I finally made it back home (at least the place where the majority of my pillows are) after an exhausting mission spanning 5 days and 3 different cities; Baquba, Mosul, & Kirkuk. The mission itself was cool, I got to see a lot and touch base with a lot of the guys, but getting there was literally a pain in the side. You see getting places in Iraq is kinda like a crap shoot...sometimes you get to where you are going fast, other times....well let's just say sitting on a Blackhawk helicopter for 5 hours is not exactly first class amenities. To help you visualize the experience imagine sitting with your back straight for 5 hours, now add a 50 pounds of body armor...uncomfortable yet? Ok, well then add a 40 pound rucksack with all the stuff you'll be living out of for the next 5 days...uncomfortable yet? Ok, well then add 7 other people with all their body mass and gear crammed next to and across from you so close that you have to alternate legs with those sitting across from you. Oh so your still not uncomfortable eh? Thinking to yourself...eh I can just pop in my head phones and catch some Z's...haha, you'd have to have some pretty loud head phones to even coming close to drowning out the noise of the chopper, and everybody's body heat coupled with the already high ambient temperature makes it pretty hard to doze off. To top it all off there is no in flight movie!!! ; )
All in all it's not so bad when you have a little room, but having to sit up straight isn't very comfortable to begin with and it puts all the body armor's weight on your core which starts to cramp after about an hour...ugh not fun. So as you can see riding in a blackhawk isn't as much fun as these guys below make it out to be (and we definitely don't get to hang out the sides).
1 comment:
Thanks for the update - Tough Ride, sounds cool though. You'll be ready to do some Helicopter Skiing in the High Country. U John
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