The Amazing Adventures of Me! In 3D!

One Awesome Night

2009-07-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

I usually don't discuss my missions and operations here in Afghanistan for reasons that should be fairly obvious, but tonight was pretty cool so I will share what I can about some of what we did. I am currently flying the Night Quick Reaction Force (QRF) mission.

This night we were fortunate to have a full moon up all night, so we had plenty of illumination which is nice. Of course we fly using night vision goggles, but even NVGs require some ambient light. The brighter the ambient light (up to a point), the better visual acuity the NVGs offer, so when you have a full moon, you can see as clear as day under NVGs (except that the whole world is bright green.) But I digress...

Anyway, our first mission of the night required us to do an emergency resupply for a convoy that had been ambushed in a complex attack earlier in the afternoon. The attack crippled some of their vehicles and caused a few casualties. The nature of the situation required the unit to remain over night in a hasty defensive posture. They were running low on bullets, food, and water, so we were called to bring them much needed supplies.

When we got to the LZ I was shocked at how cool it was. The unit was stuck in a tight canyon with 2000' sheer cliffs on two sides. Their Remain Over Night (RON) sight was by the river's edge surrounded by the imposing cliffs where the canyon widened into a deep circular gulley.

The canyon limited our approach options to either entering the canyon about a mile from the LZ and flying between the narrow vertical rock faces, or performing a 2000 foot vertical decent. The vertical decent would be incredibly difficult and extremely dangerous given that we were loaded down with "beans and bullets" for the resupply. So we navigated the canyon. It was awesome! The canyon was magnificent with a winding river bed below and the tight corridors barely big enough for my Blackhawk’s 50 foot wingspan. At one point our rotor blades were within 10 feet of the cliff on the right and 10 to 15 feet on the left. The margin of error was almost zero. When we reached the LZ the canyon opened into a beautiful bowl. The rocks and dust on the river bank gave way to a fertile valley oasis with a small grove of weeping willow trees and an array of green vegetation nestled up to the edge of the shallow creek. In another world, this could have been one of God’s great masterpieces. But a totally destroyed Up-armored MRAP on the other side of the creek quickly reminded me how these people have squandered this land’s beauty and promise.

Just as we left the canyon for home we received another call telling us to divert to another base where we would shut down for a few hours and be briefed for another mission. When we arrived at Sharona Army Airfield, we were informed that we would be participating in an air assault insertion at dawn.

We had several hours until “H-hour,” so I laid down in the back of my Blackhawk and took a little nap. Now if you think it might be cool to spend a night in a multi-million dollar Blackhawk hotel room, take my word for it; it’s not! The Blackhawk may be one of the most versatile helicopters in the world, but they are not equipped for a comfortable nap. Perhaps the Air Force H-60s come with that option, but the Army didn’t spring for it.

Anyway, back to the Air Assault: The basic concept of Air Assault Operations is to overwhelm the enemy by surprising them with an extremely rapid influx of force. To be successful you have to surprise the enemy by hitting them hard and fast and overwhelm them with the ferocity and scale of force. And nobody does that better than us.

The objective was basically to capture a village that was known to be a local Taliban stronghold. Our mission involved inserting sniper teams on the outskirts of a hostile town so they could provide over watch for 2 groups of special operations soldiers that would kick down every door in the village. Our Blackhawks inserted the sniper teams while two Chinook helicopters simultaneously inserted the door kickers at different sides of the town.

From the satellite imagery we were given, our selected LZ looked like a large rectangular farmer’s field with some type of green vegetation planted on it. When we arrived at the insertion point, it was clear that our satellite imagery was outdated. The field was brown and freshly tilled. There wasn’t a plant in sight and it didn’t look like the field had even been watered in a month. We came in low and fast and the helicopter was just engulfed in a huge thick dust cloud. As I was coming into the LZ I noticed a farmer with a garden hoe working dirt in his field directly in front of my flight path. For just a split second I saw the old man look up at us barreling down at him. Then he shrugged, put his head down and went back to work with his garden hoe. We landed just about 50 meters shy of where he was working and he was immediately engulfed in the thick dust cloud and disappeared from sight.

Just a few seconds later the insertion was complete and we pulled pitch and took off. As I took off I was amazed to see that old man still just working his field as if we were not even there. We flew directly over him just about 10 or 15 feet above his head and he didn’t even look back up at us. But then again, we dusted the heck out of that guy and I’m sure he didn’t enjoy being sand blasted by us. We probably didn’t do his field any favors either. I also suspect that after we left the sniper team we dropped in his field surely gave him a rude awakening too, but I don’t feel bad, because that little town was chock full of bad people. He was probably asking for it.

Within just a few minutes of the insertion an announcement of our arrival blasted over the town load speakers from the town mosque. It said, “The American’s are here! Stop fighting and put down your weapons! Do not fight them, there are too many of them!” The entire town surrendered within minutes. Many seasoned Taliban fighters were immediately detained.

Now that is what I call a successful air assault. Subdue the enemy with a lightening fast punch of overwhelming force. Let them peer into the gates of hell. Give them no time to think or react but only let them know that judgment day has arrived and they shall give a full account of their crimes. Give them only the choice to surrender without hesitation or to find out what their god really thinks of their martyrdom. When no one has to die, but the show of force alone brings hardened fighters to their knees, we get to draw another slash mark in the “Wins” column for America.

And after only a 14 hour duty day, I got to go home and go to bed. yea!

A BED TIME STORY FOR DESTINY

2009-06-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time...

Destiny Dance

2009-06-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

Man! I suck at blogging!

2009-06-03T13:37:00.001-07:00

My Home Away From Home

2008-12-27T05:50:00.000-08:00

Some have asked about my living conditions. I am pleased to say that I have my very own cubical. My room is probably about 8 1/2 ft X 7 Ft. This is considerably larger than I expected. My house is a bunker. The walls are about 18 " thick and made out of brick and reinforced Concrete. The Ceiling is a little thicker supported by Steel "I-Beams."As for my hall. I did the best I could. I live with 6 other guys and we have plywood dividers giving us some privacy. As you can see in the pictures, I have built a loft and a desk from wood and hardware that I "acquired." Of course, I used the cover of darkness to conceal my movements during the acquisitoning process. The mission was both a tactical and a strategic success. I had to declare "Manifest Destiny" for the closet and bed. Throw in some pictures and clothes, $100 per month for crappy internet, and hang a hat and a gun on the wall for good measure, and I have a nice little villa in Trashcanistan.

copied from Hensley Hooligans

2008-12-25T03:16:00.001-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS and whatnot

Well, merry Christmas everybody I'm sure you are all nestled all snug in your beds with visions of sugar plums and Wii video games dancing in your heads. But I am up. Right now I am even shirking out of work to post this little message. Christmas day is in full swing here in Asia. But Santa Clause didn't really bother stopping by. It really doesn't feel like Christmas at all to me. I have been contemplating why I don't feel very Christmasy. This is what I have come up with:

Of course, the easy answer is being far away from family and loved ones, but I think it is a lot deeper than that. As listened to the Breuer family read the Christmas story from the Bible in a language that made absolutely no sense to me, I had an epiphemy. The reason it doesn't feel like Christmas here is that we are outside of the New Born Baby Jesus's jurisdiction. Yeah, you see, this is Allah's domain. Every day, I see dudes wearing man dresses and bath towels praying and screaming jibberish in the streets. Their pieties are dedicated to Allah, who has some genetic similarities to Heavenly Father, but who never bothered to send his son to atone for the world. Now in the Christmas story, some Wise Guys from the east showed up and brought some token gifts for the Son of the Western God, but opted out of going full on Christian. Now, I find myself in the land of the Wise Guys. and I see that the birth of Jesus isn't all that important here. The Wise Guys gave Jesus the nod originally and recognise him as a prophet, but decided not to have any holidays or even take the day off of work. Of course, delving into slightly more recent history, it is a little easier to understand.

Looking back about 1500 years, and the Holy Land is in turmoil. The Crusades are in full effect and Christians and Muslims are slaughtering each other over the right to pray in front of a rock in Jerusalem. When a man comes to your home and kills your family in the name of his god, it really doesn't help convince you that that man's god is the kind of god you might want to hang out with for an eternity. So instead of telling the Muslims about Santa Clause, putting up a Christmas tree, and giving Furby's to the good little Islamic girls and boys, The Christians made the fundamental mistake of just trying to kill all the Muslims. The worlds divided, and really haven't ever stopped fighting. The Crusades continue on though the reasons and places have changed. And today, I am the Crusader, far from home and fighting a war over religious intolerance and fanatisism just like our ancesters so many years ago. So this Christmas Morning I find myself sitting in a dusty bunker in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, thinking, "Crap, now why couldn't the Early Christians just share Santa Clause with Islam?"

Merry Christmas everybody. My thoughts and prayers are with you today, as always.

Love you all,

Jonny

I feel so hip.

2008-12-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Alright, I concede to pop culture. I will start this blog off by saying I hate blogs. And I hate bloggers. The reason is simple. Because I hate the imagery of some geek sitting in a coffee shop feeling hip and posting his nonsense opinions on the internet. I really don't like to think of myself being that Starbucks sipping sissy.

But now it seems that a blog is inevitable. Yesterday morning I found myself chatting with 5 people at the same time and carrying on essentially the same conversation with each of them. Everybody wants to know whats going on here on the front lines. So, I am going to give it to you!
Welcome everybody to The Amazing Adventures of Me! in 3D!

This blog is going to be my attempt to tell my story. I intend to use it kind of like a journal. I am doing it for my own records and for the edification of those I love. I hope you all enjoy all of my amazing adventures.