Driving the Fire Engine

As a kid I would see the firemen at the parades and wish that I could be up there driving the engine. Sometimes you have to go half-way around the world to get opportunities like that, but if y0u manage to make friends with the right people many things are possible. Greg worked an angle to get a fireman and his buddies a ride in a helicoptor and in appreciation they asked if we wanted to come drive their equipment.

Here we are driving one of their aircraft emergency response vehicles, which they position on the runway to hose down any plane that comes in "hot." It has a water cannon on the front (connected to a joy-stick) that can target about 50 gallons a second that we played around with while we were driving. This vehicle handled much like those huge MRAP trucks did - big and heavy on the acceleration and turns.

Here is a picture of us driving the classic fire engine, which was just like driving a big semi-rig. We had a great time and were happy for the diversion.

Combat Golf

Greg and I aren't the only folks on the base with more time on their hands than they know what to do with - not by a long shot! The group of people that take care of the Air Force Ammo are right along with us trying to figure out how to spend their "extra hours" during deployment. They looked around the area and took inventory of their assets - namely a lot of empty ground between ammo bunkers - and decided it would be a perfect place for a golf course.

The course they set up is 9 holes, each hole between 60-90 yds in length and complete with "greens" of raked dirt and a drilled in cup for the flagged hole! Quite amazing what they did with the space!

Greg and I managed to make a connection in this group for the express purpose of golfing on the course, which they are happy to share. Here we are practicing at the driving range.

You can see the golf bags (missile launching tubes) only need 3 clubs: a 9 iron, a pitching wedge and a putter.

We had a great time hitting around and made plans to schedule a round of golf on a weekly basis until we departed the theater.

AF 1/2 Marathon

We scheduled a 1/2 marathon and ran it today in preparation for the full marathon in NOV. I was amazed at the number of runners- over 90 AF, Army and civilians participated.

It was a beautiful day for a race, with the temperature about 75-80' at the starting time of 0600. Our small EMEDs unit had 9 runners - here are some pictures of us getting ready (I'll add them later).

There was a stiff breeze running with us during 1/2 of the loop and directly in our faces for the last 3 miles each revolution - made trying to kick it up a notch on the home stretch that much more difficult.

I ran pretty strong and ended up finishing 4th overall (and third in my age group) with a time of 1 hr 38 min 04 sec.

The EMEDs unit cleaned house on the medals: Heidi Simpson and Miranda Minshew were 1st and 2nd for the women

The COL finished 1st in his age bracket. SMSgt Pehrson, SRA Kandi Knudsen, SSgt Sara Wise and Capt Emily Eschbaucher all medaled in their age group as well.