Hi everyone,
Life here at Anaconda is still busy. I did get two days off this week. I had exceeded my crew rest time by over 20 hours so I had mandatory time off. I spent the two days getting various things done like cleaning my trailer, a hair cut, unpacking some bags I hadn't gotten to earlier,
dropping off laundry, and going to the Post exchange.
I'm getting used to living here. There are some things that are tough to get used to. One of the toughest is the alarms for incoming mortar rounds that happen on a daily basis. Sometimes the alarms sound in the middle of the night and I jump out of bed pretty quickly. If the alarm doesn't wake me the phalinx gun does. It is designed to shoot down incoming mortars and is pretty accurate but makes one heck of a noise. Our trailers we sleep in and the aircraft are surrounded by 10 foot walls and sand bags to help protect us. The major buildings like the mess hall and post exchange have reinforced mortar resistant roofs that are about three feet thick.
The mortars do make on to the base, but haven't done much damage. A truck driver was killed a couple of weeks ago by a mortar. These are things that seem surreal. I would never be worried at home about dealing with mortars on a daily basis. My life here isn't that bad. The housing and food are OK. Todd
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Hi everyone,
I'm sorry I haven't been able to update sooner. We hit the ground running. i spent two weeks in Kuwait before flying to Iraq. It gave us time to prepare our aircraft and equipment. We also needed time to adjust to the temperatures. It has been as high as 125 degrees. On the flight line the temps are even worse. Even the wind is hot here. When the wind blows (which is quite often) it blows around allot of sand and dust. At night it can cool down in the 80's.
I've been very busy. My days at work start at 5:30 a.m. and usually end around 7:30 p.m. If I fly a night mission I get very little sleep. It is good to be keeping busy. Time goes fast. A month and a half has already gone by.
My job besides flying is managing the 10 aircraft assigned to our company. I manage the maintenance, inspection schedules on the aircraft, and assign the aircraft to the missions. We are presently assigned three mission sets. I need to have 7 helicopters available to fly every day to cover all missions. It can be stressful at times trying to keep them all operational.
I will have better access to the Internet soon. It presently tough to get access when I have time.
I miss home allot. I didn't think it would be this tough to be separated from my family. I will write again soon. Todd
I'm sorry I haven't been able to update sooner. We hit the ground running. i spent two weeks in Kuwait before flying to Iraq. It gave us time to prepare our aircraft and equipment. We also needed time to adjust to the temperatures. It has been as high as 125 degrees. On the flight line the temps are even worse. Even the wind is hot here. When the wind blows (which is quite often) it blows around allot of sand and dust. At night it can cool down in the 80's.
I've been very busy. My days at work start at 5:30 a.m. and usually end around 7:30 p.m. If I fly a night mission I get very little sleep. It is good to be keeping busy. Time goes fast. A month and a half has already gone by.
My job besides flying is managing the 10 aircraft assigned to our company. I manage the maintenance, inspection schedules on the aircraft, and assign the aircraft to the missions. We are presently assigned three mission sets. I need to have 7 helicopters available to fly every day to cover all missions. It can be stressful at times trying to keep them all operational.
I will have better access to the Internet soon. It presently tough to get access when I have time.
I miss home allot. I didn't think it would be this tough to be separated from my family. I will write again soon. Todd
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
