I am living on Balad Air Base just north east of Baghdad in a lovely room shared with my new best pal Dan. I get the pleasure of walking about 100 meters to use the bathroom / showers so it’s not to bad. We have arranged the room 12’x12’ room so that we can each get a little privacy but it’s still a 12’x12’ room.
Yes it's bright!
Top bunk is for storage only, roomie has his own bunk bed.
The daily grind is fly one day then get one day off so it’s pretty hard to complain. I don’t have as much down time as previous deployments so that is good. Being stationed in Iraq has it’s benefits too as or crew day is limited due to the combat nature of flying in and out of this place.
In my off time I volunteer at the hospital where I walk around and talk to people and wait for the helicopters to land and I help unload the patients. They are willing to teach me to do about anything but I really don’t want to be giving IVs or drawing blood or anything that involves needles. The hospital can use all the help it can get and I know this doesn’t sound right but it is a fun place to be as I feel that I am actually doing something.
I also have volunteered with the base safety shop were I help out with there BASH program. That means that I get a high powered .22 pellet gun and walk around the base and shoot birds! Yea it feels kinda weird walking around a little city with a gun, ok I do that every day, but being able to shoot it at birds is different. But don’t worry it’s for a good cause, we don’t want our multimillion dollar planes hitting birds and crashing now do we?
Well now that I have got this started I’ll try and update it whit what I can and let you know how I am doing.
I’ll leave you with a nice sun rise over Baghdad! Tell next time, Aloha!
1 comment:
Hi KC:
Quit shooting birds - they are your friends and you don't want another uprising like Al Hitchcock had.
Stick with the hospital stuff - mending is better than killing.
Jane
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