3. All the live long day...

Written: January 2003

By Christmas 2002, it was clear that the C/5-158 Raptors would soon deploy to Kuwait in support of the upcoming conflict with Iraq. Seven Raptors already deployed with Task Force 2-6 Aviation in early October. Shortly after return from holiday leave, Task Force 5-158 received deployment orders. C/5-158 was on the list, and in January began moving equipment and aircraft to the port at Antwerp for shipment to CENTCOM’s AOR.

Monday, January 6th, 2003
For many weeks we had been told to prepare for War. Iraq was acting up and it seemed imminent that someone would have to go deal with him (Saddam Hussein). We heard rumors of who would go and we were one of those rumors.

We spent this week flying in Bonnland, Germany landing on rooftops and down in the city square. Amazing training, very challenging.

Training became the priority. We had many pilots who needed training and not enough Instructor Pilots to get it all done in the few weeks we had before we were scheduled to leave.

We got support from 3-158 (our Sister Battalion) with some L model UH-60’s and Instructor Pilot support from the 214th out of Stuttgart. They sent two IP’s and two aircraft whose sole purpose was to train our guys. It worked out well and they did a great job—they stayed with us for a little more than 2 weeks. I also got the opportunity to work with Rich Brostrom again as he was put into the schedule and helped train some of our pilots as well.

We were all extremely busy. Chad, Sam and I were flying every day for a while and the days we did not spend flying were spent packing and loading and preparing for the deployment.

Being away from home for such long hours with no break other than to come home, sleep, wake up and leave again did not make Stefanie (and the other wives) very happy. We had no choice. No one knew when the “War” would start or even if it would start, but the reality was that we were being sent into a potential situation where our pilots would already need to be trained. So we did the best we could while still preparing our own equipment, households and families for the deployment.

In between flights, we got many briefings on the rules of engagement, law of land warfare, desert survival, a briefing about where we would be staying and many others.

We continued to get our Anthrax immunizations and then we got briefed on the Smallpox vaccination. I did not get the Smallpox because Anabelle had a rash on her face and that was one of the risks that could potentially get her infected so they said that I would wait until after I got to Kuwait.