Sharana

Today we got to go to another cool assault strip. This one was a little longer about 4,000’ long but it was up hill, i.e. the approach and departure end of the runway was over 300’ different. This along with the 250’ cliff before the runway made for quite the optical allusion. The approach was interesting but the takeoff was one of the most intense takeoffs I have ever done. It was downhill with Max crosswinds and we needed every inch of that runway. When I rotated for lift off the plane did not want to go anywhere but I did not want to go off the 250’ cliff either, so we had a little wrestling match and thankfully I won!

Looking down hill on the runway

C-130J on takeoff rool

Wow I wish we had that much power! He is already rotating!!!

The rest of that day was vanilla after that. Our next mission was to go do an airdrop; this was what we were waiting for! Doing what the C-130 does best, throwing junk out the back! As we taxied for takeoff we got a call that we needed to divert to Salerno and pick up another fallen solider. When we landed it looked like most everyone on the base made their way to watch us upload and take off. It was again a very humbling sight to see everyone saluting our plane as we lifted off in front of them from this tiny gravel strip in the middle of a war zone.