Sorry

I am going to be gone again for the next 4 days. I am once again going to the field because the pilots want to do a little of this.

They didn't think shooting the gun and rockets was enough. Now they want to shoot some Hellfire missiles. It's ok with me though because these aren't just smoke producing. Oh no, these are the real deal. Hellfire missiles are designed to take out enemy armor and they only come in one version. The big boom type. Of course I am taking my camera with me so I am sure I will come back with some more pictures and stories. And since this range is about 5 hours away I get to go on another Chinook ride out there. Hooah!

Riding in Style

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to post about my ride from LZ Tom to the farp. Well here it is...

That would be a CH-47 Chinook. As you can imagine I was pretty excited about flying in this. Sure beats driving. This was my first flight in a military helicopter and it was actually very comfortable. It was about a two hour drive from LZ Tom but it only took us about 45 minutes to fly it.

  Here is me and my battle buddy, PFC Mackin. If you are wondering that's a farp helmet that he is wearing. You can hook that up to the helicopter and talk to the pilots.

 

  Here is the other aircraft hooking up to some fuel blivets so it can sling-load them to the farp.

 

 

 

This is the crew chief of the Chinook I was in helping to hook up to the fuel blivets that our aircraft was sling loading. Yes, we were hovering at the time, yes he was wearing a harness so he wouldn't fall out, and no he didn't fly the whole way there like that.

These are just some views out of the back of the Chinook.

 

 

 

I think that is about it for the events of my field exercise. I have more stories from it but those are good for random posts.

The Farp

So after 4 days of stupid nonsense over at LZ Tom most of armament and some tag along fuel pumper's headed over to the farp. A farp is a forward arming and refueling point. It is a place that is ahead of where a normal base is located where aircraft can land and get more ammo and fuel or get any small repairs. This way they can get back into the fight quicker then if they had to travel al the way back to their home base.

This was my first farp so I was pretty excited to get out there and see the aircraft I work on everyday in action. Once the helicopter landed I would load 8 rockets on it while another guy would load 150 30mm rounds on board. Then I would move back while the helicopter took off.

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was only standing about 20 feet away from the aircraft when they took off. I did my best to hold the camera steady but it was just a little windy right there.

Many people have asked me exactly how big a 30mm round is. This is just the shell, the actual round is about 3/4 of the length of the shell. Makes the .50 cal look like a peashooter.

 

Another nice sunset in South Korea. So now you have heard about LZ Tom and the farp. My next question is how did I get from one place to another? Hmm, sounds like a post for tomorrow.

LZ Tom

My week in field began at landing zone tom. It is a dried up river bed. I was only here for 4 days before moving to the FARP.  It was actually a nice scenic area. It was in a valley with mountains all around.

What I called home for a week. The camo netting on top gave it a nice cozy feeling.

 

 

This was one of the main approaches the pilots would fly through when they were coming in to land. It was a cool site to see because they would come around the corner of the mountain really fast and low. 

 

It was always foggy in the morning.

 

 

 

 

We had two hour shifts sitting in this truck. It was stationed at the edge of camp as a guard. That's a .50 cal on top.

 

 

   I liked the trees in top of this mountain.

 

 

 

 

Here we are moving our tent. The area where they had us set up was 300 meters north of where they originally had planned. So three days into being there they decided to have us move the entire camp so they could take an aerial photo for next time we go out. Gotta love the infinite wisdom of some people.

Back Again, Back Again

Well, I have arrived safely back from the field with minimal injuries although I was extremely dirty and not to pleasant smelling. Somehow the good ole' baby wipe baths just don't work quite as well as a normal shower. Imagine that. The week started with the entire battalion being at one area for a field exercise. Armament only stayed there for 4 days and then we left for the FARP(Forward Arming Refueling Point, more to come on that later). This was were we loaded the aircraft up with rockets and 30mm rounds for the pilots to go shoot. I have a lot of stories to tell, pictures to show(I took over 200) and even some videos to post. However I have to sort through it all first. Just bear with me for now, I am busy with field recovery and prep for the next time we go to the field, the 14th of this month. I am doing my best.