Who's Your Baghdaddy?

Yesterday I found myself humming the tune of Gilligan's Island. I was reminded of that "3 Hour Tour" while I was winding my way through the streets of Baghdad. It is amazing what one bad turn will do to you. At one point I was navigating my way around the secure zone when the confusion of exploding mortar rounds and small arms fire caused me to take a wrong turn. I somehow managed to get through a checkpoint that should have been guarded but it wasn't. The strip map that I had with me only covered my intended route. I now found myself off the map and trying to find my way to Camp Stryker. 6 of us had piled into a Ford Crew Cab truck after we landed at the Miltary ramp at Baghdad International. Because we were crowded, we placed our Kevlars and our body armor in the bed of the truck expecting a peaceful secure drive to our destination. We were scheduled to attend a briefing at one of Sadaam's old palaces. We made it, but we were a little late and a lot more greatful to be unharmed! I realized how American I looked as we drove through some of these Baghdad streets. The locals seemed to look at us and think "What the hell!" Driving in a unarmored truck with our body armor in the bed and only six 9mm pistols to protect us was the ultimate feeling of vulnerability. At one point I had driven past a vehicle that was obviously at the wrong end of an IED. The vehicle was mangled and on its side. The damage was far worse then what a traffic accident could cause. Fortunately, this adventure had a happy ending. As we made our way back to the secure area, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a sign that said " Deadly Force Authorized Beyond This Point".

Mid-Tour Leave

I have been home on leave for a week. I was amazed at the work that my wife Tammy and my son Jake put into the house and yard while I was deployed. The yard looks better than I was ever able to make it look. This next week we have a great camping trip planned with family and friends to Kodachrome Basin State Park in southern Utah. Jake mentioned that he has been looking forward to this trip for a long time, but now that it is almost here, he sort of wishes it wasn't because it means that once the trip is over, I head back overseas for my final 3.5 months.

Home on Leave

Just a quick note to say that I made it home for my Mid Tour Leave!! It was a long and uncomfortable trip but knowing that I was about to see my family made it worth the suffering.
It had snowed in the mountains the day before I come home so imagine the visuals! Just hours before I was in a vast sea of sand and nothing but sand, and next I see the beautiful Wasatch Mountains with snow covered peaks. If I was an emotional sort of guy, I might have shed a tear!!

Tammy and Jake made a lot of nice improvements to the house and yard while I was away. I was glad to see that I didn't come home to a long list of chores to fix.

Well more to follow, but for now I am going to put the war on hold and enjoy the next two weeks with what really matters, my family!

Band of Brothers

A few noteworthy things happened to me this week. First the long elusive promotion to Lieutenant Colonel has finally arrived. I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 10 September yet my date of rank was back dated to 17 April 2008!. Unfortunately the pay is not retrocactive! The date of rank part only comes in play when I compete for future positions and may help me be senior in rank to other Lieutenent Colonels competing against me.

Another exciting thing that happened was that I was able to meet 8 of the surviving key soldiers that the HBO special "Band of Brothers" was based on. What an honor to hear their stories and relive through them some of the character defining moments that war provides. These men were all in their late 80's and they honored us by flying all the way over here to share the brotherhood of war with us!

What I learned from them is that although life can really suck and the odds can be stacked against you, only you will determine how it changes you. The stress of war (or trials of any kind for that matter) will define who you are. These men suffered through unthinkable trials. Every day was a day with an uncertain outcome. Every sunset could have been their last. But together they managed to make it through. All eight of these men attribute their survival to their preparation and their unwavering duty to each other.

Stress is the body's perceived inability to handle a situation. How we react to stress is part personality and part learned. I am fortunate that in part due to personality and in part due to preparation and education, I have always been able to work through stress. I still feel it, but it is never dramatic. I have never allowed myself to have one of those "this is the end" type of moments.

I hope that as a result of this deployement I will have further developed my critical reasoning skills and increased my ability to make sound judgements in very critical circumstances. I believe that the hallmark of a good leader is the ability to make sound judgements and decisions when everyone else around you has lost that ability! I once heard it said that good judgement is based on experience and unfortunately a lot of experience is based on previous bad judgement!

I wish all of my family and friends the very best and as you pray for me, I too pray for you! For as I have learned it is through duty to each other that we succeed!

More to follow.

Ur of the Chaldeans- Birthplace of Abraham

Today was an amazing day!! I had the opportunity to fly to ancient Mesepotomia and visit the Ziggurat of Ur and the birthplace of Abraham. I actually toured the ruins of Abraham's birth home and walked the ground that Abraham walked!! I met with an Iraqi man who's grandfather helped excavate the ancient city of Ur. Since Sadam had such content for southern Iraq, he did not allow much work to be done, so there is still alot that needs to be uncovered. To learn more about the City of Ur read the following scriptures: Genesis 11:28 & 31, Genesis 15:7 and Nehemiah 9:7.

Scroll down to the very bottom of my blog to see some amazing pictures of Ur and Abraham's Birthplace! So few people have ever had this opportunity!

I stayed up until about 3AM Sunday morning watching the University of Utah beat the Michigan Wolverines in the season opener. There was a small group of us that gathered by the USO stage and watched the game on the big screen.

Just a quick note to the University of Utah Alumni Association and faculty. Your support of our Task Force has been amazing! We have received so many packages containing U of U banners, posters, flags, water bottles etc. My office as well as several other offices are decorated from top to bottom with U of U memorabilia. Receiving items such as these have provided a huge boost to our morale and helps us feel as though we are still back home. Of all the schools in Utah all but Weber State have shipped care packages to their fans and Alumni. For some reason, Weber State has ignored all requests.

Special thanks to Kyle Whittingham for his signed letter of support! Kyle I will be sending you a U.S. Flag that I personally have flown over the skies of Iraq. The U of U Football flag that we received was flown over Iraq the day after Utah beat Michigan. I will cherish that banner forever.

It has been awhile since I wrote anything so I guess I should catch up a little. We are a little over half way through this deployment.
With approximately six more months to go, some of us are starting to look at what life will be like away from the war zone. Having spent the better part of the last two years building an Aviation Task Force and preparing it for war, many of my soldiers are wondering if they can go back to their regular jobs and settle into a life without the intense pressures we have all faced recently. Although to most of you this probably sounds odd, after having dedicated so much energy to a cause and after working 12 hour days 6-7 days a week, it is not easy settling in behind a desk to deal with problems that seem so insignificant to us right now.

Our entire life while deployed is a singular effort. There is no escaping our environment. Even our time off really isn't time off. Sometimes our quiet times are interuppted by the sounds of alert sirens and we find ourselves scrambling to get to and man our duty stations.

The threat level has remained fairly constent. No real concerns but we remain vigilant.

Nevertheless this has been a good experience. As far as war's go, others have had and some still have it much worse then I do. I really can't complain. I have some worthwhile diversions. We formed a soccer team and I am the goalkeeper. My team consist primarlily of British soldiers with a few americans sprinkled in for good measure! We play other military teams as well as some local teams. The temperatures are insane though. We wait until 7PM and it is still 108 degrees.

I have attached a few pictures. I promise to write a little more frequently.

Safe Here

I saved the KSL web page as my home page so I stay current on Utah issues. I am amazed at all the rescent shootings, stabbings and accidents happening in Utah. I am flying high value targets in a combat zone and I think I am safer here then there.

Like I told Guy, I am saving all my good stories for the camp fire. I will try to keep this blog more current then I have in the past.

One of the benefits of deploying with a Utah unit is that were ever we go, we drastically increase the size of the local LDS branch! There are now enough people that attend the local military branch that the same two people don't have to alternate speaking every Sunday!

Well Take Care, I am doing fine and time seems to be going by pretty fast. Tune in next week for some more fascinating (like watching paint dry) reporting from the war!

Grounded

Another day of not flying due to the sand storm. I think when I get home, I won't be going to the Sand Dunes anytime soon! When I get back to my room each night I have to shake off my bed and wipe down all my furniture. This sand gets into everything. I can taste the sand in the air when I go to bed at night so I can imagine the crap I am breathing. Well hopefully this stuff blows out and the sky clears so that I can get back to doing what I get paid to do!

SSDD (Same Stuff, Different Day)

I wish I had something profound or exciting to write about but I don't. No real complaints. I am starting my workout program and taking full advantage of the excellent weight loss benefits that 118 degree temperature and a good gym provide!

More to follow.

Been There Done That!

Well my first combat flight mission is now behind me! I can tell you the adrenaline was flowing even though I knew that the odds were in my favor. Anytime spent flying over bad guy country causes your senses to be on full alert!
The temperatures are on the rise. The other day it got to 113 degrees outside which means you can add another 10 degrees for inside the non air-conditioned cockpit. Fortunately the one improvement we have now verses my lst deployment is a cooling vest. This vest is worn underneath the flight suit and circulates fluid through coils. The results are amazing. The problem is the suit only works when the aircraft is running. All the time spent on pre-flight and run-up is in the heat.
The worst part of this deployment so far has been the sand and dust. The wind is constant and the air is filled with fine sand so the visibility is usually poor. By the time I get ready to call it a night, every part of my body is covered.
I obviously won't discuss any details of the mission in this blog but I can say that we are prepared to excel. Our soldiers are up to the task and are meeting every timeline.
I will continue to post messages and soon I will upload some more pictures. Keep checking back!

Finally deployed

Real quick- my Task Force and I finally made it out of Ft. Sill, Oklahoma and are now in Kuwait. We are progressing ahead of shedule and are starting to take on flight missions. The unit that we are replacing are in the process of packing up so things are hectic and shared space is tight. I finally moved out of my tent and into a little trailer with air conditioning (12' x 10'). The air conditioner is a necessity and I hope it never fails. Today it was about 110 degrees and summer is officially a month away! Tommorow I will do my local are orientation flight and I suspect that things will look the same as it did 8 years ago when I was here! The visibility has been pretty bad due to the frequent sand storms we have been having. The sand gets into everything, in fact I have that constant sensation of grit in my mouth because of it.

Well take care and I will write more soon.

I passed my Arabic exam!

Today I had to take a Arabic exam. We are required to learn enough to allow us to get by in emergency situations. For example: "Are you in possession of any weapons" is " Inta shayel slah wiyak" or "Put your weapon down" is "thib slaaHak". I hope that I am not on the ground long enough in Iraq to have to use these phrases but you never know when bad luck is going to strike. Tomorrow I will be going to Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia to spend a few days flying the full motion flight simulator. The reason we do this is to sharpen our skills in emergency situations that can not be easibly duplicated in the real aircraft. As soon as I get back from that trip, I get to come home for a few days prior to shipping out overseas.

Jazz Won!!

I had a chance to watch Game 2 between the Jazz and the Rockets tonight in our "Day" room. It was awesome knowing that even though we are a thousand miles a part, my family and friends are yelling and screaming while watching the very same thing I was. Jazz are up 2 games to zero.

Trying something new!

I decided that setting up a blog account could be a good way to keep everyone up to speed with what I am doing. So this is the beginning of a new adventure in writing! I will try to keep this as up to date as time and security considerations will allow.

I will most likely write in general terms just to make sure that I do not approach anything that could compromise protected information.

To bring everyone up to date, here is the last two months in a nut shell. I am part of an aviation task force comprised primarily of units from the Utah Army National Guard and the New Jersey Army National Guard. The 2-211 General Support Aviation Battalion is the core of this Task Force and we are headquartered in West Jordan, Utah. I am the Executive Officer (2nd in Command) of the Battalion and therefore also the Task Force. I am a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and have been flying since Army helicopters since 1990.

In mid February 2008, TF 2-211 was activated and sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for training and validation prior to deploying to the Persian Gulf. While at Fort Sill, we conducted many individual and collective training events that were designed to enhance our combat survivability. We took advantage of this training to forge strong ties with our new found friends from New Jersey, who prior to this mobilization we had not trained with.

As is often the case with Army National Guard units, we exceeded the standards and were able to complete the required training 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Now here we sit, still at Fort Sill waiting to time our arrival overseas with the arrival of our equipment that is being transported by ship. As fun as it sounds, we really don't want to arrive their much earlier then our equipment for fairly obvious reasons. So in the mean time, we sit here working on the "nice to know" training events like Hand to Hand Combat. Although this is great training, if I as a pilot, find myself engaged in Hand to Hand Combat, my day has already gone really really bad!

Well as fun as this is to write, I better get back to work learning some more Arabic phrases just in case I have one of those really bad days and I find myself not in my aircraft while in bad guy country. How do you say "I'm in a really tight spot" in Arabic?