nice bar compared to our Lizard Lounge, which looks like it should be condemned.  The Zone has nice couches, soft chairs, tables, 3 huge screen TV’s, 4 or more large TV’s and a pool table.  In the back yard they have a huge grill and a volleyball court I think.  I have never really been there so Joe, Keith Boluch and I decided that was a good idea.  I was full from breakfast so just had a blueberry muffin and some strawberries.  Everyone else had some pancakes and sausages that Paul made (not my IP Paul, but one of the guys who went to Tegucigalpa).  Paul is a great guy and pretty funny.  He is a big Italian New Yorker and says some funny stuff.  He loves food and he claims that he can figure out what ingredients are in something by eating it a few times.  We stayed in the Zone and Paul brought out the “Bones”—dominoes.  I haven’t played that since 1993 or so so I was in for a refresher.  Paul, Brad, Jen and I played and after a long, tough game, Brad (who never played before) ended up winning.  Joe had fallen asleep on the couch and Keith had already left.  Joe and I left and got ready to go swimming.  We got to the pool and jumped in and swam laps for 30 minutes.  I like this.  Very nice water and 90º as usual.  After the swimming we both laid out in the sun for 30 minutes on each side then packed up and went home.  Started feeling prickly pretty soon and sure enough, I am developing a light sun burn.  Nothing bad, but I feel it. 

After swimming, Joe helped me change my room around again.  This design is much better.  Much more room for people to hang out and watch TV or listen to music.

Brian, Joe, Mark and I went to chow at 5pm (we were hungry by this point) and then came back to the house to clean up some more. 

9pm Mark and I decided that since we are not working tomorrow we should get some beers and celebrate Easter.  We went to the Lizard Lounge and bought 12 beers and each drank one on the way back to the room then shared the rest with Brian and drank the rest in about 30 minutes. We hung in the room with the music cranked up full blast with the sub-woofer kicking hard.  We went through Mark’s CD’s and had a blast from the past with some Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc.  We also had the Detroit hokey game on TV and we took pictures with SGT Conyers camera that he let me borrow.  We tossed our empty bottles out the door and made a nice pile then laid amongst the bottles and took pictures of us looking like we were passed out with them all around us.  We went back in side and eventually went back out and found that the bottles were picked up.  Oh man.  After that we got a refill of about 6 or 8 more and then proceeded to play bottle toss.  We went in the courtyard and had to underhand toss a bottle onto the table out in the middle.  If you hit it, you got a point.  It was pretty funny.  First we hit the power lines crossing from my hooch to the bathroom.  Then TJ tossed one and it landed on the table but didn’t break.  So we kept tossing until we had about 10 broken bottles laying around the table.  I know it doesn’t sound fun now, but we had fun doing it.  After that, we cleaned up all the glass and listened to more music.  Also did the “helmet into the wall trick” (think my neck still hurts).  Ran head first, into my bathroom fence—I had a hockey helmet on.

2am Drinking water now.  Getting ready to go to bed.  Days pass so quickly!  That is the best thing about it all.

---Week 4 (April 16 - 22, 2001) ---

Monday:  Woke up at 9am with a phone call from Jason Harrell (the former Computer guy here).  He answered some of my questions and said hey to all his buddies here.  Guess it’s time to go take a shower.  I need to go check on my work computer today.  The contract workers are fixing a network access problem for me so I am ready to get it back soon.  10:30am worked my way over to the computer shop and sat down with Eddie the computer guy (civilian contractor who installs and fixes all computer problems on post).  He is an animated guy and quite funny to watch.  We got into my computer and changed some permissions around and he installed some programs that I needed and sent me on my way.  Am happy to get it back.  I drove my bike back to the house and got the keys for the golf cart from Mark.  I drove back to the computer shop and picked up my computer and put it back in my office.

Drank much water and some more rehydration salts and had a bologna and cheese sandwich for lunch.  I copied the new Limp Bizkit CD from Joe and sat in my room typing up this journal.

Found out that my mere hour in the sun has created a nice little burn!  Will have to take it slower and expose myself for smaller amounts of time.  This sun is strong.

Tuesday:  Back to work.  Woke up around 6:30 am and went on a 3 mile run and then did my push-up, sit-up and pull-up routine.  Feels pretty good but I am very tired.  Went into work at 9:00am and linked up with Pete and Val who are doing an Instrument flight today.  I am going to go along with them and observe from the backseat.

Got back from the flight around 2:30pm and then linked up with Tony A.—I am going to fly with him tonight and get my night, unaided (without night vision goggles) orientation of the area.

Tony and I preflighted the aircraft and then I left for dinner.  LT Mark Wyckoff and I drove to dinner in his Mule (a little Army gold cart thing) and we stopped by the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) office so we could pay for SCUBA lessons that begin Friday!  It only costs us $75 and includes all instruction and 4 dives to qualify you once complete.  Awesome deal.  We received a pretty thick textbook that we are supposed to read by Friday.  Yeah right.  We will get together and skim over it.

Talked to Mark and he said that the LTC mentioned that he came by my room after receiving a prank call on Easter night…well, not a prank call, but a call with Aerosmith blaring in the background.  He decided to investigate and walked around the area and all was quiet until he neared my room and heard the stereo cranked up and found all the bottles outside my room.  He cleaned them up and went on his way without bothering us.  That was funny.

Got back from dinner and then sat around the office waiting for Tony to come back from flying with the Battalion Commander (Lieutenant Colonel (LTC)).  Once they taxi back in, I will jump in the LTC’s seat and head back out for a little time in the dark, unlit night. 

Saw the LTC and asked him why he picked up my bottles when we were in the middle of using them still.  He smiled and I told him since he picked them up, we had to start all over again.  Nothing more was said.

8:00pm I went outside and saw them taxiing in.  It was dark out there, so dark that it looks kind of scary in a way.  You cannot even see the outline of the mountains that I know surround us.  We do not do a lot of night flying without the aid of our night vision goggles but it is a requirement to get a minimal amount of hours in the night mode.  I jumped in the aircraft and buckled up and I taxied out to the ramp and came up to a hover.  Like I said, the winds are always strong here and out of the north, so when I came up to a hover, I had to put in a good amount of right cyclic in order to hold position.  Things went well and I hovered around for a while then went and hovered over the center sob between the runway and the taxiway.  We called tower and asked them to turn the runway lights on so we could see the area.  They normally keep them off at night when people are flying with the goggles on.  With the goggles, they can see very well and do not need the runway lighting.  Eventually the lights came up and we flew over to the runway and took off.  Sure is dark as hell out here.  We flew a few traffic patterns and Tony pointed out some checkpoints and then we did a roll on landing and then flew over to the grass to land on a slope.  We landed at a greater than 14º slope (15º being our limit but that has to be reduced based on the winds…).  Anyhow, the slope was so great that I couldn’t totally center up the controls once on the ground.  No big deal.  Normal operations.  Funny thing about slopes is that when you get over 8 to 10º you get a sensation that this huge whirling mass above your head is going to flip you over.  In fact, that is why there is a limitation, without out it you would easily flip over.  Everything has to be very slow and deliberate so you don’t cause anything bad to happen and doing it at night without goggles makes it that much tougher.

We only flew for about 45 minutes then had to land cause all aircraft have to be on the ground by 9pm.  Came home and got ready for bed.  I will leave my instrument flight plan for tomorrow morning.

Wednesday:  Today is my chance to fly Instruments with Val.  I woke up at 5:30 am and got out of bed around 6:00 am and worked on my flight plan for my Instrument flight today.  Val may be flying out to go on leave today so I am not even sure we will fly.  Finished my flights plan and then took a shower and went to breakfast.  Got to work at 8:00am (which was our show time for today’s flight).

11:00am went to an early lunch in hope of getting out to fly before the day runs out.  Went to the mailbox and found that I had about 5 letters from Momma and 2 packages from Stefanie and the kids.  I quickly loaded them into my arms and worked my way back to my hooch hoping that I wouldn’t drop them.  I got into my room and quickly tore into the boxes.  Got lots of good things…I think my favorite thing was a picture and frame of Stefanie and I when we got married!  I didn’t have a wedding picture of us.  Also got a lot of Easter candy and some other baked items.  Cool.

Your bicycle quickly becomes your main mode of transportation for this place.  Everything is within riding distance and without a bike, things would take much longer to accomplish.  Actually, the post is not that large but it is large enough to make it painful without a bicycle.  Everyday, my legs burn from riding my bike.  My typical riding pattern is:  From my room to breakfast, breakfast to work, work to lunch, lunch to work, work to dinner, dinner to the mailbox and PX, PX to home.  That is the typical pattern.  It’s not so bad.  The biggest pain is that there is always a stiff wind here and it makes it hell on the straightaway that takes me home or to lunch or dinner.  Just makes me stronger.

Returned to the flight line at 12:30 and got with Val and found that we will or should have an aircraft available to fly at 2pm.  We gathered our stuff and adjusted the flight plan and received the aircraft at 1:30 or so.  Went out, preflighted in some strong winds and prepared for takeoff.  There is a problem with our flight controls that will prevent us from actually going into the clouds so we are going to prepare to take off on an instrument flight plan, but we plan on canceling it before we encounter the clouds.  After all the preflight checks we I taxied out onto the runway and prepared for my departure to the north.  Feels good flying again.  We took off and climbed up to about 6,000 feet and got just under the clouds then cancelled our instrument flight plan and changed it to a local orientation.  We flew out to the low level training area and Val showed me the checkpoints again and then we flew up to the mountain-landing zone that is at 6,500 feet.  The winds are fierce today and will create more updrafts and downdrafts in the mountains, just have to be more careful on my approach to the landing site.  We flew in and did a couple of landings on the mountain and then flew back down to the valley floor then back up again and switched out so the Captain in the back seat could fly some too.  Good flight.  Time for dinner.

Had Spanish class tonight.  I feel that I am learning some things, but of course I look at people silly when they try to speak Spanish to me.  Hey, its only the second week of class!  I will have to miss class on Friday because my Basic Diving class begins Friday and runs through Sunday.  Then the next weekend we are planning a trip out to Isla de Utila, which is in the Caribbean. 

After class, I went back to the post office and found that I had 2 more letters from Momma!  Man she is great.  Hard working, does so much for Eric and I and for anyone who needs her help.  Cool.

Talked to Val and he is going to try to fly me Friday but I don’t think that will work out because we have some classes on Friday that the LTC wants everyone there for.  Oh well.  There is also a Tag-in/out and BBQ at the Lizard Lounge on Friday.  We had a few new guys come in this week.

Came back to my room after dinner and relaxed while reading my 7 letters from Momma and watching a Detroit Red Wings hockey game (current score is Detroit 3, LA 0).

Keith Boluch came over to talk about his Instrument flight with Val tomorrow and then left. 

I plan on running tomorrow morning.  Not sure I will fly in the back seat with them tomorrow.

Thursday:  Woke up at 6:20am and got Joe Hodgson.  We are going to run the entire perimeter.  We stretched out and began our run.  Nice pace, beautiful morning.  The run takes us out along the perimeter fence line.  On the west, the main highway borders the fence and there is always some fast moving trucks and cars speeding along it and beeping at us.  There are a few houses across from the fence and people walking around even this early in the morning.  From 8pm to 8am, Honduran guards with M-16 rifles and 29 bullets guard the perimeter.  I am told that they only have to account for 3 bullets so be careful when venturing out there.  For that reason, we are not allowed to run the perimeter during the hours of darkness.  However, by the time we run in the morning, they are still there and we exchange greetings as we pass by.  These soldiers look to be about 14 years old and they guard the perimeter from many bunkers or towers that are regularly spaced around the fence line.  So is it dangerous?  Not so much.  In the past, it was more dangerous and there were actually firefights on the perimeter on a regular basis and a few Americans have been killed in such skirmishes.  On the inside of the perimeter, we run on a dirt/rock road.  Mostly dirt with some large, awkwardly spaced rocks that are sure to cause some hurt ankles every now and then.  There is a fence line inside the perimeter also.  This fence separates us from the Brahma bulls and cows that graze in the fields inside our perimeter.  I am not sure whom, if anyone cares for them, but there are lots of them with big horns.  They do not look that well fed, but no animal in Honduras has the appearance of being overly nourished.  The perimeter road continues south for a mile or so then turns to the east along the southern fence line.  The airfield (base, or post) is bordered by farms except for the western side that has the highway.  I have seen the farmer who owns or works on the southern farm.  I saw him walking around with about 6 kids who all appeared to be close to being the same age.  I occasionally see him herding his bulls/cows, or walking through his fields.  There are few small ponds on his property and a small roofed barn like structure with no walls.  From there the perimeter briefly turns north and then back east where we cross the end of the runway and begin a long, lonely stretch along the backside of the perimeter.  We continued on, fighting the winds from the north (which always wreak havoc on bike riders and runners alike).  After the long 2-mile stretch on the backside, the perimeter turns west and begins to come back to the living areas on post.  The most beautiful thing is the view while running.  I am sure you get used to seeing such a beautiful site, but the contrast of the dark blue sky with occasional white, puffy clouds against the backdrop of the mountains in the distance is a sight to see.  The mountain look as if they are hiding in a haze that always seems to be present and is probably a combination of smoke and dust.  The mountains rise up proudly and are amazing to see with all their cracks, crevices, nooks and walls.  We continued until we made it back to the west fence line (along the highway) and then turned south and passed the front gate on our way to the softball fields where we stopped and began to walk for a cool down to the pull up bars for the next phase of exercise.  It took us 49 minutes and we ran 6miles.  Feel very good.  Did some pull ups, push-ups and sit-ups and then went home to take a shower.  We have had cold water for more than a week now and it is getting a bit annoying.  There was a trickle of hot water but now we don’t even have that trickle.  Just cold water.  The LTC was in the shower with me and wasn’t too happy with the cold water so he said he would get it fixed by today.  He also told me to make sure I let my buddies know to bring their wallets to Tag-in tomorrow—he means the guys who I flew with yesterday.  Hmm….gotta figure out what he is going to try to bust us out on.

Went to work at 9am and told Val and CPT Boluch that the LTC had something on us.  We thought about it and concluded that after our flight yesterday, we did not call for refuel on the aircraft and come to find out, the LTC actually looked in the fuel tank this time and saw that they were lacking fuel.  Pretty funny.  I told him I was proud that he was actually looking in that hole now. 

I decided not to go flying with Val today (would have only been in the back seat anyhow) so I could stay back and get some maps and other work done. 

I finished transcribing all the routes and data for my 16 maps sheets of the area surrounding us including: Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.  Took my maps to flight operations to laminate them, but found that there are out of it.  Well, now they will have to sit and wait for a while or I will need to figure something else out.  I could make a book out of them like Brian did with his maps, but I like them being laminated.  I will wait a few days to see if they get anymore in.

Right before leaving work, I ran into the LTC who told me that the water will be fixed and hot by 5pm.  When I got back to my room and checked the water in the showers, it was hot!  Hot water is back.  Of course, the water is so damn hot that you will burn yourself if not careful.  Well, we have to complain about something right? 

“Fire in the hole!”  Because the water is so hot, I was quickly introduced to the proper method of clearing the showers before flushing the toilette.  When the toilette is flushed, the cold water is diverted from the shower and the water coming out of the shower will scold you so prior to flushing I have been told to yell, “Fire in the hole!” and the people in the shower will yell, “Clear!”  Well, after not having hot water for more than a week, that habit quickly fell to the wayside and I burned someone the first time I flushed the urinal.  Sorry.

I needed my Battalion PT shirt for PT tomorrow so I washed all of my clothes that will give me a jump on this weekend’s cleaning activities.  Watched Survivor.  We are down to 5 people now and I think they are the best of the group—I personally don’t like Keith and wouldn’t mind seeing him leave, but overall they all seem genuinely nice.  One of the reward challenges involved talking to their family members on via the Outback Internet Café.  It was pretty happy to watch them talk to their families after 30 days or so.  It brought some joyous tears out of me to see the happiness they felt when they talked to their loved ones.  Anyhow, I eventually went to Brian’s to finish the show an we laughed at how Survivor was making us cry! (not that we actually cried, but I could definitely feel tears welling up and my body felt overjoyed for them).  We were all shocked that Rodger got voted off.  He was a great guy.  But I guess that is part of the plan: for the final 3 to be Colby, Keith and Tina…unless of course, Elisabeth can win immunity and take the whole thing!  That would be cool.

Friday: Formation at 6am for a Battalion run.  We ran about 3 or 4 miles and stopped and did some push ups along the way.  We ran down to the pistol range along the huge boulder rocks and just waited for someone to get hurt.  After PT we went to breakfast and then to the Post Theater where we are going to get some classes on various things to include a Terrorist threat briefing, local area semi-annual weather briefing, Hazardous material briefing, the Flight Hour Program and the Aviator Training Program.  The best class was the ATP program given by Mark.  Funny thing is that he told me he had to prepare this class (a few days ago) and was dreading spending the time on it.  I looked through my files and found that someone already created this slideshow on his subject so he took it and modified it to his needs and was ready to go!  It was a great brief regardless.  After that we were released to go to the BBQ at the Lizard Lounge.  I got there at 4pm and wore one of my Hawaiian shirts—this may become my newest tradition: to wear the Hawaiian shirt to tag-in/out.  The BBQ was great and included Hamburgers, chicken, ribs, baked beans, pasta salad coleslaw and much more.  After that, tag-in/out began at 5:20pm.  When people “Tag-in” there are various methods of “welcoming” them.  Here are the two most common…I think it is time to come up with something new:  The person is introduced and everyone says hi to them.  Then they are told to give a speech.  They are given time to say about two words then the whole crowd collectively shouts: “Shut the fuck up!  Ring the bell!”  Yeah it sounds harsh but it is pretty funny.  The other method is for the person introducing them to say, how about we sing this person a hymn.  Everyone agrees and it begins…”Hymn, hymn, fuck him!  Ring the bell!”  And that is it.  As I think I have explained, every time you ring the bell you are supposed to pay $20 to the bar tab and that money is then used to open the bar for everyone.  Tag-outs are a bit different.  Everyone is pretty quiet and the person leaving is publicly praised and told how much the people who are closest to him will miss him.  When that is done they take their nametag and nail it to a board full of many other nametags of those who are gone.  While he pounds it in, his buddies shake up and spray beer all over him.  Definite note to self:  Wear a baseball hat to protect your eyes.  The, of course, after the tag-ins/outs are complete, the floor is opened to any alibis where you can bust someone out for doing something stupid and make them ring the bell.  Well, we expected it and the LTC was quick to say how we left his Blackhawk empty.  It was funny but I didn’t feel totally responsible since I wasn’t the last one flying it so I only gave $5 when I rang the bell.  Tag in/out lasted until 6:20pm and by the time we were done with all the hellos/goodbye’s, there was $405 on the bar.  Unfortunately Mark and I had to leave for Dive class so we missed out on the free bar tab.  We got to dive class at 6:30pm and we basically watched a series of movies on diving and then took a quiz on what we saw and then talked about it.  We were done by 8pm and we decided to take our books back to our room before continuing on for the night.  We stopped in at the Lounge and found that the $405 tab was already exhausted but to our luck, someone rang the bell twice so there was a fresh $40 on the tab.  We grabbed a beer each and then made plans to head to the Zone where a going away party for Dave and Kristing (and another $400 tab) was already in progress.  We gathered up a large group and decided to head over there in force.  Val, Tony, Joe, Keith, Mark, many others, and me all walked over there and raided the place in force.  We found that the tab was still in tact (they don’t drink as much as our people do at the Lounge).  We ordered some Miller Lights for everyone and commenced to make the place bounce a bit.  Eventually someone got the smart idea to do some Tequila shots so the limes, salt and tequila started to flow.  We went through 3 shots but they were well spaced so we remained relatively in control.  By this point, we were having a good time and the bar livened up a great bit.  We finished all the Miller beer that they had and Mark and I got a few more shots of Tequila and finished that bottle off and by that point people were clearing out but we showed no signs of leaving.  Joe found a football and passed it to me then I had him go deep (to the other end of the bar).  I tossed it to him but purposely missed him and smacked a guy in the head with it.  Perfect shot.  I hit a guy who was talking shit (we are friends) so it was fine.  I looked up from where I was sitting at the bar and saw that hanging right about my head were a few items that would soon become prisoners of war.  Hanging above me was a Dr. Seuss-style hat that Joe had stole before and hung in the Lounge but somehow it was re-taken and remounted in the Zone.  That was our first goal.  Joe ripped it off the wall and passed it to me.  I secured it in my shorts and made preparations for the next phase.  Also hanging above me was a flag of significant size and meaning.  It appears to be some sort of Latin American Olympic celebration flag or something like that.  It was hung up with thumbtacks so I removed the bottom two and prepared for the snatch.  No one was looking and the bar tenders were busy (Jen and Mike Perkins) so I snatched it down and put it in with the hat.  Now was the plan of escape and how to get these items safely to our own bar.  I pulled out the hat for Joe to store and after doing a cursory inspection; we discreetly made a move for the door.  We made it out ok and moved to my room where we hid the items and then moved back to the Zone.  When Joe and I got back everyone was dogging us out because they thought we had gone home to bed.  Joke is on them.  Mark and I have already planned on closing this place down. 

Gordon vs. Gordo:  I know I have previously discussed the abstract topic of Gordon and his bizarre alter-ego Gordo.  Gordon is the proper (most of the time), nice, respectful, understanding, emotional person that many of you may already know.  However, in sharp contrast, Gordo is an obnoxious ass that an equal amount of you have experienced as well.  I do not know the exact moment that causes the transformation to occur, but it certainly does happen.  I think it is just me looking for attention and wanting to have fun cause that is what happens.  Now, Stefanie classifies Gordo as having something like turets syndrome because Gordo says things that just shouldn’t be said.  I like to say that Gordo says things that everyone else is thinking but lack the courage to say.  It sounds better that way.  Well, no matter how it goes or why I do it, people love it.  The funniest thing is that when I am introduced to people I am asked if this is Gordon or Gordo? And if it is Gordon, they wonder when they will meet Gordo.  No problem, they will meet him soon.  My biggest accomplish with Gordo is that I am not as out of control as I once used to be.  Not to say that I don’t get that way, but I realize what is going on, what can happen, and what is too much and that is my basis for fun.

Anyhow, by now the crowd was thinning up and it was mostly our people in here.  I don’t remember when, but somewhere after midnight the tab ran out and we put our own cash up to pay for the next drinks.  No problem.  They kept flowing and people continued to thin out.  Finally at 2:15am they were closing up and Mark and I walked back home and went to the Lounge to see if anyone was there.  There were a few Talon crew chiefs (Talons are people in Alpha Company with me) so we talk to them for a moment then we head off to bed but not before I drink some water in preparation for tomorrow’s hangover.

The Lizard Lounge:  I think I have explained this before, but it is a little hole in the wall bar with tons of flare and personality.  It is run by various people in our Battalion and is opened every night.  Sunday through Thursday it is open from 6p-11p and Friday through Sunday it is opened until 1am I think.  Anyhow, it is the big hangout on post.  I think there are 4 bars or so on post:  The Zone (the Officer club), The Oasis (ran by AFFES – the people who run the PX), The Rally Point (another unit ran club), and our Lizard Lounge.  Like I said, the Lounge is the place to be on any given night.  If something is going on it is always at or will always end up at the Lounge (or wherever it’s patrons may travel!). 

Saturday:  First woke up at 6am and had to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and drink some water.  I am a bit dizzy and still probably intoxicated but feel pretty good.  No hangover that I can tell yet.  I fell back to sleep and woke up at 10am and lay in bed watching TV for an hour or so while drinking water.  Joe stopped by and was looking rough.  We went to Marks room to see how he was doing.  His stomach was not feeling too good and I think he had a bit of a headache.  It was a fun night.  At 12:35pm Mark and I got our things together and headed to dive class at 1:00pm.  After watching the next module movie and learning some dive tables we went to the pool for the first time.  We got briefed on what we were going to do and donned the equipment while in the water and began to breath with the fish.  We practiced many emergency skills and stayed underwater for 45 minutes.  Wow, what an awesome feeling.  Just to sit on the bottom of the pool and look up and watch your bubbles floating to the surface.  There was nothing remotely scary about the experience.  As long as you trust the equipment you will be ok.  It is amazing.  You are essentially weightless and control your buoyancy with a vest that fills or deflates (manually) based on your depth.  You also wear a weight belt to help you descend.  After 30 minutes or so, we all started feeling chilled and within 15 minutes we were out, dried off and talking about how cool that was.  From there Mark and I went to the PX and each got a Meatball sub for dinner.  We took them back to Marks room and ate ‘em up while watching Field of Dreams.  That sub was awesome!  Toasted mozzarella cheese with some great meatballs and sauce inside.  I think I want another one.  After dinner, Mark in and out of sleep so I packed up and went home to relax a bit myself.  I called Stefanie and talked to her and the kids for quite a while.  I ended up calling her 3 times today in an attempt to just relax and talk to her alone.  However, every time I would call, the kids would start bugging her and want to talk to me.  Oh well, it was cute and I talked to them about being underwater for 45 minutes but all Ben could think about was whether or not the bananas outside my room had ripened yet.  I told him no.  I am not sure if they are Bananas or Plantains.  At 9:30pm Mark came over and we prepared to watch Saturday Night Live and work on our questions for Scuba class.  SNL was a re-run with Tom Green so we answered our questions and went to bed around 11:30pm.

Sunday: 7:00am wake up and get ready for our early day in the pool at 8am.  Mark and I walked over to the chow hall at 7:30am and ate a good breakfast.  I love that they have fresh sliced watermelon, pineapple and cantaloupe every morning for me!  Well, not for me, but for all of us who eat there.  After breakfast, we met at the pool and prepared for our last confined water (pool dive) lessons.  This time we practiced breathing off a buddy’s alternate air source just in case we ran out of air, taking off our harness, and many other emergency skills.  We stayed under water for 30-45 minutes and eventually the water got cold again.  Now the only thing left is a final exam and then we are done with Scuba class.  We will plan a trip to Utila Island so we can get our 4 dives, which will be our final qualification then we will be PADI Open Water Dive certified. 

12:45pm Mark and I walked over to the dive class and after a little more instruction on calculating maximum dive times, we took the final exam and finished the class.  From there we went over to the PX and picked up some milk and bread.  Milk is a hard item to get here so I grab it when I can.  I am a bit leery about buying milk because I think it is close to rotting already so every drink I take I have to be cautious.  Just like my bread—I opened it up the other day and saw the brightest blue mold I have ever seen.  It’s all good.  After the PX we walked over to the sub shop and got another meatball sub for lunch/dinner.  I ordered mine with extra mozzarella cheese and that made it even better!  It is a 12” roll, sliced open and lined with mozzarella cheese.  Then they put meatballs in it that are soaked in sauce and top it off with more cheese.  Then it is put into the oven to crisp and what comes out is a masterpiece of taste.  We walked back to Marks room and ate our sandwiches while watching Bedazzled.  We are both tired and both of us started dozing off to sleep so I moved to my room and fell asleep for an hour or so.  I left my air conditioner off and my door opened so it was inevitable that I woke up sweating with dry lips…now my bottom lip is cracking.  I got up and turned my fan and air conditioner on and then had to cover up with my poncho liner (Army blanket).

7:45pm Finishing up my journal then I am off to bed.  Probably go running in the morning.  It has been 30 days since arriving so I am expecting a PT test soon but I won’t ask about it…just accept it when it comes.

I talked to Stefanie twice this evening and then Joe came by around 9:30pm.  He saw the Lemon Cake that Stef sent me…it was sitting next to my lazy-boy.  He wanted some, so we took it outside and finished it off spilling crumbs all over the grass.  Love that cake.  Goodnight.

---Week 5 (April 23 – 29, 2001) ---

Monday: It’s been four relatively quick weeks since I got on the plane that brought me here.

Woke up with a knock on my door at 5:30am.  We have a piss test: ya know, a whiz quiz…urine sampling for drug use.  Got in line and finished my sample at 6:40am then stretched out for my 3 mile short-perimeter run and workout which I will call my Eric Workout.  The morning was nice and the air was calm.  Warm but not hot.  Not too many people on the perimeter this morning but I did spot the usual Honduran Guard hiding behind a tree burning leaves and grass in a small fire.  I suppose he is passing the time.  It is already light out and I believe he is hiding behind the tree to block the sun that has poked up over the mountains to the east and is glaring down on his position.

Ate a nice breakfast of generic sugar smacks that Stef sent to me and some toast and a glass of juice then headed off on my bike to work at 9am.  I went over to supply to get some batteries for my two flashlights and to get a unit crest for a former soldier who was in this unit in Vietnam.  I am going to send it to him today along with a unit patch and a Program from our Dining In.

Went home for lunch and had a toasted bologna and cheese sandwich and a 7-up and a bag of ruffles.  Watched Montel and his guest was a man named Antwone Fisher who is the author of, “Finding Fish” which is a true story of his struggle in a foster home as he grew up.  I will get that book for Eric to read.  It sounds very good and just listening to him made me feel very sad for him.

Back to work at 12:30pm.  I am rewriting a DA Form 4187 to request my follow on assignment to Germany.  The one I sent up a month ago had an error and I just got it back on Friday.  Fast system huh?  Anyhow, I retyped it and will send it back in for submittal.

Spent the rest of the day coordinating with the post Computer guy who instructed me that I need to submit a request for additional computer items that we need and a list of all computers that we currently have.  He also told me about a few network problems that some of our computers have where they are open to the LAN and certain aspects pose potential problems.  No problem.

Went to dinner at 5:40pm then headed straight to class.  Got home at 7:40pm and relaxed and watched “Third Watch” then went to bed.

Tuesday:  Woke up at 7am and got ready for work.  Ate cereal, toast and juice here in my room and then went into work. 

Lunchtime I went to the post office and picked up 2 packages.  I took them home and opened them up and found that Stef sent my good sunglasses and a battery for my calculator.  I also received a package from Eric with some little candies and goodies inside!  That was a nice treat.

Tuesday marked the start of the aerial gunnery range.  Well, they went out there to fire and instantly set fire to the mountains and spent the rest of the day flying water buckets to the fire in an attempt to put it out.  The fire was raging in an old impact area and eventually; unexploded ordinance began detonating which spread the fire even further around the area.  Brian was on a bus from Tegucigalpa and saw a huge fire line of smoke everywhere.  He was amazed at how large the fire was.

Wednesday:  Woke up at 6:25am and called Joe to go on a run.  We stretched out and ran the perimeter (6 miles) in about 51 minutes.  Nice run.  The haze is thick this morning and you can’t see the mountains to the west.  We passed the cow heard (on the other side of the fence) and the farmer who was guiding them down the road.  There was a chocolate brown calf that turned towards a cow and they lightly butted heads and continued walking.  We also passed a few Hondurans guards and some other people running.  We also passed Dave and Jen who were road marching.  Dave is leaving this weekend and he is off to the Special Forces Assessment at Bragg.  Dave is one of the people who the party was for last Friday.

Finished the run and did my EWO (Eric Work out) and then got ready for breakfast.  Took a shower and saw Joe who had already finished his shower and was still pouring sweat.  That too was my fate.  I shaed and showered then the sweat turned right back on.  I got dressed and we went to breakfast.  I got 3 pieces of watermelon, a half a grapefruit, bacon, hard-boiled eggs and a bowl of grits.  I only ate the fruit and a few bites of the grits before my stomach said, “No more.”  Not sure what the problem was, but suddenly, my stomach expanded and I couldn’t eat another bite and actually got pretty uncomfortable and started sweating. 

Decided to stop by the Battalion on the way to work to talk to Major Christensen about some computer issues.  I was lucky and found him in his office and we talked a bit then off I went.  I walked next door to the S-1 Office and had to look at his computer that was open to the LAN.  I closed that problem then found that the personnel people from Puerto Rico were here today to update our records.  I made changes to my records and headed for the flight line.  Sat down in the office and reviewed instrument flight procedures and found that I am flying with Val on Monday.  Hopefully we can actually finish off this instrument flight.  I am going to try to fly with Tony on Thursday but I need to talk to him about that.  If so, we will start my Night Vision Goggle progression again then I will be able to fly with everyone again.  Marta (the cleaning lady) came in to the office and I asked her how she was doing, she said badly.  I asked her why and I couldn’t really understand all that she was saying, but Pete translated for me and we found out that one of the other cleaning ladies had been shot and killed while waiting for the bus in Comayagua this morning.  The woman left 3 children, her mother and her invalid father.  Later in the day, Marta came back with a piece of paper asking for donations for the woman’s family.  You wrote your name on the paper and how much you gave.  A lot of people gave something.

11:35pm we all got on our bikes and drove to the sub shop but there was a line so we decided to eat sandwiches in our rooms.  Finished that up and went back to work at 12:30 and checked my email and continued studying.

Noon, I called Momma to tell John Happy Birthday.  He wasn’t home, so I talked to Momma and we started her first lesson on the computer.  She had it all hooked up but wasn’t sure how to turn it on.  I explained the buttons to her and she was excited when she pushed the button that turned the power on.  Right away she had to make some changes to the clock and date so we slowly worked through that.  It was cute to listen to her try to make her hands do what her mind wanted.  As she moved the mouse, she would say, “Left, left, left Terry, down, down…” and so on.  It was funny to me but frustrating to her.  She will develop that coordination soon enough.  We worked on the computer for 15 minutes or so then I showed her how to shut it down.  She was pretty excited about it.  Now I just have to get her to hook up the modem and we will be able to email each other and I will be happy about that cause then I can send her my journal and pictures.

3:00pm A new guy came into the office—CW4 Greg Fuchs.  We talked about SERE (Survival) training for a while.  He has an extensive background in training this particular subject, so I found his information really interesting.  I hope to use him to help instruct us for our SERE exercise in May (if it happens).

4:30pm, Brian and I headed for the sub shop to get a meatball for dinner.  I got a piece of pepperoni pizza that I at while I waited for them to make my sub and then I took the sub home, ate it and sat around and relaxed before Spanish class.  Went to class at 5:50pm.

Returned from class at 7:48pm and felt little drops of rain land on me.  I came home, parked my bike and turned on the last few minutes of, “Basic Training.”  During a commercial I went outside to go to the bathroom and that is when the rain started!  7:52pm the rainy season began.  Almost instantly, the power went off and the rain began to pound the buildings.  It was so intense that it sounded like a small train passing by.  The wind was howling and the rain was beating down on the banana trees outside me door.  It was very dark so I made my way to my locker to pull out my bicycle light and used that to see around.  I left my door open to feel the breeze and smell the rainy air.  Eventually I walked over to Brian’s hooch and him, Pete, TJ, and I sat around for a few minutes talking.  I came back and opened my door and lay back on my lazy boy and listened to the rain and relaxed.  CPT Warfel (the Chinook Company Commander) came by to borrow some matches so I traded him a book of matches for a cool evergreen scented Christmas candle.  I lay down to go to bed and the power came back on at 10:05pm.  The rain stopped around 9:30pm.  I reset my clocks and went to bed.

Thursday:  Woke up at 6:24am and noticed that my alarm clock did not go off.  It was blinking 4:00am.  The power must have gone off again in the night.  I went outside to go to the bathroom and heard many birds singing and saw that the ground was very damp and still flooded with water.  We might have a clear view of the mountains today.  Hopefully the rain caught all those particles in the air and forced them down to clear out the haze.  I took the morning easy and just relaxed in my room while waking up.  I decided to call Grandma Pete at 8:00am.  I talked to her and Larry Joe for almost 30 minutes.  She was surprised to hear my voice and thought that she wouldn’t talk to me for a year.  Joe just happened to be there, so I talked to him for about half the time, explaining how things are down here and talking about all the lay-offs in Michigan (which, sadly caught him too).  All in all, everyone sounded well and it was nice to talk to them both.

Went to work at 9am and after talking to Greg last night, I realized that my Security Clearance is up for review.  I talked to the S-2 (Intelligence Personnel) and received a 30-page form (it’s more like a book) that I have to fill out to renew my clearance.  I pulled it off my email and began the pain staking process of filling in the blanks.  After about an hour and a half I was thoroughly frustrated with the never ending questions and the pain of trying to recall addresses of places that I have left long ago. 

I continued to work on the paperwork until lunch then I went home for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips.  I went back to work at 12:30pm and checked my email. 

Stef sent me pictures of Anabelle that we had taken just before I left.  She scanned the pictures and sent them to me.  The pictures are very cute and after looking at them once, I found the one that I would like to see as a 16x24.  We have a similar picture of Benjamin and Emily that were taken when they were 11 months and we did the same with Anabelle.  The picture that I chose ended up being the same one that Stefanie liked so it ended up being no fuss.  The picture is very cute and I have already entitled it, “Who me?”  Anabelle has a very innocent look on her face and it appears that her hands are pointing in at her chest as if to say, “Who me?”  There were some other nice poses with her smiling, but this one is by far the cutest and certainly captures a side of Anabelle that is very innocent, peaceful and beautiful. 

I sent an email out to the Battalion telling them that I am the new computer guy and if they have any problems to let me know.  I got a few responses immediately and began making some visits and phone calls in order to help them.

Grilled after work then watched Survivor.  They kicked Elisabeth off.  I also washed my clothes while we ate and watched survivor.

Friday:  Woke up at 6:20am and went running with Brian.  I took my camera so I could take a few pictures of the sites around the 6-mile fence line.  I only took 2 shots:  one of a Honduran Soldier standing by a tree and the other of the southern fence line where the man with all the kids lives.  Brian and I had a nice run and it felt pretty good even though I just ran 6 miles two days before.  I am getting used to this altitude and am doing good at maintaining a good workout.  I know that I could do more to become even more fit and in shape, but I believe this is sufficient and above my normal standard.

Ate breakfast in my room.  I finished my Sugar Smacks and my milk.  At 9:00am I met with Steve Block, the LAN Administrator for the entire post.  This guy has a tough job that requires his presence 24/7.  If the LAN (network) goes down, he is the one who takes all the blame and has to get it fixed.  I took a list of problems to him and we sat down working on them for almost 3 hours.  By the time I left some of the problems were fixed and others are still unresolved.  He taught me a lot about Windows NT and permissions and so on so it was a good day.  After leaving Steve, it was close to 12:30pm so I headed to the flight line and stopped by the S-1’s office to fix their computer problems then went to the Battalion Commanders office and worked on problems for the Executive Officer (XO), the Command Sergeant Major (CSM) and the LTC’s secretary.  Everyone got their problems worked out so it was a good day.

I went across the street to the flight line and was ambushed by Leroy Thompson (newly promoted W2) so I went into the Commanders Office and found Brian and Mark in there.  Mark started to give me the spiel about Army Emergency Relief (AER) but I just told him to save the brief and pass me the paperwork.  AER provides money in the forms of grants or loans to soldiers in need.  It is a good system, not perfect, but good.  I have seen it work and I have seen it fail but I give my monthly contribution.

I was going to go home for lunch but it was now 1pm and I decided to go to my office and get Tony and Val’s computer problems fixed.  I did that and then Tony was able to upload his newly finished SOP—that made his day a little better.  After that I worked on the 1-228^th Website: www.usarso.army.mil/1-228/index.html  (not 100%sure that that is the correct link).  Anyhow, I am redesigning the site to create an easier flow of information with the main focus being ease of navigation.  The current website is adequate but very hard to navigate due to too many buttons and duplicate links.  The design that I have created is very easy and straightforward and gives the site and the Battalion a better look.  I worked on the site for a few hours.  Most of the work that I am doing now is to refine the links and make sure that everything is associated properly.  I am still adding a few more pages, but I would say that the work is 95% complete.  I have to talk to the Webmaster at USARSO (US Army South) and get him to open the port so I can upload all the files and get the site working.  Once complete, I will email the Battalion and let them scrutinize it.

I packed up my stuff and left work at about 4:20pm and headed home to change clothes.  I remembered that I had a package for Emily and Ben to send.  I got a box from Brian and wrapped the package up, addressed it and headed out the door for the post office.  I got there at 4:45pm but found that the shipping center closed at 4pm.  Oh well.  Will have to try to send it on Monday after my flight.  I did send 3 rolls of film in for developing. 

Went back home then eventually went to eat at 5:30pm.  Brian was taking a nap, so I went up there by myself.  Ended up eating with Mark, Greg and some others.  I had pork, rice and a salad.  For desert I had a thick slice of cherry pie and a bowl of vanilla ice cream with coconut and sprinkles on it!  We sat and talked for a while and at 6pm I realized that I needed to be at school.  I thought about it and decided that I wanted a break from school tonight and walked my bike home with SSG Ray.  Ray is a huge guy-maybe 6’3” and about 250+ pounds.  He is a red head Scottish man and does a great impression of “Fat Bastard” from Austin Powers.  Ray is hilarious and always is good for a laugh or two.  While walking home a flock of birds passed over and he clapped his hands really loud and those birds broke in all directions like a hawk was attacking them.  It was pretty damn funny to watch and Ray and I both got a kick out of it.  Then he told me about chasing vultures when he was younger.  He said that he would wait for them to eat and when they were full he would run after them and chase them around.  The birds were so full that they couldn’t take off.  To lose weight, they would begin to throw up their meal and eventually get airborne.  I had to stop walking cause I was laughing so hard at the way Ray was describing this story.  He is hilarious and a great storyteller. 

Got home and took a shower then sat back relaxing felling a little guilty that I blew off school.  I talked to Mark and we discussed watching Platoon later.  At 7:15pm Jen called me and said that she was sick and wanted Mark and I to come over and play cards with her and Brad and Kristine.  I looked outside to see if it was going to rain and I could still see the stars and the moon but I wore my rain jacket anyhow.  I got my bike and walked next door to Marks room to roust him out of bed.  He wanted a few more minutes of sleep so I told him I would call him in 45 minutes.  I rode over to Jens and we tried to play 2 person Spades while waiting for the others to show up.  She ate some soup and I started watching “What Lies Beneath.”  Jen walked over to the Zone to get the others to play and came back with Kristine.  Brad was supposedly on his way.  I called Mark and he showed up a few minutes later.  We started a game of spades and although mark never played (he was more partial to Euchre) he and Kristine quickly won the first game.  Paul and Anthony came over and it appeared that Anthony was sick too.  They stayed and joked for a while then left to have some liquid refreshment at the Zone.  We prepared for a rematch and although Jen and I started off on a winning streak, we eventually succumbed to Mark and Kristine’s superior playing style…and we lost again.  Mark and I walked back home and talked about going into work in the morning to work on copying all the Honduras pictures to a CD Rom.  I am also planning on working on the website some more and also looking over my flight plan for Monday and then reviewing some Night Vision Goggle (NVG) procedures and information for Thursdays flight with Tony.

Saturday:  Woke up at 7am.  It seems that no matter what my intentions are, I cannot sleep past 8am.  Even on the nights when I stay up late I still wake up and get going early.  It is now 10:51 am and I am taking time to write my journal now.  I have found that if I keep up on it during the week I can more easily remember the details of what happened.  I also have a large calendar in my room and I write down the key events of the day and that helps remind me of the things that happened also.  I am going to take a shower, eat lunch and then head down to the office soon.  I made some sun tea and cut up one of those large lemons that I have and squeezed some of its juice in the tea.

I continue to receive a letter a day from Mom.  She asked me what I do with my free time – if there is any.  Well, as you have read, this is just like a normal job.  We work from 9am-5pm daily  and get the weekends off.  The biggest difference about being her versus the states is that here we do not have the distractions of daily life in the states.  Here we are without family, restaurants, shopping malls, cars, online gaming, etc.  Imagine anything that you do in the states, anything that you take for granted—here we generally do not have those things so it makes life pretty simplistic.  There are things to do and there certainly are stores and shops to visit if you go to Tegucigalpa but for the most part you lack the distractions that  you have at your fingertips in the states.  Is it boring?  I don’t think so.  I really don’t miss anything except for Stef and the kids.  All the other stuff I don’t really miss at all.  You become accustomed to the things that have available and, at least for me, I do not dwell on the fact that I am without the things that I am used to.  The biggest change for me is that when I was in the states, I had a super fast internet connection and I wasted many hours a day just sitting in front of the computer surfing the web and playing games.  Now I do not have a connection in my room and the connection at work is very slow.  Honestly, I haven’t even noticed that I am without the gaming.  I thought I would go through withdrawals but, again, if you do not have it available you quickly learn to deal with it.  I like this.

Went to the office to work on the Battalion website but ended up mostly working on my personal website.

Went to the PX with Mark then we decided to head to the pool for a swim then dinner.  There were only two other people at the pool so Mark and I decided to get stupid on the diving board.  We did a few flips and reverse flips and half flips with a twist.  At 5:25pm we left for the Chow hall.  I had some ham, rice and a salad for dinner and chocolate cake for desert.

Brian rented some movies so at 7:30pm we started watching them: “Little Nicky” and “Space Cowboys.”  Little Nicky was funny as hell and made us all laugh profusely.  Space Cowboys was a good movie as well but can’t compare to the hilarity of Little Nicky which stars Adam Sandler as the Devils son who has to come to Earth to fix a problem.  There are a ton of well-known actors in the movie and the lines are just plain funny.  I went to the bathroom and found the sinks covered in dead or dying June bugs.  There are at least 20 or more in one sink.  There are about 8 sinks in the bathroom.

Mark came over at 11pm and we sat around for a while he had his clothes in the wash.  We found a movie that had just started…. what is the name?  It is the one with Kurt Russle and he is Doc Holliday…anyhow, we watched that for a while.  I got a book, “The Long Walk” and started reading the preface.  It is about a person who escaped from a Russian Prison and walked his way from Siberia to India.  I have heard a lot about this book and was recommended it by some hikers who said it presents a good perspective on solitude and life.

Sunday:  Woke up at 10am and lay in bed looking at the ceiling, and watched June bugs fly around and bounce off the walls…just relaxing when I heard a loud pounding on my door.  I got up and looked outside and saw Tony, Mark and CPT Marshburn walking away.  I got out of bed and joined them in CPT Marshburn’s room where we watched, “Little Nicky” again.  Just as funny the second time around.  After the movie I went back to my hooch and made 2-toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch then rode my bike to my office to work on the web site. 

I worked on the Battalion website for 3 hours or so and put the final touches on it.  I believe I am ready to put the site up.  Now I just need to talk to the Web Administrator at USARSO and get him to open the upload port for me and I will get it going then email it out to everyone for scrutiny.  I also searched the network and found a lot of pictures that the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) has on the drive for everyone to see.  I incorporated some of those pictures into the site as well.

At 4:00pm I rode back to my hooch and stopped by Marks room.  He was cleaning things up and trying to get ready to leave.  He leaves at the end of May and I am trying to work a deal to move into his room when he leaves.  That will put me on the other side of Mike and directly across from CPT B. and about 20 feet further from the bathroom.  I can see that when it rains being in closer proximity to the bathroom is better, but his room is almost twice as big as my current room and although I like this location, I will much more enjoy the possibility of having room to have a coffee table and to actually have people come over and watch movies.

I counted the minutes until the chow hall opened and pestered Mark about going to eat.  At 5:10pm Mark, CPT Marshburn and I walked over to the chow hall.  I had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, blue berry cobbler and vanilla ice cream.  We walked back home and saw that the clouds were swarming in on us in preparation for rain.  On the way home we had some birds fly over us and I tried to clap my hands and scare them like SSG Ray did, but it didn’t work for me.  Maybe he looks like a giant to them and he scares them more?  I don’t know, but he sure looks like a giant to all of us! 

I got in my room and read some flight manuals for a review for my flight tomorrow and Thursday.  I need to be to work at 8am tomorrow and we are planning to take off at 11am.  I figure we will be home by 4pm and then hopefully I can get to the post office and mail Emily’s birthday present.

I have noticed that it has been much more humid the past few weeks.  Maybe because of the recent rainfall we had?  Not sure.  These damn June bugs keep getting in my room and are bouncing off the walls non-stop.  Well, not a lot of them, but a few each day.

At 7pm, The Sopranos came on HBO and Brian came over and watched it with me. 

I called Stef after it was over and then finished typing my journal entries for this week.

Coming up:  Flight on Monday which should set me to Readiness Level 2 (RL2); upload the new Battalion website sometime this week; work on the Survival exercise planned for later this month (might have to adjust the dates based on mission support); plan our SCUBA trip to Utila in the next few weeks; Fly with Tony on Thursday and hopefully get up RL1 (when you are RL1 you can fly with other Pilots and not have to be evaluated by an IP any longer); and Friday or Saturday the boys will return from Trinidad so that will mean a big party I am sure.  I also need to finish that behemoth Security clearance and also get

---Week 6 (April 30 – May 6, 2001) ---

Monday: Came into work at 8am to prepare for an Instrument flight evaluation with Val.  Stefanie sent me an email to wish me a Happy Anniversary for my Nickel flight.  A nickel flight is your first flight in flight school where you actually get up behind the controls.  Anyhow, my nickel flight was on April 30, 1996 so this marked my 5^th year anniversary of flying.  The other cool thing is that Val (who was my neighbor all through flight school) was the first pilot to take me out to the Blackhawk and go over a preflight and it’s features with me so it was especially cool that I flew with him on this day.  I got to work and talked to the crew chief about the aircraft and talked to Val prior to going out to preflight.  Val and I sat down and he asked me some questions and probed my knowledge on the subject of instrument flying.  At 10:00am we all met at the aircraft and strapped in.  We thoroughly went through the preflight and run up procedures and finally got our clearance from Ground then took off on our flight.  Our instructions had us proceed north as we climbed to 10,000’ at which time ATC turned us to the south on a course for Tegucigalpa Airport.  We quickly encountered some building cumulonimbus clouds and got tossed around a bit but nothing too bad.  The clouds were huge, white and billowing.  Our flight continued on and we made a low approach (just come down low on the runway without landing) into Tegucigalpa and then proceeded on our next leg of the flight back north to La Mesa Airport.  This flight took us up to 11,000’ and into more clouds and more turbulence.  We took a few pictures above and in the clouds and continued on to land in La Mesa.  The controllers taxied us to the International ramp and after we shut down, an American Airlines Jet taxied in front of us on it’s way to Miami.  I took a picture of it.  My lower back is hurting badly; I suppose it is from the constant vibration of being in the helicopter.  I guess I am not used to it after being out of the bird for so long.  So, we came back from the flight and worked our way through some mountain valleys and back into the airfield.  Val said I did very well on my flight and he seemed impressed.  Honestly, I felt pretty good flying and thought I did a good job as well. 

Went to dinner and then Spanish class and relaxed for the night.  I am flying with Tony in a few days so I need to study and prepare for that flight.

Tuesday:  Short run with Mark then did a part of my EWO then to my room.  Ate breakfast at the chow hall and then went home to grab Emily’s birthday present so I could mail it.  I rode my bike back over to the ATM machine but found that both of them were out of service.  I took the package to the flight line with me.  Once there, I went to the S-2 to help him with his computer then I finally settled in at my desk to work on Thursday’s flight.  It wasn’t to be and I got sidetracked trying to upload my new version of the Battalion website.  I worked into lunch and at 12:30pm I finally had the whole thing uploaded.  I went to the ATM and withdrew my 2-week allotment of cash and then headed to the post office to mail Emily’s present.  I filled out my customs form and paid for the postage then went across the street to the PX to buy some bread and other groceries.  When I came out of the PX I noticed a truck parked under the large Mango tree.  I think there were people picking the ripe Mangos off the tree but I am not 100% sure.  I do know that I had better try to find another tree and pick some myself before they are all gone.  They look very good.  They are a nice reddish brown color with a tint of green and yellow.  They look ripe but I picked on the other day and it was still very firm. 

I took my two bags of groceries to my hooch and quickly made a bologna and cheese sandwich to go.  I got back on my bike and steered with one hand while I ate my sandwich and some Pringles with the other.  Once back at the flight line, I stopped at the HHC orderly room to give them a hand with their computer.

My next goal was to figure out what is wrong with the shared folders on our network and try to get specific people their read/write access back.  So I made a hasty list of people and folders and headed down to the Harris LAN office to talk to Steve Bloch.  This time he let me play around with the settings in an attempt to get done what we needed.  We both are puzzled at what the problem is and it’s funny to see him ask me what I want to do.  This guy is a computer trained expert and I am some kid off the street who, until arriving here, had never experienced Windows NT.  I am learning, but still have so much more to learn yet.  I am hoping that I can get sent to the States for a course on this stuff.

Talked with Tony about a plan to get me RL1 by next Wednesday night provided all my flying skills are coming back.