Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I was going to say that you Google "life at Al Udeid Air Base" because that would be a sure-fire cure, and damned if they didn't actually make the place livable since my last deployment.

Bastards.

Still...the rule of 3 beers a day still applies.

 

Yeah, we at least have some delivery planes down there now so we are getting much closer than before

 

It’s Boeing, don’t get your hopes up.

 

When were you last there? Was early '17 for me, and its still disgusting. They have built a lot of new stuff, but its full of black mold already. Went to Kandahar from there on the same deployment, and would much rather be there.

 

If you have beer it’s not a deployment.

 

2006 was my first trip, and we nicknamed it the "world's largest American POW camp." Nothing but trailers and tents. We made shivs and our evenings at The Bra was "yard time." They build the giant dorms then, but hadn't figured out how to get the water to and from those buildings. They started building the new CAOC/ISRD, which would be much nicer than the CAOC/ISRD I was working in. Expected to be online by EOY 2007.

2009/2010 was my last trip (deployment #7). They had JUST opened the dorms, finished the CAOC/ISRD, and I had the privilege of moving into the new CAOC/ISRD. What a chore. Ended up with an MSM from that trip because of the insane amount of work my team was able to do. I literally had 2 1/2 pages of 1206 accompanying it up to the 3-star.

I slept when I got back home.

Literally 9 months later I caught orders for Bagram and dropped my retirement paperwork that day. 7 was enough - there wasn't gonna be a #8.

 

At least its in centcom. When I got out last year they were coding tdy orders to Guam as deployments, and people were getting dwell time from trips there. Now I will say, if you can go to a titty bar its not a deployment lol.

 

I was still staying in those same moldy trailers last year. They've built numerous other buildings, some never even opened because of half ass contracts. Aircraft maintenance was literally the last people to get out of those trailers, my last month there I got to move. I went to what they called "double stacks". Having running water in your building was amazing. That place is so screwed up.

 

I'm surprised I still have a liver after Bosnia. Multinational, led by Germans and Brits, so we drank to excess nightly.

THAT was a deployment. There were literally hundreds of thousands of ways to die littering the landscape. Between the snipers, land mines, snow, and roads, I'm happy to have made it out alive.

Best and worst 6 months of my life and I'll never forget what I saw.

 

Did 6 deployments to the deid. 4 to Dhafra. 1 to Manas. I would have rather went back to Manas every single time if I could. Saw some amazing airplanes come in there (as in, no idea how these things were still flying).

 

I LOVED Al Dhafra. I think it was because of Abu Dhabi. Locals were great and I had a great job (NCC Chief).

Just wished we could have our drinks at the cigar pit. Scotch and a cigar would have been perfect.

Loved watching the U-2 and Global Hawk takeoffs and landings. Caught a lot of those.

 

I still remember watching the U2s launch a cat 100 feet when it walked behind them doing a power run. Some of the best deployed memories were from there. When us tanker guys still had some sort of morale.

 

NKAWTG

I got you.







#nohomo

 

Oh yeah, after 6 years doing testing on the 787 and almost 2 on the KC-46 now I know exactly what to expect from this place.

 

"Executive ONE" with POTUS onboard, landing in Cleveland about 20 mins ago.

 

Is that a 767 or a 757?

 

757/C-32.

 

C-32 if we are splitting hairs. But 757-200. 767s are MUCH girthier. The new KC-46 is the only 767 based aircraft we have in the US inventory at this point.

 

757, the biggest tell is the nose looks like a beak where the radome is lower than the centerline of the tube.

 

Thanks all.

I didn't think it was a 767, but also didn't realize we had 757s in the fleet.

Add, sadly, I am not as familiar with airframes as I used to be...