Wow 2012! - Travel - C-130's - Iraq/Afghanistan

[Ron Curry]

Hope y'all (I'm traveling and picking up a little of the southern lingo ). I hope the New Year brings good things to you. I'm at Little Rock Air Force Base watching the C-130's in the pattern and marveling at the C-130 at the main gate that is famous for being one of the last airplanes (maybe the last) out of Viet Nam at the end of the war. It's particularly famous because it left with almost 500 people on board - yes, I wrote 500! I'm not sure how they all fit but I know it was quite a bit over gross. It was flown by a South Vietnamese pilot who is unnamed on the plaque next to the aircraft. Truly an awesome feat!

Anyway, here to welcome my son back from deployment in the Middle East. He's been flying a lot of missions to and from Iraq - mostly hauling people and stuff out of Irag and it reminds me of the the last days of the Vietnam war. Regardless of what our President has been saying it's still a pretty dangerous place. He's had to doge mortars while on the runway and comes back with holes in the airplane. He's also been flying missions into Afghanistan where they fly 200-300 feet off the ground at 250 knots at night with night vision goggles and throw supplies out the back to operators on the ground. Sometimes they fly a little higher and throw people out too - with parachutes of course .

Anyway, he's back for awhile and will get re-deployed in a few months - probably Afhganistan.

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Thanks again to each and every one of you for supporting ROG!

All the best,
Ron