My thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I made it home yesterday. (And the Athearn F45 I ordered was even waiting for me at my LHS...time to get back into this hobby after taking some much needed time off to decompress.)
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- Thread starter Herc Driver
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Great to have you back again. Cool to hear that your loco was ready for you. Always a good welcome back to get to make a trip to the LHS!
My thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I made it home yesterday. (And the Athearn F45 I ordered was even waiting for me at my LHS...time to get back into this hobby after taking some much needed time off to decompress.)
WOO HOO!!!
CONGRATS !!!
And THANKS !!!
CONGRATS !!!
And THANKS !!!
Safe and sound. Glad you're back. You deserve more than one new loco. Better order a couple more.
Good to see you back on these shores...!!!! Welcome back...and pick up where you left off....!!! :thumb:
Kept watching ALL the news,looking for NOTHING involving a "HERC" !!! Welcome Back, and THANKS to you and all our folks in harm's way for their duty. Glad you had a round trip ticket ! :thumb: BobWelcome Back!
atriot1:atriot1:atriot1:
And here's to hope that all the men and women fighting for freedom, also make it home safe.
atriot1:atriot1:atriot1:And here's to hope that all the men and women fighting for freedom, also make it home safe.
Welcome home brother! Thank you very much for your service.
Talked to my brother in law who is a crew chief on a Chinook and he says Afghanistan is getting hairier and hairierby the minute. He took a softball sized hit dropping ground pounders last night. REALLY ugly, so pray for those guys and gals like Herc folks and sleep well knowing our freedom is in great hands. Nothing does my heart good to see a soldier on his/her way home like I saw today at the airport. Makes you proud, as we are for you and your friendship here. Welcome home.
Talked to my brother in law who is a crew chief on a Chinook and he says Afghanistan is getting hairier and hairierby the minute. He took a softball sized hit dropping ground pounders last night. REALLY ugly, so pray for those guys and gals like Herc folks and sleep well knowing our freedom is in great hands. Nothing does my heart good to see a soldier on his/her way home like I saw today at the airport. Makes you proud, as we are for you and your friendship here. Welcome home.
Many many thanks everyone...I sincerely appreciate it. We worked and flew hard...around 100 combat sorties...lots of time outside "the wire" flying all over the country.
You're right about Afghanistan getting a bit more dicey everyday. We had some very close misses that could have easily went the other way. The enemy is on the run. The average joe on the street is getting tired of the taliban and al qaeda and fighting back. Pray for everyone over there...they need it.
I really appreciated being able to visit this forum while deployed...just a little bit of home that helped take my mind off things for a while.
(And I thought I needed another diesel too so I just placed an order for that Kato SD70ACe in UP heritage D & RGW colors.)
You're right about Afghanistan getting a bit more dicey everyday. We had some very close misses that could have easily went the other way. The enemy is on the run. The average joe on the street is getting tired of the taliban and al qaeda and fighting back. Pray for everyone over there...they need it.
I really appreciated being able to visit this forum while deployed...just a little bit of home that helped take my mind off things for a while.
(And I thought I needed another diesel too so I just placed an order for that Kato SD70ACe in UP heritage D & RGW colors.)
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Now THAT'S an office with a view! I'm glad that your view now is of more friendly and familiar territory. :-D:-D
Wayne
I'm glad that your view now is of more friendly and familiar territory. :-D:-DWayne
Glad to have you back safe and sound! Thank you for what you do! Must be a great view out of that cockpit!
Unarmed and Unafraid
There are no escorts of any kind when the Herc's (or helicopters for that matter) fly around. We relied on tactics and one inch of plate steel on the floor of the cockpit and under my seat cushions to protect us. We really didn't fear a guided missile as much as an RPG (which we did get shot at with one night) or ground fire from AK's or other small arms (also seen up close and personal). An RPG will ruin your whole day pretty quickly since they can be modified to explode on contact or proximity. We flew low and followed the terrain as much as possible...day or night. At least at night on NVGs, you could see the tracers or the infared heat heat a rocket made...during the day, you couldn't see much unless whatever was fired your way produced a smoke trail. But you were also looking for all the other airplanes, UAVs, Drones, helicopters, from our military and other nation's. Quite a few times we had to turn to avoid hitting something. It was some pretty busy airspace.
There are no escorts of any kind when the Herc's (or helicopters for that matter) fly around. We relied on tactics and one inch of plate steel on the floor of the cockpit and under my seat cushions to protect us. We really didn't fear a guided missile as much as an RPG (which we did get shot at with one night) or ground fire from AK's or other small arms (also seen up close and personal). An RPG will ruin your whole day pretty quickly since they can be modified to explode on contact or proximity. We flew low and followed the terrain as much as possible...day or night. At least at night on NVGs, you could see the tracers or the infared heat heat a rocket made...during the day, you couldn't see much unless whatever was fired your way produced a smoke trail. But you were also looking for all the other airplanes, UAVs, Drones, helicopters, from our military and other nation's. Quite a few times we had to turn to avoid hitting something. It was some pretty busy airspace.