Update from the Desert

An update for y'all from Brian's Officer in Charge (OIC):

Spouses, Family and Friends of Sumo’s deployed to Afghanistan,

We are now over a third of the way into the deployment and things are going exceptionally well.  Both aircrew and maintenance are working long, hard days.  In the month of July we flew over 800 hrs, well above average for a detachment our size.  The current pace of operations shows no sign of slowing, which is not a bad thing as the first two months have passed by quickly.

Summer is in full swing here, daytime temperatures are now between 105-117.  We don’t have the humidity of Okinawa, but 115 is still pretty hot.  It hasn’t rained once since we arrived, and in our normal area of operations it is seldom that we even see clouds.  We are looking forward to next month as things should start to cool down.

On 1 August, the Marines of VMGR-252 conducted a RIP (Relief in Place).  The new VMGR OEF Commander, Maj John Butler, has integrated the units well and the great working relationship we had with the previous Det continues.  After two months we are somewhat tired, so having some new energetic personnel has been welcomed.  Due to the RIP, many of our VMGR-152 maintainers have re-positioned to FOB (Forward Operating Base) Dwyer to support the KC-130J Harvest HAWK mission.  They are providing great support to this unique capability and are enjoying the living situation as you work, sleep, eat and exercise all in the same area.    

We continue to enjoy our living conditions here at Kandahar.  While transportation between our RLB’s and work spaces is difficult some days, the actual living conditions are phenomenal for being deployed.  For the most part we still get 3 hot meals a day and the highlight of those flying day missions is landing at one of the other airfields in time to eat some Baskin Robbins ice cream.