7. Happy Valentines Day, again.

Written: February 11 - 14, 2003

Tuesday, February 11th,
Woke at exactly 7am. I still wanted to sleep but I got out of bed and put on my PT clothes. I ran with Sam and CPT Cushwa. We ran for 3 miles. This base is huge. The perimeter is defined by a 15’ sand berm all the way around it. It is 1.8 miles on each side—a square. I took my hand held GPS with me and ran with it. We ran 3.2 miles in 29 minutes. Returned, took a cold shower then shaved.

We went to breakfast and I had toast, eggs and mango juice. There are 3 large tents were they serve/cook meals. The food is pretty good and they even have soft drink machines like at Burger King!

Our tent is cooler than it is outside—probably because it is shaded. It is a sunny day and the sun hurts your eyes because it is so bright and is intensified by the white sand.

We had a class on operations at the Port and the airspace in this country. There are supposed to be over 1,000 helicopters in Kuwait within the next month. I saw Wayne Olin—a buddy from flight school.

Received a briefing from CPT Halter on enemy disposition throughout Iraq, their courses of action and a proposed day for the air war then ground war to begin.

Wednesday, February 12th,
Spent the day reviewing the flying procedures for the area and preparing maps. We are supposed to go to the port tomorrow to get our helicopters. We put them on the boat in Antwerp on January 19th.

Thursday, February 13th,
We woke early in the morning and loaded Humvees so we could go to the port to get our helicopters off the boat. We endured a 3 hour drive in our helmets and flak vests.

We arrived at the port and everyone helped to get the aircraft ready to fly. We sent a group of people here yesterday to begin putting them together.
We took off at 3pm and arrived in Udairi an hour later. It was a good flight but we could see that the desert offers no contrast and makes it hard to judge your airspeed and altitude.

Arrived at Udairi without incident. We should start environmental qualifications tomorrow and learn how to fly in the desert under all conditions.

Friday, February 14th
Happy Valentines Day again. I say again, because 12 years ago I was in a similar landscape enduring time away from my family and friends in a similar manner. February 14th, 1991, I was 15 miles from the Iraqi border awaiting the order to attack north. February 14th, 2003, I find myself poised on the Iraqi border in Kuwait waiting to get the final word to attack north.

I flew day and goggles today and then took a shower. I was completely covered in sand because I decided to get dropped off so I could film the aircraft as they came in to land. The video turned out very nice and I realized that my camera has video with sound! Bonus!

It was nearly 1am by the time I finished my shower and Sam and I decided to check out the phone situation and give our wives a call. We waited for an hour or so then finally had a chance to use the phone for 15 minutes. I dialed many times and finally got through. Tim answered the phone—Tim and Lisa were up visiting because Stef picked up Matt Brewster who arrived in Germany today. I talked to Stef but only had 6 minutes left by the time I got through. I forgot to say Happy Valentines Day, but did tell her that I received my first batch of mail from her today!