I guess since I've told Carol about what happened the other day it is time to post the pictures to the blog. I need to give you a little background on what happened so it will make a little more sense.

We tend to get more stuff (mortars, rockets, etc.) thrown at us when the weather deteriorates. Seems the insurgents know we're not flying and feel that they are in a better position to attack because of that. So the morning of the 10th I was sleeping in my trailer when the shit hit the fan. From what I can piece together the attack consisted of (3) 107mm rockets. I kinda remember the first two hitting off in the distance. Must be the sound of them coming in started to wake me. Then I heard a loud explosion and felt the concussion wave through the air and the trailer shook pretty good. There was a bunch of rocks thrown onto the roof so it added to the noise. Its hard to explain but you feel the over pressurization in the air when it goes off. It feels like you are being squeezed by the air. A strange feeling to say the least. So I'm laying there in bed when I notice I'm feeling wet and cold. No, I didn't piss the bed because that would have been a warm fuzzy feeling. I learned a valuable lesson that day. "Do not leave an open can of soda on the head board of the bed". What happened was the shock wave knocked the can off into the bed with me and it was draining. Thank god it was a diet soda because you know how I hate "sticky". I got up, went outside to see what happened only to find that a rocket hit 120' from the trailer. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt. 3 people got hit by flying debris. One guy had to get a couple stitches but that was it. The following photos show some of the damage caused. Remember if you click on the pictures it will bring up a larger image.



This picture was taken about 5:30 AM the morning of the attack. I had just got done talking with Carol and was on my way to bed. We were in middle of a dust storm so we had the planes on the ground. I took this picture from the front of my trailer. I thought it looked kind of pretty. 3 hours later it wasn't.


This was taken from the entrance to my trailer. (Just to the left of me) Its 120' to the point of impact from here. The soldiers are looking into the hole the rocket left in the ground. The trajectory brought the rocket in from the right side of the picture, and focused the blast energy up and to the left.

This is part of the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) response team. They send in the robots to check items that don't explode. There are more rockets and mortars that do not detonate than do. So these little machines get a good workout. Today though that was not the case.

Here is a shot with the bomb dog. He is trained to find explosives. There weren't any left from this one. You can see the roof of my trailer in the upper right corner of the picture. It is the one with the white peaked corragated roof.. It is kind of freaky that most of the blast energy is directed up and forward of the rocket. Hole in the ground was only about 18" in diameter. and a couple feet deep.

The blast took out two trailers. Blew in the doors and walls and peppered them shrapnel. This is the trailer on right side. The blast originated from in front of where these guys are standing.

This is the left side trailer across from the previous picture. The blast crushed in the door.

This is the right trailer from the opposite end. The rocket impacted down where the people are standing.

The left trailer from the other end

This is one of the lockers that was in the trailer. Its got a few holes through it.

Night shot of right trailer

Night shot of left trailer

This concrete pillar is what they call a"T" barrier. They look like a upside down "T". The barriers took the brunt of the blast and have pieces chipped away from them. I can't imagine what the shock wave damage would have been if the barrier wasn't there.

Right side barrier

Left side barrier

This is what I was talking about earlier. This is where I put my soda can while I watch movies on my computer. The can actually sits back far enough that it tips toward the wall. It took a pretty good shock to trip it forward into the bed.

When I came into work that night the status board had been updated with the latest event in our adventure. Dave had been siiting on the shitter when it went off. He heard it zoom over head. The guys thought it was funny that I got dowsed with Pepsi.

I have a lot more pictures but it takes forever to load them from here. When I get home I'll show them to you all.

Update: Here is a picture of the same type of rocket that hit us. This one impacted 30' from from the trailers our sensor guys live in. Good thing it didn't go off.

This might give you an idea how big the plane is. I'm working on an avionics problem. Not a lot of room to remove parts. 

 

I bought some flags to send up on a combat mission. These will be presented to family and friends when I get home.













Here is the "travelin' penguini" getting ready for his 1st combat mission. He rode along with the flags that flew on Nov. 6










Check it out. Penguini had his own little capsule that he flew in.

This is our GCS - ground control station. It is set on a Humvee chassis.














This is our GDT - ground data terminal. Its an antenna system that we use to control the plane.

IGNAT taking off. An IGNAT is basically a predator that we make for the Army. It has a few differences in the avionics package thats about it.

Here are the planes all ready to go.

This is how we ship the planes. They're taken apart and get packed up in fibreglass containers. it takes about 8 hrs to put together and do the ops checks.

We arrived in theatre just after midnight. The plane was unloaded in about 30 mins. and they took off for Kuwuit.

Just before we entered Iraqi airspace we had to put on our kevlar vests and helmets. This thing weighs a ton with the ballistic plates in it.

London Skyline looking across the Thames river

Another view of tower bridge 

This is the "tower bridge". I guess this is what is now known as London bridge. 

Here we are at Picadilly Circus. I guess this is the time square of London

The palace guards

The gate at Buckingham palace

Penguini at Buckingham palace

Big Ben

The plane had some minor electrical problems on the trip over so we had to divert to RAF Mildenhall for 2 days. Can't say I didn't enjoy the layover. London is about 1 hour away by train so Ryan and me spent a day touring the city. Of course the "travlin' penguini" said he wanted to go also.

This is a shot of the inside of the C17

This is the plane we fly overseas on. Its a C17 transport from Washington state. This is what replaced the C141 Starlifter that the Air force used for about 40 yrs. Its a lot bigger inside than it looks.

Sunrises in the desert can be pretty dramatic. (a little help from photoshop doesn't hurt either) 

This is where I work. Basically I'm in the middle of the desert in California. In the background you can see the Gray Butte flight test facility. This is where they fly the predator A & B models from after final assembly and testing. 

Here he is "The Travelin' Penguini" He will accompany me on the road to help document my latest adventure. Carol bought him for me when it looked like I was going to be working for Raytheon and traveling to Antartica for a job.