TRANSPORT TO BASE #1 (7/8/09)

So the plane finally came around 3ish I guess. We stopped paying attention. Went for lunch, then hung out in the waiting room until 1:30. Then a cute little girl from a nearby building came in and told us to come hang out with them.










(I think she and her fellow female soldier liked the band members! A change of scenery was nice, and the “snack bar” where they were was WAY more interesting than the boring old waiting room with Pleasantville playing! So we played a little darts, watched them play Fight Club on X-Box, and chatted a ton. Took some pictures and hung out for an hour or so, then it was time to go.

We suited up in our Kevlar vests and helmets (boy those suckers are heavy!) and hopped on a bus to headed out to the C130 that would take us to our next base.



It’s a big plane, and I expected to be getting on through the ramp in the tail, I was disappointed that we got on from the side like a “regular” plane, BUT it was a super cool cargo carrying plane with seats along the side walls and lots of space in the middle.

COOL! It was SO MILITARY! We’re taking pictures (after being sure it was ok) and Robi was getting posters signed, telling the crew who was on the plane and generally getting ready for flight. Then Robi comes and gives us the “come here” finger to me and Nicole and leads us up to the cockpit where we sit in the seats in the cockpit behind the pilots. NO WAY! That’s SOOOOO cool!


We’ve got the best view in the house. As we’re taxing around to take off, the flight commander guy (not the pilots, not sure that’s the right name for him) tells us we can take off our Kevlar and stand up and watch if we want! COOOOOOL! Then he gives us a HEADSET so we can talk to the pilots once we take off. AWESOME! This just keeps getting better and better.

The pilots were really cool guys, Marines who had been there for 5 months, and were headed home in a month. We talked about how they lived in a bubble practically, with no cultural experience at all! Every single Marine I talk to has a very intelligent, well thought out opinion and thoughts about the war, the Iraqis and our position there. It’s very impressive.
Then, while Nicole is talking on the headset, she motions for me to get up there, and the co-pilot gets up and GIVES ME HIS SEAT! HOLY CRAP! I get to sit in a pilots seat! I promise not to touch anything, and the pilot tells me specifically which ones not to touch, and what they do. Cutting off fuel was a “don’t touch.” Yeah, got it! So we chat for a few minutes, and then the pilot says, “this is getting boring. Put your hands on the yolk.” Ok, I’m not sure if that’s how you spell it. It’s the handlebars of the aircraft. I know that’s not how you say it, but you get what I mean. The steer-er! He wants me to steer the C130 taking the whole running staff, the band and all of our gear, including 5 of America’s finest Marines. I object a little, but I’ve tried that before with Marines and it didn’t worth then either. (not convincing?) Next thing I know I’m being instructed to keep the dotted ball inside the solid ball in the heads up display in front of me, and he’s explaining about tilt and yaw and the artificial horizon (I hear it’s better than the REAL horizon!) and all that. I’m flying this bird! He had the thusters and power and speed and all that on auto-pilot, and of course, his yolk was right there if I decided to do a barrel roll, but as far as I know, he didn’t use it. I was steering the thing…..for like 45 minutes!! We’re chatting about the Steelers and Pittsburgh and how Ed Tomlin (Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s brother) sit’s right next to me while I’m flying the plane. HOLY CRAP! That was just so cool!

So I landed the plane in….no, I didn’t! He joked about making me, and made me quite nervous, but thankfully the Marines flying out C130 had BRAINS and they didn’t let me. As we were talking (I was still driving) he said “so where are you going?” I said “I don’t know! I’m just keeping the dotted ball inside the solid ball!” and we laughed and joked a bit more, and he said “no really, where are you going this week” and I said “seriously, I have no idea!” We hadn’t been told yet! Plans are fluid. We knew that from the beginning, and according to Op Sec (Operational Security) they couldn’t tell us. So we followed orders (I kept the dotted ball inside the solid ball) and they took us where we needed to go.
And in the meantime, told us that we were way cooler than the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders who were here last week. I thought that was pretty cool!
So we finally arrived (I was safely back in my passengers seat behind the pilots), dropped our cargo (the bands gear and all of our luggage) and got to exit the C130 out of the back ramp of the aircraft! You know the big wide ramp that they always have mid-air flights on in the action movies?! Very cool! So that was the best flight I’d ever been on! It just kept getting better and better.