Not much to tell. One of millions who went into theater and did his duty. I was with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. I flew on 77 combat missions all over Afghanistan as a C-130 loadmaster. Some of my more memorable flights...air dropping ammo while a firefight was raging on below us, flying some of the Gitmo detainees back to their country, flying a Canadian soldier from Kandahar to Bagram for airlift to Landstuhl after he was hit by friendly fire from one of our A-10s and flying Hamid Karzai to one of the villages in the northeast part of the country.
I know why you are modest about your service, as we have pictures of adopted soldiers doing many of the same services for our war effort and our country.
But you could have been unlucky and been chosen to make a really large sacrifice, and what we honor you all for is that you stood in the line and took your number and were willing to do what was necessary and take your chances.
We cannot ever thank you enough for that.
fanfan is a Canadian who has been involved with our group early on and sent packages to our American soldiers, and then graduated after a bit of experience and began sending packages to the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. I know she will be interested in reading your post above about your experiences.
When was your service? I know we killed some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan with friendly fire early in the course of the war and that caused large difficulties in our relations with Canada. People often only see the movies that glorify war, and don’t appreciate the reasons why war is so terrible, including really tragic mistakes that occur in the fog and confusion of war.
Your experiences listed are all amazing, and you have truly been a part of history in the making.
Thanks for the ping, Patty.
Thank you so much for your service, Alaska Eric.
It is very appreciated. :-)
Sounds like you had some interesting experiences! :-) Thank you for keeping us safe and free!
That ammo may have been dropped to my grandson's unit - in the Kunar, 2007-8 (173rd AIRBORNE)- over 800 firefights in 15 months...many times "going black." "Rock Avalanche" was one of the worst...
On another note: my dear son-in-law is leaving the Navy this week...Navy pilot/instructor: P-3's out of Jax, Brunswick and Orions out of Greenwood ("on loan" to RAF), now finishing at Corpus/instructor VT-31's/"Wise Owls". He's now in the CG - and will be flying the HC C-130's...)
You say: "Not much to tell" !!!!...Bless You for your service