Al Udied...and finally into Afghanistan

Al Udied Air Base. It's a Lovely place.....for a Camel! It's hot, it's sandy, it's not the ideal place in the world one might say. I have to say though, people have lived there for thousands of years so evidently, they see something there that I do not. Anyhow, we landed in Al Udied, Qatar after a rather uneventful flight over. The highlight of this flight was that we flew over the Mediterranean Sea, right along the coast of Libya, which you may have heard about recently in the news, over the country of Egypt and Saudi Arabia and finally into Qatar. The landscape was nothing too exotic; sand, sand, and more sand. The Nile River in Egypt was about the only green area we saw during the 8 hour flight. Landing in Qatar was quit an experience itself. The visibility over here in the Middle East is typically much less than what we are used to in the United States. When we landed, the visibility was a little under 2 miles and the winds were howling at around 35mph. Like previously at Lajes, a more exciting landing than normal but whatever; it's part of the deal over here. After getting out of the jet, the heat and dust hit me like a wall. Blowing sand and dust is not cool. It's everywhere. Hair, shoes, socks, pockets, ears, finger nails, you name it, it's in there. Once getting all our bags unpacked, we were greeted by 2 A-10 pilots that were there working at Al Udied as the Air Liaison Officers for the 75EFS that was working at Kandahar at the time. The LNO as it's called in Pilot speak, is a conduit of information between the war planner's up at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) there at Al Udied Air Base, Qatar, and the fighter squadrons based in the hostile countries executing the mission. I served as an LNO for 3 weeks during my previous deployment in 2006. It's kind of a nice break because at Al Udied, you can drink 3 beers a day, plus they have a pool and several other nice amenities that we do not have downrange in Afghanistan or Iraq. Back to this trip, so we got our stuff out of the jets and headed towards customs to immigrate into Qatar. The process was relatively simple and painless which was a surprise to us. The majority of people who come in there do not fly themselves into the country so they usually harass pilots for not having the "normal" documentation, etc. But, we had a senior enlisted guy to help us out which made life easier. After going through customs, it was time to grab some grub and head to the tent to get some sleep...but our last beer for 7 months also had to have a place on the priority list. The chow hall at Al Udied was amazing. Please know that your tax dollars are being spent on some top notch food! After dinner, it was time to hit the sack in our tent. Surprisingly, it was pretty comfortable even though I was sleeping in the same area as 12 other dudes. The next day, I had a down day as my cell of 6 A-10's had to wait an additional day to be able to move into theatre, so we spent it just walking around the the base and checking it out. After an early night, it was up again at 230AM to make our takeoff time to bring the jets into Afghanistan. Waking up early and trudging over to the community bathroom, I was quickly jolted by the sight of a grown man trying to shave his own back. I know gross, but imagine my thought being freshly removed from the luxuries of America and walking in a community bathroom in the Middle East at 230AM and seeing this. I actually laughed to myself and realized that this is my life for the next 7 months. Get used to it. After a quick bite to eat, it was back through customs and then out to the jets. This time, unlike previous legs of the trip over, we had to arm with our 9mm handguns and carry all our classified info and gear since we'd be going into bad guy land. It was a good feeling to be approaching the end of the journey over. After taking off and after 10 minutes of trying to understand what the air traffic controller was saying to us, we got our initial vector towards Afghanistan. We flew directly over the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and got to see the Palm Island, World Islands, and worlds tallest building. The UAE is a desert much like the rest of the countries over here, but it is actually developed. Right down there in the middle of the desert is this HUGE metropolis of buildings and development. Once I get home in the fall, I'll have to share some pictures with you to give you a better perspective. After only 1 air to air refueling, it was time to go into Pakistan, then up into Afghanistan. We armed up the countermeasures system on our jets just in case some little bad guy wanted to take a pop shot at us. Flying north into Afghanistan our tactical air display started to have all sorts of traffic on it. It was the many UAV's and other air assets patrolling the skies over Afghanistan. As we approached Kandahar, the 6 A-10's we were replacing we're climbing out to start their own journey, only there's would take them home to South Georgia. We saw them on our displays. The flight lead of those 6 A-10's sent me a message (yes we can send text messages in our jet...no, not to your cell phone though). His message was plan and clear; "See ya in the fall men. Happy Hunting and Godspeed"