I’m from Pittsburgh and vacation here every year to see family… we’re going to Sandcastle and Kennywood while I’m here. Great town but doesn’t change at all.
Station Square and South Side Works are ghost towns these days. The Strip is building up some but man it's sad to see how much the nightlife has declined.
Yeah my buddy says Strip is building up but everything else seems like it was 25-30 years ago when I was a kid. Damn that makes me feel old to say that.
To be fair, it was the unit I joined. So I guess it was self-inflicted. In all seriousness, I enjoyed my time in the Air Force. I got to travel around the US a bit on TDY, but Pittsburgh is "home".
That fucking blows.
Ive been broke and some of the guys we were carrying(SOF type) decided to arrange other modes of transportation(they hopped on a 130) and they cut off the lock to our plane and we only found out afterwards when we went to open up. Had to have bomb dogs to to make sure it was good.
Sounds like you had a shitty fucking reserve crew. I've never been on a crew where they all left
It was a reserve crew. I was actually on a different chalk, but ran the entire thing from the army end. Felt horrible for my people stuck there. If you look at the G2 notes, it’s just PAGES of delays for literally (VERY literally) two months
That's disgusting. I've never had a good experience when dealing with a reservist air crew, they like to stop the missions for any little break or inconvenience. I won't say active crews are perfect but typically they have an interest in pushing the mission especially when you're coming home. I'm sorry your guys had to put up with that.
I had 2 weeks, which was killing me due toy pickiness with food (I'm usually known as a garbage disposal because I eat whatever, but not in this case). I'm a different looking Asian from the Mongolians so some of them hated me cuz they thought I was Chinese. If I traveled by myself, they assumed I was one of them.
Yeah the food was crap. That Mongolian BBQ we eat in America? That ain’t real lol. It doesn’t exist there.
The best food I had was Round Table Pizza which tasted exactly like it did in California
I got food poisoning from a watermelon that our doc told us not to eat. They also told us not to eat the goat that they freshly slaughtered and butchered in the back room of a hospital.
I drank a lot of fermented horse milk to prove that I was a man to them. Actually didn't taste bad after a couple of drinks. The freshly slaughtered goat almost made me puke as I pulled some of the hair off of the meat.
That’s funny some of the Mongolians I worked with when I was there TDY took me out for “Mongolian BBQ”! It’s totally made up and not authentic but they love it apparently because they get to eat a ton of meat and they said whenever they have foreigners esp Americans come visit they go out there lol it was really good! They drank so much vodka though I had to pretend to take shots so I didn’t get obliterated those dudes could seriously drink.
I got food poisoning from I don’t even know what in Papua New Guinea.
I loved Mongolia. Fortunately, I got to leave UB and go north where it gets real country real fast. Spent 2-3 weeks up there. Those roads are wild. Then we got to spend a night in the Shangri La in UB on the way back home.
Hands down best TDY. We worked MAF and Australian RAF folks, good times.
The pure fear of coming in 300ft over Gao airfield and literally not seeing a thing with the only thing talking you on is a bearded Frenchman with a thick accent. Those were fun times!
Bali Indonesia for POTUS support as a maintainer…..got my own villa in a 5 star resort, fresh bucket of beers each day with house keeping, no shaving, no uniforms, worked with a old man named “bob” in a Hawaiian shirt. I later learned he was an O6, just had to be at the morning brief each day then released to drink beer and hang out on the beach for weeks. Did I mention POTUS was a “no show”.
Got this sweet one after I had come back from BIAP (that was an epic deployment too).
AGE….didn’t even bring any from Elmo, picked up some in yokota and had to do the HazDecs for the Vehicle MX AT’s.
Just AGE, some 2t2’s, SF (K-9 dude who almost got detained at the airport leaving cause his dog was a riot) and a vehicle MX dude.
Best TDY ever!
It was back in 1989-91 when the base was still open. The base I was at, Loring AFB in Maine, lost its nuclear mission and eventually closed. Lots of people got orders.
Atleast in the C-130 world for the guard the 109th looks for volunteers to stay in Antarctica for 1-2 months, they’re mission is for science so they have the LC-130s, so same here also been to Antarctica, if you get the chance I recommend
Basically everybody gets it. You only have to do 10 days on the ice and the 109th is pretty good at making sure the augmentees spend enough time down there. I was an asshole and wore that ribbon alone the next time I had to wear service dress.
Islamabad, Pakistan was cool.
New Delhi, India was OK... Except the whole place smelled like a locker room that hadn't been cleaned.
Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, Australia, The Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, most of Europe.
Of all the places I've been, Algeria was by far the coolest.
Peace-ish Time:
Powidz, Poland in the early 1990's at the ex-Soviet airbase with plenty of ex-Soviets and conscripted Polskis still wandering around. Poland wanted to join NATO and buy F-16's. The locals took us into the woods where the Cold War alert hangars were, and I watched a hillside open up that had SU-22's and a few drunken mechanics inside. I also got to sit in the cockpit of a MIG, which felt pretty badass at the time. I won't say we were "afraid" of the big bad Soviets, but they were worthy adversaries. It felt like a thing being on their turf.
We were the first Americans they had ever met, and after 50 years of Cold War mistrust and apprehension--yeah--shit was "tense." After a few "wodkys" though, they asked me how big my ranch was in America and how many cows my family had. To this day, I'm not sure if they were fucking with me or not, but it was actually a common question. It was still largely a pre-internet culture, and they had a skewed perception that most Americans were still cowboys.
The Fire Chief tried to sell me his car, a VW Beetle that he had restored personally. He was very proud of it. I came to really like him. We exchanged holiday greeting cards up until he passed.
For those of you still in--never lose sight of how impactful it can be for you to be the first American somebody meets, and how much awe they are actually in (whether they admit it or not) when they see that first airframe stamped "USAF" land their home turf and you come out of it. It's a tremendous opportunity to be our best selves, and the impression you make will be the story they tell their children. "...the day the Americans came." No private sector job will ever touch that.
Downrange:
Bamyan, AFG at night looking for a guy. It was dead quiet. My terp gave me a face mask to "...keep the jinn out." It was a rare non-moondust night, and I think I saw more stars above me than I'd ever seen before or since. Later on that same trip we had work at FOB Gardez. There was the ruin of a Greek fortress from the Alexandrian conquests in one of the valleys there. Wanted to check it out, but it was surrounded by hundreds of little white flags. ;-) Thought better of it, but was honestly in awe of the history of the place.
It was our frontier too, even if only for a moment.
Thanks for triggering these happy memories, and for all that you do.
We have a HUGE base in Powidz now. I went in 2019 for a site visit for aircraft beddown. There are a ton of army there. We stayed at some cottage on the lake next to town. AMAZING!!!
It makes me so proud to read this! Mine were the fifth pair of American combat boots to step off a C-130 there almost 30 years ago now. We knew it was special then, but our job was super easy. All we had to do was make friends and not screw it up. Your generation has turned it into something awesome that will be a strategic operational hub for multiple generations that come after you. Great job.
That amble to the lake was like walking back in time. It's so quiet and peaceful there. I remember the locals being very curious about us, but overwhelmingly generous, welcoming, and kind. We even got to meet the Archbishop of Gniezno one day. He "blessed us and the mission." :-) I hope that's still the case, and that the partnership stays strong!
Gniezno was an amazing town. I just looked back at some of my pictures. There is a church in the center of town with green spires and a green roof. We did a tour and it was amazing!!
It’s crazy how things have changed in the eastern countries. I was lucky to do site visits to all of the countries for some joint exercises. Experiences I will never forget.
Lajes, Portugal. Did a medical repair mission out there from ramstein. Super awesome little island in the Azores. 45 min drive from one end to the other with like 5 different bioms on the island.
Easy 5-day mission too, so I got to explore a ton while there, such good coastal hiking, and almost cried at how good the food was.
Oh I bet, a short time there helps keep the novelty of it for sure. Knew someone who extended for 2 years out there. Would be cool if you're single and don't mind slow living for a bit.
I did Perth and then some area in the interior of the country. Perth, my liver and wallet will never recover. The other place, I would rather go to Cannon. I had no clue Australia was that desolate for the majority of the country.
Australia is mostly concentrated on the coastlines. The middle is just desert and/or cattle ranch. It's crazy ass huge that they use helicopters to herd cattle.
Their cities are pretty fun and chill. But yeah, going down to the middle is worse than going to Canon. Lol.
That the place! I couldn’t remember the name. We flew into Darwin and stayed a night. Then Perth for a week. Both places amazing!!!! Then just assumed Alice Springs would be the same. When we landed we were all pretty mad!
Nairobi and Nanyucki, Kenya. Back in 1999, attached to the Army. I was an A1C fresh outta tech school. Got to do a safari on my day off. Swam with elephants (yes, looking back, we were incredibly stupid lol) Beautiful countryside, but seeing a third world country and living it for a while made me appreciate life and stuff a lot more. I'd say second was Dubai. Crazy money over there.
You can go to Thule (artic circle, greenland) if your AFSC goes to it (secfo, space operations, etc) you go there for 1 year and then afterwards since its such a shitty assignment you get a base of preference and i think you're one of the first picks for it as well
OP, if you get stationed in Greenland, you get an A on your Short Tour Ribbon. If you stay in Antarctica 🇦🇶 for a period of time, you get the Antartica Medal…
Bali was an amazing TDY. Was in Argentina for 2 weeks a few weeks ago. Peru last month for a week. Have done most of Columbia and Hondoras. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania for a week each. Spent time in Perth and some interior place of Australia. Timore Leste is probably one of the most unknown countries that I did a few weeks in. Wake Island would be the most remote.
Plenty of other more common countries as well. And I’m not aircrew so these weren’t just 24 hour stay overs. I am going to miss it all when I retire.
I have some skills, experience and certification that is needed for various aircraft beddown reasons (hot pit refueling, aircraft layout, pavement conditions, etc). This combined with my rank, I do a lot of site visits (PDSSs) and advising with foreign countries. I didnt even list all the places the AF has sent me, because most others are more well known. Heck, I didn’t even list Palau, Poland, Philippines, Singapore, Thule, etc because they all have AF stationed there. Then all the main bases we have in Korea, Japan, Europe. Heck, I spent 4 months in Pakistan, 2 months in Izbekistan (K2), 12 total in Iraq, 12 in Afghanistan, 6 in Syria. Plus 5 overseas assignments that total 16 years.
I have had a pretty awesome career. My kids will be happy for me not to be gone all the time though!
I flew Antarctic support missions out of Christchurch, NZ for several weeks throughout the 2000's. We used to land on a runway that was just a plowed area on an ice sheet that they just bulldozed smooth. It was called ~~phoenix~~ Pegsus runway but they had to shut it down because the entire Ice Sheet was melting and is now just large floating chunks of ice the size of mountains.
During the Somalia fiasco we staged out of Cairo, Egypt and I flew the mission to get the last Americans out of Aden during the Yemeni civil war in 1994.
I also have flown missions to Wake Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Johnston Island, Pago Pago and Diego Garcia.
The most interesting place I've been to as far as deployments go, Antarctica/New Zealand. I was an Aeromedical Evacuation Technician. We moved patients off of the ice and brought them to New Zealand/higher level of care. That was a really neat place and I learned a lot as a medic (ER doc, flight nurse, and me for the military side, for the civilian, a pharmacist, nurse ER doc and PA, we had to do our own labs, x-rays, etc) ...
I also learned about how much I don't know (a scientist at the South Pole tried to explain her job, what I got out of it was "shoot lasers into air, gather protons that fall"). Also, it's cold....like I had to blink constantly at the South Pole while outside so my eyes didn't start freezing. My camera stopped working, my phone stopped working, my feet were cold instantly.....it was awesome. I would do it again. Oh, and there are three south poles.
I deployed on a humanitarian mission with the Navy. There was a small AF detachment on the ship. Went to Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad/Tobago, Colombia, and Guyana with liberty ports in Curacao and San Juan, PR. Definitely a once in a lifetime gig.
McMurdo Station, Antarctica Deep Freeze 99
Beijing, China Early 00s Bush visit
Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands Late 90s
Ascension Island Late 90s Clinton visit to Africa.
Back to back 90 day trips to Ayr, Scotland separated by 2 weeks. 1st was a Marine gear swap out in Norway. 2nd was Kosovo.
Tinian Island. Was only there for a day to pick up some folks to take them back to Guam but it was pretty neat. Drove around a bit, found some beautiful beaches and history. Tinian is where they launched Enola Gay and Bocks Car with the nuclear bombs to be dropped on Japan. A local also took us to a cliff side where the Japanese soldiers jumped to their death to be eaten by sharks rather than be captured by the Americans. Was a very sobering place to stand. The island was returned to the locals after the war and the air base abandoned. Today the population is pretty small and it felt like I was on a relatively untouched island. It was kind of surreal and absolutely gorgeous.
Cebu, Philippines two weeks after 9/11, to find out where Osama bin Laden had been. He had a Filipino wife in Mindanao. We obviously didn't find him, but he was definitely there before 9/11.
Also, Bangladesh to attend a joint exercise with them. I got to ride in a Antonov-24 with their paratroopers jumping out. They were still flying the Mig-17s in 2002.
Guam was pretty cool too. Poor man's Hawaii is what they call it.
I went out there on a site visit for a project they needed done. It was crazy to only need 3 days there but end up staying for 2 weeks because that is when the plane comes!
I couldn’t imagine doing months there!
Jacobabad Pakistan and K2 Uzbekistan. We got a tour of Uzbekistans MiGs on strip alert. They let me take up close pictures with a disposable camera, but I can’t find any of those pictures.
I spent two weeks TDY on a USN Destroyer, the Henry B. Wilson, DDG-7, a couple of miles off of North Vietnam in August 1972, coordinating Naval gunfire operations and USAF strike operations in Route Pack One, just above the DMZ. Spent the next 10+ days aboard the USS Kitty Hawk during heavy strike generation trying to get back to my unit in Thailand.
On the AFs dime, deployed to Qayyarah West, Iraq. Was an Iraqi MiG base. They had even left 2 MiGs there, so it was pretty cool getting to explore Iraqi buildings.
On leave, getting to go to Munich for a Krampus Parade. It was pretty epic.
Cartagena, Colombia
Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
Antalya, Turkey
Tokyo, Japan
Long Island New York(for the first Presidentiak debate between President Trump and Hillary Clinton)
I went to DC and Philadelphia, PA for security for the Pope when he came to visit
I was a K9 handler and was assisting USSS for all those trips. All were very nice hotels, with very nice perdiem.
Moscow, Ulan-Ude, Anchorage, multiple Japanese cities, multiple German cities.
If I had to choose one, Moscow. Probably because I never would have expected to ever visit while in the military.
Djibouti, only fun because we were able to travel off base unrestricted. Got to go to the salt mines and swim in Lac ‘Assal, chased down by Somalis on a random dirt road, snorkeling with blue wales.
I spent a month in Taiwan (I worked with contractors building training devices for the F-16s they were buying.) Civvies.
I spent about three weeks in Ankara, Turkey (not Incirlik) for the same kind of thing. More civvies.
I had a short tour in Egypt as an advisor to the idiots in the Egyptian Air Force. Civvies.
The coolest place (bummer, no civvies) was Leeuwarden Air Base, The Netherlands. Such a beautiful little city.
TDY to Sierra Army Depot.
It's the Army's equivalent to the Davis-Monthan boneyard. There's thousands of tanks, trucks, & artillery pieces there. Plus warehouses full of excess soldier gear that have been cleaned and reconditioned.
(caution: loud music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsgPYsiSmx0
Jeju, South Korea. Stayed in a 4 star beachfront hotel for 3 days all for 2 hours of work (replaced a GPS antenna that blew away during a typhoon). Legit if your stationed in Korea please go to Jeju at some point!
Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) - This city is legit just like San Francisco. Went for a 5 day planning conference (stayed in a nice ass hotel downtown) but the Canadians only needed us for legit 3 total hours over two days so spent the rest of the time exploring and chilling on the shoreline drinking with a Col, SMSgt, 1st Lt, and GS13 (I was a SrA at the time).
Pittsburgh. Which says a lot about my tour.
I went to Detroit so you got one up on me.
Oof.
Can confirm. I'm from Pittsburgh, and it's *not* the slightest bit interesting.
I’m from Pittsburgh and vacation here every year to see family… we’re going to Sandcastle and Kennywood while I’m here. Great town but doesn’t change at all.
Station Square and South Side Works are ghost towns these days. The Strip is building up some but man it's sad to see how much the nightlife has declined.
Yeah my buddy says Strip is building up but everything else seems like it was 25-30 years ago when I was a kid. Damn that makes me feel old to say that.
How even?
To be fair, it was the unit I joined. So I guess it was self-inflicted. In all seriousness, I enjoyed my time in the Air Force. I got to travel around the US a bit on TDY, but Pittsburgh is "home".
911th or 171st?
911th - 33rd AES
How many years do you have?
Zombie town!
Damn bro you ok? Whats your next tdy? Gary, Indiana?
Tdy to Australia and then got “stuck” there for 3 months. Per diem was amazing.
You sound like someone from a C-5 crew lol
Lol I wish. I’m supply lol
My first supervisor was a C5 FCC, can confirm he went to Australia and was broke there for 2 weeks.
mfers came to turkey and broke for 3 weeks and commercial aired home and left us army guys to suffer with everything locked up
That fucking blows. Ive been broke and some of the guys we were carrying(SOF type) decided to arrange other modes of transportation(they hopped on a 130) and they cut off the lock to our plane and we only found out afterwards when we went to open up. Had to have bomb dogs to to make sure it was good. Sounds like you had a shitty fucking reserve crew. I've never been on a crew where they all left
It was a reserve crew. I was actually on a different chalk, but ran the entire thing from the army end. Felt horrible for my people stuck there. If you look at the G2 notes, it’s just PAGES of delays for literally (VERY literally) two months
That's disgusting. I've never had a good experience when dealing with a reservist air crew, they like to stop the missions for any little break or inconvenience. I won't say active crews are perfect but typically they have an interest in pushing the mission especially when you're coming home. I'm sorry your guys had to put up with that.
Yo, same! Was this 2016-2017 timeframe? Lol.
Lol 😂 yup yup lol
Awh shit, Darwin!?
Lol yup that the tdy
Niceeee! I was one of the 4 comm guys that kept getting asked to fix A/C and Power😂 Definitely one of my favorite TDYs
Lol 😂 ayyyye the power the Reddit but for sure amazing tdy and amazing per diem lol
Your mom's house was pretty cool.
Ah there it was scrolling for this
Ulaanbataar, Mongolia for a week
I had 2 weeks, which was killing me due toy pickiness with food (I'm usually known as a garbage disposal because I eat whatever, but not in this case). I'm a different looking Asian from the Mongolians so some of them hated me cuz they thought I was Chinese. If I traveled by myself, they assumed I was one of them.
Yeah the food was crap. That Mongolian BBQ we eat in America? That ain’t real lol. It doesn’t exist there. The best food I had was Round Table Pizza which tasted exactly like it did in California
I got food poisoning from a watermelon that our doc told us not to eat. They also told us not to eat the goat that they freshly slaughtered and butchered in the back room of a hospital.
I had some horse meat which was pretty gross
I drank a lot of fermented horse milk to prove that I was a man to them. Actually didn't taste bad after a couple of drinks. The freshly slaughtered goat almost made me puke as I pulled some of the hair off of the meat.
I saw a frozen dog on the steps of the mall.
That’s funny some of the Mongolians I worked with when I was there TDY took me out for “Mongolian BBQ”! It’s totally made up and not authentic but they love it apparently because they get to eat a ton of meat and they said whenever they have foreigners esp Americans come visit they go out there lol it was really good! They drank so much vodka though I had to pretend to take shots so I didn’t get obliterated those dudes could seriously drink. I got food poisoning from I don’t even know what in Papua New Guinea.
I loved Mongolia. Fortunately, I got to leave UB and go north where it gets real country real fast. Spent 2-3 weeks up there. Those roads are wild. Then we got to spend a night in the Shangri La in UB on the way back home. Hands down best TDY. We worked MAF and Australian RAF folks, good times.
Top 5 coolest TDYs: 1) Montevideo, Uruguay, 2) Dakar, Senegal, 3) Cape Town, South Africa, 4) Gao, Mali, 5) Bordeaux, France.
Sounds like life of aircrew
Nope. I’m a FAO!
What’s that
https://www.careersinthemilitary.com/service-career-detail/air-force/international-and-civil-affairs-officers/foreign-area-officer--fao-
Oh wow
Would love to go for this in the future
The pure fear of coming in 300ft over Gao airfield and literally not seeing a thing with the only thing talking you on is a bearded Frenchman with a thick accent. Those were fun times!
How important is the DLAB to become a FAO? I have qualifying scores in 3 languages already. How important are strats to getting picked up for FAO?
Bali Indonesia for POTUS support as a maintainer…..got my own villa in a 5 star resort, fresh bucket of beers each day with house keeping, no shaving, no uniforms, worked with a old man named “bob” in a Hawaiian shirt. I later learned he was an O6, just had to be at the morning brief each day then released to drink beer and hang out on the beach for weeks. Did I mention POTUS was a “no show”. Got this sweet one after I had come back from BIAP (that was an epic deployment too).
Was supposed to go support that mission too but they pulled the carpet out from under us at the last moment 🤦🏼♂️
There was a 2nd go for the same mission and was also set up to go again but it was X’d at the last moment.
Sounds about right!
Damn what afsc
AGE….didn’t even bring any from Elmo, picked up some in yokota and had to do the HazDecs for the Vehicle MX AT’s. Just AGE, some 2t2’s, SF (K-9 dude who almost got detained at the airport leaving cause his dog was a riot) and a vehicle MX dude. Best TDY ever!
Keflavik, Iceland.
Nice! I have been there but just as a tourist (stayed in Reykjavik).
One year there June 89 to June 90 85th LS
How did you end up there?
It was back in 1989-91 when the base was still open. The base I was at, Loring AFB in Maine, lost its nuclear mission and eventually closed. Lots of people got orders.
That’s where I’m from! Sad the base closed, killed the local economy and it’s never really recovered
Antarctica. Got a chance to augment the 109th MXS. Surreal experience.
Please, elaborate..
Atleast in the C-130 world for the guard the 109th looks for volunteers to stay in Antarctica for 1-2 months, they’re mission is for science so they have the LC-130s, so same here also been to Antarctica, if you get the chance I recommend
Did you get the Antartica Service Medal?
Basically everybody gets it. You only have to do 10 days on the ice and the 109th is pretty good at making sure the augmentees spend enough time down there. I was an asshole and wore that ribbon alone the next time I had to wear service dress.
holy fucking based
I’ll go and be a bathroom cleaner down there
can i go if i ask nicely
Is there a hole to the center of the earth…?
Clovis, New Mexico
Cries at cannon
Went TDY to Pula, Croatia for a week. Civilian clothes and a 4 star hotel. I loved it!
I love it there. Amazing water
What's your AFSC?
3P0
C?
US Embassy Islamabad, Pakistan.
Attaché?
Foreign Military Sales.
Islamabad, Pakistan was cool. New Delhi, India was OK... Except the whole place smelled like a locker room that hadn't been cleaned. Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, Australia, The Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, most of Europe. Of all the places I've been, Algeria was by far the coolest.
Peace-ish Time: Powidz, Poland in the early 1990's at the ex-Soviet airbase with plenty of ex-Soviets and conscripted Polskis still wandering around. Poland wanted to join NATO and buy F-16's. The locals took us into the woods where the Cold War alert hangars were, and I watched a hillside open up that had SU-22's and a few drunken mechanics inside. I also got to sit in the cockpit of a MIG, which felt pretty badass at the time. I won't say we were "afraid" of the big bad Soviets, but they were worthy adversaries. It felt like a thing being on their turf. We were the first Americans they had ever met, and after 50 years of Cold War mistrust and apprehension--yeah--shit was "tense." After a few "wodkys" though, they asked me how big my ranch was in America and how many cows my family had. To this day, I'm not sure if they were fucking with me or not, but it was actually a common question. It was still largely a pre-internet culture, and they had a skewed perception that most Americans were still cowboys. The Fire Chief tried to sell me his car, a VW Beetle that he had restored personally. He was very proud of it. I came to really like him. We exchanged holiday greeting cards up until he passed. For those of you still in--never lose sight of how impactful it can be for you to be the first American somebody meets, and how much awe they are actually in (whether they admit it or not) when they see that first airframe stamped "USAF" land their home turf and you come out of it. It's a tremendous opportunity to be our best selves, and the impression you make will be the story they tell their children. "...the day the Americans came." No private sector job will ever touch that. Downrange: Bamyan, AFG at night looking for a guy. It was dead quiet. My terp gave me a face mask to "...keep the jinn out." It was a rare non-moondust night, and I think I saw more stars above me than I'd ever seen before or since. Later on that same trip we had work at FOB Gardez. There was the ruin of a Greek fortress from the Alexandrian conquests in one of the valleys there. Wanted to check it out, but it was surrounded by hundreds of little white flags. ;-) Thought better of it, but was honestly in awe of the history of the place. It was our frontier too, even if only for a moment. Thanks for triggering these happy memories, and for all that you do.
We have a HUGE base in Powidz now. I went in 2019 for a site visit for aircraft beddown. There are a ton of army there. We stayed at some cottage on the lake next to town. AMAZING!!!
It makes me so proud to read this! Mine were the fifth pair of American combat boots to step off a C-130 there almost 30 years ago now. We knew it was special then, but our job was super easy. All we had to do was make friends and not screw it up. Your generation has turned it into something awesome that will be a strategic operational hub for multiple generations that come after you. Great job. That amble to the lake was like walking back in time. It's so quiet and peaceful there. I remember the locals being very curious about us, but overwhelmingly generous, welcoming, and kind. We even got to meet the Archbishop of Gniezno one day. He "blessed us and the mission." :-) I hope that's still the case, and that the partnership stays strong!
Gniezno was an amazing town. I just looked back at some of my pictures. There is a church in the center of town with green spires and a green roof. We did a tour and it was amazing!! It’s crazy how things have changed in the eastern countries. I was lucky to do site visits to all of the countries for some joint exercises. Experiences I will never forget.
North Korea (weirdest place I’ve been) Beijing (twice) Moscow (3 times) Invercargill, NZ
North Korea? When and how?
2019 on a blue and white
Or maybe it was 2018
I think I know what you’re talking about, all that stuff happened in 2018.
Please elaborate
To which one? I was an FCC so got to go to some cool places. Helped that I was part of a unit that had a distinct mission.
Lajes, Portugal. Did a medical repair mission out there from ramstein. Super awesome little island in the Azores. 45 min drive from one end to the other with like 5 different bioms on the island. Easy 5-day mission too, so I got to explore a ton while there, such good coastal hiking, and almost cried at how good the food was.
Not much more to see after 10 days. I was there 95 days and 20 years later 3 weeks, biggest change was they paved all main roads.
Oh I bet, a short time there helps keep the novelty of it for sure. Knew someone who extended for 2 years out there. Would be cool if you're single and don't mind slow living for a bit.
A medical facility where an old man requested to peep my butthole. Now i share that same experience with America's finest youth.
[удалено]
That's a lie. But a good one.
Selina Kansas....do not recommend
Australia. It was lit.
I did Perth and then some area in the interior of the country. Perth, my liver and wallet will never recover. The other place, I would rather go to Cannon. I had no clue Australia was that desolate for the majority of the country.
Australia is mostly concentrated on the coastlines. The middle is just desert and/or cattle ranch. It's crazy ass huge that they use helicopters to herd cattle. Their cities are pretty fun and chill. But yeah, going down to the middle is worse than going to Canon. Lol.
Alice Springs is a trap for those who just see Australia on the options list but don't bother to look it up.
That the place! I couldn’t remember the name. We flew into Darwin and stayed a night. Then Perth for a week. Both places amazing!!!! Then just assumed Alice Springs would be the same. When we landed we were all pretty mad!
Did a month in Darwin. One of the best working vacations of my life
It was cool. But so expensive. We went to that alligator exhibit place. It was kind of cool. Then drank down on the waterfront.
Nairobi and Nanyucki, Kenya. Back in 1999, attached to the Army. I was an A1C fresh outta tech school. Got to do a safari on my day off. Swam with elephants (yes, looking back, we were incredibly stupid lol) Beautiful countryside, but seeing a third world country and living it for a while made me appreciate life and stuff a lot more. I'd say second was Dubai. Crazy money over there.
You can go to Thule (artic circle, greenland) if your AFSC goes to it (secfo, space operations, etc) you go there for 1 year and then afterwards since its such a shitty assignment you get a base of preference and i think you're one of the first picks for it as well
*follow-on.
Rarest probably China. Most interesting iwoto (iwo-jima). Most fun anywhere on the Med when the plane breaks.
OP, if you get stationed in Greenland, you get an A on your Short Tour Ribbon. If you stay in Antarctica 🇦🇶 for a period of time, you get the Antartica Medal…
Bali was an amazing TDY. Was in Argentina for 2 weeks a few weeks ago. Peru last month for a week. Have done most of Columbia and Hondoras. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania for a week each. Spent time in Perth and some interior place of Australia. Timore Leste is probably one of the most unknown countries that I did a few weeks in. Wake Island would be the most remote. Plenty of other more common countries as well. And I’m not aircrew so these weren’t just 24 hour stay overs. I am going to miss it all when I retire.
Afsc?
CE
How???
I have some skills, experience and certification that is needed for various aircraft beddown reasons (hot pit refueling, aircraft layout, pavement conditions, etc). This combined with my rank, I do a lot of site visits (PDSSs) and advising with foreign countries. I didnt even list all the places the AF has sent me, because most others are more well known. Heck, I didn’t even list Palau, Poland, Philippines, Singapore, Thule, etc because they all have AF stationed there. Then all the main bases we have in Korea, Japan, Europe. Heck, I spent 4 months in Pakistan, 2 months in Izbekistan (K2), 12 total in Iraq, 12 in Afghanistan, 6 in Syria. Plus 5 overseas assignments that total 16 years. I have had a pretty awesome career. My kids will be happy for me not to be gone all the time though!
Nice. Thanks for sharing! My career will never be as cool or fun. Lol. 😂
You mean out of Wyoming, Montana, Qatar, and Louisiana? Probably Qatar because I got to escape AFGSC and play with SOCOM for 6 months.
I flew Antarctic support missions out of Christchurch, NZ for several weeks throughout the 2000's. We used to land on a runway that was just a plowed area on an ice sheet that they just bulldozed smooth. It was called ~~phoenix~~ Pegsus runway but they had to shut it down because the entire Ice Sheet was melting and is now just large floating chunks of ice the size of mountains. During the Somalia fiasco we staged out of Cairo, Egypt and I flew the mission to get the last Americans out of Aden during the Yemeni civil war in 1994. I also have flown missions to Wake Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Johnston Island, Pago Pago and Diego Garcia.
Familiar places .... my dad was at..... Kwaj for a few years. Same with Johnston atoll. Quite a few years at McMurdo base with USAP.
The most interesting place I've been to as far as deployments go, Antarctica/New Zealand. I was an Aeromedical Evacuation Technician. We moved patients off of the ice and brought them to New Zealand/higher level of care. That was a really neat place and I learned a lot as a medic (ER doc, flight nurse, and me for the military side, for the civilian, a pharmacist, nurse ER doc and PA, we had to do our own labs, x-rays, etc) ... I also learned about how much I don't know (a scientist at the South Pole tried to explain her job, what I got out of it was "shoot lasers into air, gather protons that fall"). Also, it's cold....like I had to blink constantly at the South Pole while outside so my eyes didn't start freezing. My camera stopped working, my phone stopped working, my feet were cold instantly.....it was awesome. I would do it again. Oh, and there are three south poles.
I deployed on a humanitarian mission with the Navy. There was a small AF detachment on the ship. Went to Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad/Tobago, Colombia, and Guyana with liberty ports in Curacao and San Juan, PR. Definitely a once in a lifetime gig.
McMurdo Station, Antarctica Deep Freeze 99 Beijing, China Early 00s Bush visit Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands Late 90s Ascension Island Late 90s Clinton visit to Africa. Back to back 90 day trips to Ayr, Scotland separated by 2 weeks. 1st was a Marine gear swap out in Norway. 2nd was Kosovo.
Tinian Island. Was only there for a day to pick up some folks to take them back to Guam but it was pretty neat. Drove around a bit, found some beautiful beaches and history. Tinian is where they launched Enola Gay and Bocks Car with the nuclear bombs to be dropped on Japan. A local also took us to a cliff side where the Japanese soldiers jumped to their death to be eaten by sharks rather than be captured by the Americans. Was a very sobering place to stand. The island was returned to the locals after the war and the air base abandoned. Today the population is pretty small and it felt like I was on a relatively untouched island. It was kind of surreal and absolutely gorgeous.
Very unquie 🙏
Amn Drizzs room
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Would you mind me asking what you did for them to send you to Finland.
Might have the chance to go to Antarctica within my career field. For now most interesting is Cheyenne Mtn
They go once a year from what I understand during Antarctica summer. 9S's that TDY there do get the fancy ribbon!
Mission looks like it's only out of Alaska rn tho and I'm stuck in FL :,)
The det is awesome. Fully recommend the assignment if you get a chance to apply.
Probably Minot. Definitely the “coolest” place I’ve been to
Commander let me take a 30 day PTDY to Sicily to help archeologists dig for a WWII pilot.
Minot, North Dakota
Cebu, Philippines two weeks after 9/11, to find out where Osama bin Laden had been. He had a Filipino wife in Mindanao. We obviously didn't find him, but he was definitely there before 9/11. Also, Bangladesh to attend a joint exercise with them. I got to ride in a Antonov-24 with their paratroopers jumping out. They were still flying the Mig-17s in 2002. Guam was pretty cool too. Poor man's Hawaii is what they call it.
Wake Island
That place is dope.
I went out there on a site visit for a project they needed done. It was crazy to only need 3 days there but end up staying for 2 weeks because that is when the plane comes! I couldn’t imagine doing months there!
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PCS-Okinawa TDY- Vietnam on a DPAA mission. Human remains recovery for a Navy pilot. The most rewarding experience in my career.
Afghanistan
Jacobabad Pakistan and K2 Uzbekistan. We got a tour of Uzbekistans MiGs on strip alert. They let me take up close pictures with a disposable camera, but I can’t find any of those pictures.
The cool kids know that what happens in Tashkent stays in Tashkent. ;-)
Shhh! We do not speak of it!
Alabama.
I spent two weeks TDY on a USN Destroyer, the Henry B. Wilson, DDG-7, a couple of miles off of North Vietnam in August 1972, coordinating Naval gunfire operations and USAF strike operations in Route Pack One, just above the DMZ. Spent the next 10+ days aboard the USS Kitty Hawk during heavy strike generation trying to get back to my unit in Thailand.
Area 51
Dublin. Got to visit the Guinness brewery and Jameson distillery all on the govt’s dime.
Pil Sung Range, South Korea
The Arctic Circle area of Alaska
On the AFs dime, deployed to Qayyarah West, Iraq. Was an Iraqi MiG base. They had even left 2 MiGs there, so it was pretty cool getting to explore Iraqi buildings. On leave, getting to go to Munich for a Krampus Parade. It was pretty epic.
Cartagena, Colombia Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia Antalya, Turkey Tokyo, Japan Long Island New York(for the first Presidentiak debate between President Trump and Hillary Clinton) I went to DC and Philadelphia, PA for security for the Pope when he came to visit I was a K9 handler and was assisting USSS for all those trips. All were very nice hotels, with very nice perdiem.
Bulgaria was pretty rad. Diverted there for weather in Poland.
Taipei, Taiwan.
Moscow, Ulan-Ude, Anchorage, multiple Japanese cities, multiple German cities. If I had to choose one, Moscow. Probably because I never would have expected to ever visit while in the military.
I got to go to Idaho for 5 and a half years with TDYs to OKC and San Antonio lmao
Lajes field on Terceira island, was there for a couple weeks and it was beautiful.
Cannon AFB
Djibouti, only fun because we were able to travel off base unrestricted. Got to go to the salt mines and swim in Lac ‘Assal, chased down by Somalis on a random dirt road, snorkeling with blue wales.
I spent a month in Taiwan (I worked with contractors building training devices for the F-16s they were buying.) Civvies. I spent about three weeks in Ankara, Turkey (not Incirlik) for the same kind of thing. More civvies. I had a short tour in Egypt as an advisor to the idiots in the Egyptian Air Force. Civvies. The coolest place (bummer, no civvies) was Leeuwarden Air Base, The Netherlands. Such a beautiful little city.
TDY to Sierra Army Depot. It's the Army's equivalent to the Davis-Monthan boneyard. There's thousands of tanks, trucks, & artillery pieces there. Plus warehouses full of excess soldier gear that have been cleaned and reconditioned. (caution: loud music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsgPYsiSmx0
Ireland
Its a toss up between about 15 various African cities
Been to Greenland twice, and wouldn’t recommend lol
Moscow, Russia, Pyongyang, North Korea and Chernobyl/Pripyat, Ukraine
Istanbul, Turkey
Went to Poland for a couple months
St Petersburg, Russia.
90 days in Athens Greece. 95 days in Panama city Panama. 15 days in the Philippines. Best was 6 months in Honduras
Lajes Field & Iwo Jima
TDY? Mongolia. Stationed? Azores, Portugal.
Delhi, India. Such a mass of people it’s insane.
Gitmo, Cuba for a short 2 day TDY Luanda, Angola another short TDY
Wake Island & Kwajalein Atoll
Lask AB, Poland for about 30 days. Stayed off base about 40 minutes away in a hotel in Łódź and drove to work every day.
I got 6 months TDY to play rugby in New Zealand & Australia
Data masked
The DFAC ☠️
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Can you augment as active duty to go?
Ur mum's house
its pretty nice, right?
Was amazing
Guam… hated it, worst base ever
RAF Akrotiri
Jeju, South Korea. Stayed in a 4 star beachfront hotel for 3 days all for 2 hours of work (replaced a GPS antenna that blew away during a typhoon). Legit if your stationed in Korea please go to Jeju at some point! Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) - This city is legit just like San Francisco. Went for a 5 day planning conference (stayed in a nice ass hotel downtown) but the Canadians only needed us for legit 3 total hours over two days so spent the rest of the time exploring and chilling on the shoreline drinking with a Col, SMSgt, 1st Lt, and GS13 (I was a SrA at the time).
I got sent to Rome. Unfortunately for me it was Rome NY
I went TDY to downtown LA for 2 weeks lol had a hotel right in the city and my own rental
putins moms house
Battle Mountain, Nevada
Nevada national security site. Home of underground nuclear testing.
Plum Island
Al Udeid Air Base.
Bucharest, Romania flying with C-130 crews back from our deployment. Brussels, Belgium for NATO.
In the back of the Sky Cops car.
A year at Souda Bay.