[SkyPilot]

I was flying C-141s, and I first flew in there in December of 1991. I was lucky - I was usually on the ground no more than a few hours. It was the guys on the ground for months at a time that had it much rougher than me.

It was bad there in 1993 - I remember opening my side cockpit window and being blasted by a terrible, terrible smell. It was rotting flesh.

Around that time, I landed in Somali to pick up some Pakistani bodies that had been killed. The stench of the bodies in their metal coffins was just awful. We flew those to Islamabad and then flew the aircraft to Germany. The German customs agents went nuts - and we had to get a "belly wash" to get the stench out.

Crummy memories.

[gridlock]

After my time. I was there before the wheels came off. When I got there, every idiot kid was running around with a WWII vintage rifle. You would see bolts missing and bent barrels. Clearly there were no working firearms in the entire city. They were annoying, but harmless.

Then the Saudis (wonderful folks, the Saudis) stopped shipping in food and started shipping in weapons. Within six months, every idiot kid in town had a nice shiny new AK-47 with ammo to spare. It was time to leave.

Crummy memories, indeed.