Totals through 2 Feb after 145 days on-line:

Total flight time logged       1,604.1 flt hrs.   (4 PC, 3 PI)
Countries landed in                15
Iraq missions                       125
Baghdad landings                  73
Afghanistan landings               4
Pakistan landings                   2
High time pilot                     272.9 flt hrs.
         

CA  (43 and a wake-up)

The sat picture makes it look descent here but it's not. 1600 meters is up from 800 a little bit of go. Earlier today it was CAVOK and 75 or so. These dust storms come up  with little warning sometimes.

CA

First picture is in a hallway so I can't shoot the picture square. It's a shot of the previous nine C-12 deployments here.

Middle photo is a shot of snow in the distant Iranian mountains. We're over the Persian gulf northbound.

Last one is a B-1B that diverted into our base due to early morning fog at his destination, Al Udeid AB in Qatar. You can see the burners glowing in the picture and it was an absolutely deafening take-off. "the sound of freedom".

One night coming back from Qatar we were passed by a pair of B-1B's and 2 fighters northbound on a raid into Iraq.

The only major US combat aircraft I haven't seen yet is a B-2. Everything else flying that is US or UK is here or close by.

Today is DEROS minus 7 weeks. I'm trying to make sure I (we) don't screw up between now and then.

A couple of our pilots ran into Bruce the other day. They said he was doing well.

The Blackhawk lost last week was shot down by an SA-14 and the Blackwater Loach is a mystery so far. He definitely hit wires but not sure if that's what brought him down or if he was shot down. They (4) were executed at the scene. 

Later.

Chuck

Right now we have about 2.5 miles vis in blowing dust as the hourly sequence attached shows. You can also see the dust in the Sat picture. It rarely rains but we do have bouts of poor visibility due to dust. We've been down to essentially 0-0 in blowing dust with a bit of mist mixed in. It makes for a very soupy combination. 

There is no weather radar anywhere in the middle east but we have thunderstorms occasionally, like last night. Also if the Kuwaitis don't like the looks of the weather they won't clear you for the approach, they close the airport instead. You have no choice but to divert.

CA

PS. 70 days and a wake-up
 

AMD  KQGV 271307 16015G25KT 0600 DS SCT250 QNH2975INS
     BECMG 1718 24012G20KT 0600 DS FEW120 SCT200 QNH2968INS
     BECMG 2324 32015G25KT 0400 DS SCT080 BKN100 QNH2965INS
     BECMG 0203 34020G35KT 0600 DS SKC QNH2972INS T19/13Z T10/06Z AMD 1300;

We have a good ol' sand storm today. The sequence above calls it dust but that's a lie, it's sand. It's everywhere today. We have sand dunes forming in our parking area. The "0600" is visibility in meters. You can look straight up and see a very faint blue sky but very little horizontally. This easily qualifies as the worst weather day we've had so far and we have one airplane leaving Balad now heading this way. He might make it in, he might not. Bahrain is his alternate, about an hour south of here. It's CAVOK.

Happy New Year.

Chuck

Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 9:29 AM

Subject: Half way

We're past half way now but busier than ever. We launched a crew today on a 9 day mission to Germany and back. It's the first of 6 identical trips. Of our remaining 95 days, 54 days we'll have a Germany mission going on. We're running Blackhawk pilots up to Nuremburg for 5 days of simulator sessions. It's a two day trip each way and the aircraft will RON in Crete each way. The pilots will have 6 nights in a real hotel and should have a pretty good time. I'll probably go in late January or early February. 

There is a chance Bruce might be on one of the trips. I need to find that out and make sure I'm on that trip. At the half way point our pilots have logged just short of 1,100 flight hours.

Chuck