Blackhawk

Well, our rotary wing flight last night was 5 hours later than we thought it would be. This meant we were in a holding tent with other Soldiers watching movies. They had Terminator 2 on which was cool and then they put on Joe Dirt...such a guy movie. Anyway, when they told us the chopper was ready we had to strap on our jackets and kevlar helmets, our backpacks and luggage and move out quickly to the helipad. It was really dark and so windy from the blades that one of my contacts just popped out. Anyway, the 5 of us shuffled onto the Blackhawk with about 5 others. Our bags and gear were shoved in in front of us, on our laps and anywhere there was room. (Blackhawks are not that big and do not have much cargo room when every seat is full.)

The gunners shut the doors and my coworkers and I fiddled with tangled seatbelts. We finally got buckled and the chopper slowly took off. The Blackhawk flight was very graceful in my opinion; very smooth. Well, about 4 minutes into the flight the left gunner shot some rounds...a split second after he fired, the right gunner sitting right in front of me also shot some rounds. It scared the crap out of me! At that point I just put my head down and buried my head into my backpack on my lap. I am pretty macho (in the most feminine way possible), but this scared me. I found out later that this is typical procedure and they were just test firing into the desert. Geesh. I would have not been so scared if I'd have known beforehand, because all I thought after it happened was that it was real and that the Blackhawk was defending itself from fire below. I have to honestly say that a few tears fell from my eyes when I buried my head because all I could think of was that I didn't want to be in a chopper after hearing the news lately. Anyway, about 5 minutes after the test shots I was fine and we were moving along pretty quickly. I was in the front right seat right behind the gunner. It was SOOO cold! The wind was just freezing because the gunner's window was open. Well, about 45 minutes later we landed ever so lightly and then we threw our stuff off the chopper and hustled off of the helipad. There was another load of passengers waiting to run onto the helipad as soon as we got off.

We got on a bus shuttle and met our POC. The 4 guys in my team stayed in a building on bunk beds and I got a "wet CHU."' CHU means containerized housing unit, which is basically just a trailer with a bathroom in it. I felt guilty for taking the CHU, because I don't want to live any better than my coworkers, but the POC insisted and the guys didn't seem to have a problem with it. Honestly, sometimes it's a hassle to be a girl over here because everything has to be separate and sometimes female facilities are located wherever they can fit. Oh well, I still like being a girl better.

This morning we had a great breakfast and then had a short windshield tour of the base. This used to be an Iraqi Army Air base. There are a lot of old hangars and stuff that are being reused now as offices. Luckily we have internet access in our work area.

Here's a picture of my team and me in front of the 82nd Airborne HQ at Speicher yesterday. I tried to get a sticker for you, Mac, but they couldn't find any.