Flying My Face Off!

Hello All!!!

It has been entirely too long since my last post, so let me try to sum up everything that I have neglected to share with you over the past month or so. I am finally in the flight company! I moved out of HHC about three weeks or so ago and became a platoon leader in Bravo Company- the Chinook company in the Battalion. life is awesome working in this company. I get to fly about three times a week, which is nice, but there are also a lot of new and exciting challenges outside of that as well.

This first picture is of the office that the two other platoon leaders and I share every day. Its quaint, and difficult to manage three people and two computers, but we make it work out. It didn't used to look like this either. Once I got to the company we did some rearranging so that we could get a little more organized. Off to the right, which you can't really see, are two fridges stocked with every kind of drink imaginable. Except alcohol, of course, because that is not allowed.

This is a picture of the outside of the office area. If you can see the red fire extinguisher, that is where the door is to get into the office from the first picture. We sit out here sometimes and eat and chill out before and after missions. Its starting to get a little cold, though, so we stick to the indoors for the most part.

This last picture is of the artwork that is on all of our aircraft now. Though our Battalion Commander didn't like it too much, we love ourBlackcats logo shown proudly on our aft pylons. One of the Warrant Officers in the company is artistic so he developed a two part stencil that is used to create this image on both sides of the aircraft. Also, the crew members put reflectivetape over the cat's eyes so that they glow at night. Pretty awesome stuff.

Well, other than the normal day to day monotony of Iraq, everything is going well. I really appreciate all of the boxes and letters I have been getting! It means a lot to know that you all are thinking about me.

I'll update again soon, I promise.

--Don