Almost Home!

Finally got my hands on a computer and can now let you all in on what I’ve been up to over the past nine weeks. First off, I’m still in Lawton, Oklahoma (which is about one hour south of Oklahoma City) but we are leaving in two days. It’s back to Gagetown, New Brunswick first for a couple of days and then on Monday it’s finally back home to Halifax to see Nard, Dylan and Jack. Nardine has been doing an awesome job of keeping the house in order while I’ve been off ‘blowing things up’ as she likes to say, thanks in no small part to her mom who spent the whole month of November in Halifax. I really appreciate all the support that everyone has shown us, it makes a world of difference!

So what exactly have I been up to? Easier answer, I’ve been under going training to become a Forward Air Controller or FAC. What’s a FAC? He is the guy on the ground who talks to the aircraft and directs them where to drop their bombs, rockets, guns, extra. The first three weeks of the course were in Gagetown where we basically just learned the theory behind the job. Following that we packed up our stuff and flew down to Oklahoma for the six week practical phase which took place in Lawton, Oklahoma and Salina, Kansas – two very exciting places that I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to anytime soon! During the six weeks we’ve worked with a variety of aircraft – Alpha Jets, F-18s, F-16s, B-52s and Griffon helicopters – honing our skills. Controls were conducted both day and night and were either dry (no real weapons dropped) or live (actual weapons were dropped from the aircraft). Some of the more exciting things that came of the aircraft were MK-82 bombs (500lbs of explosives, makes a big bang), laser guided bombs (which we used a ground based laser to direct) and 20mm cannon strafe runs about 400 meters from where we were standing. All said and done I controlled aircraft a total of about 40 times over the six weeks and can now call myself a combat ready FAC.

One of the other great things about the course was that on it were three of the five guys that I will be working with directly while in Afghanistan. I knew Kael Rennie(Kato) before from university but had never met Brian Griffith (Grif) or Christoper Horch (Chester). (I’ve included their names as I’m sure you’ll be hearing about them in future posts) They are all really good guys, easy to get along with and very professional. It’s nice to know that the people that I’ll be living in close quarters with for a big chunk of time are people that I actually like, should help the six months pass a lot quicker!

Of course no good temporary duty would be complete without a few away trips. Grif, Chester and I took the opportunity of American Thanksgiving to head down to Texas and see what Dallas had to offer. As we entered into the city we passed by Texas Stadium where the Cowboys/Jets game was about to begin. We couldn’t resist the opportunity so we parked the truck, scalped three tickets and were soon watching my first live NFL game. To make things even better, Chester worked his magic and for the second half of the game we watched from the 50 yard line, first row – so close that at one point after Tony Romo (Dallas QB) threw a TD pass we yelled ‘Good job Romo’ and he turned around and gave us a thumbs ups! So how do you top an experience like that? You buy the cheapest tickets you can to a Stars/Leafs game the next night and then work your way into a VIP box directly behind one of the nets – who knew a $20 bribe could work so well! Needless to say Dallas was a lot of fun and I made sure to include some shopping time at all the good Thanksgiving sales so I would have lots of good surprises to bring home for Nardine!

So that’s what I’ve been up to. It’s been a challenging and rewarding experience but I am definitely ready for it to be over so I can get home and start the Christmas season with Dylan, Jack and Nardine. Look forward to touching base with everyone when I get back!

PS – special congratulations go out to Dan and Lindsay Cunningham on their recent pregnancy, was starting to worry that Cunningham just didn’t have it in him!