[This post was originally emailed on July 3, 2009]
People started asking why I hadn't written and I realized that it had been a while. So, here's the latest. Life in Kandahar is going very well. I'm actually flying quite a bit. I've flown about 80 hours since we arrived, a little less than half of those being at night with Night Vision Goggles (NVGs). Our company is currently supporting a mission called Airborne Reaction Force, or ARF. It's round the clock coverage to respond to bad guys doing bad things. It's actually split into two shifts, each 14 hours long so they overlap 1 hour on each end so the Day crew can the Night crew. I've been on Night ARF, or NARF as we like to call it, for about two weeks. Did I mention I love being on nights? No sun, less people complaining about insignificant things, you never have to see your boss, and there's less work to do. Anyway, the mission goes like this: the Kiowas (OH-58s) fly around looking for bad guys. They spot dudes burying Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and then "reduce the threat", as its called in high level briefings, through whatever means they have at their disposal, i.e. missiles, rockets, heavy machine gun, etc. Once the threat has been completely reduced, they launch the ARF. We leave here with a couple of Blackhawks full of dudes trained to secure the area and we insert them near the target. They reduce any remaining threat, and collect whatever they can find on the threat that had been previously reduced by the Kiowas. Then we swoop in and pick them up, and RTB (return to base). As we land the "stack" looks like this: Blackhawks at 200' and below, Kiowas above them, AH-64 Apaches circling a little bit higher, any fixed wing aircraft doing close air support (dropping bombs) go on top of the Apaches, and then way up we have UAVs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, that get everything on high-res video. It's quite a collection.
Mind you, all this happens at night, under NVGs, often with no moon, into LZs (landing zones) that are so dusty you can't see the ground for the last 10 to 20 feet of your landing. You just have to keep flying and hope that the ground is still below you, and not beside you when your wheels finally touch. Then, of course, there's the take-off. As you pull in power, the dust begins to build, the ground disappears, not because you've left the earth yet, but because you just can't see it. You keep pulling in power until there's no more to pull, then just wait. Only your training assures you that the aircraft is moving in the upward direction. Somewhere around 50 to 75 feet you emerge from the cloud, again, hopefully with the ground below you and not beside you, or God forbid, above you, and then you accelerate forward. It's about the coolest flying you can do in a Blackhawk, especially since we don't really get to shoot at anything, unless that thing is shooting at us.
We train for the real thing several nights per week, but the real mission has only happened three times so far. I've been fortunate enough to be flight lead on two of them. The great thing about this particular mission is that I feel like we're actually a part of removing bad guys from this fight. My opinion has been that I don't think the little bit we're doing here is nearly enough to ever actually "win", but that's only because America doesn't have the stomach to handle the war that the bad guys here want to fight. It reminds me of the revolutionary war when the Brits would march in rows as the Militia and Native Americans shot at them from treelines and bushes. The Brits couldn't understand why they weren't winning. What America refuses to understand is that we're fighting an enemy willing to die for the crazy things they believe, and I guarantee you they are certainly willing to live for it. In other words, they're ready to spend their entire lives hiding in the treelines, or in this case, caves, and just wait us out. That's not to say that America is standing in rows and getting shot at like the Brits, because our tactics are lethal and effective. What I mean is we'll throw absolutely everything we've got at the problem, as long as no one gets hurt and we're home by dinner time.
In other news, progress is being made in other parts of the country too. You may have read in the papers (do they still make papers?) about the Marines going into the Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. That's been happening for the last few nights, and though its been in the news I can't talk too much about the details, except to say that Helmand has been the most notoriously Taliban dominated area in the country, and say you what you like about the current administration, but we're finally doing something about it. It was described by all the Brass as an "historic occasion", though I think the colonel here said "a historic". Basically, we took a lot of helicopters filled with a lot of Marines into that area and hopefully we will see some good come of it. I only logged four hours on my part of the mission, but several crews were in the cockpit for 11 hours. Again, its great to be a part of this whole thing when we're actually making moves and not just moving people and mail around the country.
I've been reading a lot lately. I finished a couple John Grisham books, and one by Dan Brown. I finished the book of Matthew in the New Testament and kept going right into Mark. Since that began I've maintained my comittment to read the Bible every day. I believe I'm in Mark 10 or 11 right now. Jesus has just arrived at Jerusalem and made his entry into the city on a colt, at the beginning of the week leading up to His death. It's a great story, you should check it out. Also, reading Everyman's Battle, a truly excellent encouraging read for any man looking to keep their thoughts and heart pure. For the sake of my younger readers I'll let you look up the subtitle for yourself on Amazon. If you are interested in donating copies of this particular book you can do so via Amazon gift cards in my name. Just enter my email address when you purchase the gift card, and make a note that you would like the gift used to purchase copies of Everyman's Battle and the workbook that goes with it. I will make sure they get into the hands of troops overe here who are currently involved in the eternal internal struggle that every man deals with, trying to stay focused on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable and anything that is excellent or praiseworthy.
I've also recently gotten a hold of a great devotional book called Everyday for Everyman. Each day has a short excerpt from one of several books in the Everyman series. It's helped me focus the quiet time I spend with God and I've even taken to making a short journal entry at the bottom of each page to keep track of my spiritual growth. Also currently reading: Why 27?: How we know we got the right books in the New Testament, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: Bill O'Reilly's new book, and Seeds of Terror: How opium production in Afghanistan is funding terrorism.
Very exciting update to my computer situation: my new Macbook Pro has arrived. I can't remember how I lived life before I got my iPhone. I was immediately convinced that I will one day soon feel the same way about this computer. Not sure why I waited so long to make the switch. But thanks to each of you who encouraged me and helped through this process. Your support was invaluable and I don't think I could have done it without you. You know who you are.
For anyone following along with my wiener dog Sam's health problems, he has pulled through the rough patch, and though he's a few pounds lighter (which is pretty much 50% of his body weight), it looks like he will make a full recovery. Thanks for everyone who prayed for him.
Mind you, all this happens at night, under NVGs, often with no moon, into LZs (landing zones) that are so dusty you can't see the ground for the last 10 to 20 feet of your landing. You just have to keep flying and hope that the ground is still below you, and not beside you when your wheels finally touch. Then, of course, there's the take-off. As you pull in power, the dust begins to build, the ground disappears, not because you've left the earth yet, but because you just can't see it. You keep pulling in power until there's no more to pull, then just wait. Only your training assures you that the aircraft is moving in the upward direction. Somewhere around 50 to 75 feet you emerge from the cloud, again, hopefully with the ground below you and not beside you, or God forbid, above you, and then you accelerate forward. It's about the coolest flying you can do in a Blackhawk, especially since we don't really get to shoot at anything, unless that thing is shooting at us.
We train for the real thing several nights per week, but the real mission has only happened three times so far. I've been fortunate enough to be flight lead on two of them. The great thing about this particular mission is that I feel like we're actually a part of removing bad guys from this fight. My opinion has been that I don't think the little bit we're doing here is nearly enough to ever actually "win", but that's only because America doesn't have the stomach to handle the war that the bad guys here want to fight. It reminds me of the revolutionary war when the Brits would march in rows as the Militia and Native Americans shot at them from treelines and bushes. The Brits couldn't understand why they weren't winning. What America refuses to understand is that we're fighting an enemy willing to die for the crazy things they believe, and I guarantee you they are certainly willing to live for it. In other words, they're ready to spend their entire lives hiding in the treelines, or in this case, caves, and just wait us out. That's not to say that America is standing in rows and getting shot at like the Brits, because our tactics are lethal and effective. What I mean is we'll throw absolutely everything we've got at the problem, as long as no one gets hurt and we're home by dinner time.
In other news, progress is being made in other parts of the country too. You may have read in the papers (do they still make papers?) about the Marines going into the Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. That's been happening for the last few nights, and though its been in the news I can't talk too much about the details, except to say that Helmand has been the most notoriously Taliban dominated area in the country, and say you what you like about the current administration, but we're finally doing something about it. It was described by all the Brass as an "historic occasion", though I think the colonel here said "a historic". Basically, we took a lot of helicopters filled with a lot of Marines into that area and hopefully we will see some good come of it. I only logged four hours on my part of the mission, but several crews were in the cockpit for 11 hours. Again, its great to be a part of this whole thing when we're actually making moves and not just moving people and mail around the country.
I've been reading a lot lately. I finished a couple John Grisham books, and one by Dan Brown. I finished the book of Matthew in the New Testament and kept going right into Mark. Since that began I've maintained my comittment to read the Bible every day. I believe I'm in Mark 10 or 11 right now. Jesus has just arrived at Jerusalem and made his entry into the city on a colt, at the beginning of the week leading up to His death. It's a great story, you should check it out. Also, reading Everyman's Battle, a truly excellent encouraging read for any man looking to keep their thoughts and heart pure. For the sake of my younger readers I'll let you look up the subtitle for yourself on Amazon. If you are interested in donating copies of this particular book you can do so via Amazon gift cards in my name. Just enter my email address when you purchase the gift card, and make a note that you would like the gift used to purchase copies of Everyman's Battle and the workbook that goes with it. I will make sure they get into the hands of troops overe here who are currently involved in the eternal internal struggle that every man deals with, trying to stay focused on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable and anything that is excellent or praiseworthy.
I've also recently gotten a hold of a great devotional book called Everyday for Everyman. Each day has a short excerpt from one of several books in the Everyman series. It's helped me focus the quiet time I spend with God and I've even taken to making a short journal entry at the bottom of each page to keep track of my spiritual growth. Also currently reading: Why 27?: How we know we got the right books in the New Testament, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: Bill O'Reilly's new book, and Seeds of Terror: How opium production in Afghanistan is funding terrorism.
Very exciting update to my computer situation: my new Macbook Pro has arrived. I can't remember how I lived life before I got my iPhone. I was immediately convinced that I will one day soon feel the same way about this computer. Not sure why I waited so long to make the switch. But thanks to each of you who encouraged me and helped through this process. Your support was invaluable and I don't think I could have done it without you. You know who you are.
For anyone following along with my wiener dog Sam's health problems, he has pulled through the rough patch, and though he's a few pounds lighter (which is pretty much 50% of his body weight), it looks like he will make a full recovery. Thanks for everyone who prayed for him.
So that's all the news I have to report at this time. I'll actually be home on leave very soon for two weeks in the states. I know its early in the deployment, but once Emily starts school in August she will be unavailable until we get back to the states. If I came home during the school year, I'm afraid her professors would wonder what happened to her.
As always, if you know anyone who would like to receive this newsletter, just send me the address. Or if you would like to be removed from the mailing list, let me know.
- Jeff
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