Things that fly

G'day everyone. Practicing my Aussie speak, since Simon sits right next to me. We caught him using southern speak today as he was chastising us for our poor English. Over the past several posts, I have been sending pictures of buildings and such. This time I thought I'd send a couple of pictures of things we have added to the culture -- things that fly.

The first picture is of a Blackhawk (UH-60) helicopter. I've flown all over the area in the back seat of one of these, and regard those as some of my more fun times over here. I even have some movie footage of some of those flights, if you ask sometime when I'm home.

Well, Angie can attest to the fact that I have gotten used to having things flying over me, as she's been subjected to it on many occasions while talking to me. Can anyone tell me how many helicopters will fly over at any moment in time? I bet she could! If you look at the picture below, it is a good indicator of that number. The only exception is the Apache helicopters, which I have yet to capture on FLASH.



These things are incessant. I can see or hear them almost every minute of every day. The fact I happen to live by the airport over here doesn't help, as it's the central dropoff point for just about everyone from anyplace. If they don't have their own landing strip, they use a helicopter. They are the unsung heros of this war -- the helicopter bus driver...

Now this one is one most of you have probably never seen. They are on duty 24x7, being tethered baloons, or blimps. They are used for surveillence and have lots of functions specific to force protection. I can see about 5 of these on a clear day. These are quiet, and you see the blinking warning lights at night.



Now, I have seen these up close, as my job over here last fall included the installation of some gear in the base station to transport information over to the hill for dissemination. No, I won't get into any detail, but lets just say it was interesting to see what they could do, and how they were used. I still like networking better!

Not a lot of detail. I'm home in less than 40 days for three weeks. I'll be ready for a little piece and quiet, with only the dog to bug me. We'll see which one of us sleeps more during the day!