frog

Keep the faith! I just got an email with the base policies for my next deployment. - No relective belts (not optional, they are completely banned) - No saluting - Shower shoes to latrines is okay You guys just need to get a step or two further down range. Drink a beer for me though!

4fans- CE guy here...never been deployed to the Deid but I've passed through there a few times. All my time has been a little further down range, but some of the same lessons might apply. First off, if all of the lodging is through FSS and they run a KBR MX contract...you're screwed. If CE does the MX in the living compound, read on. Believe it or not, CE usually isn't sitting on their ass if the job is taking forever...they usually don't have the parts for stuff like AC. The options are usually to buy shitty knock offs on the local economy that break in a week or order it through the supply system and it takes 3 months to get it. We found out that sometimes we had a hookup with the mobility guys...a home station CE could buy the part, hand it to a load going downrange via milair, and tell him to make sure it got to Capt XYZ at Balad because his bros were melting in their building. We had about the same success rate as the supply system except that it usually took 2 weeks instead of 3 months. My bet is that KBR is doing your living compound MX and you're hosed, but you never know. Grab the next CE guy you see and ask who the ops officer is. Give him a ring and see what the deal is...you never know what kind of hook up you can get if you ask the question.

Good point, didn't think of it that way

Yep, it's just like a 7 month deployment. Except that you get to go home every two months, go to the kids t-ball game, kick back some beer, and bang the wife. Wait a second, that sounds like a pretty good deal! Bitching about 60 day deployments to the Deid...wow. I don't understand the endless pissing match about deployment length...just do what is asked of you. It's okay if you don't deploy as much as somebody else. I'm sure some poor cop A1C out there spends more time in much more austere conditions than any of us.

[ CE guy here, just want to let you know where I'm coming from. That's a pretty typical misconception. You've seen the CE guy fix your HVAC, the finance guy jack up your voucher, and the comm guy reconfigure your email account. What you HAVEN'T seen is the CE guy fixing the airfield lighting or runway spalls, the finance guy moving money to fund flying ops, and the comm guy fixing the TACAN. These are what the support squadrons are actually there for, but you aren't a part of it and don't see it happening. This stuff happens everyday and you don't hear about it because it is done right the first time. And yes, I have seen the mission stop due to runway damage. Runway repair coordination with the Balad SOF was the best ops/support relationship I've ever seen. Our guys busted their ass to fix the runway to meet sortie times and the ops guys really took care of them. Back to reflective belts, we really need to stop calling each other out from an AFSC perspective. There are mission hackers and non-hackers in every career field. We need to unite the misson hackers and do away with the idiocy.

Summary... The AF donated/loaned a Twin Mustang to CAF in 1968. They changed their donation regulations in 1970 and now want the plane back. CAF flew it until the mid-80s when it was damaged, but they have almost returned it to flying status. The AF is now demanding that it be returned to the AF museum, which already has a Twin Mustang. Their primary reason is that they don't want it flying...seriously, would you rather see this thing at a museum or flying at an airshow? CAF Twin Mustang