I'm officially deployed

Wow.  So much I want to talk about.  So much I want to tell.  There are so many stories.  But some of them I can't tell, and I have a crappy internet connection so far so this won't be as detailed as I'd like it.

My bags on deployment day 0.

Navy SEALS kicks some ASS!!!

Everyone in the terminal listening to the news of Osama Bin Laden

I left Virginia Beach, VA at 0200 from a Navy instilation on my way here.  While waiting to board the plane the news hit of Osama Bin Laden being killed.  Wahoo!  But really..., they couldn't wait till I was over here so I could of at least maybe had a hand in it....?  Geeez.  It was a funny joke that the plane/deployment was cancelled because of the situation.  We won!  Haha.  Not a shot....I'm still over here.

Land after crossing the ocean!

My plane over there

This is the "hotel" on base in Ramstein AB, Germany.  Kristen and I definitely need to go!

Me in front of my tent

Beer #1

Beer#2

I landed from VA in Germany.  We were allowed to get off for two hours (but not leave the airport/base) so that sucked.  From there we flew somewhere else.  That's where we were allowed off and told to wait for the next flight to my location.  It ended up taking 36 hours there.  But it was OK.  They gave me a bunk bed in a tent.  And they had a two beer limit per 20 hours...... So I max performed that limit while I was there.  The beers there are giant (probably 32oz..., I couldn't tell because they were in another language).  And there's no alcohol on base here so everyone tries to make the best of it.  The food wasn't bad there either.

Add caption

View from the cockpit looking back during flight

From there I rode on a C-17 to my location.  It was so cool to fly into a war zone. We all had to put on our flak vests (bullet resistant) and helmets.......cool.  I asked the crew if I could ride in the front and they allowed me to.  So that was AWESOME!  We flew about 20 Americans and 70 foreigners (I'm at a NATO base).  They smelled.  Haha.  We landed in the middle of a lightning storm so that was fun.  We waited to de-plane till it stopped.  My commander met me at "baggage claim", helped me with my bags and took me to dinner.  It was pretty cool.  Then he showed me to my room (it's a tent).  It was about 1130pm local time and everyone was sleeping in there already.  He told me the measure of a man is how quiet you can be.  Haha.  Yeah, try to be quiet with three HUGE bags and trying to find sheets and stuff in the dark...... it was quite an experience.

Here's my room.  It's hard to see because there's no lights

The next morning I got up and caught the bus to the squadron (it's a 25 minute bus ride to our squadron).  This base is so big!  There are 30 different nations here and about 30,000 personnel.  The U.S. only makes up about 1/4 of it.  That makes it good and bad I'm finding out.

I started my in processing on day one and that pretty much took up the whole first day.  For the next eight days it was more of the same.  I've been on the schedule to work twice since then doing squadron stuff...like driving the crew bus (crews to and from the flight line).  It's kinda cool.  But not what I'm here to do ya know.......  It's so funny that we're at war here but I still have to go through all of the usual in processing stuff that you would go through in the states.  Our military is the best!  So I'm all done with my in processing now and I fly for the first time tomorrow (Friday).  I can't wait!

Me driving for the first time out here

Me in front of an MRAP-ATV...Think 4x4, diesel and bomb resistant...yeah. BA!

 Let me tell you about or squardon bus.  It runs once an hour.  It makes three stops.  Once at the squadron, once at one camp site, and once at another.  It takes one hour to make the complete circle.  We don't have official drivers.  Whoever has been riding on the bus the longest, for that particular trip, becomes the driver.  I drove on day two.  Haha.  I didn't know where I was going.  Traffic here is crazy (tanks, MRAPS, civilians, foreigners, locals) and the drivers side is on the right.  Haha.  Too funny!  It was a blast.

Me in the C-5

View from on top the mighty Galaxy (five stories up)

A C-5 from Dover came here yesterday morning.  I got one of our crew buses and went out there to meet them.  The pilot was my flight commander.  I took a few of the guys to the DFAC (dining facility) and picked up food for the whole crew.  C-5's don't spend the night here.....must be nice.

Well, I've been talking to Kristen as much as possible. Usually once a day.  We run 24 hour ops over here so my internal clock is always messed up and I end up calling Kristen at weird hours.  We're 9 1/2 hours ahead of central standard time.

Till next time!