UPDATE!

When I arrived at Fort Belvoir, VA, I was informed that my orders had been changed and I needed to report to Fort Carson, Colorado. I was given five (5) days leave to make the trip across country and sent on my way. After making the trip and arriving at Fort Carson I was assigned to the 4th Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. I was told that I was going to join the rest of the 3rd ACR in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I had approximately 3 weeks to straighten my state-side affairs before leaving. I took advantage of that time to explore the Colorado Springs area, including; Fort Carson, Pikes Peak, Seven Falls, and Bishops Castle. My parents flew to Colorado Springs on Fathers Day for one last visit before I was to leave. The last time I saw them I was going to be living outside Washington DC for the next few years. Mom and Dad drove my Honda back to Florida the next day, with whatever I did not want to put into storage (most of my belongings).

On June 21, I left Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs on an Air Force C141 jet. My group was the first to fly directly from the U.S. to Iraq. For 14 hours I sat on cargo net, knee to knee with the person across from me. We landed in Sicily at Sigonella Airfield, a Navy Installation. What was supposed to be a 3 hour stop for fuel turned into several hours of waiting around on the flightline for repairs. At midnight, local time, they cancelled our flight until the next day because they did not want to be in Iraq during daylight hours. All our sensitive items (weapons, body armor, gas masks) were left on the aircraft as we were put up in Navy barracks for the night. The next morning I had to be at the aircraft at 0800 to pull guard. I sat on that plane for 1o hours while the crew tried to fix the problem but weren't having any luck. Shortly after I was releived at 1800 (6 pm), the pilots informed us that we wouldnt be leaving that night so we were put back in the same barracks rooms we had the night before. Our only orders were to stay on post, and not to drink. I jumped on the chance to get a shower and wash my uniform as I was ripe from sweating all day. Wouldnt you know it, 10 minutes after I put my uniform in the wash, there was a knock at the door, the plane was fixed and we were heading out. I quickly turned the washer to spin cycle, then about 2 minutes later tossed my uniform into a dryer. It only had about 5 minutes in the druyer before I put it on, still wet. We loaded up and left Sigonella at approximately 2200 (10 pm).

Shortly before entering Iraqi airspace we were told to put on "full battle rattle", meaning body armor, LBE, gas mask, and kevlar. Then the lights in the cabin were turned off so we wouldnt be noticed. We landed in Kirkuk, Iraq at 0600 local time. Once off the plane we were directed towards a hangar where we would wait for our units to pick us up. There is only one word to describe the weather in Iraq at 6 am, HOT. Nothing I've ever felt in Florida compares to what it was like, and it was still dark outside! Later that morning the Captain in charge of the 50 people from 3rd ACR shared some news with us. The Regiment knew we were in-country, but they weren't expecting us, and we were nowhere near their Area of Operation (AO). We were approximately 250 miles north of the Regiments' AO. A convoy was going to be put together and sent to get us in the next few days. Luckily for us, the units in Kirkuk were able to spare some food, water, and an abandoned building for us to stay in while we waited. The building was an abandoned jail that we cleaned out and moved into. The 7 people from 4th Squadron, the aviation squadron, slept outside, while the rest of the troopers stayed inside. We spent the next few days, doing nothing, waiting for our convoy to arrive. We were lucky that the unit there, the 1st Infantry Division, lent us food and water. The night before out convoy arrived we obtained ammunition and magazines from a Special Forces (SF) group that was leaving country. Until then we didnt have any as the Air Force wouldnt let us carry it on their aircraft. We loaded up into the back of 5-Ton trucks, locked-and-loaded, and left Kirkuk early in the morning. We traveled southwest through Tikrit, headed for the palace at the city of Aramadi. We only stopped once on the way to refuel We arrived at Aramadi that afternoon. The Regimental Headquarters were set up at the palace compound. We only stayed long enough to unload the people that were staying there, then continued west towards Al Asad Airbase.

Al Asad is an abandoned Iraqi Airbase which the 4th Squadron calls home. Once I arrived here, I was assigned to the 571st Medical Company (Air Ambulance). My unit serves as medevac rescue for all of southern and western Iraq. Medevac units are unique in that they are their own identity, attached to a larger unit. The 571st has been assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, 3rd ACR, and 82nd Airborne during its activity in Iraq. We have our own motorpool, cooks, and aircraft mechanics. The sand in this environemtn DESTROYS EVERYTHING! We are constantly working on our aircraft. Unlike the rest of the Regiment, we run 24 hour operations to ensure our birds are down as little as possible. We currently have the best Operational Readiness (OR) Rating of any medevac unit in the Army. This is an amazin accomplishment considering where we are, are that our mechanics are all E4's and E3's. I have learned so much in the time I've been here, simply because of the amount of maintenence we do.


BELOW ARE LINKS TO PICTURES IVE TAKEN SINCE ARRIVING AT AL ASAD.

Happy New Year!

Burning Classified Material

Baghdad

Buc-Hawk - This was my bird until it was shot down on January 8, 2004

Night Guard At Hangar

My Adopted Dog

Christmas Decorations

Chase Bird

Fun With A Blackhawk

My Pilots

Desert Canyons

Apache Maintenance At Night

Scorpion

This Is What An Aircraft Looks Like When It Is "In Phase"

Nice Sunset

This Bird Was Hit By A Bradley Fighting Vehicle (a Tank)

Leftover Iraqi Aircraft Make Good Playgrounds

An Oasis

Local Architecture

Tower Guard Detail

A Chinook Through NVG's

Bundled Up For The Cold

Chili's In Kuwait City

Kuwait Towers By Day

Kuwait Towers By Night

Kuwaiti PD BMW

Kuwaiti PD Crown Vic

The Carpet I Bought For Mom