mustang marine

Renaissance Man

2010-02-24T21:11:00.002-06:00

Evidently I am a renaissance man and did not know it. Check out the tag cloud that amazon generated for me, based on my searches...

Aesthetics Anthropology Cognitive Psychology DVD Edinburgh Europe Finish Carpenter Framer Health Care Delivery History & Criticism Literary Theory Management Occupational & Organizational Piloting & Flight Instruction Plumber Popular Culture Professional & Technical Public Health Research Safety & Health Social Services & Welfare Sociology Statistics Theater World

Whoda thunk it?

2010-01-10T19:07:00.000-06:00

10 Jan 10 "Dirty Dozen" - 12 Challenges for Aviation Safety

Years ago an industry panel developed the "Dirty Dozen" list that identified hazards in aviation, focused on mishaps that were occurring in air carrier operations. Take a look at the list and see which ones we've made some progress towards eliminating through introduction of new technology, training and operational procedures. Then consider which ones are still basically uncontrolled. The areas where we still need a lot of work are highlighted in red.

1. Midair collision-TCAS
2. Inadequate terrain separation-Enhanced GPWS, use of minimum safe/vectoring altitudes
3. Unstabilized approach-? See # 5. SOPs, approach gates for configuration, airspeed, altitude. Visual and electronic glide paths. Wind and surface info.
4. Weather related damage or injury-? SOPs and personal mins for turbulence, icing, convective activity
5. Runway excursions-? See # 3.
6. Abort before 100 knots-SOP
7. Significant operational deviation-SOPs and personal minimums, CRM.
8. Runway Incursion-ASDE-X at a few airports, but what about widely used cockpit technologies?
9. Landing on wrong runway/airport-Precision nav (FMS). Approach brief. Backup with instrument approach procedure. Landing clearances.
10. Altitude deviation-Readback hearback. CRM. Use of autopilot as additional crew.
11. Navigation deviation-Use of precision nav sources, GPS, FMS.
12. Ground injury or damage-? Slow down and be familiar with airport surface ops.

Runway Incursion - GA vs Air Carrier

We need to get a lot smarter and technologically advanced with regards to surface operations, because hazards will exponentialy compound as the number of operations increases. In some ways we are more exposed to hazards on the ground, because flight planning and ops support may not focus as much on these phases of "flight". We need to be very familiar with the winds, surface conditions, runway lengths, geometry and facility layouts, airport lighting and approach systems. We also need to be aware that the priority guidance to "Aviate, Navigate and Communicate" is essentially reversed when we are on the ground. The focus on the ground is to "Communicate", to listen and build a mental model of where other aircraft and vehicles are. Keep in mind that vision is our primary sensory input, and now we are asking the brain to shift priority to listening. The next priority is to "Navigate", we must know at a minimum where we are, in order to get to where we want to be. Charts and electronic moving maps assist in this area, but the key is to "Look outside". Lastly, it is harder to "Aviate" on the ground, we are not "aircraft" in this regime but rather ground vehicles with limited visibility, reduced maneuverability and many of our warning systems have little or no functionality on the ground. Couple this with the fact that the areas we are maneuvering in are confined and many times unfamiliar, and the fact that the runways are areas where there is great potential for a high energy collision, then we certainly have challenges to manage.

What can be done to improve the system? The first step is to study the operational environment, and the next step is to identify hazards, so that we can avoid them and implement programs to eliminate them. One good way to do this is to put in a report via NASA ASRS, because folks who manage airspace systems need this information to improve the system. Another good investment is to participate in the Wings program, and dedicate ourselves to lifelong learning in our chosen craft. The best way we will learn is from each other.

Fly Smart,
Kent

2010-01-08T14:45:00.004-06:00

09 Jan 10

2 semesters down for the MLS, 2 to go. Had some great classes last semester in Library Technology, Research Methods and Library Management. This semester we'll go over Collection Development, Academic Libraries and Online Information Retrieval. My favorite text from last semester was Administrative Behavior by Noble Prize winner Dr Herbert Simon.

I set up a Human Factors and Safety Management Systems (SMS) seminar in Dallas for March 31 April 1. The registration fee is only $75 and we have a great line up of speakers. Check out the details on my Signal Charlie wiki. On of our speakers will be Dr Terry von Thaden, who has her PhD in Library and Information Science, and teaches human factors at Univ of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We'll also get an update on safety culture surveys from Dr Ciavarelli of Human Factors Associates and an applied research brief from Dr Frank Durso of Georgia Tech. 16 speakers total, so be sure to check out the lineup and get signed up for Wings credit

Most interesting event this week, met Dr Sidney Dekker and we spent the afternoon with some ALPA Air Safety and Delta Air Lines Flight Safety folks in Atlanta. We had a good time and Delta was a great host to Sidney, he even got some time in the sim. The best part was when the intern failed the engine on takeoff, and Sidney managed to keep us shiny side up.

Fly Smart,
Clark

Here We Go

2009-01-18T22:02:00.002-06:00

I am starting on my Masters in Library Science. It will be fun to learn about different types of libraries and management of information systems. That will be helpful in my aviation human factors work.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Storm 26 Feb 91

2008-06-08T11:51:00.001-05:00

26 FEB 91
Secretary of the Navy Washington
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the NAVY CROSS to Lieutenant Colonel Michael M. Kurth United States Marine Corps for services set forth in the following citation: For extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369 during Operation Desert Storm on 26 February 1991. As the 1st Marine Division attacked north to prevent Iraqui forces from escaping, Lieutenant Colonel Kurth's repeated acts of bravery in providing Close In Fire Support to embattled Marines helped collapse the Iraqui defenses. With visibility nearly impossible due to hundreds of burning oil field fires, and with total disregard for his own safety, he flew under and perilously close to high voltage power lines. Placing himself at grave personal risk to intermittent Iraqui ground and anti-aircraft fire, Lieutenant Colonel Kurth flew continuously for ten hours during the most intense periods of combat, twice having to control crash his aircraft. Employing a commercially borrowed Forward Looking Infrared Radar and LASER designator, he flew through the Al Burquan oil field fires, between the AH-1W holding pattern and task Force Ripper's forward lines, leading flight after flight of rearmed gunships to requesting units and then remaining dangerously exposed forward of friendly lines as he designated Iraqui armored vehicles for engagement. Lieutenant Colonel Kurth's courage and fearless dedication rallied fellow Marines and resulted in the destruction of as many as 70 Iraqui armored vehicles destroyed that day. By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, Lieutenant Colonel Kurth reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. For the President Secretary of the Navy

What also needs to be placed here is a Distinguished Flying Cross citation for Captain Carl "Mooch" Reynoso. Mooch was actually the Aircraft Commander on this mission. Spot jumped in last minute in the left seat where Nasty was due to fly. Spot and Mooch took their FLIR operator, Crew Chief and Gunner through the hellish conditions and prevented the 1st Marine Division CP from being overrun, among other cited acts. On the ground a LAV commander deployed a screening force during a heated tank battle and was also awarded the Navy Cross. Mooch's recommendation died on SecNavs desk in late 1991, when SecNav refused to approve any awards for Naval Aviators due to the 1991 Tailhook scandal. This made no sense at all, seeing as Mooch is one of the finest marines ever to serve, a Mustang who previously served with distinction in Force Recon. He traded boots for wings and is a natural stick, most at home in the Huey. A helo guy who never went to Tailhook. Maybe someday the award recommendation will resurface and be awarded late, due to "administrative oversight".

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 15 Jan 91

2008-06-08T11:47:00.003-05:00

15 JAN 91

Flew around with PeeWee, Space and Super Dave doing some simple tactics training. No mail for me today, boo hoo. I know it's out there somewhere, Iraquis probably have it or some Air Force REMF.
No action from US/UN or Iraq today. Tomorrow morning, we'll see. I hope to see bombers going overhead.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 14 Jan 91

2008-06-08T11:40:00.003-05:00

Today was a fun day. The khaki flight suits arrived. Normal training day, standard classes on tactics and NBC. It's been raining hard all day, which was fun to watch from indoors.
Found out the flight suits hit supply this morning. Went to supply and signed for all of them about $15,000 for 83 of them.Got them back to the terminal and issued them out. Guys at the Wing did a good job getting them here as quick as they did, and the Flight Suits Limited folks did some quality work on a large order.
Today in the AOM the S-4 said "don't mail home green cammies, and if you have, send to have them returned". After a chorus of "screw you...dream on...no way" and lots of laughter Spot said "don't have them sent back". I guess we'll have to stay here if we don't have woodland cammies to wear home.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 13 Jan 91

2008-06-08T11:32:00.002-05:00

13 JAN 91
Rainy and cool, thunderstorms in the area. Went to squadron for a few hours to check on the flight suits. They're in country somewhere. Found out that they aren't "here" yet. Maybe tomorrow. It was fun watching the rain pour down at the terminal vs watching it from the tent. Went back to the tent and found that my corner was flooded. Most things I had in plastic or sitting up off the floor, but some stuff still got wet. Most ents are treated with water repellent, doesn't seem that ours was, or it was done 20 years ago. Picked up my stuff and drilled some drain holes in the wooden floor. After I dried it. The did some sandbag surgery and moved liner away from wood frame, and that seems to be working. If that doesn't work, I suppose I'll float away tonight on the air mattress.
Getting to and from chow was an adventure, didn't get too muddy.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 12 Jan 91

2008-06-08T11:20:00.002-05:00

12 JAN 91
Ops normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Flew a photo mission today to film the Cobras shooting. I was having fun until it dawned on me that I had "stolen" the aircraft. Actually got to sign for the bird today as aircraft commander vs copilot. Hadn't signed for one in a while, so I forgot. I remembered as we were transitioning down the runway. Not a big deal, but get to catch flak from the maintenance folks. That qualifies as entertainment for them. Entertained Spot and Irish too, free of charge. Spot nodded and smiled when I got back and Irish said "Consider yourself thrashed." Public humiliation held to a minimum.
It was fun filming the Cobras and flying some form, then we landed and watched from the ground for a while. I flew with Space, his finger has healed.
Spent more time in the afternoon looking for flight equipment b.s. New flight suits are on the way. Reps at the Wing have been extremely helpful, some other folks at Group are perfecting the shoulder shrug. They did get an open purchase request in for the Mike Lites, $12,000.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 11 Jan 91

2008-05-19T10:29:00.003-05:00

11 JAN 91
Ops Normal. We've gone back to 8 hour crews after a week or so of 12 hour crews. The idea was to concentrate heavily on maintenance and inspect as many aircraft as possible, within their 100 hour phase cycle. Now we can fly another 100 hours without a major inspection. It was good to have something to do while I was med down. Our guys worked real hard. Even Spot and Irish agree.
Flew a basic section tactics hop today to start bringing the FNG up to speed. Saw some more guys from flight school, Jeff, Todd and Curt. Anyway, flew with PeeWee, Bean flew with the FNG. Did some low level and practiced hiding behind dust devils and small bushes. Flew by several Marine positions, that was fun. They wave and we get a chance to wave back. I think it helps them to know we're out here with them. I know I like it when I see the jets going overhead, heading north for patrol.
Chames went out and trained for aerial gunner. He has a good attitude and is up to speed on the history of the region. He's always cheerful and it is fun to work with him. Plus he has a good sense of humor.
Time for M&Ms.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 10 Jan 91

2008-05-19T10:18:00.003-05:00

10 JAN 91
Goofed around all day with Trimble GPS receivers, mount kits and antennas. There's finally an interest in this and I'm the only guy in the squadron smart on it, plus the XO. So I spent the day telling guys what it will and won't do. Plus deciding where it should be installed in the Huey. Plus getting more install kits. The units are hand held, but can be hard mounted, and wired with external power and external antennas. That provides better coverage from the constellation and doesn't burn through batteries. Fun stuff.
Leif is here, F.E. OIC for 775. We traded some notes and I tried to steal their binos, no luck. Perry's wife is here on a reporting trip and they'll get to spend a day or two together. He says they weren't going to let them check into the hotel because they didn't have a copy of their marriage license. What a backwards, screwed up country. What if we told them they couldn't observe their prsctices and religions while they were in our country? Sorry, no veils, no mosques. What a bunch of hypocrites. I wish we'd hurry up and figure out how to drill sideways.
Gonna fly some basic tactics tomorrow with PeeWee, Bean and the FNG. Should be fun. Weather is cooling down again. Maintenance push went well, birds are in good shape, especially Hueys. Tent is doing good too.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 09 Jan 91

2008-05-19T10:11:00.002-05:00

Another day, another chance to flai away with the rhetoric. Listened to the Baker_Aziz conference for a bit, what a bunch of b.s. I'm glad they met and stated their opinions, but why can't it be the U.N. meeting with Hussein. Maybe he's afraid to come out an play. My favorite line was that Iraq was going to attack Israel, hmmm, guess they really are crazy. If they do, they will probably get nuked. Or Israel may have to line up behind Russia or China.
Worked on inventory today. We should get the new flight suits this week. Our MAG has priority. They're also going to buy 600 ML-2s, good for everyone. Now I have to work on long johns and flight jackets, plus binos, more helmets, etc... Hindsight being 20/20, I might have been beter off flying less and getting more stuff while the checkbook is open? Naaaaaah.
Should be read to fly tomorrow!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 08 Jan 91

2008-05-19T10:07:00.001-05:00

08 JAN 91
Made a few phone calls, wrote some letters, read some mail. Almost done with the meds for the head cold.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 07 Jan 91

2008-05-19T10:01:00.002-05:00

07 JAN 91
Med down for a few days, seemed to have found a cold somewhere. Not much going on, provided moral support for shop and did some work on AWS material. Caught up on a few more projects. The Group CO likes the mike lite and forwarded my requisition letter, recommending that MALS open purchase about 4-500 of them. One small step. Teh desert flight suits are in at Wing, and we should get them this week. Next projects are cold weather gear and night vision gyro stabilized binos. Plus about 30 other things. Ahd they're finally interested in installing the GPS receivers, which, thank God, I have nothing to do with.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 04 Jan 91

2008-05-19T09:56:00.003-05:00

04 JAN 91
The Reserves continue to show up, an awful lot of old looking guys. The Hueys from New Orleans are here. Everyone assumes that our frag load will be lightened, but I figure they have their own folks to fly around.
I feel sorry for those recalled and having to leave their day job, but I guess that's part of the deal. We have the potential of being involuntarily extended, I read the other day that it is not a "volunteer" service anymore.. They'll let us go when they're ready

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 03 Jan 91

2007-07-17T19:28:00.000-05:00

03 Jan 91

Today I flew with PeeWee, Injun and Stoney in Dash 2. We flew Gen Boomer around to check out some grunt ops. Very simple but time consuming flight. Weather was cloudy, windy and cool, with a few sprinkles here and there. Visibility was 3-4 miles. We had fun, no problems. Ate oreos and had some cherry beverage powder in the LZ while we were waiting. I had a real smooth landing coming in, because the wind blew away our burble as we touched down. The Marines in the LZ tossed out a smoke grenade to show us wind direction. I like landing where the smoke swirls through the rotor wash. Gee, the thrills I get.

Chow was good, yaki soba and shrimp fried rice. Back to tent to yak and play paper boy.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 02 Jan 91

2007-07-17T19:12:00.002-05:00

02 Jan 91

Tip of the Spear update: There's now a few thousand ground troops in front of us, the jets can be in and out of Baghdad airspace before we reach the border, there must be something...367 is parked further North than us, everyone got desert cammies before us, and cots before us. Maybe we're the noisiest? But we must remain focused on the mission, just don't know if it's completing MCIs or waging war. Micromanagemnet and the zero-defect mentality reign supreme today, plus boring training classes. Thank goodness someone had the briefing room reserved at 1630, or else we'd still be there.

We're starting a pool to see when Spot is going to keel over, we don't think he sleeps at all or leaves the squadron. He probably wonders how he got stuck here with us?

Highlight of the day was turning in sleeping bag and poncho liner to the laundry. After 4 months it was taking on a life of its own. So it's clean and ready for another 4 months now. Now if the other guys would get theirs cleaned.

Becky and Randy sent me a box, and on the side it said pork sausage. Someone had blacked out pork, which was funny because it was wrapped in Christmas paper. They sent some chips, salsa and an electronic game called Paper Boy. It's great. You get points for breaking non-subscriber's windows, hitting dogs and trash cans with the paper, etc...The paper boy gets creamed by skateboarders, cars and light poles. Just like the real thing.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 01 Jan 91

2007-07-17T18:55:00.002-05:00

01 Jan 91

New Year 91. Let's hope this one turns out better than last, at least from August on. Flew today, carrying some East Coast and Reserve guys. I was in Dash 2, with our FNG. Diamond was Lead, with the Group CO getting some flight time. We flew north to look at some prospective sites. Still lots of talking/planning and little action. They are getting some areas ready to move too, glad I don't have to do the embark plan. Don't know if we'll move or the new forces coming in will go there. We'll be going North eventually, even if it's "grab an MRE and get going". Going to live in the Kuwait City Hilton sounds good.

While we were waiting at one strip we met the Saudi crew and Scottish Flight Nurse of tan aeromedical service. The plane was a nice Gulfstream. There were some Saudi helos here too. The crew was real nice, they let us get up in the cockpit. They fly VIP when they're not doing medevac. And the nurse was real cute!

Got back to base around 1500 and went to chow. Good steaks tonight, with pork and beans minus the pork. Plus pasta salad and a Pepsi.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 31 Dec 90

2007-07-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

31 Dec 90

Very boring. Classes all day and into the evening. No mail. Lunch at the burger stand with Tom, Grif and Injun. Not much going on. Some reservists are showing up and we're building more permanent structures. Navy Times from Dec 24 has a picture of our airfield on the cover. I can even see my tent, straight down the road from the tower.

Still cold, but warming a bit. Blue Moon tonight, that's got to mean something.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 30 Dec 90

2007-07-15T14:25:00.001-05:00

30 Dec 90

Spent my day off sleeping til 1015, then cleaning up around my rack. Flipped through about ten magazines and went to terminal for about 45 minutes. Had a slice of pizza for lunch, with Mooch. It was a beautiful day today, mid 70s, small breeze. Raised the tent flap for a few hours. Read more magazines. Also, did a Depot level repair on my electric razor. It quit working. I took the case apart, removed the screen, blades, battery cap, batteries, motor, switch and plastic cam. Cleaned all the electrical contacts. The motor wouldn't turn for some reason, so I took it apart and found a contact had come loose at the base of the motor. The thing was so small that I had to use tweezers to put it back in its slot. Made an adjustment to the switch, put it all back together and, voila! It works! Diamond proclaimed me to be a razor electronics genius.

Evening chow sucked, but there was Cokes, M&Ms and Oreos for desert. Listened to some jazz, no good football games, then time for a shower and sleeping bag (with sweats).

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 29 Dec 90

2007-07-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

29 Dec 90

160176, 5T2, 2.2, 260, PeeWee

Watched tape of the UT-A&M football game, fingers "Hooked" for the Cotton Bowl now.

Flew with PeeWee, followed Injun and Super Dave around. We flew a reaction course where enemy threats were simulated by guys on the ground flashing mirrors at us and Diamond chasing us in another Huey. It was a great drill, helped us practice crew coordination, tactics, SOPs, comm, control, etc... We aslo did some TERF, vs the 500 feet we've been fling for the last 2 months. It makes a big difference as to what we can see and where we can mask. We need more training like this.

Had some chow, finished filling sandbags. Figured out it helps keep the wind from whistling through the tent. Now if they will just do the same thing for shrapnel.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 28 Dec 90

2007-07-15T14:12:00.000-05:00

28 Dec 90

Slept in. I'm tired and Irish is flying late, so I gave myself a meritorious 2 hour break. Came in and had more Christmas presents, surprise.

Ground turned a Huey all day, then off to chow.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 27 Dec 90

2007-07-15T13:54:00.001-05:00

27 Dec 90

159204, 5T2, 2.7, 260/370, PeeWee

Got up at 0515 for an 0600 brief. VIP standby, flew down to Bahrain to pick up LtGen Mundy. Got there, got gas and sat near the runway waiting for him for an hour. Meanwhile, one mile away, Bob Hope and Marie Osmond were giving a show. maybe that's where he was? If we'd known he was going to be late we could have seen part of it. The "3 Daves" flew Bob Hope yesterday. They talked to him briefly and may have gotten a picture with him. They said he hopped out and started walking away from the helo while they were trying to shut down real quick and get out to say hi. He walked off a ways, then turned around and walked back towards the helo. The 3 Daves got their cameras out as he walked by them and munbled something like "I'll be right there." He then proceeded back by the tailboom and took a leak on the sand. After he was finished he came back to the group and shook some hands. All of the guys were impressed that he knew where to go for the official "leak check", but then again, he's been riding around on Hueys for 30 years. So that is now their Bob Hope brush with fame story.

Gen Mundy showed up (I don't think he was late, I think we were sent down way early). he was waiting for LtGen Wills to show up, who needed a ride also. Wills is the head aviator in the Corps. So there was a delay and we got to shoot the breeze with Gen Mundy. I asked him how Gen Sullivan was doing and he said "Oh, you know Lancer, he never has a bad day. He's flying Hornets and hoping they need him over here." He said he was boating and having fun on the east coast. He also asked us how the birds were holding up and was glad he could come over and see how they could support us from the FMFLant. He was very nice, and talked with us longer than anyone else has over here. The usually don't have time.

I was tired when we got back and it is cold. Filled some sandbags to warm up after we had to eat outdoors They're improving the chow tents, so they are all pulled down. Hope that doesn't last long. Waaaah! We're damn lucky to have 1) a chow hall and 2) tents to eat the chow in.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 26 Dec 90

2007-07-15T13:47:00.001-05:00

26 Dec 90

159204, 5T2, 4.4, 260, PeeWee

Briefed at 0515 to fly backup VIP aircraft for a 3 star (some procurement branch head from DC). Flew around all day with PeeWee. At the FAARP we spotted some boxed rations, so Nemo and Mooch stole some for our lunch. These were the newer meals, packed in a box for 12 people. Our box had trays of lasagna, fruit cocktail, coffee, peanuts, butter, crackers, Tabasco and even foam cups and napkins. All you need is an oven. At our last stop we had a 2 hour wait at a small airport, so we talked the Saudis into letting us use their oven. They even offered us some pita bread and tea. There was a crew lounge with couches and chairs, so we shared a meal. Some guys made "lasagna burritos".

Got back to base, no mail, went to tent, got a shower, crashed.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 25 Dec 90

2007-07-15T13:42:00.001-05:00

25 Dec 90

Merry Christmas. Every day is a holiday in the Corps, so of course we got to work today. Opened presents the night before at 0001 Zulu, got some nice gifts from family. Got a balloon animal kit, maybe I can start a new career.

Told the guys to only work off the downing discrepancies and then to write letters and relax. They worked a shorter, 6 hour shift. Wish we didn't have to work, but 1) what else was there to do and 2) never know what the Iraquis would come up with .

Christmas meal was good, though not as good as Turkey Day. Got stuffed and went back to tent early.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 24 Dec 90

2007-07-15T13:28:00.000-05:00

24 Dec 90

Training day, I didn't fly but some folks tested. Got to go make an anniversary phone call, it was nice of the squadron to set it up. We got a new Flight Equipment Marine, I asked if he wanted to go along and call his family so they would know he arrived safely. He said he would write.

Got to meet "Major Dad" gerald McRaney and Delta Burke a few days ago, and he autographed some pictures. The looked tired and were swamped with fans. I mentioned the Squadron Wive's visit to the set and he remembered it, and told Delta about it. What a nice guy.

Red and Green M&Ms to celebrate Christmas, then me and Gadget drove the little Toyota over to the camp to make a cal. Stood in line for almost 2 hours, but finally got the call out. Then back to Chez Tent to watch for the Fat Man. Hope the Patriots don't shoot him down.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 23 Dec 90

2007-07-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

23 Dec 90

Today was a good day. Slept in til 0930, got up and had a lovely breakfast. Came in to work, wrote a letter, mailed it.

There was a Russian AN-124 here last night that brought some Brit gear in, I guess the Brits leased it for a few weeks. I I had thought 4 months ago that I'd be in the Middle East watching Brits unload a Russian cargo plane, I'd have been declared crazy.

Slow day, a little R&R, got a burger at the Christmas Party. Presents were passed out. Families made custom boxer shorts for everyone, which was a big hit. "Santa Spot" handed them out, he was in a good mood.

We also got to fill sandbags today, to beef up the areas around our tents. I don't know who decides how many sandbags will be enough to protect from a missile attack. I'll be on the floor, so a berm about a foot high should be enough. Anyway, enlisted Marines were real happy about their early Christmas sandbag party. Someone's been watching too many war movies.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 22 Dec 90

2007-07-15T12:50:00.001-05:00

22 Dec 90

160176, 5T2, 2.8, 313/300, Spot

Slept til 1030, flying goggles tonight. Stopped by MCX to get Cup O Noodles. Also got peanut M&Ms and Dr Pepper. What a great brunch. Spent about 3 hours gathering info for our hop. The mission was great. Fly a recon team to an LZ, and try to evade a British artillery ranging radar. We got help from a Prowler, and also had an RPV relay info to our wingman on whether our LZ was clear or not.

When I saw I was flying with Spot, I thought "crap" for a second, then remembered I've never had a bad hop with him, and I always learn something. And usually better to be flying with him than on his wing, that way you don't get chewed out over the radio. I'm here, wanting to become a better pilot, and he is one of the guys who can help me do that. No one in the squadron has the experience that the has. The things I have issues with are outside the cockpit. He may not realize that he moves at a different speed than everyone else, or uses a different thought process. So how to avoid the wrath of Spot? Be prepared, think ahead.

Got the aircraft preflighted and ready to turn up. Spot hops in and asks me (surprise) to read the checklist. We went out and ran the route during daylight, as a rehearsal, with no Marines on board. That's a requirement and a good idea. Also pilots have to have a minimum of 25 hours to carry pax. I have about 55 now, and Spot has who knows how many. Picked up Recon guys, and ran the team in at 50 feet, on the goggles, evading radar, getting info from RPVs, navving and timing to hit the LZ +- 30 seconds in a 20 year old Huey. Spot asked how everyone's comfort level was during the flight, and the mission went fine. It was challenging, but the planning and crew coordination made it a lot easier. We also had a FLIR and the were using that to look ahead for obstacles. The operator sits in back and relays display info over the intercom. So now I can't complain about flying "combat VIP" all the time, at least for a few days. Used the mike lite, it worked great. I'll have to turn up the heat in supply so they'll buy them for the whole squadron. They'll come in more handy than flight suits, binos, etc...

Spot signed off two syllabus flights for me, Electronic Warfare and Helicopter Night Assault. 3 more flights and I can get my Attack Helicopter Commander checkride. AHC is my next goal, then maybe External Weight IP. The Instrument and Ordnance, to go with the Fam, Terf and FCP that I already have.

Next time we'll do it while coordinating an artillery LZ prep with other attack and transport assets, with a Command and Control radio pack in the back, shooting rockets and carrying an external load, yeah, that's it, with no tail rotor, and Mooooooorgan Fairchild will be my copilot.

After the hop, Shiekeys pizza and a Pepsi for midrats, then hit the rack at 2230.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 21 Dec 90

2007-07-15T12:41:00.000-05:00

21 Dec 90

Turned in laundry, cruised in to work. Spent some time organizing, trying to get my OIC stuff together. Talked to Nemo for a bit. Transferred some info to my new green "brain book". My other one had lasted a year and was pretty beat up. I'm going to try and write more things down, so at least I'll have alist of what I've been blowing off. The problem is, where do I write down the memo that reminds me to look at my memo book, or where I left it?

Bugged some folks about flight suits, mike lites, sewing machines and other BS. Pizza for dinner, and a burger for the movie. Watched 15 minutes of "Honey I shrunk the kids". Picked up laundry, it was clean and all accounted for! Read some of Steel Tiger.

Noticed that M&Ms sent through the mail end up tasting like perfume because of all the stuff sprayed on everyone's letters.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 20 Dec 90

2007-07-15T12:31:00.001-05:00

20 Dec 90

169179, 5T2, 2.5, 260, PeeWee

Flew and did admin work today. They're bringing in some gear, satellite dish. etc...that looks suspiciously like the parts to a phone center. Lots of civilians around it. Gee, if they get paid by the job and not by the hour, maybe I'll be calling family from here by Christmas.

Heard Gerald McRaney will be coming over, it would be cool if we got to fly him.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 19 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:59:00.001-05:00

19 Dec 90
Aiieeee! I need $79,999,564.99? Some terrorists have abducted Frostee the inflatable snowman! It's so terrible! Next they'll send me a picture of them torturing him with a sunlamp and letting air out little by little. Well, soon they'll learn that crime does pay.

Nothing interesting today, worked on a turnove folder and went to supply to pick up some gear. We got more GPS receivers, and better yet, some external antennas and mounting kits. These kits will allow us to put the things permanently in the aircraft, and the external antennas will give us much better reception. Right now we can only get the satellites that are in front of the aircraft because the receiver sits on the glareshield. With an antenna on top of the bird, it will see everything that's more than a few degrees above the horizon. I like the GPS, hopefully now everyone will get interested in it.

Our current NAV system, the LORAN, uses ground based transmitters. The Iraquis would never try to blow those up, would they? if they did, we'd be back to the map. They can't mess with the GPS. Hmmm?

As Doonesbury says, we don't have a morale problem here, we have an "attitude" problem.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 18 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:46:00.000-05:00

18 Dec 90
Got some mail today, it comes in bunches. A week without, then 10 letters.

Got letters from Paul and Barry, high school buds.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 16 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:39:00.001-05:00

16 Dec 90
Went in to work this morning, primarily to look for mail. Fixed covers on the helos while I was in, several had blown loose. Timing was good, as Spot walked in after Grif and I finished, so no tirades. It felt good to be out on the flight line, in the sun, doing something easy. Walked back to the tent, got a soda and filled out some Christmas cards. The should arrive sometime next year, if I'm lucky. Now I'm all set for Christmas, just waiting for Santa and the elves.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 15 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:28:00.000-05:00

15 Dec 90

159204, 5T2, 2.5, 260, PeeWee

Flew early with PeeWee, briefed at 0445. We took a LASER team down to a range so the Cobras could shoot some LASER guided missiles.

Starting to think we'll be here for a while, maybe they'll start rotating people and I'll go back to 303 to be an instructor. I can dream right? I also dream that the East Coast/5th MEB Marines are really our replacements, and as soon as they get set up and nothing is going on, they'll send us home. Other countries too. I don't think the US will carry this burden all by themselves for an extended period. We're obviously here first because we have the airlift and sealift capability. I don't want to sit here for over a year while the rest of the world sits on its fat ass.
All in all, though, I am really glad that I am not writing this from a foxhole. Things could be much, much worse.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 14 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:17:00.000-05:00

14 Dec 90
It appears Sgt Lee was not selected by the board. Maybe they'll have another one soon and he'll get another shot. He is definitely deserving.

There are WMs here now, so we really are the "tip of the spear".

Listening to reporters and politicians on the radio only has me pissed off. "We are moving dangerously closer to conflict in the Gulf...blah blah blah...give the sanctions time...blah blah blah." What, they didn't think tensions were high and it was dangerous the first two weeks we were here? The President is the guy I have to have the most faith in, at least he's consistent about doing "whatever is necessary" to deter aggression. It's hard to stay sharp and realize that "whatever is necessary" means hurry up and wait. But that is the Marine motto isn't it? Bush couls have pushed one of several buttons in August, so I give him credit for pushing the "hurry up and wait" button vs the nuke or frontal assault button. Let the build up continue.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 13 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

13 Dec 90
The Group selection board is still meeting. Whoever they select is 99% guaranteed SSgt, as there are only 3 groups. Maybe we'll even send 2 guys?

Haven't flown this week, but keeping up with the paperwork for the past few days has been fun. It was one of the most gratifying things that I have done since I've been here. Regardless of who gets selected, that person has to feel great about being recognized as their Squadron's top NCO. All this stuff brought back memories of how good it felt to be meritoriously promoted to every enlisted rank that I held. My favorite was being a Cpl at 29 Palms. We had a formation after the days flights were over and the Skipper had a surprise for me, my promotion to Sgt. I wasn't expecting to be actually promoted until we returned to El Toro. That was a fun ride back to camp in the 6 ton.

Got a radio, now we'll be able to hear how soon we'll be coming home.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 12 Dec 90

2007-07-15T11:01:00.000-05:00

12 Dec 90
Chased Sgt Lee's endorsement around all day and finally got the smooth copy done at 2000. It highlights his military leadership skills and technical expertise. He is filling the top SNCO billet in this field, outside of his primary MOS, and doing a great job. He's filled several SNCO billets, as far back as 1985. He deserves the recognition and promotion.

The WIng gets 4 quotas to SSgt, plus one extra (alternate). The General will probably promote 16 and have one extra "hip pocket" promotion for a deserving Marine. It makes sense. A Wing CG can promote guys to Cpl and Sgt, which is how I got promoted, so why can't a MEF CG promote guys to SSgt and GySgt? I am really impressed with this move on the Marine Corps' part. I hope they do it regularly.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 11 Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:50:00.000-05:00

11 Dec 90
Spent all day watching my Marines running around making covers for the guns, engine inlets, blades, plus other stuff. Working on promotion recommendations.

Irish confirmed that Sgt Lee would be our candidate for the promotion board at Group. So I spent all evening reviewing his record book and drawing up a draft of the CO's endorsement.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 10 Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:46:00.000-05:00

10 Dec 90
Reading About Face. Good, but no revelations so far.

We had our normal classes on Monday ALL DAMN DAY, and I had a headache by the time it was all said and done.

Good news. The Marine Corps has approved 16 quotas for meritorious promotion to SSgt within I MEF, and 6 to GySgt. Basically Gen Boomer gets to promote some guys and recognize exceptional performers.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 09 Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:37:00.000-05:00

09 Dec 90

Where has the year gone? Just yesterday I was gone to Yuma for 5 weeks for Eagle Claw...and 29 Palms for 5 weeks for a CAX...and Whidbey island for 2 weeks...and Saudi for 4 months...hmmm, noticing a trend here. But got some great air-to-air training, TERF Instructor qual and desert training. Might come in handy.

I like watching all of the big planes that go in and out of the airfield. Right now there are 4 C-130s, 2 C-141s and 1 C-5 unloading gear. Plus add in abot 90 helicopters. I esp like the sound of the C-5 at night, when the big turbofans spool up.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 08. Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:28:00.000-05:00

08 Dec 90
Spot was in a bad mood today, therefore everyone was else was in a bad mood

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 07 Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

07 Dec 90
Sent out Desert Shield Christmas samplers to family. Each pack contains
1 MRE fruitcake, delicious!
1 bag of sand
1 packet of MRE Holiday punch, yum!
1 tiny bottle of Tabasco (Gold over here)
1 pouch of MRE Christmas cocoa
and a card.

Made some phone calls.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 06 Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:15:00.000-05:00

06 Dec 90

160438, 5T2, 0.7, 260, Shiner

Flew with Shiner, short hop.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 05 Dec 90

2007-07-15T10:06:00.000-05:00

05 Dec 90

160179, 5T2, 2.5, 260, PeeWee

Today PeeWee and I flew MGen Hopkins around for about an hour. He was grumpy.

When we got back, time to bump up the warfighting stance and contribute to the Combined Federal Campaign. I gave some money to MDA and Canine Companions.

Hey, Texas is number 3 in the Nation. Let's hope they "Hook" Miami. How about those Cowboys? That would be a miracle.

Mail call, got M&Ms and a Miller Genuine Draft. Poured it out...or maybe I gave it to Injun, yea, that sounds right. Also got some fudge, a letter, deodorant and foot powder from my father. My sister sent Stanley Jordan and ZZ Top tapes.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 04 Dec 90

2007-07-15T09:36:00.001-05:00

04 Dec 90

160624, 5T2, 1.0, 260, Injun

Slept late and rolled into the Ready Room for an 1100 brief. We were scheduled to go out to the hospital ship USS Comfort for Deck Landing Qualifications. Two Hueys, I was the copilot on Dash-2. Jim was the signer, and Egg Fu went along also to get a few bounces. We had to pick up a few patients at the Marine Hospital to transfer out to the ship, so we went to their LZ first. 2 guys were ambulatory, one guy was on a litter. We also took Space out so they could x-ray his finger.
We got to the ship late because there was a delay in the LZ. I flew the first landing aboard, then jumped out with Diamond. We were on a mission to find the ship's store and associated gedunk. Oh, and to look for nurses! Didn't see many nurses, they must have been warned away. The store was out of souvenirs, except for stickers, but they did have peanut M&Ms.
We found a tour guide and went to get a Coke. The ship is a converted oil tanker? The passageways and ladderwells were very wide, clean and well lit, unlike most Navy ships I've been on. There were no kneeknockers that you had to step through, which makes sense as they would be rolling hospital beds around. Everyone was in a good mood and finally found the nurses, who were all winking at me, esp the cute ones. Diamond bought a couple of hats from the crew and it was time to go up to the flight deck to get some more bounces.
As we were getting ready to hotseat, a Navy helo showed up, with the crew claiming to have a mechanical problem where they needed to shut down. All of these ships in the Gulf and the Comfort was where they needed to land and clog the deck? Right! So we gassed up, I hopped in the front, we grabbed Doc and called it a day. I flew all the way back. It was fun to be back on a ship again. I took a few pictures, but the film didn't fully rewind, so some of the roll will be ruined. I'm sure they would have been Pulitzer Prize winners.
Baghdad Betty reports that while we are gone, our wives are dating actors, like Tom Selleck, Tom Cruise and Bart Simpson?! What a hoot! That had us rolling on the floor.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 03 Dec 90

2007-07-15T08:54:00.000-05:00

03 Dec 90
It's been boring here lately, but I guess I like it that way. The alternative probably isn't too nice.

Today was a training day. Most of the classes were stupid, but at least they managed to keep us tied up all day too. We had to hurry through lunch, which consisted of a Cup O Noodles. Good news, no shots.

Sgt Lee got his Navy Achievement Medal today. He really deserved it. It is nice to see someone be recognized and decorated because of their hard work. 3 other Flight Equipment Marines have Commanding General Cert Comms in work, and my last guy will get a NAM eventually for his work with the AR-5 gas masks. And Cpl Chames got a Meritorious Mast for being on guard duty when he first got here, part of the airfield security force. Cpl Samuels ("Bull") is getting a Letter of Appreciation form the Camp Guard he was on for 3 months. There's something about this group, they are really motivating 100 percent of the time. Cpl Chames also got qualified as a Collateral Duty Inspector (CDI), which has him excited because he gets to inspect and sign off work now.
It's hard to be motivated to do trivial things when some lunatic can drive up with a truck bomb at any moment, but also too stressful to spend every moment being paranoid. Problem is, in garrison, everyday someone comes up with more idiotic BS as time fillers. Idle minds, I suppose. I don't see how you can be focused on a warfighting stance while doing MCIs, putting guys on weight control, etc...It's time to focus one or the other.
This may turn out to be the new Korea, Okinawa, Germany or Philippines, where we maintain a full time presence and enforcing sanctions. I do feel better that additional forces are being sent over. We should be letting the sanctions work while keeping enough forces here to deter the Iraqui threat. To me, that makes sense. At least Saudi and Kuwait are contributing financially, vs the countries that have taken US money over the years. Too bad there will always be a world market for Middle East oil, I would hope that someday there will be alternatives. Right now too much money and power is controlled by folks who are bent on evil deeds, and are more than willing to use evil means to maintain that control. Meanwhile, 4-6 months to see if sanctions work. A drop in the bucket of time. It took 4-5 years to get Europe back from Hitler, and 40 to get the rest of the Warsaw Pact. And that was right in the middle of everyone's back yard. Maybe Russia will turn up some heat, although their agreement on sanctions is certainly enough at this moment. It would be nice if the citizens of Iraq realized the need for change and took matters into their own control.
One guy wrote us "Don't do nothing dumb". Excellent advice. He also sent a recipe for homemade hooch, which no one has dared to make yet. Maybe later.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 02 Dec 90

2007-07-14T08:20:00.001-05:00

02 Dec 90
Spent most of the day goofing off. A lovely breakfast of eggs, oatmeal, pineapple and juice, I was only somewhat nauseous when I left the chow tent.Back to the tent, read a book for a while, then went to watch the boxing matches. They were fun to watch, everyone seemed to enjoy them. Cpl Sanson boxed and TKO'd his opponent in the first round. Everyone wore headgear, big gloves, etc but they were still wearing each other out. That was the most fun I've seen guys having since I've been here. Wheat and Dutch spent a lot of time training these guys and working with the MWR folks to get a real boxing ring. The matches were mainly USMC vs Seabees, but there were a few USN vs USN bouts too.
Back to the tent and listened to the radio on the "porch" for a while, with Injun, Grif, PeeWee and Road Kill. Dinner was good, beef? stew. Camel, maybe?
The birds are holding up pretty well, the only hold up is parts. We've been flying some TERF routes and using the GPS, which is funny because there is very little terrain here and the GPS constellation is only in view for a few hours a day. The LORAN has been working fine though, plus there's always the good old chart. We have one chart that has absolutely no terrain features, contour lines or anything else depicted on it, just brown dots to depict the featureless, flat sand. We drew a TERF route on it as a joke and posted it on the wall in the Ready Room. We'll never get lost, though, because there is always someone willing to tell you where to go.
Haven't requested any more GPS receivers yet. Government just put up another NAVSTAR last week, so coverage should be improving. Paper said 12 of the proposed 24 have been launched so far, to be complete in 1992.
Had a CH-53E burn up. They had a problem, landed, put out a small fire, but it flared and burnt the helo to the ground. Everyone is OK, no injuries. Talk about snake bite...the same squadron had a taxi mishap and crashed another one. They can't have many left. Only one person injured out of all of these.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 01 Dec 90

2006-07-11T16:56:00.000-05:00

01 DEC 90

160179, 5T2, 1.2, 313, Bean

0230 brief with Shiner, Bean and Mooch. Our mission was a recon team extract about 30 miles north of the field. They were training with the Brits. Full moon, on the goggles. It was a great night to fly, with a bit of a chill in the air. Got close to the LZ and the team signalled us, we grabbed them and took them to their base camp. landed in a tight zone, one of the best missions we've done so far. Two Hueys droping out of the dark sky at 0400 to pick up 10 cold and hungry grunts, and take them back to hot chow and warm bunks.
Landed back at the base at 0500, had some chow and hung around squadron til 1200. Back to Chez Tent for letter writing. Mailed letters and MRE fruitcakes to some family, they're in fo a delicious treat! Took a nap, aka MORP (Marine Officer Rest Period). Evening chow was pretty good. Walked by the movie on the way back to the tent and watched 30 minutes of Full Metal Jacket. I've seen it before, the fist hour is a great representation of Boot Camp silliness, the second hour more Hollywood influence and stereotyping.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 30 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:54:00.002-05:00

30 NOV 90
Worked on letter for tan flight suits. Got it approved by Irish and Spot. Trying to buy some now from a private vendor, as it appears supply will never get any.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 29 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:51:00.000-05:00

29 NOV 90
Squadron on Alert because of upcoming UN Security Council vote. Cancelled training and had crews and aircraft standing by. Got to catch up on some reading, Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 28 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:34:00.000-05:00

28 NOV 90
Sunrise was awesome, hazy with lots of clouds. Actually sprinkled last night. Had a laid back morning at the squadron, did some work, read part of a book. Cup O noodles for lunch and a Dr Peper. Drew up an open purchase request for tan flight suits, then went out to the Aviation Supply ship at Jubail to turn in NVGs for maintenance.
The ship was neat. It was an old ship that the USMC paid for, and converted to carry container full of supply gear. Also a floating repair ship. They can cram everything on board or unload and work at the docks, or leave some gear at the dock and do repairs underway. The section that repairs NVGs is in the Avionis section. I wanted to see how they do the repairs and ask some questions. The Marines working there were great. We also found out that our shop will receive a NVG test set so we can test NVGs before each mission. Normally, we put them on and if we can see, we fly. The best thing that the test set checks for is for alignment. If a tube is out of alignment, the eyes try to compensate and this creates blind spots.
About a week ago I had seen an article in Rotor and Wing on the Coast Guard's NVGs; they used a piece of equipment called an "assessor" before each mission to check gogles before each hop. I wondered if we could get something like that. Turns out we could.
Talked about some other Flight Equipment stuff, then had chow on the mess deck. it was good. As we left, we ogled the nurses going onto the hospital ship Mercy. Interesting how they got to wear civvies and not carry gas masks, only 7 miles away from our camp, where we still carry gas masks to the shower and wear uniforms to the outdoor movie.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 27 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:28:00.001-05:00

27 NOV 90
Semi busy at the squdron. Didn't fly today. We had a reaction drill, sinulated attack on the airfield. Walked around in my flak jacket and helmet all morning, then off to noon chow. Read a book Pillars of the Earth, about England in the 1100s. It was about the church, the state and master builders. It was good but got predictable after a while...bad knight, monk and king triumph over good knight, monk and king, back and forth. It felt good to read and not worry about anything else.
Road Kill got some Godzilla slippers, big monster feet that roar and crash. They cracked everyone up.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 26 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:21:00.000-05:00

26 NOV 90
Slept late, got to the squadron by 0800. We wore the gas masks for 30 minutes to get used to them. They were relatively comfortable (about what you could expect for having your head inside a rubber bag). Trained the rest of the day, had a formation then an AOM. What a fun day. The training was good though, threat update and no shots!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 25 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:18:00.000-05:00

25 NOV 90
Glad reinforcements are on the way. More folks to sit in the Gulf on boats. Hot, chow, hot water but no phones.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 24 Nov 90

2006-07-11T16:06:00.001-05:00

24 NOV 90
Monday now. Slept in Saturday because I was flying late. Came in to squadron around 1000 and planned a NVG nav route with Pickle. We basically were going to go out and build time, which was good, because we can all use the training and experience. We need to work on basic nav and airwork, then move along to the more complicated missions.
Filed the route with the SDO then blasted off into the wild dark yonder. Not much moon tonight, but enough to see. We got about 30 minutes into the hop when I felt a strange vibration in the aircraft. It was a weird flutter throughout the flight controls , and I also thought I heard something too. I guessed that some of the abrasion tape on the tail rotor had loose and decided to land. We landed, shut down and checked it out. Sure enough, that's what it was. Some of the tape had come off and was causing the vibration. We pulled of the remaining tape, turned up, aircraft felt better, so we flew back to base. Tail rotor will have to be retaped and rebalanced now.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 22 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:22:00.000-06:00

22 NOV 90

Celebrated Thanksgiving by coming in to work late. Flew late last night, so I took a meritorious morning off. Got to the terminal at 1030. Wrote some letters, basically sat around all day waiting for noon chow. It certainly was worth the wait. We had turkey breast and ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn and all kinds of salads, nuts, carrots, pickles, fruit etc... plus Pepsi and OJ. The meat was great. The mess tent was decorated with centerpieces, tablecloths and napkins so it felt like Thanksgiving, without the beer and football. For desert there was pumpkin pie with whipped cream or pecan, cherry apple and ice cream, candy bars and pudding. This one meal almost made up for all the crap we've been eating since we got here. They worked very hard to get all of this together and it did lift some spirits.
After chow, back to the terminal to read some mail. Got some cookies from Aunt Mary, passed them out and they went fast. Went back to tent at 1730 and looked through some aviation catalogs.
Some of our tent mates got to go eat dinner with President and Mrs Bush, along with about 1500 other Marines. They were several miles away from us, so we didn't see them. Maybe when they come back next year? Road Kill got to go with a few other guys and they gave the standard "nothing special..." report. Wow, I guess they won't mind if I go next time. Too bad they didn't bring Millie and Ranger. Did see some of the HMX helos, they look funny over here, all shiny green. They'll be dumping sand out of them for years to come.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 21 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:21:00.000-06:00

21 NOV 90

160624, 5T2, 4.7, 260, Peewee

Flew MGen Pearson, BGen Myatt and BGen Brabham around in the morning. Then, as Luck would have it, a Cobra broke down in Bahrain and we were sent to recover it. We spent 3-4 hours there while they fiddled with it, but ended up leaving it there overnight. Flew to JNA at night.
Quote from a Marine in the paper "There's all kinds of dead animals lying around over here, probably people too, cuz I haven't seen a graveyard yet". True, but he probably hasn't been near a city yet either. All we have seen is Bedouins roaming the desert with trucks and tents. Usually have some kind of tanker truck for water and feed. They take their tents, camels and goats and cruise the desert. Largest herd I've seen is 300-400 goats, a little black blob an the desert floor. They scatter a little as we fly over them. Haven't seen a fence anywhere except around the airfield. Or a Taco Bell. From the air Dhahran was lit up, like a real city. Even so, it didn't appear that big. It will be interesting to see what's in Kuwait, if we ever get that far.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 19 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:19:00.000-06:00

19 NOV 90

159204, 5T2, 5.1, 260, Diamond

Briefed at 0800, went on Standby, flew backup for Gen Boomer's aircraft for 2 hours. Saw Gen Schwarzkopf. Came back in time to configure aircraft for night flight to film Cobra shoot. Flew 3.1 hours, practiced some night desert landings, then flew form on the Cobras for 2 hours. Conditions were never right for them to shoot, so we eventually made it back to the field at 2030. Debriefed, walked to tent, got a shower and hit the rack.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 18 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:18:00.000-06:00

18 NOV 90

Scheduled to test, but Peewee flew Mooch to finish his FCP syllabus He's finished now, so we'll have 5 FCPs for 6 Hueys. Maybe Jughead will be next. Actually, Spot is an FCP too. Let's see, Peewee is the only one who won't be due for orders when we get back. May have to grab one of the new guys. There's no doubt in my mind that I have my Overseas Control Date now, of course, so do a lot of other people. Right now we have 5 Hueys up, pretty good considering parts availability. The maintenance guys are doing an incredible job, especially when you consider how much extra work they have to do when they swap parts around. Injun tested a bird the other day that had over 50 maintenance actions that required either a ground turn or functional check flight. It's not ideal to move so many parts around, but we can't afford to let one bird sit as a parts bin. We do our best to make sure an aircraft doesn't sit over 30 days. I just flew one that sat for 55 days, and it's the best bird we have, so go figure. And these are Hueys. Imagine the Cobra nightmare. The guys are working their butts off, Walt probably has the toughest job here.
Got some Christmas decorations in the mail, so I could decorate my tent. Red and gold garland around my desk, icicles and a stocking. Looks pretty festive. It cheers the place up a bit and marks the passage of time. Figure we'll have to be rotated in about a year or guys will just start wandering off into the desert. Got an inflatable Frosty the Snowman too. We'll find a place for him in the terminal.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 17 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:17:00.000-06:00

17 NOV 90

160438, 5T2, 3.6, 362, Pickle

This morning got to sleep in because we were flying late. It was hard to sit around in tent but I managed. Went in to terminal at 1030, spent a few hours prepping for the brief. Our mission was to go out and use the FLIR to ensure no one was on a range that the Cobras were going to shoot on later. There was no moon, so we weren't authorized to use the NVGs. We went out during the day to locate target and make sure it hadn't blown down. Winds were high today and it was very dusty. Target was okay, and we landed to turn a goat herder away from the area. He spoke no English, so there I was, pointing up, saying "helicopter,...bang bang" and motioning which way for him to go. The goats had the right idea but he wasn't getting it. He was busy holding mama goat down so baby goat could get some chow.
Took off and followed Cobras around for an hour. That was LOTS of fun in the pitch black haze. Basically, set the low altitude warning on the radar altimeter to an altitude that you don't want to go below and chase 2 other sets of lights around. The closer you fly formation, the easier to see the other ships, but then you run the risk of hitting them. Finally, as part of the mission, the other Cobras fired some illumination rounds. Much easier to get around after that. We followed them tonight to get some practice for hauling a photographer around on Monday.
We had shot some instrument approaches a few days ago, so that helped. On nights like tonight, there is no horizon and no ground lights to give any visual reference. I think that it is the most demanding flying that we do, except for night boat landings when it's hazy and no moon. That's why I like the NVGs for nights like tonight. Better than no help at all. I haven't flown nights in a while, most of our frags have been during the day. We did one night approach also.
Got back late, shut down and debriefed. I guess the papers are building this up as a huge exercise? Well, it's nothing we haven't been doing since we got here, but you know how the media likes to blow things out of proportion. I'm sure SH is worried. Guess he said he would let 100 Americans go today, haven't heard yet whether that happened. We see fewer and fewer reporters, so I guess they aren't getting around as much or relying more on speculation. Or the chow is much better in the rear.
Got back to tent in time to hear Texas-TCU game on Armed Forces Radio, Even better, it was the Longhorn football announcers. It was about 2200, I listened to it with Russ until 4th quarter, then he went to sleep and let me borrow his radio. The game was real close until the 4th quarter. There I was, sitting on my cot, with all the lights off, listening to Longhorn football with the earphones. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything at all, kind of weird. I was going to be mad if they blew the game, as it was probably the only one that I would hear live. The Rice-Texas game was on a few weeks back, but I only heard a few minutes. Maybe Texas-A&M will be on, as it is at such a weird time.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 16 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:16:00.001-06:00

16 NOV 90

160438, 5T2, 5.7, 450, Bean

Got up at 0430, briefed at 0500 with Injun, Jughead and Bean to carry some pax out to the USS Wisconsin. Flew 140 miles to pick up the pax and get to the battleship. After initial confusion (ops normal at a boat) we landed to drop our guys off. First landing on a battleship, and never thought this is where it would happen. We couldn't shut down and stay because they were going to be shooting, which probably would have rattled the Huey into a little pile of spare parts. They coordinated putting us on the USS Guam and Nassau to wait for 3 hours. We went to the Nassua and I got the landing there too. It felt good to be talking "boat talk" again. Figure the ships thought they were going to get some landlubbers, they got me and Injun instead. I got to sign for the aircraft today too, with Bean as copilot. Made a real smooth landing in front of a turning 46, with about a 20 knot headwind. You could hear the surprise (and relief) in their voices over the radio when it became obvious we knew how to come aboard. We shut down and walked into flight deck control. Raised a few eyebrows when they saw us taking magazines out of our pistols. The guys in flight deck control looked at us funny for a few seconds, finally saw our patches and said "you're not CIA?" Guess they had no idea who we were, and we show up in a tan and grey Huey with no markings. Good rumor. We'll have to strip off the patches too next time.
Dropped off gear in locker room and went to find the wardroom. Got a quick bite. Wardroom was pretty full and someone yelled, "phone call for Capt Lewis, HMLA-369." So I went cruising over, pistol and all, to find out they wanted us to launch early. No one else was carrying pistols on the ship, so they must have been curious why we were there. I knew the ACE XO, he was the Senior Marine at HT-8. Talked to him real quick, then had to hop in and fly off. Bean landed next time on the Wisconsin, and we flew back to JNA. Not many guys get to land on a battleship. And now I've landed on 4 of 5 LHAs; Belleau Wood, Nassau, Tarawa. Peleliu. I need to find the Saipan somewhere. Maybe they'll bring the Wasp out here for me to land on, too.
Had a fun day, got back to camp, wrote some letters. And all of my laundry came back. Oh, guys on boats have been out 90 days, no phone calls!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 15 Nov 90

2005-11-22T11:15:00.000-06:00

15 NOV 90

160171, 5T2, 3.3, 260, Peewee

Flew a General out to an Army camp for a change of command. About 20 Army pilots came by to look at our Huey 1) because it was tan and 2) it has one more engine than their Hueys. They have the single engine models with less armament. I can't imagine anyone having less than us. No whiz bang GPS. Fewer instruments. Wow.
Flight was uneventful, got back in time for mail call.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 14 Nov 90

2005-11-08T11:14:00.000-06:00

14 NOV 90

0545 Brief. Sat around waiting for a VIP today, then flew back to the field to be put on Standby. Sure was cool today. Forgot to mention that I spent yesterday afternoon and evening running around to the AV-8 base and MEF HQ. Stopped at Camp 1 and made some phone calls, then back to tent to bitch about how rough we have it!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 13 Nov 90

2005-11-08T11:13:00.001-06:00

13 NOV 90

Spent most of the day at the shop, talking to Marines. No classes, but kept busy. Got some good pogey bait in the mail, went to chow, back to terminal briefly, then walked to tent with Mooch. Wrote some letters and talked to Peewee, BB, Diamond. Finally got shower and hit the rack. Fell asleep wondering how we'll heat these tents if it ever gets cold.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 12 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:12:00.000-06:00

12 NOV 90

Had briefings all day, a threat update, brief on 367 crash, a combat stress brief and a safety discussion group. The 367 brief didn't;t tell us anything we didn't already know, the driveshaft failed at low altitude and Bob's quick reaction saved everyone. Intel brief was informative and reviewed key weapons systems. Combat stress brief gave us some ideas on how to deal with the normal stuff now before the heavy stuff arrives. Best news of the day, the showers will now be open from 1300-1400 for us regular PTers!
Tried out my new attitude this afternoon, nobody noticed. Maybe I'll try the village idiot role, "golly, I'd like to help, but I'm too stupid!" Nemo led the safety group, he's still settling in after being a liaison to 7th MEB. Some suggestions were simple things like setting a lights out time in the tents of 2200, other addressed a comprehensive training management system. Nemo is really trying to get some credibility built in to the safety program, blended together with our real time mission. He's been fun to talk to, and has to be closer to Spot's office than me. Whew!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 11 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:11:00.000-06:00

11 NOV 90

Another day off! Got some chow, came back to tent and decided to PT. Light workout for about an hour. I don't know why I started, if the war breaks out, we won't have time to work out. I'd hate to get going on a good PT program, only to have a war screw it up!
PT for an hour, nap for an hour and a half. Always wanted to do that since Boot Camp. In Boot Camp we were running and singing for the first time, "What are we gonna do when we get back, Take a shower and hit the rack..." I had no idea as a new guy, I remember thinking that maybe we got some kind of rest period after a long run. Boy was I wrong!
Wrote some letters. More chow, it was decent today, rice with chicken stew, and a Pepsi. I think they finally found the salt. Started to get a headache, probably dehydrated. Drank some water, cleaned my end of the hooch, went and took a shower. Hit the rack!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 10 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:10:00.000-06:00

10 NOV 90

159204, 5T2, 1.9, 260, Peewee

Today was the Marine Corps Birthday. Got to the best thing on my birthday, fly! Peewee and I took off at 0745, flew BGen Brabham (CG 1st FSSG) around to see his combat support units in the field. First we went to the FAARP and dropped him off for 30 minutes. The aide brought us some cake, it was great. I have to say it was a beautiful day out in the sun, with my Huey, some M&Ms and a little bit of cake on the 215th birthday. The temps hover in the 90s these days, and the breeze is a little more steady. We took him to 2 more locations, then back to JNA. The best part of flying this morning was missing our own MAG-16 formation (mill about smartly in desert cammies). Or at least we thought we'd miss it. We managed to contribute to the festivities in our own little way. When we got to the field, they were still having the ceremony, over an hour and a half late. They were almost through as we came putting in..wop..wop..wop. 5 miles from the field, the tower asked if we had a "Code", or VIP on board. We told them to call our ops, didn't feel like broadcasting to the world "yea, we got a General back here..." Ops must have clued them in, because they cleared us in to land while the ceremony was going on. We landed 1/2 a mile away on a taxiway, luckily the Gen's driver was smart enough to come out and get him. Got rid of him, shut down until ceremony was breaking up. By that time there were 6 53s, 2 46s, a C-12 and a C-130 waiting for the pits. We turned up, slid over to the pits before everyone else even got started. Refueled, taxied in, shut down and went to eat birthday meal.
Finally some good chow, maybe even better than the other Marine Corps Ball dinners. Could be perspective. Onion soup, shrimp pasta, salad, corn on the cob, and steak with mushrooms. The steaks were marinated overnight, then grilled. All kinds of beverages, I picked Pepsi and a fake beer. For desert birthday cake and ice cream.
Back to the terminal, a short day for the Marines, 6 hours. Read letters, got 25 letters from Joan's elementary school. I'll write them back as a class. I think she read one of my letters to them, must have been the one where I mentioned being sick and them using human waste to fertilize the vegetables. Great! The life of a Marine.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 09 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:09:00.000-06:00

09 NOV 90

Great day. I was scheduled to fly a late, late hop, brief at 2200, takeoff 0030, land 0230. So I got to sleep in this morning. Slept til about 1130, read some magazines, got some chow and made it in for the 1430 AOM. Basically they said "keep your head on a swivel out there, you never know what's goin to happen." Next, I went to get the ODO's brief at 1500 and they say "you're cancelled". Oh darn, after I slept all morning. We were supposed to fly around a RPV receiving station so a guy in the back could look at video or FLIR image that the RPV was shooting. I like the idea of having the RPV out front looking around, vs Super Huey. We can't be too far away, though, but we still get to see the forward battle area. The console operator can then relay target info, etc on to the best asset to shoot it/avoid it/whichever. The FLIR is great because it pick up heat, making targets easier to find at night. Anyway, the RPV guys dropped out at the last minute so our part was scrubbed. Talked to Boingo for a bit, waited for tomorrow's schedule to come out. Looks like I'll be flying some Generals around to cake-cutting ceremonies. Much better than standing in formation at our airfield.
Before chow a group of people came by from the White House Staff came through, a liaison visit in case ol George comes to visit at Thanksgiving. The had everyone from speechwriters, communications, press, Secret Service, HMX up to and including the most important person, the food coordinator. Neato. We talked to some guy from the speechwriter's office for 15-20 minutes. He offered to mail letters for us when he gets back to DC. He asked a lot of questions, to which most of our answers were positive. I asked him to tell GB to bring Millie and Ranger. He said Mrs Bush is coming over too?! Wonder who will feed the puppies? Wonder if I could get that job? Executive scooper...

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 08 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:08:00.000-06:00

08 NOV 90

Worked on projects. Had KFC for lunch, then made phone calls at Camp 5. Got dropped off while car went off to do other business. Walked over to what Mark described as the best phone, and there was no on in line. Got 3 calls out before some Brits showed up, then finished up so they could make some calls.
Need a shovel to go find my good attitude. It must be out here somewhere. I can't believe that the chow sucks so bad here. What happened to all those guys who win the CamPen field mess competition every year? At the General's mess maybe? They damn sure aint here.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 07 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:07:00.000-06:00

07 NOV 90

Rapidly approaching 3 months, so does that mean we're 1/2 done or 1/4 done or what? I'm disappointed that our "expeditionary forces" aren't being replaced quicker with heavier sustaining forces. It feels like the border is still wide open. We should put down a minefield along the border, park a few nuke subs off the coast and go home. Let the Arab world figure it out.
Are the sanctions working. Can't believe the rest of the world won't shut SH down. Or will it take longer for sanctions to work? This routine is getting old, but it has been fun watching all the supposed deadlines and operation commencement dates go by. Never did the big "Night Camel" exercise, now we're suppose to have a standdown to fix all the birds, for a no moon strike mid-month. Seems I've heard that before. I know the sanctions need at least 4-6 months to be effective, and that maybe the Arabs can work something out. It's hard dealing with the peacetime/wartime footing. Hard to stay focused when you've stared at something for 3 months. 5 days off in 3 months though, not too bad. Wouldn't have had much more time off in Oki.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 06 Nov 90

2005-11-06T11:06:00.000-06:00

6 NOV 90

160438, 2K2, 1.8, FCF, Jughead

Spent another day tracking and balancing 213's rotor system. Finally fixed it. Took several shots in the dark, we took off the rocket pod/machine gun mounts, put a seatbelt on the TACAN transceiver and voila, all of our readings changed. From there, 2 more adjustments and the aircraft flies great now. Talk about unusual. The mounts were loose and the TACAN mount had some bad vibration viscous dampenener mounts, so they were adding an unacceptable vertical beat to the bird. We'll shim the DAS mounts and get a new TACAN mount to get the bird flying now.
Evening chow, walked back to tent, mentally and physically exhausted. Read a book for a bit. Talked to Injun about his girls, he really misses them.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 05 Nov 90

2005-11-04T11:05:00.000-06:00

05 NOV 90

160438, 2K2, 2.3, FCF, Mooch

Spent all day testing 213 with Mooch, it's propellers are out of alignment with the afterburner. Actually, rotor blades won't track and balance. Spent all day on it Saturday and said there was no more that could be done with it, there's something weird going on with it. For a track and balance on a main rotor system, we might have to add weight to the hubs for spanwise balance, sweep blades for chord alignment, adjust pitch for track and rpm, and fine tune with trim tabs to compensate for a diving or climbing blade. We measure vibration with vertical and lateral accelerometers with a test set to narrow down balance issues. Track is measured by bolting reflective targets onto the blade tips and firing a strobe at them. One target is a horizontal strip of reflective tape, the other is vertical. If the blades track together, the targets will make a plus sign. Targets are checked in a hover and at various in flight speeds to see if the blades fly "together" or diverge. If one blade climbs or descends because of its individual aerodynamic characteristics, the strobe targets will split and vertical vibration (beat) increases. Then you have to figure out did one blade climb or the other blade dive? We pick one blade to be the target blade and try to make it fly like the other blade. SO then you may end up with 2 crummy blades and eventually go back to square one. Problems crop up when one blade is relatively new and it gets matched with an older blade with more flight hours. The newer blade is more elastic, older blade rigid. The maintenance books can't cover every scenario, as there is no way of knowing how Mr Molecule will interact with every blade. Add 2 pieces of 20 foot protective tape to the leading edge of every blade, plus a patch job here or there into the equation and you're ready to go ground turn all day in 120 degree heat. Are we having fun yet? Sure we are!
Flew 2.3 today experimenting with numerous combinations and corrections. Minimum test standard is having a vertical vibration level of less than 2/10 of an inch per second at 110 knots. Saturday it was 3.5/10, which means a 100 hour component would last about 60 hours and give a bumpier ride. If I can get this hub and blade assembly to track and balance, I will have rewritten the procedures. Following the maintenance pub sequence, it can't be done. Sometimes you have to accept more deviation in the hover to get the in flight track to fall within tolerances. So after 2-3 days of following the book we'll look at some other things tomorrow that aren't in the book. We're trying to avoid removing the entire assembly and swapping out a blade. I have 18 years of crew chief experience out there working on the problem and they aren't too happy about it. We spent all day on it and have an idea of what might fix it, which will be great if it works and gets put in the maintenance manual someday. Then some old salt can say, "Oh yeah, we knew that. You mean you didn't check that first?" Well, it aint in the book. SO I don't know which will be better, figuring out the bird is AFU or that the book is AFU. As long as it's not me that was AFU.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 04 Nov 90

2005-11-04T11:04:00.000-06:00

04 NOV 90

Got up at 0730, on my "day off", to go get a hepatitis shot. My butt is still sore. Ate breakfast, went back to tent, took a nap and watched Texas-OU video. Wrote some letters. Finally went in to work to plan, brief and preflight to be a standby crew from 1800-0600. We have a Huey and 2 Cobras on standby in case something comes up somewhere. Given approval to launch by a "competent authority", we would go out and recon the situation. So, in other words, we'll never launch...
Chow was disgusting again. I swear I wouldn't feed half of this stuff to the dogs. Back to tent, read Leatherneck, then 100 pages in a new book called Stinger. Showered, called it an evening.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Storm 03 Nov 90

2005-11-04T11:03:00.000-06:00

03 NOV 90

160438, 2K2, 1.3, FCF, Crawford

Spent all day testing an aircraft with SSgt Crawford, then wandered aimlessly for a few hours. Post maintenance, a few engine adjustments, leak check and vibrex. Fun flying, got away from the pit for a while.
Got lots of mail. Need some new socks, maybe Spike can bring some back. He's been gone for a few weeks now, and might get to come back. We really miss him, he let us pick on him. Maybe I'll fly home instead with Gen Boomer for the Christmas parade. Should only take a few weeks to get there in the Super Huey. I can also get a tape to replace Paula Abdul, she's getting kind of old.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 02 Nov 90

2005-11-04T11:02:00.000-06:00

02 NOV 90

Not on the schedule, except for test flights, and no aircraft came up for test today. Guess I slowed down flying in Oct, only 15 hours. Nothing like a little continuity. They're trying to keep us a 25 hours a month, actually the airframes at 25 hours a month. Now if we can use those hours to TRAIN, it will be great. And give us some ordnance too.
Scooted around all day, pretending to be busy while actually doing nothing, and pretty much succeeded. Oh, we finally got our desert cammies! 2 trousers, 1 blouse, 1 cover, 4 t-shirts, 1 scarf, 1 long john top, 1 long john bottom, 1 night desert parka (green and dark green blocks?) parka liner, night desert trousers. Also got flak jacket cover, helmet cover and "pack-sack", a bag to put pack in. Aren't we the desert ninja warriors now? I like the night desert coat, it looks like a duster.
Went to disgusting chow, hauled new desert wardrobe and mail from terminal to tent. This plus putting it all away wore me out. Fell asleep at 1830, woke up long enough to crawl into sleeping bag.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 01 Nov 90

2005-11-04T11:01:00.000-06:00

01 NOV 90

Reveille. Shaved, maintenance meeting, went to breakfast then hung around shop all day just to see how things are going. The Tiger team from North Island came by, they're a group of Parachute Riggers and Flight Physiologists that travel around to introduce new flight equipment to the Fleet, ensure standardization, troubleshoot problems and see how the FE business is going. Their answer for most of our questions was "we're working on it..." The said new helo helmets are #1 priority at NavAir Development Center. Maybe we'll see something in the next year. All we can do is keep in contact with them about it.
Checked on desert flight suits again, because Irish heard from someone else who knew someone who saw what they thought was a khaki flight suit. One small group from an East coast Hornet squadron bought about 20 just before they left, and now we're wondering if the MAG will float us $9,000 dollars to go out an open purchase our own. Like the rest of the Army/Navy/Air Force and Marine Corps don't want any? We might have been able to get some in Sep, but now that everyone else is here or on the way, It's purt near impossible. But, did hear that the contractor is gearing up to produce 300,000 for all services. Maybe we'll see those in about 6 weeks. We'll put in our request and let the supply system figure out how to fill it.
Had a camel and cheese hoagie for lunch, or was that supposed to be steak? I'm sure I did something this afternoon, I just can't remember what that was. Hey I guess we've been here long enough for this to be Combined Arms Exercise (CAX) 8, 9, 10 and 11-90 now. No word on rotation plan yet, Ha! 6-12 months is my guess. Scuttlebutt says plan will be out within the week, after Commandant's visit. Once again, I say Ha!
Watched clock for about a while, talked to an Army pilot for an hour about FE. The guys did some repairs on some flight gear for him and swapped out a few flight suits. He gave us some tips on how to order the land survival vests, knives, waterproof matches etc. The vests not only look cooler but ARE cooler, made of mesh. He was from Temple, worked in Garland Police Dept, went to SWTSU. They don't have shit where they are at, just sand and MREs. They do have tents, but they are very isolated. So I don't feel so bad for myself now. They've only been here 3 weeks, if that matters. We're going to try and get them into our supply system, if possible and they'll get us into theirs for things that we each can't get. They have better access to the NVG lip lights than we do, plus another NVG finger light that can be velcroed on to a flight glove. These things are pretty handy, considering the cockpits are not NVG compatible. Another thing on our wish list. We gave him some Pepsis to take back, he was impressed, probably thinking how great we had it. Yep, we used to be like that too. Now we're the old men of the desert and have a steady supply.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 31 Oct 90

2005-10-27T10:31:00.000-05:00

31 OCT 90

No trick or treaters, strange? Last day at Camp 5. The shower here has teddy bear shower curtains. Interesting. Made a phone call. Ride shows up 2 hours late, waited by gate. Ran into Witzel from college, he's at Camp 5 with 9th Comm. Trying to make sure they've got everything needed when the time comes.
Buzz and Nasty finally showed up with next crew and we rode back to airfield. They aren't too happy with the hurry up and wait situation either, which made them seem more normal to me. Got back to the squadron, got a headache, ate crappy chow, got mail, came back to tent and crashed.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 30 Oct 90

2005-10-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

30 OCT 90

Day 2 in Camp 5, a garden spot with bushes and trees. Slept late, got up, showered, stood in line to make a phone call. Finished book, walked over to HQ building to find the guy who is letting us use the rooms and tell him thanks.
Talked to some East coast Cobra guys at lunch, they're supposed to move up where we are in a week. They've been living in a hangar with regular access to phones. Won't they be happy when they get up to where we are. The cruel joke in at JNA is that there are pay phones on the wall and in telephone booths, but none of them are hooked up.
Made another call, bugged Jughead for 20 minutes, hit the rack. Oh most important they had Dr Pepper at the small exchange. If they had M&Ms too, why ever leave?

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 28 Oct 90

2005-10-27T10:28:00.000-05:00

28 OCT 90

Had a formation today, supposed to get Desert cammies Wed. No new info passed at AOM. Dutch, Stoney, Freddie and I left for a 2 day R&R at Camp 5 around 1100. Camp 5 is an oil worker facility that has been commandeered to house around 1000 Marines. There are chow halls, air conditioned rooms and clubs set up. Spot knows a LtCol over here who is letting us use 2 rooms, pretty cool.
Met Injun on the way our, traded room keys for car keys and went to lunch. Had a cheeseburger, fries and Pepsi (No Coke!) Mine was $4.35, Injun's was $6.00 He said he asked them to not spit in his. Watched a movie, did some reading, made a phone call and got to sleep in air conditioning again.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 28 Oct 90

2005-10-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

28 OCT 90

Our first legitimate day off. I slept until about 0900, someone woke me up sweeping out the tent. I got up and started cleaning out the junk I was accumulating under my cot. Emptied out my two parachute bags and overnight bag. Filled a trash bag with crap and consolidated. Got rid of old skivvies for new. Passed out extra pogey bait to tentmates. Ended up with 4 piles of stuff, military, books, clothes and gedunk box. Decided I needed a writing desk and/or shelf. Built a lap desk out of some scrap wood, now just need to cover it with some scrap vinyl and I'll be living the high life!
Next made a small shelf out of 1x2s, and stacked some empty water bottle boxes to put clothes into. Made some doors out of cardboard with duct tape hinges. Maybe will keep some sand out? Naaaaaaaaah! Finally got everything stowed and another box arrives with....more stuff. Good timing. Cold weather gear. Groucho glasses with big nose. Candy for Halloween. Important stuff. Pink flamingos finally arrived for our tent also.
Put everything away and went to grab a burger from picnic. Everyone had a good time, mainly played volleyball, horseshoes and drank faux beer. I put cajun spice on the burger. Had a twinkie!
CG 3rd MAW solicited input to improve aviation safety. Lots of mishaps since we arrived. I'm sure he's expecting to hear personally from me. We just need to steal all the good stuff and ideas from the other services. And we need to work together with other services. Next will be to do away with knee jerk safety stand downs when there is a mishap. WE should continue with realistic, standardized and objective based training. These breaks only pay lip service to the true pursuit of aviation safety.
Blanket restrictions on altitude, angle of bank, number of pax are not the answer. Flying 1990s missions with 1960s technology is not the answer. Increased tasking, reduced training, less money and reduction in assets are not answers. Promoting pilots based on their ground job vs their flying skills is certainly not the answer.
Give the Staff jobs to Warrant Officers or SNCOs. Promote me based on my Combat Readiness Percentage, not how well I inventoried the flight equipment or got paint for the barracks.
The answers are to train, train and train some more using objective, graduated training and readiness syllabus. Qualifications need to be in a computer database, and mission tasking matched to pilot capabilities. More night training, LAT quals, TERF and NVG quals are answers. Put a grunt liaison in every squadron. And get me a NVG compatible cockpit. Good equipment plus realistic training equal mission safety.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 27 Oct 90

2005-10-26T10:27:00.000-05:00

27 OCT 90

160171, 5T2, 1.5, 140, Peewee

Flew all day, actually flew to range, then sat all day to test fire machine guns. The crew chiefs loaded us up with 50 Cals and 7.62, we took a bunch of door guns over to test fire.
Chuck came in this morning, helped him haul his gear over to the tent. Said he couldn't stand being home, knowing we were here. He brought my custody cards. Now I can consolidate my FE account and verify who has what.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Storm 26 Oct 90

2005-10-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

26 OCT 90

160176, 5T2, 3.4, 260, Jughead
Got up at 0555, got ready for the brief. I was section leader on a hop to pick up a Regimental CO and take him up to northern Saudi positions. These turn out to be about 20 miles from the border. I'm sure there has to be someone further north, doesn't there? Anyway, I was happy that I got to sign for the bird AND lead the section. After we briefed, we were told that there were only 4 pax, so you only need 1 Huey. Dash 2 was told to stay at JNA. I reminded Ops that the frag listed 8 pax in one zone and 4 in another. Ops said they had confirmed only 4 pax. SO guess how many were standing next to the LZ when we showed up, single ship? We landed, I explained to the Colonel and contacted controlling agency to launch Dash-2. We took the first 4 up north, Dash-2 caught up with us eventually with the other 4. We then completed the rest of the frag, 3.4 hours of flying. I'm sure the Iraquis saw us flying around and are shivering in their boots, in awe of the mighty Devil Dog Super Huey.
Missed breakfast, missed lunch, had 1 canteen of water and some M&Ms. By 1630 I had a headache so bad I couldn't even walk to the chow hall. Drank a lot of water and laid down on the FE floor for an hour. Finally got up, wandered to the chow tent, had 2 bites of brown rice, 1 bite of spicy chili, a cup of salt flavored with chicken broth, slice of bread with peanut butter and orange soda. Stumbled back to work, laid down for another 45 minutes. Finally made it back to Chez Tent, got a shower. Bitched about field grade and felt better.
Routine is becoming routine. Supposed to have another Safety Standdown soon, using new ideas to stress safety. They're asking for input. If they could guarantee that ideas would actually leave the squadron they might get some. Otherwise, most people will say that everything is fine. I'll work on my dream sheet in the morning while trying to stay out of my Marine's way. They need someone to show them how to manage their time a little better. I'll certainly be of no help doing that.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 25 Oct 90

2005-10-25T10:25:00.000-05:00

25 OCT 90

Kept busy all day transferring Lessons Learned info onto disk. Trying to get info to appropriate action agencies so that we can get fixes/support/new stuff/etc...If the Army can afford to have people working on making chocolate that won't melt, we should be able to get some decent flight equipment. Or would that be too much to ask?
Mail call, got some newspapers from Joan. Already had seen most of them, but the thought was nice. Message came in identifying those guys whose video home got taped over. Sections will be redone to send home again. Went to chow, came to tent at 1645, thought I'd lay down for a few minutes at 1745. Woke up at 2200 long enough to find out I'm flying at 0730 tomorrow. Took off flight suit and crashed.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 24 Oct 90

2005-10-25T10:24:00.000-05:00

24 OCT 90

No flying, spent al day watching the shop. Tried to do as little as possible, but still a few projects that I'm interested in. Got the flight equipment log books from CamPen finally, but still no Equipment Custody Receipts. Maybe Chuck has them, they are the cards that list all the DS90 gear that was checked out. Chuck is also supposed to bring another VCR, the first one got sent to the FAARP.
Rotating groups of 15-20 to the phones again . If someone hasn't been able to call home by now, it's their fault. Another nearby R&R spot may open up soon, on 1 Nov. Not sure how many will get to go, but it will have phones. Only the night crew has slept in air conditioning for the last month, and now no one does from our squadron. It's cooler now, but not by much. I desperately need Morgan Fairchild's address.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 23 Oct 90

2005-10-25T10:23:00.000-05:00

23 OCT 90

Another day in paradise. Our day off yesterday was nice. The flying has slowed down as more units have come in to spread out the tasking, and there is not as much need for recon missions as there was initially. Plus they have more Hummers to drive around, in addition to all the Land Cruisers, Suburbans, Cherokees, and Range Rovers that are popping up over here. Evidently there is a need for "admin" vehicles, for everyone to move around without having to take a Hummer or a tank. But since the vehicles are going out to the forward areas, they sprayed them all over with tan paint. It's funny to see a brand new truck, covered in tan paint, with the paint scraped off of just the windows, headlights and tail lights. Maybe I can get a good deal on one when this is over.
With the ops tempo slowing, everyone wants to slack off a bit. Since my shop was going round the clock when they first got here, they are really tired. We have one guy out on guard duty, and I'm trying to deflect the routine tasks away while they catch up. They'll be spooled up again soon enough, and they're ready. I'm moving around from around 0615 until 1830-1900. Some days I feel like I've accomplished absolutely nothing, sometimes the brain gives itself the day off whether I want it to or not. Other days everything gets done. My Marines are a good bunch and we finally have some other Flight Equipment shops over here to share info and material with. The MAILS Marines are very good, MAILS-16 is ahead of MAILS-39 with the gas masks and Nevis. But everyone is working together.
Had a post-phase Huey today. Preflight, rinsed engines, ground turned. It had a lot of small gripes, but other wise a very solid aircraft. I like flying and testing when it's just me, a crew chief and a camel. We don't go too far from the field, probably around 5 miles, just far enough to get away and get clear of the pattern. Once clear we can start writing down gauge indications, checking performance. My favorite test in when you check the flight control rigging. Sometimes it is just one continuous maneuver. Start out going forward then slowly pivot the helicopter around the transmission. Bring the tail slowly around as you continue straight ahead. Sideways, then backwards, sideways, then pointing straight ahead again. It's a good coordination exercise, and a fun time to be in a helo.
Chow was burgers with gravy and rice, not too bad after being doused with Worcestershire sauce. Had an awesome piece of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. Wrote a letter in the terminal, where it's cool. Butted in to other people's business for an hour or so. Quote of the day "You can't row the boat without making some waves."
No Iraqui hordes yet, guess the Holy Day invasion rumor was wrong. Guess leaving on the 23rd rumor was wrong also. Guess 45 day ultimatum was false. Still in the same spot, no word on anyone moving anywhere. But we're ready. Been ready in Memphis. Been ready in 323 as part of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. Not too ready in college. All kinds of times on the MEU. Panama. Manila. Sri Lanka and Burma. Some I missed, some never happened. In some ways this has been no different than sponging up oil in Alaska, snuffing out fires in Yellowstone or chasing drug smugglers around the border. Each situation offered its own unique challenges. We're going to be ready and do our best.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 22 Oct 90

2005-10-25T10:22:00.000-05:00

22 OCT 90

Training all day, briefs every 2 hours. I gave a class on the AR-5 gas mask, everyone said it was good. Probably just glad we didn't go into the box with the tear gas tabs to try em out.
KFC for lunch. More briefs on intel and tactics. Evening chow at 1830, gossip on our tent porch for an hour, letters. Yes, our tent has a porch now, we're moving on up. Some guys found some scrap lumber and fashioned a front entry for the tent. We make this place too nice and I'm sure we'll be booted out.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 21 Oct 90

2005-10-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

21 OCT 90

Today was our picnic, turned into a day off, kind of. The picnic was cancelled because it was "too hot?" But it hasn't been too hot to have been working on and flying helicopters for the last 2 months? OK, I figured maybe the guys weren't that interested in mandatory fun anyway. Then Spot decides to have a formation at 1200 for all the enlisted Marines. Boy are they pissed. They have to get up, shave, etc and walk down to the terminal for a pep talk.
I slept til 1000, wrote a letter, ate some CJs (Cracker Jacks), looked at the clouds....yes, clouds. We had some cumulus clouds roll through today. Highlight of the day so far. Set up my mosquito net and "slepted" (sleep/sweat) until 1430. Went to terminal to shave, pick up laundry, write a letter and buy a Pepsi. Several Os were there, wandering aimlessly. Went to chow, stew over noodles, Pepsi and a new treat, ICE CREAM. Tasted like cold pudding, but hey, who's complaining?
Been taking pictures, working on capturing the perfect "Gunfighter into the Sunset" photo. Hope to get a good one for the cruise book or to send in to Navy photo contest. I've got a few from the past, they don't have to be from this year.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 20 Oct 90

2005-10-18T10:20:00.000-05:00

Looking at 3 million gallons of fuel...

20 OCT 90

Busy at work today, no flying. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day off for the Marines, with burgers, sodas, volleyball etc...Talked to Nemo about pros/cons of going to 303 or HMX after we get back. Haven't seen any HMX guys over here. I did see were they crashed one of the Presidential helos in Illinois, the first that's been crashed. Everyone's OK, no VIPs on board. They were doing a rehearsal and some snow fence may have been blown into the tail rotor. What a great year Marine Corps aviation is having!
Got a letter from my mom, said they had a good time in Vegas at Ernest's softball tournament. Can't believe the guys pick the desert to run around in and play softball. It's so cool there this time of year. She's been having a hard time with me being here. She heard about the Hueys from the ship and it made her cry. I had mentioned to Injun that I was worried that she had only written twice and was hoping that she wasn't too worried about me. One thing I hadn't considered is that she works at the Times-Herald, so all she hears and sees all day is the media hype and bad news.
Projects continue. Spot came by today and asked "How are we doing on the LASER pointers?" I told him we were missing two. He asks "How come it took me 60 days to find this out?" I don't know, selective memory. Irish and Nasty remember being told the first week we were here. Then the best line, he says "Well, I hope you have $2000 dollars." He walked off before I could point out that 2 of them would actually be $4000 dollars. I cooled of for 30 minutes, then went to see Irish. He had predicted this conversation 2 days ago, said just to give him the info on the custody cards and inventory sheets. It will be fun to keep track of all this stuff in the coming months, when the rockets are flying and helos are going to every corner of the theater. Don't worry, be happy.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 19 Oct 90

2005-10-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

The shop is really starting to come together...Megaughey and Chames practice the Gunfighter handshake.

19 OCT 90

Rawheid came by and brought me an AAFES catalog. What a great guy, there's lingerie models in there! How did this make it in country. I'll have to start a waiting list for guys who want to order stuff for Christmas. Wonder if they understand they'll only get the lingerie, not the model? Made me think of the lingerie auctions at the 29 Palms O Club, where guys were buying things that would never fit their wives. Once again, I missed the whole point of the exercise, but it was entertaining. And a politically correct step away from the strippers.
Good news, found the two sets of wayward NVGs. $40,000 dollars of good news. They're in Florida. Yup, Florida. Finally got to call VX-5, they gave me Sonny's number in Florida, out at Eglin for some project. He says, "Yea, I got 'em, you guys left town too fast for me to get them back." Evidently we confused out MAWTS-1 augment guys goggle with the ones we lent to VX-5, they had the same numbers, just scrambled around. I told him to hold on to them, no telling where they'd end up if tried to get them too us. Boy was that a relief. Nasty also says I can use the car to drive to Dhahran to scope out the area where we were the first day to look for the LASER pointer and AR-5 that are missing. I figure they're in one of 3 places 1) back in CamPen 2) 169 pilots who checked in then checked back out before we left have them or 3)rattling around in the bottom of someone's parachute bag. I appreciate Nasty's attitude because it was "well, they're probably gone, but it won't hurt to look for them" vs "where are they?" Irish has been helpful too. I asked him about my dilemma with the Flight Equipment "Gift Shop", we're giving out a lot of gear I figure we'll never see again. Flight suit, helmets, GPS receivers, LASER pointers, PVS-5s. He said to just keep him up to speed, and we'll consolidate the account and get Spot to authorize dropping the gear later, if we don't get it back. Out here, some of the gear is consumable, like the flight suits. They'll get worn out and surveyed anyway. It'll be a balancing act between keeping some spares on hand while supporting the folks we can with what we have. Best course of action is to just let the FE boys do their swap and trade magic, it reminds me of the old war movies where the gear show up, the Officer asks "where did we get that" and the Sgt says "you don't want to know, sir."
Called on amen to check on the new Cobra helmet. The old helmets are the old style helo helmet, Vietnam era. Outer shell with inner retention/ suspension strap design, with the addition of amount for the Helmet Sight System (HSS). Very heavy and required FE to remove and insert spacer cushions to fit each pilot. The HSS helmet is considered part of the aircraft inventory, so we only rate one per seat. One of the FE shop's coups at CamPen was scrounging enough "spare" parts to make sure each Cobra pilot had their own helmet, so they could get the best fit for each pilot and leave it alone. The new helmet is similar to the fixed wing helmet, light weight, custom fit. It will be out soon and is supposed to be personal issue. If not, maybe we can buy some ourselves.
No mail. Cooling off enough in the evening to get in the sleeping bag. No rotation message yet, to send us home. Wonder what the hold up is. Maybe Mooch can type up a fake one? He did this during Westac 89 to mess with Mankid, a Captain who continually talked about how he was "getting out of the Suck" as soon as the float was over. The typed up a message from HQMC that notified Mankid that his commitment was extended "indefinitely" due to the building crisis in Panama. They put a date time stamp on it, copied it a few times to make a really poor copy, ad posted it on the message board. We were snickering in the back of the ready room as he read it. He was standing at first, then slumped into a chair. After a few minutes, he took of looking for the CO. Checked the wardroom first, then found him in his stateroom. CO was confused, "I don't know anything about this..." Someone decided it was time to clue Mankid in. Didn't hear anything else about him getting out, but he did promise to get even someday.
Heard Steve Martin visited the REMFs, never made it out to us. Also heard that he has the runs now. Welcome to the sandbox Steve. Enjoy your salad!

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 18 Oct 90

2005-10-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

Walt tells Spike, Charlie and Ducky what he thinks of their flight schedule

18 OCT 90

No flying to day. Engine rinse, projects, awards, chow, check out what the other Marines are doing. We've got a really good maintenance crew. Hate to admit there's a couple of Cobra guys running the show, Irish and Talon. Can't always figure out where they are coming from, but the Marines respond and we are doing great with aircraft availability, esp now that the Huey blade issue has been resolved. Walt is our MMCO, he's a Mustang and is pretty squared away. He must be the man who's really pulling the strings. The SNCOs and enlisted Marines are a motivating crowd, any time I want a laugh I just corral one of these Marines. I have a great shop, it runs itself, but Sgt Lee is kind enough to let me come by and he pretends like I'm really helping by being the OIC. As long as I'm there to get them the recognition they've earned, I'll have done my part.
We seem to be settling in to a routine. The airfield is growing. C-5s, C-141s, C-130s and the CRAF come and go 24 hours a day. The joke about the Air Force transport guys is that we figure they get Air Medal points for coming in to our "Forward Deployed" area, especially if they have to go north of the field and land to the south. There is never a quiet moment at the airfield. The ramp, pits and staging areas are lit up with floodlights all night while the planes are unloaded. The ALCE was established out by the runway soon after we arrived, they have some impressive capabilities. I went over to check out their trailer after they set up, their comm gear lets them talk to just about anyone and most importantly they have air conditioning. It's they're job to coordinate the airhead here at Jubail, and it seems like a pretty cool job for the Air Force.
We have held on to our spot in front of the terminal, and keep several spots open for alert aircraft. We also have helos parked out on the apron on the other side of the taxiway, some slashed and a couple ready to go for the day's mission. Also have some ordnance prestaged for the Slugs and Snakes. The 82nd has moved on to who knows where, guess the neighborhood went downhill once the Jarheads showed up. They are going to put down matting for the transport helos, south of the field, lots of Frogs starting to show up. The Shitters are over at a nearby camp, where they'll have a little more room to move around. They're huge, and the ramp here is just too packed for them to move around. The pits are running non-stop and the fuel farm has grown to a huge maze of fuel bladders. I'm told each bladder holds 10,000 gallons of fuel. I can't figure out how they get all the valves set correctly to get the fuel pumped anywhere. And guess everyone figures out 1 gallon equals 3.8 liters.
Got back to Chez Tent at 1900, fell asleep, then got up to take a shower. Portable showers have arrived, evidently one side is hot water and the other side it cold water. I found the cold water side. That explains why the other side was full. Shower unit consists of a 4 plastic tub with rubberized canvas sides, individual shower head. Several units have been hooked together to make two blocks of 12 showers. Water is pumped from a huge bladder, through a heater for one side. Other side is somewhat warm because the water comes from a bladder that heats up during the day. As it empties and refills, the water cools off again. Can't complain about that, it's free and we get to hose off after flying around in our portable sandstorm all day.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Storm 17 Oct 90

2005-10-17T10:17:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of our flight surgeon, Doc Aubuchon, waiting to embark C-5 in El Toro. We'll blend in nicely with all the woodland camouflage.

17 OCT 90

Made the mistake of eating breakfast with our 2 flight docs, Aubuchon and Leong, aka "Pair-o-Docs." We walked up to their table and said, "Can we sit here, you guys don't talk about amoebas and bacteria at breakfast do you?' Doc Leong said "No, only Dysentery." So I asked "How about violent diarrhea?" Leong responds"Actually, the proper term is projectile diarrhea...Boy, you should have seen the place, it was a mess. We'd just waxed the floors and that poor guy just went shootin across the room. Looked like Halley's comet. Not a pretty sight." Guess we won't sit with them again, at least not at the chow tent.

Unidentified sources report that two Marine choppers were seen carrying military personnel to airfields in Saudi today. Unfortunately, the whirlybird pilots were overcome by excessive ultraviolet exposure and disabling flatulence. In other words, they were sunburned and had gas. The glamorous life of a Naval Aviator. These pilots have been restricted to Saudy Acres, a retirement home for wannabe airline pilots. Please write.
Flew some Group guys around today with Peewee. Showed them the airfield, Marines in the field, Port of Jubail, all of the usual spots, including the golf course. Worked on projects and goofed around this afternoon. Wrote letters to family.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 16 Oct 90

2005-10-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

16 Oct 90

Got up at 0500 to rinse engines, only took til 1030 to finish. Worked on more inventories, avoided field grade, then worked on awards. Turning LOA recommendations into CG CerComs per Irish's direction. He thinks they rate one, I've never written one so sounds good to me. Trying to get a call back to Chuck to see if any gear was left in the shop, like NVGs. I'd rather not cough up 15 grand per copy for the two pair that are still wandering around somewhere. We think we may have them checked out to VX-5 still, as I have 2 custody cards still, but one of my Marines telling me he "thinks" that a Major brought them back. Won't know until I get a serialized inventory from SSD and my ECR cards. Probably should have brought those.
Nearby 53 base thought they had incoming this evening, opened up with return fire. We launched 2 Hueys to check it out, 1 with a FLIR and put 4 Cobras on standby. Spot got a a nice bump on his head, got hit with a door while preflighting. I saw it happen and couldn't believe that he wasn't knocked out. Maybe he'll be more careful around Mooch now. Mooch claims to not hve done it on purpose. Hueys were gone scouting around for about 40 minutes, luckily didn't get shot at by our own guys. No bodies were found, maybe we'll know more in the morning. Nervous grunts maybe?
Our quick reaction team went out too, our inner defense if anyone wiggles through the Battalion protecting us. Mooch was in charge of organizing and training the guys, they dug foxholes and have teams set up to protect the airfield. They did this for the first week or so until the Bn showed up. That was one of my favorites, when the Bn showed up and asked "who's out in front of us?" No one.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 15 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:15:00.000-05:00

60 day time lapse photo of UV exposure effects. Actually, mug shot of Dutch, EggFu and Diamond

15 OCT 90

160171, 5T2, 1.1, 260, Barnett

Flew out to Division HQ and slept all day. We were medevac/VIP standby. The had a few cots handy, so we borrowed them and looked like little sundials, chasing the shade around the helicopter. Slept, ate chow, slept, read 5 pages in a book, swatted flies, slept, flew to JNA. Boy were we baked, I drank plenty of water.
Got a letter from my pen pal. I am impressed that the kids are interested, esp enough to write back. And anyone who likes airplanes and baseball is fine by me. Maybe some letters will help them put all of this into context. I told her mailing camels was “forbidden” and sending goats would be “baaaad” also. Too tired to shower.
Oh, supposedly 3rd MAW says no one can fly below 500 feet now. Guess an A-6 clipped a radio tower, flying 800 feet lower at night than they were supposed to be, without an updated hazard map. As always, penalize everyone. I never try to go ABOVE 300 feet. Staying low is about the only defense we have. The MAG is checking, as we’ve seen nothing in writing yet. Should be for fixed wing only? I hope so.
Getting up at 0500 to rinse engines. Fun fun.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 14 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

Me: "Buzz, I like your Paula Abdul poster..."
Buzz: "Thanks. Get rid of that mustache. And you're off the flight schedule."

14 OCT 90

Being Sunday and all, I thought I'd relax as much as possible. Spent most of the morning reading an aviation humor book. It was good, but made me want to be home, going to airshows. I don't know whether Nemo's story will ever make it (He was a pilot who had a seaplane "mishap" near Whidbey, resulting in a short swim in the lake and generation of the callsign "Nemo".) Plus he's trying to change his callsign from Nemo to Salvo anyway. Yesterday, he inadvertently fired off some flares by bumping a switch to the salvo position. Could have been a mechanical problem, a glitch. Anyway, no one was injured but new call signs may abound.
About 1130 some guy from Group comes through and asks if we have a spare helmet that we can give LtGen Boomer. I figured Spot would want to give one up. I'm glad the guy came to see me first. Before we left, we had drawn 7 new helmets from SSD as spares, so we do have extras. I also know how hard it is for a crew chief to try to get the General a good headset every time. Anyway, had the guys start gathering up the goodies (helmet bag, skull cap, gloves, dark visor) and Buzz comes "buzzing" up. Wait, Spot came by first. He suggested FE make a name tag and take along some NVGs and the new aviation gas mask to show him how it attached to the helmet. The about 10 minutes later Buzz comes zipping by an tells me that "you're going to fit the General's helmet". I told him I'd go with along one of my Marines. Then he told me to shave my mustache. Yes, I had a one week old cheesy mustache growing. It must have really been a problem for him because he'd already commented on it twice during the week. I was flattered that anyone could tell I was even trying to grow one. Actually, it wsn't so much as if anything was growing, I just hadn't shaved my upper lip for a week. Buzz really has a body hair fixation, he had more than a few comments about my about a really short haircut a got a few weeks back. Well, the mustache would have disappeared without him saying anything, my theory being I didn't want my only memory of Saudi Arabia being the Commander of all Marine Forces telling me to "shave that thing off." I only grew it to annoy the field grade, and evidently it served it's purpose.
We drove to the port facility, where MEF HQ is, stood around for a while, and went in to let the Gen check out his stuff. Gen Boomer was very nice, but seemed preocupied. Gee, I can't imagine why. He said he really appreciated it, that he hated "not being able to talk and hear in the back, and bugging the crew chiefs". The aide is probably mad because now he has more things to tote around. The Gen didn't ask the standard "where ya from?....Never heard of it..."questions, which to me meant he was busy. He seemed mildly interested in the NVGs, not so much the gas mask. It was cool to met him, and someday maybe I'll see a news clip of him with a flight helmet and say "hey...".
30 minute ride back from HQ in the back of a pickup, I am fried. Buzz had a huge bag of pistachios, so the trip wasn't too bad. Got mail. One of the guys' wife is a reporter, is getting a visa and soliciting the CamPen PAO to make a 48 hour trip to Saudi.
Listening to my music tape, it's playing the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy..." We should play it before every maintenance meeting. Maybe I'll sneak over to the mosque and play it over the loudspeaker. Anyone can obviously go in at any time and pray to Allah over the loudspeaker. 3, 4, 5 a.m, doesn't seem to matter. The first few times I heard it at King Fahd, it was kind of eerie. My plan is to have someone sneak in with a boom box and play some Tone Loc or M C Hammer. Wonder if this would bother the locals?
The Marine Corps suspended our Low Light Level training indefinitely. They just started it 3 weeks ago. Guess the timing isn't right? Army identified a problem with helmet retention straps, there's a fix coming out. I'll try not to crash in the meantime. I figure if you hit something that hard, you're not going to be worried about your helmet. The MAG is going to use this as ammo to push for the lighter, quieter, safer helo helmet. I called North Island to get the repair info for the old helmets.
I think being here is a big plot to reduce the forces, everyone's gonna be so mad when we're done that they won't reenlist.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 13 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:13:00.001-05:00

13 OCT 90

Spent all morning typing Logistics Support Requests, 2 rosters, a letter to the LASER pointer company and some other things. I was on the computer for about 4-5 hours. Entering project info, serialized inventories, wish I had more computer sense. Don't know how high speed I need to be at this point. Feels good to have a backup for correspondence for my own records. Copiers hard to come by over here. I’d like ot send feedback on the GPS receivers. They work great when the satellites are up, but our gray visor works as a polarizing filter with the LCD readout; you can’t see the display. Oh well, they can fix that easy enough. Cashed a check for 60 dollars so I could pay my Officer dues? They say the money wil be used to buy some film, cruise book items, party fund, etc...Oh well, we did get a VCR. Life goes on.
According to rumor control I’ll be home by November. I’m still predicting Valentine’s Day. Nothing is happening fast. Goofed around for an hour, treated myself to chicken at 1430, talked to Injun, S-4, did some more work, trying to round up some wayward FE gear.
Spike is leaving?! Yes?! Kind of surprised me. Who are we gonna pick on now? Seriously, I wish him the best of luck for his wife’s sake. I don’t know if this was his scheduled departure or not Maybe he’s going home to fight the promotion board some more. Probably shouldn’t have been sent here in the first place. It’ll be interesting got see if Ops changes when he’s gone. All of the Lts will miss him...
Well, no great ideas for me today. Need t go to Dhahran to see if our missing gear is just sitting down there somewhere. NVGs may have been turned in at CamPen by guys who checked out at the last minute. Jim amd I shot the shit for a while, nothing of substance. Ate chow, spread rumors. Grabbed gear, back to tent at 1830, pinged on the field grade.. We have a good group of guys, Capts and Lts, there’s just a wide gap between them and the field grade. Spot is nuts. Just think how impressed everyone will be when they realize that we did all these neat things with Spot as our CO. We certainly checked off all the boxes we could this year, Eagle Claw, 2 CAXs.
Chow sucks. It’ll be hard to get the Christmas spirit over here, probably prohibited.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 12 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

12 OCT 90

A lovely little sand dune, in the middle of nowhere. Eastern BFSA. Looking for the book Dunk’s Almanac, Marine Corps vignettes. Got up, went to work. Worked. Wrote letters. Looked at Huey. Wrote more letters. Wrote MORE letters. Ate. Cleaned hooch. Listened to tapes. 2 Beers article on the Cobra driveshaft failure was published in Approach, document of subsequent airmanship and heroics. We’re using heat sensitive tape to monitor them for now, and it has caught a few problems, so good things have evolved from this. Today was busy but boring. Attitude above average, Chow wasn’t bad. Spaghetti, but the cooked the noodles? back to hooch at 1800, dusted off cot, listened to music, bitched about Majors and LtCols, read Newsweek, looking for mail. Shower and try to get a few more hours sleep.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 11 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:11:00.000-05:00

11 OCT 90

Slept good, it’s cooling off considerably. Forgot laundry. Wrinkled cammies. Must find hot rocks.
Had classes all day. No flying/turning. Better than CamPen. I guess the day off for E’s last week was a one time thing. Spent the morning typing NATOPS change recommendations. Turned them in to NATOPS, they’ll send off to conference, or urgent change if warranted. Spent rest of afternoon in classes, formation, eating, monitoring projects. Irish said if we don’t turn in our awards recommendations, he’s “gona mark us all the way to the left” in the Handling Enlisted fit rep block. his is something I don’t mind being reminded about, so I spent a lot of time writing Letters of Appreciation for Samuel, Chames and Megaughey, and a NAM for Sgt Lee. I’ll eventually write up Sgt Legg for a NAM, because of all of his work on the new AR-5 gas masks. He’s doing really well, very conscientious and studious. The LOAs may get upgraded to CG Certificates of Commendation, they worked hard but maybe not as smart as this award rates.
Called CamPen, inventory sheets were sent out a few days ago. Still missing 2 sets of NVGs as of 2 days ago. I had 76 sets here, but 2 belong to to our augment MAWTS-1 guys. They never told us they were leaving them in FE. So now I’m 2 sets short. Sgt Lee told me the first day we were here one of our gas masks was brought in by a squid, who said he saw it fall off the back of a truck! It was in the back of a 5 ton for 60 miles. Guess I’ll know more when I get the custody cards, or when we get back to CamPen.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 10 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

10 OCT 90

159204, 5T2, 2.3, 260/140, Peewee

Today was spent flying a British General around. He kept asking for cereal? Finally I said “General, I don’t have any Cheerios….” Yuk yuk!! He will be in charge of all the Brits. Best frag we’ve had so far, they wanted to do what the frag sheet said, got changes to us early, all our radios were crystal clear, freqs were right, etc…Plew with Peewee, I’m over 80 hours now. I think we were the first Marines to fly BritCent over here.
Tried to relax a bit. Worked on getting clearing barrels put outside the terminal and updating the mishap plan to incude an “Overdue Aircraft” checklist. We had no procedure for that, it started because someone called to tell us an aircraft was down. Well, what if it hadn’t come back when it was supposed to be back? Hmmm. So that’s done now. Also suggested we have an Emergency Reclamation Checklist broken down by S-shops, Maintenance, then even further as necessary, so we aren’t scrambling looking for chemlights, shovels, security, crane, comm gear, chow, water, dragon wagon etc… when something happens. So that is happening. S-4 actually sent a letter to MWSS saying listing what equipment they’ll need to borrow should we park a bird somewhere that we don’t want to leave it. I fed the experience I had from recovering 2 Beer’s Cobra in Yuma to Nemo, and he’s making them happen.
I’m remaining cognizant of my ballistic intolerance. Small MCX is open, AAFES catalogs are all snapped up, lingerie pages are dog eared. We are a hopeless bunch.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 09 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

9 OCT 90

Bugged my guys all day. They ordered some new straps for the helmets. Got taksed by Group to give them a vest, float gear and body armor for….swim qual? Boy was I steamed. Lot’s of swimming going on over here.
267 had a mishap, deployed with the 13th MEU. 2 Hueys flew away with 8 Marines and never returned. They were off of the Okinawa (LPH), operating in the Arabian Sea, just outside the Straits of Hormuz. The ship lost radio and radar contact with them about 30 minutes before sunrise. They had NVGs, but it is not known whether they were using them or not. The goggles start to wash out as the sun starts to come up. Weather was clear, I’ve heard wreckage has been spotted but no survivors. I consider being lost at sea one of the worst ways to perish, primarily because of the questions that remain unanswered for the families. I hate to think of all the lives that go on hold, as they try to make sense of this tragedy.

Gunfighter Diary Desert Shield 08 Oct 90

2005-10-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

Flight Equipment's "Hog Board" (pictures of round-eyed American women) is growing, creating a steady stream of visitors to our shop...which is starting to get old.

8 OCT 90

159204, 2K2, 1.0, FCF, Mooch
Returned from Manifa this morning. Boy am I beat. Sat around all day waiting to rinse 201’a engines. We have to rinse the engines daily now, to cut down on salt accumulation. The aircraft commander has to motor the engines for the maintenance crew. It really takes long time for the engines to cool down, to break down the rinse fittings, gather the wash cart, power cart etc. I finished at 1930…hmmm. Bet I get to sign more often now, so I can stay late every night. Guess my hot dates will have to wait.
21 was about an 8 on my flying scale. I won’t sign off a 5. Spent some time putting Mooch’s FCP training forms in the computer. Spent some more time shooting the breeze with our maintenance Marines. Oh, Flt Equip will probably be voted Shop of the Year because 1) Sgt Legg’s friend sent him photos from the McCabe’s Hot Legs, Bikini and T-Shirt contest. He also got a letter from a FSU sorority girl, with a group photo. She wrote that if guys would circle a girl’s face and send their name, she would ask them to write. She also asked that we guess the names of certain girls, and the correct guesser would get a letter. Cute, huh? I read the letter, she’s an airhead. Studies Communications but never watches news, reads paper or listens to the radio? Clueless as to why we are here….then again, so am I at this point. And 2) Passes out Aunt Mary’s cookie crumbs. So there was a crowd in our shop all day, it was fun for about an hour.
Chow was beef gristle stew, wallpaper paste on lumpy potatoes. Sucked. 3rd worst meal so far. I’m realy dehydrated, got a great headache, have to lug my bag of stuff around everywhere (towel, CPOG, gas mask, NBC kit). Called it a day.