RickM

This is the real deal; this email come from an F-14 pilot aboard the USS Carl Vinson. It went to my cousin (a retired Navy man), who forwarded it to me. Long, but worth the read; I didn't think it my place to do any editing. (when I first posted this, I said the author was my cousin's daughter's fiancee, but I misread the email that sent this to me. Sorry for any confusion).

> Happy Thanksgiving (belated) everybody! For
>Thanksgiving, the ship dressed up the wardroom, dimmed down the lights and
>put out a nice T-day spread and, for a brief moment, it was almost like
>being home. Sure it was. I don't know too many folks who live in a gray tin
> can with 5,500 other roommates but what can you do! We had flights later
>in the day scheduled, so scores of aircrew had to fight off the triptofan
>nods during their 6 hour flights over Afghanistan. Can you see the
>headlines now? "US Fighter Down Over Afghanistan. Turkey Overdose
>Suspected. Should Have Gone For The Dry Ham." I was able to call home and
>chat briefly with Mackenzie (and Sara and Delaney, of course) who filled
>me in on the untimely passing of her second fish. "It's OK Daddy. We'll
>get another one." It was a great day. The flights over Afghanistan
>continue. The country's landscape reminds me of northern Nevada (without
>the casinos). As you cross over the southern border with Pakistan, you are
>met by hundreds of miles of desert. After the "Desert of Death" (as the
>charts call it), you get into rolling hills and occasional 2000' mountain
>ranges. From about mid-Afghanistan and north, the country turns into dark
>brown mountains that max out around 13,000 feet. Snow tops a majority of
>these peaks which remind me off the area surrounding Fallon, NV (one of
>our training areas). As you near the northern border by the -stans (Uzbeki
>and Turkmeni), the mountains start easing off and work down back into
>light brown, sandy plains. Off to the northeast are big snow-capped ranges
>that reach up to 25,000 feet. Overall, extremely rugged looking terrain in
>Afghan. To date, I have not seen one tree. The rural areas are littered
>with villages that are filled with collections of roofless, four walled
>structures that appear to be abandoned. The "cities" are completely
>unremarkable and colorless with no structure being any taller than 2
>stories. The only color I've seen in these cities besides the ever present
>light brown hue is the occasional red streak coming from the Taliban
>gunners as they open up with their anti aircraft artillery. There is
>some farm land present, but it is infrequent and minimal. In a nutshell,
>Afghanistan is a giant pile of brown to light brown rocks that is bordered
>to the south and north by huge deserts and bordered to the east by an even
>bigger pile of rocks. The only signs of life that I have seen are vehicles
>(Toyota appears to be the SUV of choice) moving on one of the country's
>three main highways, some lights in the smaller towns at night and Taliban
>tough guys running from their convoy of military vehicles right before
>multiple weapons impacts. The bombs keep falling on the Taliban.
>Sometimes you get in country and drop, sometimes you can't. As you can
>gather from all of the news coverage, the ground picture is changing
>radically and as a result, the air strike players are a bit more
>restrained. That's OK though because it serves to further cut the Air
>Force out of the picture. Designed to fight a war against an immobile enemy
> with fixed targets, the USAF is having a hard time with this fluid
>battlefield stuff, scenarios to which the USN/USMC routinely train. I'm
>sure they'll do fine when they get their 13,000 foot runways built
>in.....oh, that's right they don't have any runways nearby. Guess those
>boys should have invested in some carrier decks a few years back. Realize
>that the previous statements are heavily biased and ridiculously true.
>A few funny stories for you before I sign off. Talked previously about the
>air to air refueling that goes on over here. Over time, you get a feel for
>who the cool tanker drivers are and who the dolts are. The dolts? Air Force
> guys, of course. Love all the gas they carry, but they have no personality
> whatsoever (big shocker there). Cool tanker guys? The Royal Air Force!
>Love these guys. They will always go the extra mile (literally) to make
>sure you get your gas when and where you need it. The RAF tankers are
>ALWAYS on station and on time. Apparently, the F-14 is their favorite
>platform so as an added benefit post tanking, you can pull up along side
>the pilot's window and he'll shove some literature up against the window
>for your perusal (your guess on the type of literature displayed). A
>few days ago, we were directed to hang on this RAF tanker's wing until we
>received mission tasking. After about 10 minutes, I decide to strike up a
>conversation with the crew (we monitor the same frequency while getting
>gas) to kill time. Thus began the comedy. After a 30 minute exchange of
>good hearted jabs, the pilot delivered a challenge to our flight of two.
> But first, let me explain a little bit about inflight refueling. As I
>have mentioned earlier, to get gas airborne we have to put out a refueling
>probe which extends out from the right side of the jet about 2 feet
>outboard and forward of the pilot's head. The tanker is dragging a 20 foot
>hose which ends in a basket that looks similar to a badminton "birdie".
>The basket is about 2 feet in diameter. Now the hard part of tanking at
>300 MPH is getting in the basket, because as you near the basket, the air
>disturbance created by the nose of your jet causes the basket to move up
>and away from you. Also thrown into the moving basket equation is general
>air turbulence, as well as the "ham fist" of the pilot who is flying the
>tanker. Sometimes you get in the first time, sometimes it takes a couple
>of stabs. Where was I? Oh yeah, so this RAF guy says, "If you F-14
>chaps are truly America's Finest Fighter Aircraft (my quote from a
>previous discussion), then you should have no problem getting into the
>basket first time, right?" I respond with, "Yeah, I usually bat about .900
>with these poorly designed Brit baskets. The problem is that when I get in
>close, find myself thinking about Margaret Thatcher naked, get sick to my
>stomach and miss the basket. Tell you what, we'll put a case of beer on
>both Tomcats getting in the first time." Did I mention that he's flying a
>DC-9 type tanker where a basket comes off of each wing tip which
>exacerbates (thankyou thesaurus) the turbulence problem by virtue of the
>rough air flow over the wingtip? Screw it. Bet's on. The call finally
>comes for us to go hit some targets and it's time to get topped off.
>Pressure's on. I head over to the tanker's left wing, my wingman over to
>his right and as we are closing in I tell my wingman, "Now Moses, as you
>get in close, try not to think about all of the great English warriors of
>the past: the Spice Girls, Boy George, Wham UK, and Dame Edna. Just free
>your mind and be the basket." A couple of corrections later and just as
>I plug (on the first attempt) I scream over the radio, "Revolutionary War,
>baby!" "Moses" was good on his first attempt so the final score was US-2,
>England-0. I doubt we'll see the beer but who would want a case of ****ty
>warm Brit beer anyway. Speaking of beer, somewhere in the Navy
>regulations it's written down that for every 45 consecutive days that you
>spend at sea without a port call, you rate two beers. Two weeks ago, they
>broke out 10,000 beers for the crew to tear into for this deployment's
>first of many "beer days". With beer day fast approaching, multiple
>discussions erupted in the Ready Room over how to best maximize the beer
>day allotment. Do you starve yourself for two days to increase the "buzz"
>potential? How about giving blood 2 hours prior to assist in decreasing
>the amount of blood in your alcohol system? Do you nurse your two beers
>over a two hour span or just chug 'em and ride the wave? Which type of
>beer gives you the most bang for the buck? Fosters? Yengling? MGD? All
>very important and crucial questions. After much mental anguish and
>repeated calls to the flight surgeon inquiring about blood donor
>opportunities, I decided on the "full fed, Fosters chug" gameplan. Rumor
>has it that over 22,000 beers were killed. Hmmm....5,500 person crew, 2
>beers per person....... hey...... someone went through the line more than
>once! No comment. Only 20 days until our next beer day, so I will take
>inputs on any improvements to my gameplan! One last thing before I
>complete my novella...... Please remember in your thought and prayers
>every single enlisted Sailor that is slugging it out here on the USS TR.
>The aviator types have it easy in that we get to leave this ship for 6 fun
>filled hours to fly into a foreign hostile land and blow stuff up. We have
>variety and excitement in our days. Think of that 19 year old kid up on
>the flight deck 17 hours a day, fixing the same jets day in and day out
>while maintaining the same daily routine. Imagine doing that for over
>70 days straight (only two days off in the last 6 weeks). He looks forward
>to 4 things: 1) getting off his feet for 5 minutes, 2) eating bland Navy
>chow, 3) sleeping in a cluttered space shared by 239 other Sailors and 4)
>port calls. His variety and excitement comes mainly during inport visits
>and, to date, we have had none and oh, by the way, there isn't one in the
>near or even distant future. They are the real heroes of Operation
>Enduring Freedom because it is through their efforts that we are able to
>launch and ultimately defend American shores. Through it all, you rarely
>hear one complaint from these kids despite the fact that they are working
>harder than anyone on this planet in the most dangerous "office space" on
>Earth, the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Hope this email finds
>you all safe and having a great Holiday Season. Don't worry about us, we
>are doing great out here. I can honestly say that there is no other place
>in the world I'd rather be than right here, right now, sticking it to the
>Taliban.

A18T

thanks for the post...hope they get em soon, every1 deserves to be home for xmas

Trey R

Great letter. Thanks!