14th EFS fights weather, bugs, birds

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Charles Toplikar
  • 14th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- --  We have run the gamut of weather this past week -- from dry and 90 degrees to windy with dust storms. Then we had a terrible system of thunderstorms all day Wednesday. Just when it had pretty much completely dried out, we now have lakes and mud again!

The bug season is also starting. So far there have not been many mosquitoes. We have had mainly flies, gnats, and some sort of flying ant or termite. None of them are much of a bother, but we are keeping the DEET on.

We have had plenty of animal encounters around the base lately as well. I went on a bird depredation outing with the chief of safety the other day. I am not caught up to Senior Master Sgt. David Myette's total of 78, but we shot plenty of birds. Hopefully, we at least taught some of them to stay away from the runways and our jets. There are many jackals around here, and supposedly even an occasional wolf. They all stay well away from the lights and noise of the flightline and main base. Just the other day our maintainers reported having to shoo a cow away from the flightline. I am not sure what form of identification it used to get past the gate guards.

Our facilities improvements are coming along splendidly. First Lt. Bryan Spence is doing great work as our facilities manager here. He has become quite an adept scrounger. We will have a new dual-sex bathroom facility at operations within a week, as well as another water tank so we don't run out of water for the facilities. We have camouflage netting over our inner quad to provide a little shade. We also now have a golf driving range!

That's it for this week. SAMURAI WOOD!