Air Forced Nomadicism

Where to start...

2006-03-05T22:24:00.000+01:00

Well... last time I wrote... Nope can't even remember it. I do know that I left out the important fact of my going home, which was an enormous surprise. I hadn't told anyone but two people I was coming home. Of course as the time got closer, all I wanted to do was tell everyone! So, I spent two weeks at home in Oregon. Of course that was a while ago, and now I don't feel like going into great amounts of detail on it. There is so much more to put into this post. I will say though, as great as home is, I actually have a different life... at times (not all the time) I felt out of place... not to mention how far behind it got me in my training. So, I got back from my two week vacation, and while I was gone the taskings for deployment came down. I figured they would, but I still wasn't prepared. Of course, when I got back I was told where I would be going. To my surprise, I'm not going to the desert. I'm not going to any war torn area... I've been tasked for a 4 month trip, to... of all places, Iceland. If you can imagine, this was not what I expected at all. Myself and a TSgt are going to be practically vacationing. On top of the $87ish per diem (extra daily money), I've been told there is practically NO mission there for EOD guys. We just have to be there in case an F15 crashes... which, you can guess doesn't happen very often. So, the EOD techs there now, have said that they we're encouraged to get second jobs for their time there. How about that huh? A paid vacation to do nothing. I've done some research on Iceland, and I'm looking forward to it. Should be leaving sometime in May.

On the downside... I was really looking forward to my shot at some real EOD work in the desert. Most people have their own war stories... I was hoping by this time next year I could be in the same boat. Oh well right? What can I do. I guess I'll have my own stories of traveling Iceland. I can't complain, I'll be making money and having a fairly good time. It's not like we're going to be leaving the middle east anytime soon. You can bet though that everyone back home loved the news. I suppose I'll take a lot of pictures.

I had plenty more I wanted to talk about in this. I went to Silver Flag, which is when you pretend you're setting up a brand new air base. Lots of different career fields will do it. I enjoyed it though. Some good EOD training. After that I went to Siegenberg... We took out some stuff to blow up out there where we could. Since our range is so small here, we have to take everything big 6 hours away. That was my first real TDY, and probably my last for a while. I'm assuming that when I get back from Iceland I'll be able to do more TDY's

On that note, (the sound of my watch telling me it's 11 at night) I'm going to bed.

Time flies

2006-01-09T16:27:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted in quite a while. There is just cause for this. No, it's nothing as exotic as being on a TDY somewhere, or doing a VIP mission. I haven't been out scouring the planet for lost cities. I haven't had computer problems. The amazing thing is this though, I haven't written in a while, because.... I have nothing to say. Yes, yes, it's true. I'm in the center of Europe on the government dime, and I've ran out of things to say. Is it possible I have started taking for granted the fact that I live here? Have I gotten used to living in a country as different from ours as this one? I think so. The culture shock has worn off. Seeing these many new things doesn't take my breath away anymore. Of course I still like it here, and don't plan on leaving anytime soon... until I deploy of course. So, as it is I have a lack of exciting europeaness to talk about, I will give you this... what I HAVE done while I haven't been posting.

I've been sick. It's been pretty horrible, nothing as bad as throwing up or flu symptoms. Mostly just the constant drowning in one's own saliva and snot. This, in turn, has kept my nights filled with a wonderful lack of sleep. I'm talking weeks now of nothing more then 4 hours of sleep. A lack of sleep, being as important as it is to life and not having much of it, has made my body exhausted and weak. During my whole waking day I just want to sleep, and can fall asleep anywhere. Well, anywhere but at home when I'm trying to get my rest for the next day. I wish I could say my day's aren't rough on me. Of course I wouldn't be able to say it's a hard days work either, but much of the lifting is in fact heavy. Why do they think we need steel tools to do our job? It's cold, hard, and heavy. Though shiny also... but I digress. Yes, tired.

I've also been busy. Many things have come down the pipeline at me, having much to do with outside of work activities. There is the bowling thing every Tuesday, which is a pain... one because It takes the rest of my day from me, and two, I'm not really that great at it. I've also been packing up what few belongs I have in this house I'm sitting and taking them back to a room smaller then this living room. Much sadness there, but a full house is hard to keep clean for some reason. With said return of our deployed brothers, I also need to get his car running. This has become more difficult then I thought it would, basically because I can't pop the hood to jump start it without being able to get into the car, and for some reason the key won't open the door. It turns the lock... but doesn't open. This, in fact, is driving me crazy. I also need to fill the car with gas as has been requested of me just today(something about the fuel ration card expiring before he gets back).

Time, where has all the time gone? I've already been here for over 6 months, with only 18 more to go before I have to leave Europe. I have to ask myself if I've done my time here justice yet? I've seen much, and done much. But It all makes me feel... Like it's still not enough. I guess there is still some of that precious time left.

I'm dreaming of a white day after Christmas

2005-12-26T11:01:00.000+01:00

No beating around the bush here. I'm going to come out and say it. The weather man at this base has NO idea what the weather is going to do. A couple weeks ago "he" was so lost on what the weather was going to do, the 5 day outlook changed 4 times in 3 ours. That may be an exaggeration, but not by much. I woke up that day, to snow. The all knowing weather man said, just the night before, that it was a change of snow... In the afternoon... and that the high for the day would be 38 degrees. So I turn on the equally impressive AFN "armed forces network" radio station. They were sticking to the previous weather story. I guess they couldn't look outside. Shortly after that they admitted that it was snowing. It's kind of hard to hide it. A little later, lets change the whole 5 day outlook. Now it's going to snow all day, 2" to 3" and a high still of 38. The rest of the week stayed the same, cloudy highs in the upper 30s. As I finished getting ready for work, one more change in there minds, lets have the highs all week not get above 30 and have a trace to 1/2 inch all week long. Fast forward to any other day in the week... highs 35, partly cloudy and foggy. I'm pretty sure all they do is spin a wheel or something. At least snow doesn't sneak up on Oregon weathermen.

The day before yesterday I checked our all knowing 5 day outlook to see if we might get the precious white Christmas. No we didn't. The said possible Monday trace to 1/2" in the afternoon. Christmas comes and goes. Last night I checked again. Now it said a trace to a half an inch for both AM and PM for all week. Great, that'll make for an interested commute onto base, not that I drive far. So this morning I wake up, and it's snowing. Not too surprised, they are pretty good at calling it 12 hours out. Of course they still say a trace of snow to half an inch, and as I've sat here we've got over 1/2 inch already. Stupid military weatherman! I almost got my white Christmas. A white day after Thanksgiving, and a white day after Christmas.

Sleep patterns (semi-title)

2005-12-14T22:33:00.000+01:00

I really only want to sit down and write this because... well I haven't in a while. Nothing completely new or amazing has happened since the beginning of the month. We had a base wide exercise, which basically means we pretend to be in a deployed situation. All in all, it is a waste of time to my shop. Many of the people running this cluster of an exercise I would say have never been deployed. They set up "attacks" on the base every once in a while, and other training is involved. But what they don't understand is that EOD trains two days out of every week. They made us man the shop 24 hours a day, where I got put on night shift and still haven't recovered my sleep schedule. Any "activities" that we did weren't even base related. It's almost like they don't know what to do with us. Luckily we have senior enlisted guys to make up problems for us, which I love! Anytime I get to do "real" EOD work (basically not paperwork or equipment stuff) is a good time, even when what I'm doing sucks at the time, i.e. slowly probing the sand for signs of landmines or booby-traps when you don't know if something is there or not in the dark using night vision goggles instead of a flashlight wearing 40 lbs of gear on your upper body plus helmet and the NVGs all the while when it is low 30s out for 3 hours. But we ran the problem like it would be done in real world. Good practice. I hadn't known what to do for a weapons cache before that night.

What else, what else? I'm set up to go to silverflag in February. I've heard it was a horrible waste of time. But then again, I'm not sure what it consists of... I just know most people in the shop have gone, and have not liked it. I suppose it is more training, and if I go to Iraq this summer, I'll need it. Sometime in spring I'll go to combat skills training... I think that is in Colorado. My flight chief is there right now... I gotta pick him up from the airport on Sunday. I hate that drive.... over 4 hours round trip. Did it today in fact. I had to take three EOD guys from our AB in Turkey. Gettin up at like 4... driving... I pulled over twice on the way back to nap for a few mins. Then I got home from work today... and fell asleep for a couple hours. Now I'm wide awake and It's 11:30! Thank you lame base exercise!

EOD is EOD

2005-12-02T18:40:00.000+01:00

Saint Barbara... Patron saint of... well any job where you can experience sudden death, which EOD falls into. There are a number of celebrations and happenings that occur on around around December 4th or Saint Barbara Day. One of these celebrations is thrown yearly outside of Brussels Begium on a base that apparently is dedicated to Belgium EOD. Every year, our shop receives an invitation to this party. I had the opportunity to go this year, and gladly signed up for the permissive TDY. Cost, 15 euro. This includes two meals, a nice beer mug, and more Beer then you can drink. (This morning we saw them take out 14 kegs, and they weren't done yet.) This was one of the best experiences of my life. One place, EOD technicians from all over. There were 6 native English speaking people (that were in uniform... I head English coming from some guys in suits.) the 5 of us, and one British officer. EOD guys from Belgium (in large quantities because it IS their country), The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Luxembourg, England, and us. In total over 100 people. Conversations were hard to say the least. At one time Phil was talking to the Czech guys who speak very little English, one spoke no English at all. The conversation went around the table translating in whatever language two people had in common. The Czech guy spoke in his language to his buddy, who spoke in broken German to someone, who spoke in broken French to someone, who spoke in broken English to Phil... or something to that affect. Even if they didn't speak English well at all, there was always the thumping on our chests saying "respect" or EOD or something else short and sweet. I spent a long time talking with a Dutch guy who spoke little English slowly and brokenly. I think understanding people is the only thing that becomes easier when you are drunk. Originally I wanted to talk to him because there is this tradition where you trade things. This includes your patches, stickers, and... your uniform. I was trying hard to get this guy to trade BDU tops with me. He was the highest enlisted rank in the Dutch army. Turned out that was his ONLY uniform he had. So unfortunately I ended up with some Belgium guys top... not even anything cool on it. Oh well. There is always next year. Pat got the tops and bottoms of some warrant officer Dutch guy I think, and a Belgium hat. He wore our new uniforms to work this afternoon when we got back. But I'm getting off subject here. Eight countries, and we all do the same thing. But that's just the start of it. In the U.S. military EOD it seems we all have that same thing with us... kinda... off. A bit crazy some would say. We all volunteer to risk our lives etc and so forth. All these other EOD techs? Same sort of thing. We all have that quality that makes us want to do this. No matter the country we all have that inclination that we are better then everyone else. We all drink... a lot. We all have the same if not similar tools. And we all LOVE our jobs. At this Belgium base there is the single most training aids, cut aways, inert and mock ordnance I have ever scene in one place. A German guy was telling us that that was only 20% of what he has in his museum, but he could have just been blowing smoke. I took over 50 pictures of walls and displays, and probably didn't even get everything in them.

What other job in the world is shared between so many different countries and are this enthusiastic over their job? It's an experience unlike any other. It gives me even more pride in what I do. In EOD school, they encouraged the brotherhood between the separate branches of the military. They said that you could go to any base, find the EOD shop, and stay the night there, if not in another EOD techs spare bedroom. Come to find out it goes a step beyond that. Bomb Disposal is in every military. We do the same job as them. We have the same little part of us that makes us a little crazy. We should embrace that bond. I was sad to see that Spangdahlem was the only Americans to show up, when Ramstein is only another 45 mins away. There are Army bases close by also. If you are EOD of any form and you get the opportunity to be in the area around St Barabara's Day, do not pass up the chance to meet and drink with our foreign brothers. In the end, whether you are from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, etc... In the Army, Navy, Royal Navy, Air Force, civilian etc... Whether lowest ranking enlisted, or the highest ranked officer in the British bomb squad, it boils down to one thing that translates into every language, the job of the bomb disposal technician. After all, EOD is EOD.

Holidays

2005-11-24T09:40:00.000+01:00

And here I am again, Thanksgiving day, and away from home. I suppose I should get used to it. The military doesn't always have your best interests at heart. It seems I'll be missing Christmas back home too, but hopefully I'll be able to make it sometime in January when everyone else comes home, but now that I think about it my fellow EOD brothers from my shop deployed will be coming home about that same time, and I'd really like to be there for them... Let alone turn over the house back to one of them. I guess I'll have to look into that a bit deeper now that this revelation has occurred to me. I miss home so much. I've been, for the most part, out of contact with the friend side of home for quite a while now. Every so often I'll get an e-mail from someone. Always short, always saying how nothing big is going on... Though I guess I should say that Anne bought a house. Very cool... And something I'm soooo far from doing. Recently I've made contact with others from the High School era with the powers of the all mighty Internet. Two girls I knew (Shannon and Kali) that also, have it be sooner then I did, left the hole that is Estacada. Their lives seem like they are doing just fine, which makes me think I could have changed my life around without giving 6 years of my life to the Air Force. I've also been in touch with Kyla who joined the Air Force straight from High School, is married now to another military person. She was, up till a month or two before I got here, stationed in Spangdalhem also. It would have been much nicer had our time here overlapped. Friendly faces makes a move to a different continent easier I think.
I guess the holidays make me think how life could be if I was still home. I'm sure that is in part to the absolute lack of loved ones in the area. I spend sometime thinking about how much I actually liked my hole in the wall job at Hi-School Pharmacy, especially during this season. But alas, I wouldn't be able to play with explosives there... They often frown at that. I would have always wondered what it would be like if I would have joined... I guess it was the right choice.

Stupid bell...

2005-11-14T18:34:00.000+01:00

The song says "Bells will ring, are you listenin'?" Well there is no way here in Germany you can't be listening. Every German town/village has at least one church. Each church, wouldn't you know it, has church bells. Not a big surprise there. The surprise to me was that these bells ring out all day long. Now, It took me some time, but I figured out some of what these bells ringing means. Every 15 mins, on the 15, 30, 45, and hour, the bells ring once, twice, thrice, and quadice respectively. So that's not too bad of a thing, and you get used to it. It also helps to always have a general idea of what time it is. So, woopy not going to complain to much about that. But there are other times the go off. One time that I've gotten used to is the 6:30 morning and night. At this time, the bells ring out for a good 5 mins at the least, and much.... much louder. This also would not be a huge ordeal, but I can hit the church in my town with a rock from my back porch. It IS loud and annoying. I won't even get on the completely random times they ring out for 5 mins or longer. These occasions for all I know could be weddings, or funerals, or time to change your hair color! The times never correspond to anything else I can think of. I suppose that is Germany for you... crazy Germans and their bells. Life can be so different here as opposed to the states. You can take your dogs into Fancy restaurants with you, buy cigarettes out of vending machines on the side of the road, and get around find without a watch on and still not be late.

Untitled ranting

2005-11-07T15:42:00.000+01:00

I sit here, waiting patiently before going into work at 17:30 tonight (5:30 pm). The entire base is doing a "Phase II" exercise. I'm not quite sure what this means. I do know that other jobs on base have to go to training classes and whatnots. This doesn't so much affect EOD because our days are always packed with training. In fact, we are giving a class about IEDs to the other career fields. This whole exercise is just another thing to stress me out. I feel overwhelmed with things to do. I've never really had to make a list before of all the things I needed to accomplish, but now If I don't I'll forget what it was. I'm slowly learning to prioritize. I know that some of the things, if I don't do in a expedient manner I can get myself into trouble. Being a dirtbag is the last thing I want to do. If you screw up in my shop you will NEVER live it down. 10 years later you'll find someone who knows about it and they won't have forgotten. Hopefully though, these 12 hour days, well nights, can help knock out a few things, like becoming stand-by qualed. I just have to get one of the two others working nights with me to go over this crap. I don't know how much there going to feel like working with me. I recently got a E-mail from a good friend of mine through EOD school. He is finishing his last volume of 6, whereas I'm only on my third (and I need to get in... Well yesterday, to take the test on the second) and he already is stand-by qualed. Maybe his shop and Luke runs differently. But my assumption is this, he dedicated more of his time to it. All in all that makes me feel terrible. All I want is to be good at what I do, but I find myself not knowing anything. And of course I don't. I'm in my EOD infancy. Certain people understand that and do what they can to help. But NOBODY has taken me under their wing to get me spun up on all the massive amounts of information I need to have. I often would like to fast forward my life, but I'm sure many people do... Well that or rewind. If I could rewind, would I still join the military? Who knows. I'm happy a good 50 percent of the time. Only time can tell what I will make of this career.

Google

2005-10-27T20:53:00.000+02:00

I was casually looking around at this great thing that is now Google. I'll admit, this is a great search engine. I'm sure it's worth it's weight in gold at the stock market.(not that it actually HAS weight) I found, on this great design, maps.google.com. This is such a cool toy. It allows you to see a satellite image of anywhere in the world. Ok I don't know if it's anywhere, but most places at least. I was able to see my sisters house from the sky. When I'm all the way in Germany, I can still be that close to home. I think there is a downside to this though. It also shows, aerial views of Military bases. (that makes my wonder... Lets look for area 51 :) ) I was looking at my base and thought it seamed kind a bad idea to have such detailed visuals of military facilities. Though that could just be the paranoid side of me. http://http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Lackland+Texas&ll=29.390841,-98.619547&spn=0.005586,0.010315&t=h&hl=en This shows the "bomb run" airman at Basic training walk down in Lackland AB Texas. Now you tell me. Doesn't seem like way to much information? I guess it could be worse, could be real time instead of just images. But I have to admit, I like it. When you can pick out your old Basic Training Squadron, it's pretty cool. I won't complain about it I guess. It just seems so... I don't know... Sci Fi? It makes you wonder where technology has left to go... or better yet, maybe Google is trying to take over the World! First an easy way to search for... Well anything. Then an easy way to see anywhere. Not to mention the mounds of cash they are worth. What's next, easy ways to... take over countries? Or just kill people? Psyonic beams pinpointed down from space to anywhere/body in the world! OH NO! It's probably too late! No seriously, it's probably way past my bed time. I think I need to leave.

Training

2005-10-11T21:44:00.000+02:00

In itself, training is the number one most important aspect to my job. We must train. If someone is not trained when a real OP comes around, he is putting many many people at risk. Of course there is always the everyday work that one could find in all parts of the military. It really is just like any other job, until you get to the nit and grit of what we are really here for. In my shop, training takes place two days out of the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving the rest of the week to do our everyday jobs. This includes monthly checks on equipment, doing paperwork, general goofing off, etc. Training days, on the other hand, are busy. Somedays we are out on the range blowing stuff up, others doing scenarios ranging from chemical, to conventional, to the more pressing mater of the IEDs currently being found and taken care of in Iraq. These days, although longer, are a lot more fun. We get to break out and use our "tools of the trade." It is very important to be proficient with our tools like the Robots, especially since this is the safest way to take care of any IED. I was surprised at how hard it was to grab items with the claw on a 2D screen, or to set up a shot with one of our explosive tools. These things take practice, hence the training. I for one, will never give up an opportunity to train, whether on the Robots, or convention weapons, for instance, landmines. Today in fact I had the chance to get into the sand (AKA, our Vollyball Court) and use some landmind probing techniques and usage of the mine/metal detectors. Besides the laying in cold wet sand in 60 degree temperatures, it was a good experience. We try hard to make it as real as possible, but knowing that it really can't hurt me makes it... well, almost melodramatic I guess. I can only hope that when finally deployed, and I get the opportunity to work on real ordnance or IED, I don't have the same complacentness(made up word I know). Of course, that's why we train like we fight. Good habits make for umm... I don't know, I'm sure there is some sort of proverb for that. I'm not even sure if I got around to my point for this blog. Oh well. Spacing things seems to be something I'm good at.