Day 44-50/127 23-28 Oct 03 I'm at home in the UK so no blog. You wouldn't want to know what I'm getting up to anyway!
Day 51/127 29 Oct 03 Up at 0445 to catch my MT transport back to Brize Norton, it doesn't feel so bad because I pretty much know what to expect when I get back. I pick my weapon up from the guardroom (a shiny 9mm FN Browning), and am driven half asleep to Brize. The journey down is not too bad as me the MT driver swap stories and generally chew the fat. When I arrive at Brize it's time to check in my baggage, I have a few goodies for work (tea bags and stuff) and most imprtant of all; my guitar. I mention to check in girl that I am taking the guitar on as hand luggage and she promptly tells me that I have to check it in to hold luggage. I'm a bit peeved at this because I know how the civilian baggage handlers at BanjaLuka treat our stuff when it gets there, however, I have no choice in the matter so I hand it over and go sulk by the coffee machine. The flight is uneventful and we land at BanjaLuka International Airport in good time. The airport staff are hovering around waiting to unload the aircraft and I watch them like a hawk, my guitar comes off the aircraft and is hurled to the back of the transport . I am devastated because I know that the luggage of 60 or so people is going to end up on top of Jay (my guitar). Fortunately, out of nowhere like an angel, a member of the RAF handling team runs over and gives the guy what for, putting my guitar next to the van to be loaded on last. The coach loads up after our weapons are given back to us and we drive away with the Monarch Airlines Boeing 757 becoming something to look forward to in December. I get back, distribute all the goodies to the relevant people and get some sleep after watching a movie. Movie of the Day: Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers Fly's movie thought: "Must get some pointy ears for Mrs Fly" Look, the sections pet frog. {Will appear when Uploaded}
Day 52/127 30 Oct 03 The quietest day I have had since I got here. Wake up at 1000, pop into work to collect the duty phone at 1700. No flying today so no work. I do however begin "Operation Gym and Healthy Food" with a visit to the Gym and lots of fruit; I hate the idea already but I soldier on, with the aim of toning up and breaking the bad nutrition habits. Movie of the Day: Evil Dead 3, Army of Darkness (The Directors Cut) Fly's movie quote: "Gimme some sugar baby!" Anybody Home? hmmm, I guess not. {Will appear when Uploaded}
Day 53/127 31 Oct 03 First of two days off in a row, I wake up at 0830 to get some breakfast and a cup of tea before I go and do some snowchain training. As Bosnia is known for it's extreme weather the driving training has to reflect this, so if you ask for a vehicle after a certain date you need to be trained on how to fit snowchains. Yesterday I arranged to meet Jelle at 1020 outside my room for the walk down there for 1030, at 1025 I see him walking towards his room not in uniform. I start to doubt myself, thinking that perhaps the training was booked for tomorrow. I go and ask Jelle if it was booked for another day to him saying "s***, I forgot all about it!". He rushes to get ready and we get there 4 minutes late for a patronising MT training bloke to tell us that we are late and wil have to do it another time. Not a good start to the day. I wander into work, seeing that I'm all uniformed up, and see what's happening. I get roped into doing the afternoon shift, which I don't mind as I had nothing to do anyway. It's a quiet shift, with only the 25 Knot wind creating any excitement. After work I go to the mess for some food, trying to stick as best I can to the healthy eating regime I am following (the mess food has never been conducive to healthy eating with carbs, more carbs and fats). As it's Halloween there is a fancy dress party in Canada House so I get out of uniform and go down there. I don't have a costume to wear so I go in normal clothes, the costumes worth mentioning are; PortaLoo man (Man in a Box), Coffin Man (Man in a Black Box) and the Grim Reaper (a bathrobe and Aluminium Helicopter Repair Tape for a scythe). I get myself back to my room after a few drinks, watch a film and go to bed. Movie of the Day: The Art of War Fly's movie Thought: "Hmmm, film producers should realise that having millenium celebrations in a film guarantees to make it look dated in a few years." Aaaaargh! Helicopters everywhere! {Will appear when Uploaded}
Day 54/127 01 Nov 03 First of November, makes it sound like hometime is closer, I like that. Today I am off again, so I get up at an outrageous time, shower and have lunch. My mission today is to find a floppy disk I can use to transfer my blog from my laptop to the internet PCs, I manage to find an old Windows 95 Startup disk and block the write protection hole with some tape, success!! I spend some more time at work today, doing some form filling to claim back the petrol I put into the hire car I was given at Brize Norton to drive home in. One look at the paperwork I need to complete is enough to give me a headache, there are so many acronyms that me and Mike spend most of the afternoon trying to work it out. After a few hours I come to the conclusion that the form was created by Obtuso, the God of admin misunderstandings and confusion, in a clever ploy to reduce the amount of payments the MOD has to make out. I give up at 1700 and get some food. As it's saturday night, we cant help but go out to see whats happening around camp, not much to be honest, we settle for a social drink in the foundry where there is a disco going on. While in there we spot a Dutch girl with a short blonde mohican, I really can't believe that they let them cut thier hair into that extreme style. I give up staring at her hair when I notice that she is smiling back at me, I usually dress in a rocker come skater style I guess I am her type. A swift exit is required, not that she is ugly (I'm the faithful type), so I make my excuses and leave to watch yet another movie. Movie of the Day: I-Spy Fly's movie Thought: "Leave your brain in a box when you watch this movie and you will enjoy it!" Hey, that one has a nose! {Will appear when Uploaded}
I'm annoyed, I just wrote out three more days of blog and my CORIMEC lighting began to flash like xmas tree lights as the generators started to play up. Unfortunately my laptop battery is shagged so it keeps power for about ten minutes, not enough to process the pictures and save it all to disk. Looks like you will have 4 day's worth tomorrow.
Day 55/127 02 Nov 03 It's an afternoon shift today, I get up and take my gym kit to the laundry service after a quick shower and shave. I have to take my form into the Army cashiers for clarification on some of the acronyms and Army specific boxes I couldn't fill in. The Army Sgt in there is as unhelpful as an unhelpful person on National Unhelpful Day. I give up and submit it as it is, knowing that I will see it bounce back to me with the boxes I have not filled in properly highlighted, I really wonder sometimes how this place keeps working as well as it does. I have very few aircraft during my shift and a friend pops in to tell me about a battlefield visit he went on earlier in the month. They visited Bihac, an airfield I have shown you pictures of in this log (the Holed runway and mountainside caves), the aircraft in the caves were parked facing outwards, so when they were scrambled they would taxi out and reheat straight down the runway into the air, must have been amazing to see. After work I go to Canada house to meet up with the guys, for some reason they are putting Christmas decorations up, after taking the piss out of a few of them they tell me that it is for the messages they record to be broadcast on Canadian television over Christmas, so families can see thier loved ones. I go back to my "palace" and get some movie time and sleep. Movie of the Day: Last Man Standing Fly's movie Thought: I wish my pistol mag had that many rounds in it! The caves (Thanks to Rick for the Photo). {Will appear when Uploaded}
Day 56/127 03 Nov 03 Today I'm on the morning shift, I dash across to breakfast and get myself into the freezing cold tower. For the next couple of days some Army engineers will be dismantling a few old landing spots we don't use any more. They are disused because the local area is quite swampy, in fact, when you jump up and down on them murky water squirts through the joins in the metal. They are quite quick, but also quite messy, I spend most of the day worrying about what state they are going to leave the landing airfield in. After work I go my room and catch up on some sleep. At 1900 I go to a quiz night organised by 28 Squadron, my team wins the quiz and we donate al our winnings to the charity collection. From the squadron building I go to the internet cabin at about midnight, what happens next sours my mood and I am still peeved at. The state of the roads on unit are bad at the best of times, with potholes and random stones everywhere. I leave the cabin and wander back to my room in the poor lighting, loose my footing and feel my ankle twisting underneath me. I feel the ligaments stretch and am now sat on the floor rubbing my sprained ankle. I struggle back to my room and try to get my head down, with a throbbing ankle this proves to be impossible. I'm just glad I don't have to get up in the morning. Movie of the Day: Black Hawk Down Fly's movie Thought: If they didn't hover so much, maybe the RPGs wouldn't hit them! A Dutch Cougar. {Will appear when Uploaded}
Day 57/127 04 Nov 03 I don't sleep at all during the night, with shooting pains in my ankle, what else can go wrong? Just as I am thinking this the fire alarm sounds, I struggle to get out of bed, get my clothes on and try to fit my right shoe over my now swollen foot. I manage to get myself ready and take a step out of my CORIMEC, just as the cease alarm sounds, crud, I'm up now so I limp into work to get a cup of tea. The thing that upsets me the most is that i had just started a proper fitness routine, typical, I guess I will just have to skip the Gym for a little bit. While I am at work the Dutch cougar helicopter comes in for a reaction training day, not much really of interest there, just standard stuff. What is not standard is the 6ft blonde that steps off the helicopter in a flying suit, she is a flying medic (Aeromed) and I keep thinking to myself that I wouldn't mind her dropping in on me if I was ill. It would certainly cheer me up!!! The cougar leaves and in it leaves the blonde angel, with it leaves my cheery morning and the ankle pain seems to be there again, with nothing to distract me it feels like crap. Back to my room, feet up (literally) and as much sleep as possible. Movie of the Day: Ghost Dog Fly's movie Thought: Geriatric killer extraordinaire. If only we had aircrew like this. {Will appear when Uploaded}
Day 58/127 05 Nov 03 Day off today, last night I took some painkillers so I managed to get some sleep overnight. I must have needed the sleep because I wake up at 1145, any later and I would have missed lunch! I am a bit pissed off because I have not managed to upload some of my blog, this mainly due to the fact that the generator supplying power to my room seemed to have given up life last night, making our lights and power fluctuate continuously. I am bored towards the late stage of the day so I go into work to see what's going on. It's not busy, so I speak to my drafter (the guy in the UK who decides where I get posted and detached to) to find out who my replacement is. He tells me the name of the guy who is replacing me and tells me that he might be coming early so I may be home sooner than I think. In the same conversation my drafter also tells me that there is a possibility that I may be going to Iraq on my return... great! While I am at work the freakish weather of this country shows its stuff again, 1705 the visibility is about 7 kilometres, 1730 the visibility is 100 Metres, grounding everything and keeping aircraft away. We close up shop and adjourn to a quiz/pizza night being held in 28(AC) Sqn. The quiz night goes well, with my team winning the 60 Euro prize, between us we decide to donate it to the Squadron charity (a local girl with leukaemia) and there is much rejoicing! A limp back to my room followed by movie and sleep. Movie of the Day: The Recruit Fly's movie Thought: Analogue cordless phone handsets are so not CIA. The Fog.
Day 59/127 06 Nov 03 Second day off in a row today, I am not going to spend another day cooped up in my room so I get myself and Jelle put on a flight. The stops en route are Bugojno, Sarajevo, Rajlovic and Mostar. We don't really get long on the ground at each location, but each one has a little story. We arrive first at Bugojno, a Dutch base with no non-Dutch personnel, all we are here for is Fuel and Food, the relaxed attitude amongst the Netherlands’s finest is even more obvious here; an all-ranks mess, many people walking around with no headdress and overall a more friendly atmosphere. The food is unusual though, with "Dutch snacks" being the centre of the meal experience. Dutch snacks are a variety of deep fried food items (cheese filled pockets, sausages and other things of unknown content), I like them but frankly they are not filling enough. Jelle says goodbye to a few of his friends and we move on to our next stop. At Sarajevo we are greeted by a few US aircraft doing their stuff, two Blackhawks and an Apache are practicing formation flying and it all looks impressive, this adds a little excitement to the pilots of our aircraft who have to put extra work in avoiding them to land and take off. At Rajlovic we are greeted on the tower frequency by English with a definite familiar twang, my suspicions are confirmed when we taxi in front of the main building bearing the Italian Tricolour. I step of the aircraft with the confidence of a 5 Star General assuring all present that my knowledge of the Italian language will find us a cafe with suitable indigenous beverages. Moments later we are standing in the aptly name Cappuc-Inn; me swapping stories of Italy with the guy behind the bar while the others enjoy a hot cup hot of their finest cappuccino, resting on the stool by the bar is a copy of La Gazzetta Dello Sport... I feel like I'm back in Italy. We don't get long at Rajlovic, so I say goodbye to the Italian Captain we have befriended and off we go, once again avoiding the Blackhawks and Apache who seem to have followed us. Mostar is the final stop of our little jaunt, one paragraph can't really do justice to the stories this city is famous (or infamous perhaps) for. Mostar bridge (a historical bridge where opposition tanks, artillery and infantry shot at each other in one of the fiercest battles of the war) is the site we visit in the 30 minutes we have on the ground, it's former beauty being restored for all to see, the destruction around it is however still apparent with bullet and shell holes painting the scenery. We drive back as quickly as we arrive, with the juxtaposition of minefields and houses in the centre of town creating a sombre image of the aftermath of war, words can't really describe what I am feeling, so I won't try. We arrive back at the aircraft and start the long journey home, climbing to 9000ft to fly above the weather, en route we stop at Sarajevo again to pick someone up, it's dark and I fall asleep on the way back. When we do get back I eat some food and settle down to watch a film, the excitement of the day helped me forget the ankle pain, that is a good thing, I say to myself. Movie of the Day: D-Tox Fly's movie Thought: At least Sly didn't get his butt out in this one... Mostar Bridge. {Will appear when Uploaded}
If some of you were interested in what our aim is here, this is the official speel: hmmm... still awake?
