23 June 2007: My Morning Commute

I'm getting real used to these Blackhawks. They are quite the zippy sportscars. I must say they make for a fun commute. This morning my four-man team (including me) met at Catfish Air at 0530. We were on the flight line waiting to load the helicopters by 0630. Our destination was Camp Liberty. When we arrived at the helicopters the crews were in the middle of their pre-flight checks. We waited along the jersey barriers that separate each helicopter. Around 0700 we loaded and took off shortly after. Initially we flew north then flew around the western perimeter of Anaconda headed back towards Baghdad. It was another spectacular, clear morning. Everything below was peaceful and serene. I'm not certain how many herds of sheep we passed over but it was a lot. Despite the cliche of nothing but desert, the scene from the air is completely different. We passed over seemingly endless fields of green agriculture. I wasn't able to discern every crop but definitely made out sunflower and date palms. Most of the fields had people working in them. There were little signs of war other than occassionally passing over a flattened building. I'm almost positive one of the flattened structures was the safe house where Zarquawi (Al Qaeda thug) was killed. As we approached Baghdad the helicopters began to fly lower and faster. There were plumes of smoke in several places as we started passing over suburbs of the city. There is a major offensive ongoing and I believe the helicopters were deliberately flying in a manner that kept them at great distance from hostilities below. I took a bunch of photos and a few videos (like a tourist). As I looked around it seemed every passenger was doing the same thing. We landed safely at Liberty around 0745. Our contact was there and took us straight to the DFAC for breakfast. Just another commute to the office wouldn't you say?

After breakfast we got checked into our billets. We then set up our classroom for the training we'd be conducting the next day. Once I was certain everything was working we conducted a quick rehearsal. We'll be training a whole new brigade so it's always important to be at the top of our game. It's when we're busy that I'm the happiest. I'm glad to say that we'll be pretty busy from here on out. My team is here to serve the warfighters. Anyway, once we finished our rehearsal I released everyone for the rest of the day. I've been to Camp Liberty before (earlier this week if you've paid attention). Our billets were in an entirely different spot from where I stayed earlier this week. However, it was still walking distance from the PX, MWR, and gym. The remainder of my day was nap, gym, supper, PX, and MWR in that order. By 2200 I was back at my hooch reading about the failed Soviet winter offensive at Luban in 1942 ( a dismal failed attempt at relieving the seige of Leningrad). At 2300 I conducted my personal "lights out" and began conducting sleep operations. Big day tomorrow - we're back on stage training the warfighters for their redeployment. That's what we're paid to do.