Come Fly With Me, Lets Fly, Lets Fly Away...

Coming home from blowin' stuff up.  The view from our perch.

"Oh dang, somebody's gonna get all blowed up!" exclaimed Gunny (Gunnery Sargent). Roaaaaaaaaar for 1 long minute as the afterburners fire up on the first jet as it speeds down the runway and flies a few times overhead.  Then the second one, as I practically go deaf.  Crack-crack-crack-crack as the helios (helicopters) launch upwards.  Then go the turbo props and UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).   Oh yeah, something big is about to go down!

Despite the boredom that comes with being stuck 24/7 on a compound, being on an air force base has its ways of breaking up the motonony.  One bonus of our little nook is a "watchtower" (someone built a wooden platform on top of our metal trailers) that gives a clear sightline to the runway and mountains around us.  Of course, in some senses its torture--kind of like being the doggy in the window of a pet shop.  We get to admire the striking panoramas of the Hindu Kush mountains, covered in snow, and dream about the ski resorts we'd build if only this country got its act together.  We also get to see when major ops (operations) take off.  Of course, we never have any idea where they're going or what they're doing--but when you suddenly see a bunch of different types of aircraft take off in sequence, you know that somebody pissed somebody off!

It takes a few days to get used to sleeping through all the noise,  but I've been well trained by the melodious sonnets of DC's ambulances and police cars, so I think it'd be harder for me to sleep if I DIDN'T hear such a ruckus...