14th EFS having some down time

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Charles Toplikar
  • 14th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq --  Our down day on Tuesday was a great success and a good time for all. After some "refocus" meetings, a commander's call, and squadron photos, we all had a big barbecue and some games to the sounds of a live band. 

Staff Sgt. Price taught me how to play a game similar to horseshoes, but played with bean bags. I don't think he showed me all of the techniques and strategy however, based on the scores of our games. 

Last Sunday we had our first big wind and dust storm of the spring; I think it's more bearable to most than the rain and mud, but irritating nonetheless. We expect visibility to be reduced regularly from the dust as the spring winds continue. 

We had another first in weapons employment this past week. Already, we'd accomplished a combat drop of a GBU-38. This time we loaded more GBU-38s in one mission! In the end, only three were needed to destroy the target, but it was still a significant first. 

This week, one of our Airmen received more than 60 care packages from the people in his home town. It was quite a site to see all of those boxes stacked up in the squadron for one person. Of course, they were distributed among ops and maintenance, with plenty to go around. The story behind them was that they were a result of an Eagle Scout project by Mackenzie Seneca, who earned more than $1,800 in various fund raisers to pay for the care packages. Thank you Mackenzie! 

We received some photographs of the new paint job in the Havens Building back at Misawa. It looks awesome. We are very grateful for all the hard work that has gone into that project by those left behind. 

That's it for this week. Thanks for calling in, and thanks for your continued support.