Lonnggg Day

Today was very long. We flew all the way to afghanistan just to be turned away by a wall of sand. It was so thick you couldn't see more than a half mile and it rose to 9000 feet. When we finally landed, it was awful. Sand everywhere. I was stuffed up in under a minute. we spent about an hour on the ground and it was way too long. However, as we departed, there was this surreal sight of the full moon juxtaposed with the sun. The moon was on my left, full and extremely bright, just above the horizon. The sun on my right was just setting and was in the exact same place. It was quite a sight to burst out of the sand and see the moon and the sun having a staring contest. Amazing.

Its been too long,

Turkey has been a very nice change of pace. The weather on the med is amazing and I've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. This base is so beautiful right now, it has flowering trees and roses blooming everywhere. I went into downtown Adana, but will have to save that trip for another day. Its too late tonight, I'm flying tomorrow, off to my beauty rest.

Turkalicious...

Well, I made it. I'm here in the lovely Mediterranean. The first thing to stand out was the green grass, palm trees and clean fresh air. It was such a contrast to the sand, sand, sand of Kuwait. I just got in last night so I dont have any stories yet, but I hear the haircut experience is quite something and I'm due for one so I'll let you know soon.

Not a bad weekend

Well I'm still down here in Kuwait. Going on 3 weeks now. Its not too bad, the heat hasn't become quite unbearable yet and the pool has been really nice. Plus, there have been a lot of broken jets recently which leaves a lot of people hanging around to do stuff with. This last weekend, we commandeered the pool for a bit and played some pool volleyball. It was almost like home, laying in the sun and then jumping in the pool to cool off. Pretty sweet actually.

I've also started lap swimming. That is one of the hardest things ever! I usually only swim for survival purposes, but now swimming for distance, I cant believe how difficult it is. I can only swim 500 meters as of yet (it is my second workout of the day usually), but hope to get to a mile before I leave. When I finish, my heart is pounding and I'm gasping for breath. Ive always heard it was a great cardio workout, but man, its harder than I thought. Oh well, word is I will be off to Turkey at some point this week. We'll see....

Honor

The other day I had a chance to perform an extremely special mission. Its called 'Human Remains', or 'HR'. We were called in flight to change our mission and headed to bagram AB. When we got there we parked in a special location for the ceremony and were briefed by the colonel in charge. This being my first HR, I was very curious to see how it went down.

When the time came, we all lined up in front of the jet facing the back where the fallen soldier's company was lined up, forming two solid lines like walls leading from the back of the jet. The Humvee pulled up and the very solemnly 8 of his friends carried Jeremy Lynn Brown's casket past his company and onto the jet while a band played 'Amazing Grace'. I am not ashamed to say that I fought back tears as I saw the casket, draped with the American Flag, be ushered up the ramp. A service was said in the cargo hold and when it was finished, a 2-star general and several other attending officers came out to shake our hands and say thanks for taking him home.

The service lasted all of 15 minutes, but was extremely moving and powerful. Here, physically in front of me, was an example of my beliefs. This man fought for me and my family, just as I am fighting for his. He made the sacrifice that I hope to never have to make. We flew him down to Kuwait where there was a smaller, yet still respectful ceremony, and then it was over-for me. Jeremy Lynn Brown's body was headed home and his family would now have at least some measure of closure. I hope to never forget the ceremony I saw and think everyone should see something like it to remember that there are still men out there who are making that great sacrifice today. My prayers go out to Jeremy Lynn Brown and his family, and my thanks to both for the sacrifice they've made.

May Day

Well, May in Iraq is kinda like Florida. Minus the nice beaches and greenery. There have been ridiculous thunderstorms here daily and its made flying really interesting. I never thought I would land at an airfield in Iraq in a torrential down pour. Its been raining off and on for days and the sky reminds me of Oregon. Kind of a neat experience.

On the flip side, I just found out that instead of going to luxurious Turkey for the second half, I will be staying in 'hot-as-heck' Kuwait for awhile. Not really happy about that as I was supposed to get a trip to the med, but me complaining about that wont help anything. So I went online and bought some sweet electronics for myself as a present and now am ready to go. I think the kindle and new sennheiser headphones should really help me not hate this place as much. haha

Well the accommodations here are much worse, smaller rooms with a roommate. But there is a common room that everybody hangs out in so you see a lot of friends here that I didn't in Manas. All in all, I'm trying to make the best of it, that's all a guy can do.