Photos from August

Some of the photos I took during August. Just thought I would throw them all up at once to try to keep up. The first one is of me flying; I don't get too many of those, since the other pilot had to take the picture for me.

Flying in formation, stag left.

Crossing a mountain ridge enroute from Jalalabad to Shank. This reminded me of the mountain from Lord of the Rings...Mount Doom or something like that.

The trip to Jalalabad was very beautiful, with a large river providing moisture for the whole valley. It was all very green; unlike most of the rest of Afghanistan that I have seen.

Another photo enroute to J-bad

I really liked this area, with a larger city built around the river.

Same area as above.

Quick fuel stop in between carrying passengers in the Jalalabad area.

Near the entrance of the valley to JBad

Some Bedouins we overflew on a recon near Shank. They are everywhere, and they move from place to place. Looking around you can see signs of their previous encampments; usually rings made of earth or rock that surrounded their tents at one time.

Another photo from our recon.

Northeast of Shank, right before the larger mountain peaks.

Some of the taller peaks northeast of Shank.

Another Funny Story

This is an old one, from way back in February or so when we were still at Kandahar. We were up early for a flight, probably around 5AM, getting everything ready and about to go to our brief. Being as early as it was, the chow hall was not yet open, and so everyone was finding things around our CP(office) to eat. Each morning, someone will usually put on a pot of coffee for anyone who wants some hot coffee. For this reason, I was confused when one of our crew chiefs, SPC Joshua Leppink, was heating his coffee in the microwave. He was drinking it and I asked him, "Do you like your coffee really hot?" He replied, "The coffee was cold." Someone there overheard and mentioned that they had just made coffee and that it should still be hot. We asked him where he got the cold coffee from, and he pointed to a large coffee maker that was not the one that was usually used. It was promptly opened, only to find what you can see in the picture:

That's right, its mold! That coffee had been there for quite a while, especially since no one there could think of ever having used, or seen anyone use that coffee maker. SPC Leppink's only response was a embarrassed smile and the reply, "I thought it tasted funny." We were laughing about that one for quite a while afterward.