Ok. So it's been a few days, but it's not my fault, I swear. Internet service has been sparse at best. And time has been at a high premium. It's been a complete blur since I last blogged on Tuesday, but a fun blur.
Wednesday started around 10 a.m. with the guys and lady from Contingency Response Element (it's a smaller portion of the Contingency Response Wing) out at the landing zone. They had set up their main tent the night prior, so when I arrived they were busy putting up communications equipment, power systems, and all of the other goodies that they needed for the week. I then went on a Foreign Object Debris, or FOD, walk with a few of the guys to make sure the ramp the aircraft were using didn't have anything hazardous that could get sucked up into the engines and cause serious damage, like metal pieces or large rocks. After spending the remainder of the morning and the first part of the afternoon hanging out and getting to know some of the guys, I had to split to head back to Alexandria so I could get back to Little Rock.
Initially, I was to spend only Wednesday in Fort Polk, then spend the rest of the week in Little Rock and then head back to Fort Polk on Saturday until the end of the exercise. But my plans changed and I had to go back to Little Rock for the night to pick up the remainder of my belongings and then return to Fort Polk Thursday morning for the rest of the exercise.
So after another ride to Alexandria, I hopped on a C-17 where I experienced 6 to 8 assault landings (aka landing super super fast and steep) and landed in Little Rock. For the record, the assault landings were not nearly as bad as I'd been told they would be. In fact, I didn't think we were even performing assault landings when we were. After another meeting, I was finally checked back in to lodging and headed to sleep -- I had another 4:30 a.m. show time for my flight back to Louisiana the next morning. This time it would be on a Belgian C-130.
As expected, 4:30 a.m. on Thursday came swiftly and before I knew it I found myself in the mission planning room with the Belgian flight crew who, by the way, are an hysterical group of guys. I even got to ride in the cockpit for the entire flight, which has, by far, been the coolest experience of the exercise thus far. We landed at Alexandria, and I hung out with the flight crew while they loaded up with a couple of airdrop pallets. The flight crew invited me to join them for the airdrops. Unfortunately, my ride was already on the way otherwise I would have absolutely joined.
Once my ride arrived, I was on my way back to Fort Polk where I met with the Air Mobility Director, Lt Col Salter, who told me all about what occurred in the Joint Operations Center. The JOC is basically the central nervous system for the exercise, it monitors not only the Air Force's exercise activities but also the Army's. The AMD serves as the central command and control for all deployed Air Force aircraft traffic and controls everything from airlift flights, to airdrop missions, as well as aeromedical evacuation missions. After that, I camped out in my room for the next couple of hours and then it was off to the drop zone to watch the Canadian C-130 crew airdrop 4 bundles, at night no less! It was pretty awesome.
They also let me try out some Night Vision Goggles during the airdrop, and those things were crazy! I was completely amazed - mostly amazed because of how well you could really see in them, but also partially amazed at how much looking at military vehicles through NVGs make it look like you're in a video game.
The next morning (Friday) it was off to the CRE again. This time I took shelter with them during a mock attack on their camp, it was neat to see how quickly they all sprung to action even though they knew it was an exercise environment.
That evening, a few of the CRE guys had decided I was cool enough to hang out with them, so they invited me out for an evening in Leesville, La. The location was not so awesome, there's just not a whole lot going on in this town. But the company I got to share my evening with was fantastic. It started off with dinner at a local cajun restaurant, then it was out for drinks. The highlight of the night was definitely the guy with the red t-shirt tucked into his Wranglers, with a cowboy hat and a serious mustache who would grab random girls and tug them to the dance floor. The guys attempted to drag his attention to me. When I caught onto their scheme I told them I'd dump each of their bodies into the live-fire range that the Army would be practicing in the next morning, that seemed to quell their antics...at least I like to think it did.
Saturday was a pretty quick but eventful day. For the first time during the entire exercise the C-17 was able to land at the Landing Zone where the CRE was located. They hadn't been able to land all week because of moisture conditions on the ground. Once the C-17 landed, the Aeromedical Evacuation folks on the ground at the Landing Zone loaded mock patients on the aircraft. According to one of the AE trainers, this was the first time in over 5 years that a C-17 has performed an AE mission during a JRTC exercise. The C-17 came back later to return the mock patients who were Army players in the exercise. Between you and me, I think the "patients" enjoyed their time under AE's care, because not only are the AE folks awesome, but the Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility, where the patients are kept stabilized, and the C-17 were both air conditioned. It was probably a welcomed break from the hot Louisiana sun.
Soon after the last C-17 flight departed, I also said my good-byes to the CRE folks and headed back to my hotel to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. We (myself, some Combat Camera and AE folks) hit up a local Italian restaurant for dinner -- the service lacked a little, the food was good, and as always, the company was awesome.
And that leaves us at today -- Sunday. Today, I spent my day holed up inside my hotel room, finishing stories that you will hopefully see soon on the AMC Website. 5 story packages (articles and corresponding photos) were sent, and we've got about 7 left to go. It's hard to believe the exercise is nearly over. We all leave on Wednesday. Here's to the next two days, I'm sure they'll be just as awesome as the last several!
Until next time, here's some photos:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="602" caption="Moving a very prized piece of equipment -- the air conditioning!!!"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="605" caption="This is Senior Airmen James Randolph and Staff Sergeant Joshua Williams assembling a communications satellite."]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="612" caption="Some of the CRE folks helping the AE team evacuation a mock patient out of the area of operations."]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="618" caption="One of the AE folks attending to a mock patient. I know I just called the man a mock patient, but I want to further impress that this man's privacy is not being violated, he is not in any way, shape or form injured or ill and this was ONLY for the exercise."]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="624" caption="On the FOD walk. "]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="624" caption="The view out of the dome on the top of the C-130."]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="626" caption="IT FINALLY LANDED!!!"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="631" caption="Co-pilot Captain Denis Gochel and Flight Engineer, 1st Sergeant Major Kenneth Snelders from Belgium."]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="637" caption="Captain Bert Erens, pilot, from Belgium. Thanks again to all of you for the awesome "VIP" seat in your C-130!"]
[/caption]
Has this experience given you more insight into how incredibly hard it must be for these soldiers to live on such little sleep? I know how much you love your sleep so it must be draining on you at this point.
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