Going back to war, gouge needed!

[Foties]

Any of you guys been to Al Udeid AB, Qatar lately? Since the C-130 E models are dying on the vine it looks like it is once again my turn to go back for my 4th tour over there to provide airlift in and out of Iraq. I haven't been there for over a year, so I basically want to know what it's like now, things to bring and not to bring? I have the Camelback full of Jack taken care of. PM's are preffered and please don't provide any public info that may be for official use only. Thanks guys. Later.

 

[slacker]

The Deid

I got back from the deid at the end of January. The facilities are pretty nice but there are so many dumb rules. You can go fly your plane on a ten hour mission, 16+ hour day, 5 stops in iraq, moving a sh*t load of crap for the army, hoping you don't fly over the wrong haji's house, get lucky, cheat death, hack the mission 100%. As soon as you land at the deid, all that is out the window. no one cares about the mission, they just care about you stepping off your plane with your REFLECTIVE BELT on properly and your floppy hat worn by the regs. Complete crap. You could drink 3 beers a day which is a plus but they'll probably take that away just to bring the misery factor up to proper levels.

 

[HoursHore]

they just care about you stepping off your plane with your REFLECTIVE BELT on properly and your floppy hat worn by the regs.

Is some numnuts from LTS running the show?

 

[CobraKai]

Pretty soon they will make us purchase the AF PT gear at about $120 a copy and only wear that, with your reflective belt. They do have the trailers instead of tents though.

 

[psysicx]

How long do you have to go for.The reason I'm asking is there was a copilot in your unit looking for time on baseops.

 

[AlbieF15]

When we were doing NFZ enforcement over SWA in 97-98, the big issues with the leadership at PSAB were PROPER PATCHES and PROPER FLOPPY HAT WEAR. I had to divert into Al Jabar with a wingman and got stuck there about 10 days (long story) but loved the more "laid back" attitude at that other FOL. Amazing how trivial and stupid some folks can be during combat ops...

If its any help, when I was in Gulf 1 as a FAC the Army regularly raised hell about chin staps on kevlar helments not being properly fastened. Just seems to be the American way of war...

 

[CobraKai]

More info

If you want a little more info try baseops.net. It is a little outdated but still some good info. I hear Mongolian BBQ night is good.

http://www.baseops.net/gouge_oconus/