Ferry flight from BAF to BAFB--Days 1-3

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DAY 1: 4 July

After a few days of adjusting my schedule about 12 hours and readying/studying/learning how to fly an aircraft in a location other than California or Afghanistan, I reported to the squadron for an early morning departure for our trip home. We left on the 4^th of July and the prospect of ending the day outside of Afghanistan made it feel like Independence Day indeed. It started out inauspiciously with an aborted start resulting in a really high turbine temperature. We got that sorted and began the trip out of Bagram down to Kandahar. I was sitting back in the TSO seat for the first leg and it was strange flying out of Bagram as a passenger. I can’t say I was sad to see Bagram out the back window, but I definitely will miss all the people that I met on this deployment and I hope that our paths will cross again, but in a much better location and far better circumstances the next time around.

Last view of BAF out my window

BAF from the air

Our sister ship at KAF

 Our first leg to Kandahar was really easy and we landed at KAF to refuel and quickly turn the jet around to head off to Al Udied. In order to get to the Died we have to pass through parts of Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. There are loads of aircraft taking this route every day and it is done through a process of procedural control where there is a particular way to fly this route and, without any radar or ATC, every aircraft follows the same procedures and controls themselves. We jettisoned our flares over the gulf and then when we landed in Al Udied it was 45 deg Celsius. By the time we were ready to take off again it was all the way up to 50 degrees. How could you possible spend an extended amount of time in that horrible place...

Over the Persian Gulf

Flying into the Died

It was finally my turn to fly and so I took off from Al Udied for our last leg to Kuwait. The best part of the leg was hearing my Basic Training roommate Vicki on the radio. Her 135 was coming back in to Al Udied after her mission that day and it was great hearing her over the radio. The flight was smooth until we came in for landing. The field didn’t have any instrument approaches because all of the NAVAIDs were out and so we had to fly visual. That’s not much of a problem is you know the field and the area but they descended us to 5000’ AGL about 40 miles out and so we couldn’t see the field to save our lives. Finally there is a town on the approach corridor that you’re supposed to avoid overflying so we were swerving around on final to avoid that. Finally there was a cable on the runway that my MC couldn’t see so he was coaching me to land before it and I had to ignore him and land past where I knew the cable was despite what he was telling.

We got on the ground eventually and waited for our ride in the hot hot sun for quite a while. When it finally arrived it took us to lodging and after some disorganization we got our bedding, got into our tents, and made our way to chow. The chow hall was way nicer than the Bagram DFACs and it was a nice introduction back into the real world. Not quite there yet, but better. After dinner I went online and got to actually talk to Vicki and confirm it was indeed her, talked to a few other people, and then headed off to bed for an early morning wakeup and the next leg.

Tent City at Ali Al Salem

Ali al Salem

DAY 2: 5 July

An early wakeup in Kuwait was required to help beat the heat so we took off before the temp grew too high. Which was good because we were ready to get out of the Middle East. The approach into Jordan was pretty cool, with rising terrain in front of the airfield guiding use down and in for the landing. We didn’t stay on the ground too long because we needed to ensure that we fit into our launch window because getting clearance through Israel can apparently be a real problem.

We took off from Jordan and almost immediately crossed the border into the West Bank, flying past the Dead Sea to our south. We flew over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and while I wasn’t talking on the radios throughout the leg my MC did allow me to steal the final radio call on Tel Aviv Center so that I could wish the controller “erev tov ve Shabbat shalom.” She was surprised to hear the American voice speaking Hebrew for sure.

Flying over the Dead Sea

We then got out of the Med and had a whole lot of blue between us and Crete. Once we got past all that water we flew along the north side of Crete with the island to our South. NAS Souda Bay is on the side of a large bay and the whole approach (for which there was no RADAR and no valid instrument approaches) was along the bay over the water. We didn’t come over land until about a mile final and it was an absolutely beautiful approach.

Approach into Crete

It took us a while to get everything sorted, change into civilian clothing (because we weren’t allowed offbase in uniform) and make our way down to Chania, the town in which we were staying. By the time we got there we were starving and we got a restaurant recommendation from the hotel staff and walked down to the Russian Port. We had a great dinner, I had lamb in tomato sauce with raisins and yogurt, and a nice Greek beer. It was a great “first meal” post deployment and the restaurant was really nice. After dinner we wandered around the port area then sat on the water for another drink before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Greek Orthodox Church in Chania

Venetian Port in Chania

Greek meal and first beer!

DAY 3: 6 July

Because we had a short leg today we took our time in the morning and had a few hours between when I woke up and when we needed to leave. I wandered down to the port and stumbled upon a Fort overlooking the water. The port area was earily quiet after the business of the night prior but that’s unsurprising due to it being a Sunday morning. Everyone was either hungover and inside, or in church, so the morning was quiet and I just wandered around exploring a bit. We had breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the base. We arrived to learn that our Flight Plan had been kicked back because of an error, and we corrected it but it got kicked back two or three more times because of silly little issues. When we finally got off the ground we flew, again over the water the whole way, into Sicily. We made the visual approach into Sigonella and had a bit of a “landing competition.” I put the aircraft down EXACTLY where the MC asked me to.

View overlooking Chania

View from Firkas Fortress

Lighthouse in the port

Terminal at Sigonella

View of Mt Etna

We again took the recommendation of the hotel concierge and were rewarded with an amazing Sicilian meal. It was a multi-course meal that was incredible! It began with bread and red wine, then the antipasti course had a bunch of unidentifiable but amazing choices. Next was a bruschetta platter, followed by some pasta in both alfredo and meat sauce. The next course was a plate of meat with some veal and sausage with potatoes. Finally the dessert arrived as a bowl of fresh fruit, including pears, plums, cherries, and apricots, and a plate of incredible canolis. We were all stuffed by the end but it was the first genuinely satisfying meal I’ve had in 6 months and the fact that it was eaten with Mt Etna in view was just the icing on the cake.

We got back to the hotel and after chatting with a bunch of people back to BAF and talking with Mom and Abba without ruining the surprise I went to sleep in an amazingly comfortable hotel bed.