Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well, planes and helicopters anyway.

In many of these posts I talk about C-23 Sherpas, C-12's, UH-60 Black Hawks, CH-47 Chinooks, C-130's and all the other fun and exciting modes of transportation I've flown on since arriving here. Here's a few pics for the visual among you.

This baby is a C-12, and my favorite ride. I flew this down to Baghdad and back. When we got stuck and extra night at another site the day before the execution this is what they sent the next day to bring us home. The Baghdad trip it was just my Chaplain Assistant, me, and the pilots. We had three others on the other trip. Actual seats; no web seats! It's usually reserved for General Officers, but like the old saying goes, "It's not what you know, it's who you know."


This is the UH-60 Black Hawk. This picture was taken a while back on a round robin trip including Tallil, Diwaniyah, and Al-Kut. If you remove the flag and the people you would see a red cross on a white background. This is one of our medevac birds. These guys are the true hero's out here.





This is a C-130. C-130 is Native American for "Big, ugly, loud, uncomfortable bird that must be avoided at all costs". My initial flight from Kuwait was in one of these, and several of my flights out of Tallil have been in one of these bad boys as well. You know it's going to be less than first class when they have to unload three or four pallets of gear so you can climb in and strap yourself to web seating.





This is a C-23 Sherpa. I did not take this picture; I captured it from the Internet. These things are so damn ugly that I was afraid I would break my camera if I took a picture of it. These are called "flying boxcars". Can you guess why? Still it's a better ride than the C-130.

Well, I've tried posting the picture of the CH-47 Chinook several times, but Blogger doesn't seem to like it. Maybe there are too many pics in this post. I'll post it tomorrow, because I'm late to hook up with a few friends on the way to chow!