Life Across the World

It was another slow evening working the tactics desk. The schedule was finished, all the latest tactical updates were downloaded, and I had a couple more hours to kill before I had to brief another crew headed off to Afghanistan. Typically the night shift is slow, because most crews brief late afternoon to fly a night sortie. I left my office, often times known as "the vault" because it is an isolated room with secret files, and went to chat with another squadron member working in the operations room. I had seen in the schedule that a special mission was coming up, and I wanted to fly on that mission.

The ADO (assistant director of operations) told me a little about what the mission might be like. Being new to this jet and operations down-range, I concluded I definitely had to soak up a few extra days in Afghanistan for a change of pace and get in on the secret action. I walked back to the vault and decided to study up on some classified files regarding our defensive capabilities.

Late night hours flew by as I studied and before long it was time to brief another crew. I brief anywhere from one to six crews a night headed into Afghanistan on the current conditions at the expected destination airfields, and provide them with critical information to take on the flight via paper and electronic media.

After the Airman from Intel briefed the crew on the current threats and locations, I gave my brief and got ready to head back to the other side of the base where my sleeping quarters and the main base are located.

Early hours turned into daylight and I logged onto my computer to see if Julie was free to talk on Skype. Local time here is 12 hours ahead of Mountain Time Zone back home. It was evening for Julie, but she wasn't on her computer. I decided to work on editing some of my photos from my last trip off base. Various trips are offered everyday, but at least 72 hours advance notice must be given via a signed permission slip from a commander or chief and the trip cost paid.

In this instance, I had gone hiking earlier in the week to Konorchek Canyons. The drive from our base was about two and a half hours long, passing through rural parts of Kyrgyzstan. Houses are made of anything from mud and straw to fine brick.

Overall the country looks like many other poor nations around the world with a few who are rich and have fancy German vehicles to complete poverty where kids are seen riding in donkey carts to carry goods to be sold. The written language looks very similar to Russian due to the prior Soviet influence here, however most people in the rural areas speak Kyrgy which is very similar to Turkish, because of the long history of Ottoman Empire control. After the hours of driving on back highways, sometimes gravel but mostly paved, we arrived at the trail head.

After a good four to five hours of hiking through Kyrgyzstan's red rock canyons I was convinced Kyrgyzstan was very similar to Utah in climate and geology. Certainly there are still vast differences, like mountains as high as 22,000 feet in Kyrgyzstan compared to just over 14,000 feet in Utah. However, the general appearance of terrain was comparable to Utah in many aspects and temperature/humidity levels were also similar.

Back in my room I was using some downloaded software to merge three different photos at a time, taken with bracketed exposure levels to create high dynamic range pictures, known commonly as HDR pics. I like to work on them when I get a chance. Fortunately Julie got on-line and I was able to Skype with her and David about their day. It is always nice to talk with Julie while I'm gone on military assignments, and I'm really grateful for the modern technology which facilitates our communication. David is getting really big and is just absolutely fun to watch. I only wish I were there to play with him in person. Apparently he can roll now from his stomach to back, but not quite yet from back to stomach.

After chatting with Julie, I headed off to our squadron barbeque. En route to the BBQ, I decided to check out the dining hall just in case the lunch being offered was tastier than a burger or hotdog. Turns out they were serving fried shrimp and fish. I gave in and ate at the chow hall.

I typically like to eat a yogurt (imported from Dubai) and chocolate soy milk with my meals. After realizing I had eaten way too much shrimp, I set off to the BBQ.

The squadron turn out was pretty small. Many guys had gone fishing off base for the day. I had been on the schedule to go fishing, but my tactics briefings were pushed back after crews were delayed and I wasn't able to leave work early enough to go on the fishing trip. Other crews were sleeping during their "crew-rest" hours to be ready for a night flight. As it was, we only had about 10 or so show up from our squadron. I ate a few grapes, talked with some friends, and then heard about the "special mission" coming up from one of the other pilots assigned to go.

I asked the aircraft commander if I could go with him on the three-day mission, to which he replied he'd ask the director of operations (the DO). After a quick cell phone call back to the ops desk, the DO had approved me to go on the special mission as well. After another hour, I was issued personal armor, a protective helmet, and sent on my way to track down my military ID since I discovered I had been carrying somebody else's ID. Apparently the staff sergeant who had given me an early morning ride back to the main base had swapped our IDs after showing them to the security forces.

Eventually I was intercepted on my walk by a van, driven by the same Staff Sgt who's ID I held, so I returned his ID and was given directions to where my ID was located. After asking for an escort into the secured room, I was handed my ID. Boy was I glad to have that back! I returned to my room with my gear, excited about the prospect of my future mission. Afternoon hours had quickly disappeared, though it included a 5k run with a couple other buddies. I had another briefing to give early in the evening, so I did some more photo editing, burned a CD for friends and then got ready for work. Did you notice I hadn't slept? Yes, it turned into one really REALLY long day.

After another night shift in the vault, updating the schedule, preparing for briefs, briefing aircrews, I finally was able to head back to the main base for some more food and much coveted sleep. In all, I was up 34 hours before I made it to bed. Sleep was brief, or so it felt, before I had to get up and go back to work. This time I wasn't working the whole night, just a couple hours to teach my replacement on the desk how to update the schedule and do some other taskings. Then it was back to bed, this time set for alert to go on the special mission.

This morning I woke up, got ready for the alert to go in for our crew briefing, and then I was informed the mission was reassigned. We were no longer going to go. (Reasons have been deleted.) So here I am, Sunday afternoon wide awake, went to church, and now typing this long blog post for all of you readers.

If you made it this far in my text, then I thank you sincerely for caring about what life for me is like right now. Sure it's only a snip from a few days, but I tried to give some general details about my daily life as well. Missions are always being delayed, cancelled, reassigned or simply carried out. You never know what tomorrow will hold for you as a pilot. It's a unique lifestyle out here, we grow closer as a squadron, and develop a greater appreciation for valuable family time back home. We are grateful for all the prayers, letters and packages from back home. We are also grateful everyday that each crew has returned safely from the missions to Afghanistan. There have been some significant threats recently, a few close calls, and a lot of prayers of gratitude. I'm grateful for this chance to serve my country, serve fellow service-members, and for the opportunity to boost the Kyrgy economy and learn about their language and culture. God bless the USA and everyone else living for peace on earth. I pray we may all remember our Savior-- who gave the ultimate sacrifice, as well as those fallen service-members who have given their life in the defense of freedom.

FYI (Recent event at Bagram Air Base): click HERE