36. Back in Rams

Written: April 22-24, 2003

Tuesday, April 22nd
Woke up at 0430z with the sun beating onto us through the massive open doors of the hangar. The hangar lines up east/west so it is perfectly exposed to the rising sun. The black part of my sleeping bag was exposed so the sun was heating it up too much to bear. Definitely time to get out of bed.

Got dressed and worked on setting up tents and preparing to fly back to Rams to pick up more of our stuff. While we set up tents, we took some time to look around and explore the area a bit more. This is a jet fighter base and judging from our hangar, this was not only a target during this war, but during Desert Storm as well. The hangar we slept in has a repair in the roof and a repair on the floor directly beneath the hole in the roof. The massive steel doors that were once on the hangar are lying next to it in a twisted heap; all blemishes from Desert Storm. Additional destruction can be seen around the airfield from the current war--tank tracks, expended shell casings, bunkers, trenches...

Phil and I spent much of the day flying back to Objective Rams to pick up the LRS guys and their gear. When we brought them to Balad and dropped them off, I asked for some AT-4’s. They gave us 3. We will fire them tomorrow if we get the chance.

Spent the rest of the day getting acquianted with our new home. Nice to have concrete. Unfortunately we had to bring our nasty shitter with us...its a piece of canvas that half way wraps around a throne looking seat with 1/2 of a barrell below it to catch the crap. Nice huh?

John from Alpha Company is flying to Doha tomorrow so Fred gave him his credit card so he could buy a t.v. for us so we can use the X-Box we bought the other day. Watched “8 Mile” then went to bed.

Wednesday, April 23rd
Woke up at 0420z. Flew over Baghdad International (Saddam International) and had to stop at the airport to drop some bags off on the way to Rams. We saw a sign on the terminal that said Saddam International. We didn’t have time to take a picture but will try on the way back.

Continued to Rams and picked up some equipment and a few passengers. We stopped at Baghdad Intl. and took turns getting out of the aircraft to take a picture in front of the sign (Saddam Internation Airport). We took a lot of pictures then taxied over to a parking area and grabbed 5 baggage carts to take to our new home. They will help with taking tool boxes and gear to the aircraft. They also say, "Saddam International Airport." Not only is it a practical souvenir but it is something unusual as well.

Took off back to Rams with 3 aircraft. Stopped below a ridge line and landed 2 aircraft while the third aircraft circled overhead and cleared the area. We let one crew chief from each aircraft get out and fire an AT-4 at the cliff. We did everything we could to ensure what we were doing was safe and that there was no one around to accidently be affected by the firing. The crew chiefs were excited to fire the weapons. From in the cockpit, we could all hear the extremely loud BOOM as it fired and saw the backblast shake the desert behind the firers.

Shut down at Rams and coordinated for our flight with the Apaches tomorrow. We are spending the nice here...I didn't think we would be sleeping here again, but here we are...we are near the place we landed one month ago today with no fuel and no idea of what all was going on. One month later we have moved up and beyond Baghdad and things are looking much better than they were on March 2rd (the day the Apache was shot down and the day the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed - and the Jessica Lynch story began). During the night some dogs got closer and closer to our aircraft where we were sleeping so I shot a white parachute flare. It was bright as hell and as a result, I got yelled at.

Went to bed at 2030z back in Rams.

Thursday, April 24th
We woke up at 0230z and repositioned the aircraft over to where the Apaches were parked at. We shut down and went to a briefing with the Apache pilots then headed back to our aircraft to wait for our serial to depart for Balad. We are following the Apaches in case they need any maintenance along the way. We took off as the trail aircraft in a flight of nine. Spent the day flying with Phil.

When we returned to Balad, I found two packages on my cot—one had Pizza from Dad and Karen and one was full of baby wipes from Lisa Beebe.

Took the pizza to our company operations tent and made a pizza to share with Fred and CPT Cushwa. Pretty basic - boboli crust, canned sauce, parmasean cheese, pepperoni - but oh so good!