Pics from this week

Colorado C-130 in Afghanistan!

Working dogs getting a check up

 

Yet another med evac drop off

 Pretty funny..."Mexican Night" at the chow hall

 Not too bad tonight, they even had cheese enchiladas

A better week...this week

We've all gotten over Sam the owl.  I placed a R.I.P. sign on the vet's door, see below...


This is my Friday but there's no weekends off.  I'm off Saturday with Jenn which is cool.  We'll sleep late then maybe go to "the bizarre".  It's like a flea market where locals sell stuff like scarves, blankets and nicky nacks.  It's been a busy week and I'm still trying to keep up with my commander.  I feel like I'm on a different track sometimes :-/.  But we're all doing ok. 
     The food is still average to bad...but I've gotten some goodies from Jeanne (thank you!) and more is coming from Dad.  And we're going to try scheduling ourselves a workout a few days a week.  I've been here 2.5 weeks and I still don't know what any of the gyms look like!  Meanwhile we are about to alert a crew for an urgent mission and they complained because they were planning on going the gym...ummm they fly about once maybe twice a week.  The rest of the time they're working out, strolling through here talking about all the fun things they've been doing and sleeping late.  We gave them a what for.  But they're not in charge...I AM!  Ha, take that whiners. LOL
     Just now we heard there were several dogs out side the vet.  They're passing through and getting check ups before they go out to do their jobs.  Some are explosive dogs and some are narcotic dogs.  We saw mostly shepard types but saw one black lab and one retriever.  I have pics I'll post in a little bit.  One cute shepard kept looking at us and wagging his tail.  Check back in a few hours for pics!

Another week gone by...

It's been a sad week.  First we step outside to see if the hospital needs help off-loading soldiers from Med Evac helicopters.  We stand by, they land and litters are off-loaded but don't go to the ambulance...they go to the mortuary affairs van.  We cried watching a soldier get out and walk to an ambulance then another litter goes to the mortuary affairs van with a U.S. flag on it.  We wondered what that soldier was thinking on the ride in sitting next to his deceased comrade.  So very sad.  We said a prayer for them.
Then today the vets came over to inform us that Sam the owl has died.  That was just about too much.  I had to step outside for a few minutes so I didn't embarrass myself crying in front of everyone.  I can't remember if I said what happened to him.  They found him injured with a broken left wing and had to amputate it.  He was doing really well.  Today they said he was chewing on his stump so they brought him inside to put him under anesthesia to clean and remove a little more stump.  He died then.  Every day we would walk to work and look to see him in his cage and I would say "hi Sam".  He'd look over.  Probably thinking "why is that human talking to me?"  Well I was talking to him because I love animals...everyone that knows me can attest to that.  Fortunately I work with a great group of people and we laugh a lot.  That'll make the time go by easier. 
That's all for now...

Pics

Brown & dusty everywhere

Main street sort of

Sam, rescued on the flightline with a broken wing, is taken care of by the Vet office

Week 1

We left our family on the 21st of November.  Stopped on the east coast for about a week then began our hop eastward toward our destination.  That destination was Afghanistan.  It's now December 10th and it's been a little over a week since we arrived.  We're part of an Air Evac Operations Team.  We manage and schedule the flight nurses and medics as well as some critical care teams for missions flying our ill and injured soldiers on their journey homeward.  We're getting settled, unpacking and sleeping pretty hard considering we're working six 12 hour shifts a week!  Some of us are doing and learning things we've never done before.  I'm kinda doing 2 jobs which has my brain streched to it's limit.  They say hard work never killed anyone but it sure tires you out :-O.  It's noisy 24 hours a day with aircraft coming and going.  Med Evac helicoptors land near us frequently dropping off soldiers.  It's very dusty and occasionally we cough and have sinus congestion.  Fun stuff.  This is my first deployment here as well as some of my team.  We're also figuring out how to eat some of the dining facility food here.  Wow some days it's just plain scary...I look at it and say no way.  Then go make myself a cheese sandwich.  I figured that's pretty safe.  Anyway this is my first ever blog.  I've never written one before so hopefully you'll keep interested and will want to read more :-).  I'll have pics soon.
Kellye