Deployed Life as an Aviator - Army vs Navy vs Air Force

[@Delatta1961]

I flew in the Army 21 years, and Cosmo is wayyy overselling Army Aviation deployed life. We lived in GP medium tents, one generator for electricity, and 2 MREs for chow when we first got to the sandbox. At the time it was par for the Army. Usually because the Division or TF Commander was Infantry, he wanted everyone to live just like the “crunchies” were. It sucked the big one, but I loved every second. You really learn which of your fellow pilots were friends and I could count on, and which to avoid when it got really tough.

[@Barundus]

Expeditionary, vs steady-state COIN Army. You're spot-on though. "Field" Army is moving every night, sleeping under the tailboom, briefing on the HMMWV hood or in the TOC GP.

[@kwdriver58]

and some tours were 15 months. or do a 12 in OIF 1, go home, get recalled off leave to go back because the insurgency was kicking off. pre-GWAT was always in tents in an open field, "establishing" and pulling our own security, jumping the AA, jump FARPS... meals were MMT if we were lucky

[@dabrab]

Ex RAF here. As I will tell anyone willing to listen, the armed forces are dependent on the stars. The army sleeps under them; the navy navigates by them and the air force... chooses its hotels by the number of them!

[@Keil2590]

Yeah. USArmy first and then USAF for 20 and retired.

[@atomicdog70]

Legendary statement ☠️

[@williammoreno2378]

I'm ex navy, enlisted and a 30 year civilian navy employer. Going from a Navy base to a USAF Base is like the when the Wizard of Oz changes from B&W to Technicolor.

[@floodo1]

😂

[@williammoreno2378]

@@dabrab 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 That's one of the best I've heard!!

[@deanmilos4909]

I love how almost during the whole time Casmo was talking about deployment conditions Mover was just kinda grinning from ear to ear probably thinking something along the lines of "wow , this absolutely sucks"

[@Drew-v2f]

It is all a mind game and we have 86400 seconds in a day. What sucks is not having people getting out and socializing in person. It is a weird time. Stay busy and don't let your self be lazy Stay productive

[@kanesword9528]

Cool stories, I was a meteorologist active air force and MN air national guard and spent 8 years doing army support. There is a huge difference in amenities and lodging, meals etc between the different branches. I also did 3 years in Navy Reserve and trying to transfer back there now to finish my career after being with 125th FW in Jacksonville as a F15 Crew Chief.

[@paulinacaro7202]

Hello, I'm currently in my sophomore year in college majoring in meteorology and there is a naval airbase near me. I'm thinking of joining the navy reserves while going to school. I'm really interested in being part of the aircrew. Do you have any tips about the naval reserve rates??

[@kanesword9528]

@@paulinacaro7202 The Navy has Aerogropher's mate which is the equivalent of what I did in the Air Force. You're not aircrew, but you get to work with them everyday and I loved my time doing it :)

[@paulinacaro7202]

@@kanesword9528 I was thinking of going that route as well. Can you give me insight of what you usually did in a daily basis. I have a passion for aviation and weather. Thank you for your reply !

[@kanesword9528]

@@paulinacaro7202 Preparing and giving weather briefings to aircrew is a big part of it. Preparing forecasts, working on charts necessary to provide said forecasts. You also have the opportunity to talk to them on the radio taking PIREPS and other in flight information depending on your locale. The basic school is the same and all branches go to it. The last month or so, each branch breaks off for specific skills like oceanography for the Navy, flight meteorology for the Air Force and field met for the Marines.

[@Yyr85]

Gonky be like: "i played so much playstation"

[@goldman77700]

Former Generic enlisted navy grunt here. That perfectly sums up my development. 😂

[@MagMan4x4]

lol 8:48 "Steve" is a real thing. the local nationals that worked on the FOBs had names like that becuase we couldn't pronounce their names lol Ramadi in 2006 Paktia Province Afghanistan 2010 one of our steves in Afghanistan was in the laundry room where he was an attendant when a mortar came right in through the roof and hit him directly killing him instantly. After they cleaned him up they just threw a rug over the red spot on the concrete. lol

[@mxcollin95]

Thanks for explaining that. I wasn’t sure exactly what “Mover” meant. I thought maybe he was talking about somebody hogging the bathroom! 😂

[@jeremywilkerson7502]

Before watching I am going to venture a guess - The Army guy says they brought everything including a half dozen kitchen sinks, supply was never a real issue, but the accommodations were spartan. The Air Force guy says the same thing although their accommodations were 5x nicer than the Army, but still spartan compared to their home base. Both got eggs to order. The Navy guy says he doesn't remember much detail due to the grueling schedule of ship life; that after two weeks he was so tired he operated in automaton mode. If they did not bring it, they did not have it; they had to make do with what they had. He ate powdered eggs.

[@alphagamma4582]

What was a daily hell was going to the flight line, getting in the helicopter and noticing the air temperature gage is 130+ and you had no air conditioning, weren't authorized to remove cockpit doors and stayed at 1000 AGL or less. It was miserable flying in that heat.

[@jamesyoungquist6923]

Thanks for sharing. I was an AF Arabic translator at fort Gordon from '04 to '08 on the Iraq mission. A lot of my work was SIGINT finding those guys mortaring the bases, finding where the IEDs were set up, and disrupting the insurgent C&C. Tons of respect for everyone who deployed and lived through that shit. I wish things had ended up better. Also, and unrelated, it's cool to see y'all in DCS. Gives me a taste of what the other side went through

[@georgecooksey8216]

Thank you for your service sir.

[@TuxWing]

CW, I as at Balad in 2005/2006 and your description was giving me flashbacks as it sounds like it hadn't changed much.

[@richardbryan6349]

Hearing your deployed war stories 4 months later. Coming from an allied nation, I am thankful for your service. God bless you guys and your families.

[@lic2kil007]

I'm prior Air Force 90-97 Flight Medic. I've experienced what the other branches have to offer. I believe the Air Force has more + delta's than the other branches. Ultimately it all comes down to who you are as an individual and how you see the service your under. I'd still push younger gens toward AF.

[@auntykriest]

I was always so thankful that fighter mx scheduling is so in-depth. The 9 month run up to a 4-5 month deployment trying to keep that schedule on track so we didn't have major inspections and maintenance during the deployment sucked, but the short deployment sure was worth it.

[@crazypetec-130fe7]

Tales from Mortaritaville! I was in and out of Balad lots of times from the end of '03 til the summer of '08. It definitely got built up better over the years. My last 2 deployments, we had internet in our rooms. The movie theater was nice, as was the olympic size pool. Food was usually pretty good, much better than Ali al Saleem in Kuwait. As for the mortars, there were lots of conversations that went "Where were you during the mortar attack?" "Mortar attack? I don't know, I guess I must have slept through it."

[@derrickrichardson3452]

We had internet in the tent but not fast enough to be steady. We had to many people downloading there porn from lime wire lol

[@mxcollin95]

@@derrickrichardson3452classic!

[@rhysgoodman7628]

Relatively speaking, Army deployments sounds terrible, but I’m still putting in my WOFT packet. 💪🏼 My interview for WOFT is in September, and I only just graduated high school a few months ago.

[@angeloftheabyss5265]

Best move I ever made. Wish you luck. You won’t regret it

[@jedhaney3547]

OIF 2007-2008 here, was there for over 15 months, Army 31B, yeah I was at Camp Liberty, Camp Victory and a crap ton of other little FOBs and such. It varied for us cause our single company replaced like 7 different companies/units so we wore many hats over there; Convoy/route escort/security, Detainee ops/POW, PSD, ConAir, etc. Our living conditions depended on our current mission/area we were in. When we were at Liberty/Victory it was trailers with 3 rooms each, 2 people per room, gym, BIG chow hall, MWR, internet cafes, Green Bean, Subway, PX/BX, etc. We also worked at a Camp Cropper, a TIF(Theater Detainment Facility) with like 5k detainees for a couple of months and we were in tents. We also worked out of FOBs; Union III (where we guarded Chemical Ali and others before they went to the gallows and took them there as well) and there we stayed and worked in the old Baath Party HQ, in the basement lol. We also worked out of smaller FOBs and COPs at times and it was alot more austere lol, even slept on the ground/our vehicles not uncommingly. Sometimes we'd fly to Camp Bucca and stay with the Air Force guys there or even to UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or even GITMO. And speaking of being mortared, we got mortared for what I was told was like 226? days straight. Got to the point yeah we'd just groan and roll over and go back asleep. Well except when they hit the ammo dump like a mile from us and that shook us good. Or when a dump truck VBIED went off on the gate near us and knocked us out of our beds. Also deployed to Haiti after the quake in 2010 and that...that was like a freaking zombie movie... :( Nothing but MREs for over 6 months.

[@lynnecheermom]

Thanks for sharing your memories everyone. Brought perspective and insight.

[@Recklessness97]

Great segment! Thanks for uploading it.

[@aaronjensen8455]

Great discussion. I really started to relate at 13:00. I deployed to PSAB twice in 2002 and 2003. It was one of the nicest places to be deployed. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but I miss the experience and the camaraderie now.

[@pollylewis9611]

This was awesome C.W., I like how you put in some of your personal pictures of the past, and well you found 5 bucks haha!

[@aaronzeiger216]

Al zarqawi was killed by an F16 from my old unit. 183rd fw Springfield IL ANG. I was an ECM technician on ALQ 184 pods back in the day. Civilian pilot today.

[@CastawayHikes]

I worked at Balad Approach in 2009, hearing you talk about it and showing your photos really took me back. The craziest recovery I ever worked was there, a dust storm was headed to the base and I saw every aircraft in the sky working with Kingpin make a beeline for Balad. What ensued was chaos, pilots stepping all over each other as everyone is trying to get ID'd and set up in the sequence, it was a hornets nest. Then the locals started mortaring the base and none of these guys could land. We had so many aircraft that we didn't even have time to write down flight progress strips for everyone. Pure pandemonium

[@CWLemoine]

Was this in February? My first combat sorties was a huge dust storm and we didn’t have divert fuel or a tanker. I landed on the steer point hoping it was the runway.

[@CastawayHikes]

@CWLemoine I got there in February, left mid September. I don't recall the month that it happened but it was likely July or August. We were probably bunked near each other, all of my neighbors in E were all F16 pilots. I'm stan/eval for Eglin Approach now, I am grateful for my experience in Iraq because that is the only thing comparable to the crazy way that our airspace operates here with mission profiles and the sheer amount of traffic in a tiny area

[@CWLemoine]

Oh man, we crossed paths a lot. T-38s at Eglin for 3 years. Eglin Approach tried to run me out of gas more in those three years than in my entire career. 🤣

[@CastawayHikes]

@CWLemoine you T38 guys really tended to get screwed, most of the time it was just that the factors always line up that way. All missions start and stop at the same time so the top of every hour tends to get hectic because the next go is launching as the previous missions are all recovering. DTS and VPS civil aviation and air carriers can't be held out or prioritized last in any meaningful way (practically or legally), and you guys were the slowest and had the shortest legs. Believe me, we don't want to run anybody out of gas, but when everybody is Minimum Fuel then nobody is Minimum Fuel unfortunately

[@christopherobarr9685]

@@CastawayHikes I think the big storm was in July, that's when the Blackhawk went down over in the container yard. We lost two Sherpa's (Box Car) due to damage from collapsed shelter when it hit.

[@ronaldholverson257]

Cosmo is my hero. I'm pretty sure he smoked some fools.

[@CWLemoine]

Mine too!

[@McMartinVille]

As a heavy guy at Salem, our TV room staples were episodes of Reno 911 and Chappelle's Show, which provided a lot of quoteworthy material for our time there.

[@BenTrem42]

_"Like a hamster tube"_ reminded me of DEW Line. Short walk to the equipment and back, apart from that nothing but a series of corridors and rooms.

[@christopherobarr9685]

Spent most of 2009 at Balad in Army Aviation but was over at the Thunderdome (C-23) instead of Catfish Air. Was there in 2004-2005 doing convoy escorts (being prior combat arms) and the improvements at the base was very noticeable. Ole' R2D2 scarred the crap out of me one night on short final when it fired off our starboard wing at something. Mover is right about the mortars, they loved to shell that base.

[@hansangb]

In the army (former Infantry guy here) we say Hooah. Marines say Ooorah. Navy says Hooyay. In the Air Force? "Hey Tim" :)

[@Lucy-id3df]

So close to 400k!! Congrats in advance

[@omegawolf81]

Mover I know it isn't how you got your callsign, but you sure did ironically reinforce it by "moving" the plane in the wrong direction. Those guys in the truck must have been like, who is this guy and why is he parking here??? HAHAHAHA...great episode guys!

[@ralan350]

I did two 12 month deployment to balad as aviation support I got to the point I could sleep through the jets and the mortars.

[@danielstevens3869]

these are pretty cool stories for Aviators makes me respect you even more. I was Infantry In the Oregon Army National Guard. deployed twice to Iraq and one to Afghanistan. we would always visit the big bases where the airforce were if possible because that was where everything was like the PX and restaurants. My short deployment was 6 months when I joined my sister battalion that was in Baghdad. that was after a 1 year deployment with my Battalion. Afghanistan was also 1 year long. But we always had CAS by some sort of aircraft if needed. Primarily was A10s, Apaches, F15s in Iraq and once was a british harrier in Afghanistan.

[@georgecooksey8216]

Respect - thank you for your service sir.

[@russellwilliams4317]

I enjoy watching you guys together and it was genius to merge both worlds, BUT I would also really enjoy some solo time with Gonky at the helm. Not that I do not enjoy watching Mover (I have for a long time)... It's just I can relate to Gonky a little more. Thank you all for your service and the effort to bring us this amazing content!

[@CWLemoine]

You're on the wrong channel for that. www.youtube.com/@thereadyroom7201 is what you're looking for.

[@mickeymang6]

Inspections, repairs, parts 24 7. I'm an aircraft engine technician in the Army. It will be busy as hell for weeks and months at a time. Then nothing for a few days or weeks, then busy as hell randomly. Helicopters take a beating. Especially in dessert environments.

[@Andy_Bat]

The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) 2024 at RAF Fairford UK has 50 years of the F16 fighting falcon as its theme. Wasn’t sure I would buy tickets but definitely will now.

[@theoldweaponstroop7441]

When I was in Icirlik ABTurkey for Operation Southern Watch (79th Fighter Squadron), there was so much partying in tent city... way more fun than the more upscaled "dorms" at PSAB (probably because alcohol was allowed in Turkey). Pilots used to sneak over to our parties and get smashed. Our squadron even fired off a few AGM-88s. Good times.

[@paulbrooks4395]

I’d take tents and mortars to being in that boat any day. Also, sleep is life; without enough of it everything goes downhill fast.

[@spurgaming5400]

Mover, that's a clip of you in a 'Spad' at 11:46? I guess they just had a pool of jets you guys flew from over there including the Mako birds?

[@F16crewchiefgetsome]

Damn. 549 was the first jet I was an ADCC on. She was one of the ones that crashed at Nellis. R.I.P.

[@jimpowell2296]

For the Navy driver, don’t forget about the squadron dudes who made ready your jet to fly. During Vietnam I was in VF-154 Black Knights, our aircraft was the F-4 Phantom, I worked on the radar system, fire control technician, 1967-69 two cruises which were 8 months duration. On station in the South China Sea. We worked 12 hour shifts 7 days a week. Slept in a 40 man compartment. Got used to it real quick. When you are in a wartime footing it is exciting. When one of our birds left the deck we all wanted the pilot and RIO to return. That did not always happen. I loved being at sea, being a part of something much bigger than me. We were kick ass against the enemy. Go Navy!!!

[@brandonknutz]

I feel like I need to add my experiences as a 'deployed' Air Force aviator. The first three deployments were to Guam. I lived in a two-bedroom house with three other people. We had our own car. When you weren't flying, you were doing something fun, scuba diving, hiking, barhopping, whatever. I also deployed as a Deputy Director of Operations to a Joint Task Force Down in Honduras. When I got there, my sponsor told me he got me a temporary room close to the bathrooms. Close to the bathrooms? Like, it doesn't have its own bathroom? WTF? After a week I moved into a permanent room. It did have a bathroom. I could tolerate it for six months. This assignment was mostly army, and when they went on a mission, they would be given MREs and bottles of water instead of getting per diem. My one experience 'roughing it' was a year at an air base in Qatar. I had my own room, but it shared a bathroom and kitchenette with the adjoining suite. Of course it was in one of the nicest cities in the world, so I was OK with it. I could get a very nice, relatively inexpensive hotel room in Doha.

[@landonluebke7627]

I really hope to be part of PACAF, get to stay on the west coast near my family, plus the cross pacific deployments seem a bit nicer. Specifically hopefully Raptor at Hickman or Elmendorf, and maybe they’ll let me stick around for a while.

[@OperationEndGame]

Hey Mover and Gonnky, invite an Osprey pilot next time. We wanna hear their thoughts on flying that bird from ship to shore,

[@Raist474]

I was in Bagram and other places numerous times at the end of the Wild West era. Chain link fence, and the local insurgents would climb a tree or a hill and take shots at us with a rifle. We didn't get C-RAM's until 2014? So lots or mortars, rockets, and the occasional suicide bomber or VIED attempt. I knew we were in the shit when during ground attacks on FoBs and the local leadership tells you to kill anyone who tries to enter the tent/building. Did not expect that joining the air force.

[@jeffrey9195]

@@AB0BA_69 Yeah, they give us slings and optics too! It's really cool.

[@JD1976]

Watching you flyboys talking about deployement. 1st cav 2/7 greywolf...11B. We lived in tents in iraq. And chu in thhe helmand. Joined navy later for the water.

[@TheRealAb216]

As Marine aviation maintenance when I deployed in 2003 we had no tents no cots no showers and no laundry when I arrived ahead of the rest of the 3rd MAW.

[@gimmeaford9454]

When I was a c5 FE we never had any of those cleanliness issues in our comfy hotel rooms. Worst place I had to stay in was a tent in bastion. After that if we were in country, I would just sleep on the plane.

[@maggiepaul1225]

I won’t lie - I miss not having to worry about anything but the job. What to wear, where to be, what to do, how to do it - all spelled out. And if you do your job well, are motivated, etc. you’re good. And when you go home, at least in our field, your time was mainly your own. We couldn’t talk about work, so we literally didn’t have to think about it outside of work hours. I miss all of that. Civilian life is… it’s a lot.

[@gregorymaupin6388]

So try living with 80 to 120 of your squadron buddies 😂 and occasionally having the ac or the heat go away. I remember my first birthing being right below the #3 wire where the aviators aim for. When you served aboard one of the oldest carriers in the fleet that wasn’t a nuclear carrier things broke.

[@RussianThunderrr]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@billbrockman779]

I’m with Mover. My ANG deployment in Iraq was also at Balad in 2010, so after all the “mortaritaville” crap. It was almost like a vacation in a super hot place with 12 hour work days and all the decent food you wanted. The indoor pool, courtesy of Saddam, was my salvation.

[@MrJetsfan123]

Cool video. Interesting to listen to how it is

[@Broken_dish]

ive been wondering for awhile if your flying and another plane where to be coming towards you faster than the speed of sound when it passes you do you hear the sonic boom or maybe feel anything from the pressure it creates i know distance away might effect things...been trying to figure this out for awhile now tried google cant find anything

[@Hannsfeld]

I tell you what, a deployment for 'Cope Thunder / Combat Sage' in the PI was like adult Disneyland. But since that volcano blew up, we don't have Clark AFB anymore. It's a damned shame. Now one of the roughest was freezing your ass off at 'Team Spirit', Gwang Ju, South Korea. We lived in MASH 4077 style tents and had to walk on pallets down to the 'shower tent' in the damned snow! Someone duct taped a huge heating unit with an aircraft ground cooling hose into the window of a school bus on the flightline so we could thaw out between launching and recovering sorties. We had fun at the King Club after hours though.

[@Hannsfeld]

When we would get 'killed' during an exercise, they used to send us to the Airmen's Club where we would play video games and eat french fries. Woops, I got killed by a chem attack. Well, they got wise to that so they changed it to 'filling sand bags'.

[@OperationEndGame]

Subic Bay NAVSta/Cubi Point NAS were wild.

[@maxcorder2211]

Would talk about Vietnam, but this is modern stuff.A year at Danang being rocketed + a year in Thailand getting SAM’d. I don’t know which is better.

[@ottf24]

in my day early 80's, we didnt have anything but fishing lol (surface fleet)

[@mrkc10]

I binge watched multiple seasons of Burn Notice while deployed. Good times.

[@Angler__]

2009+ satcom became very popular with all of the ground satellite terminals. Gotta give internet to the higher ups.

[@AdamKeele]

So I was active Air Force and Army, and was also Army National Guard and Air National Guard (still). Aircrew in the Air National Guard get the luxury of breaking up deployment lengths. The rest of us, generally not so much. These days it’s usually six months for most people. I do miss the 90-day orders back when I was active AF. I was on the last set of deployers in the AF that got 90 to Iraq (although we got extended a little, but still it only was 101 days in country). They went to 120 for a while until there was no end in sight and generally went to 179 days after that and basically to this day. Being Guard, it’s really hard to make six months work without completely disrupting your civilian life. It would be great if we could go back to 90 days. The Army was doing a year when I was in Iraq, and quickly dragging out one to three months more. Wasn’t too long before 18 months was pretty common. With retention issues and increased suicides, the Army seemed to try to cut back a little. When I was active Army, we got a one year, but were told to expect 15 months, which it ended up being a little over 15. Then there’s all the spool up and post-deployment wind down, which usually was about two years total of deployment stuff. It’s pretty crazy if you aren’t combat arms in the Army to put up with that for an entire career. Went Air Guard after three years in the Army. More of my cup of tea.

[@georgecooksey8216]

Thank you for your service sir

[@alexp1329]

In three Enlisted Navy deployments two on Carriers, one to Afghanistan, and one Army Officer Aviator Deployment. I would say the Army side is rougher. No matter which deployment someone is on, it will have rough times, but there are almost always a bright spot in there.

[@mxcollin95]

This was a great episode! The only thing you guys were missing was having a navy seal door kicker there to make fun of you guys. Lol No…really tho it would be interesting to hear from someone on the ground who you guys supported like an SF dude who got some help from above. From a civilian standpoint, I thought this was really interesting. 🤙🇺🇸

[@diygarygaming]

Awesome video.

[@MrWolverine46]

Yeah I remember Balad….aka motoritaville.

[@derrickrichardson3452]

I was in Balad it’s called moratoria vill so many mortars

[@NickBarlow]

I was a 19K ( Abrams crewmen) tank commander during the invasion. My unit were the ones that cleared Balad. We then took a fun tour of the country and ended up coming back to Balad I think around November/December. Talking about the mortars: you could set your clock because at 2100 there would be a 5 round salvo. After about a month of this the Battalion Cmdr arranged for GSR and a section of 109 paladins set up near Samarah to counter fire as we knew when they were going to fire and knew the general area they fired from. One night we get our morale call from Haji and in the distance hear 5 arty pieces go off. We didn’t have that issue for 3 months. And yes aviation had nicer accommodations that us ground pounders and the officers even better on top of that. We finally got tents and cots to sleep in once we returned to Balad. DFAC and pseudo PX didn’t come till later in our deployment. We still had outhouses and shit burning. Would I do it again; yes though I would have brought a lot more booze.

[@mxcollin95]

That’s crazy they would do that at the same time every night. Couldn’t they have solved the problem with a few snipers on night watch or were they shooting mortars from too far away? (Civilian here so clueless on how far mortars go.)

[@DonWan47]

@@mxcollin95No. They pick positions that can’t be over watched. Typicality behind bunlines, houses, anywhere that puts them in defilade. Mortar ranges can vary greatly depending on the calibre of mortar and round used. Our 81mm mortar used HE that had a maximum ranger of 5.6km but at that range accuracy suffers. The Iraqi crews tended to just wildly lob shells in a general direction with very limited accuracy and without a forward observer they frequently hit empty space.

[@mxcollin95]

@@DonWan47 interesting! Thanks for answering my questions and for your service! It would obviously pretty damn hard to shoot someone that could be kilometers away. Never heard of defilade…think I know what ya mean but I’ll look it up.

[@SGTJackMorgan]

The talk about mortar attacks made me laugh. I got to that point on deployment, mortars and a rockets would come in and you just said "ahh eff this...I'm going back to sleep".

[@jeffrey9195]

Mover: "and then I found five dollars..." Mic drop! lololololololol

[@Hellivaguy]

Air Force: OH ya! I totally get that. Hell, one time valet lost my keys!

[@Keil2590]

I was at Balad summer 05 with the 510th. Those were the days. Without weapons it's just another airline. Alert shack was legit. We had a food runner and it was set - up. Also, that DFAC near the active duty side of the ramp (1 I think) was legit. One morning setting up for EOR on the taxiway at the active end, a twin prop airplane landed right in front of us...on the 'taxi'-way. Had he been about 10 minutes later it would have been very bad. Yeah...that got investigated. The rockets and mortars were no joke. I remember getting there and going straight to the tent for the body armor (they weren't sending people with it yet) and it was like 120 degrees F and I had a the worst bubble guts. My first 30 minutes of Iraq was spent in a porta john in 120+ temps really living, let me tell ya. I'll be honest, I had just arrived from Aviano and after getting fat and happy on pasta and other foods -gelato-, ya boy was a bit plump and adding 40 lbs of body armor, 120+ heat and having to walk through all that gravel every where really hit me. I was struggling that first week. As deployments go, I sorted myself out and got to work in the gym as well as loading those jets. A time I'll never forget.

[@TheProps03]

Good times, good times. 😎👍

[@justsayingforafriend7010]

The Air Force has the country club and the night club bar that they go to every night in war... Everybody else's life sucks....

[@RTS907]

Wow, I thought the deck of a carrier was smoother ! Is the actual takeoff/landing area smoother?

[@RedTail1-1]

Heck no. People need to be able to run all over. You can’t have a smooth area for people to slip around on, and aircraft need a grippy surface to move around on… they’d slide around on a smooth surface. Not sure where you got the idea of a smooth runway surface

[@SINBADsRiffs]

You and gonky please provide some clarity on this ufo hearing mess. I feel like you guys would have a more sane opinion on what it could be that they’re talking about. Rather than listening to all the ufo fanatics with far fetch theories. Great video by the way and thank you all for your service. I’m sure it takes A LOT to be a fighter pilot. I’ve always wondered what you guys did when your not flying.

[@thereissomecoolstuff]

CW did you get carrier qualified.

[@speedracer2336]

The Air Force is the primary air element of DOD and pilots run that service. The other military aviators are not the primary force of their respective branches.

[@zubrickadvisors6742]

They don't call it "The Country Club Service" for no reason.

[@Orvulum]

Casmo! 🤠

[@Theiliteritesbian]

Lol you were in combat in a low flying helicopter... 'but the food wasn't good.' This is why vets need other vets to talk to... my hands get sweaty just thinking about flying past gunfire.

[@UnshavenStatue]

There's always stories of senior sergeants saving the day and restoring common sense, aren't there?

[@DonWan47]

I was infantry. I’m happily swapping places with any of you.

[@CallsignShoe]

Do the planes on the carrier stay with the carrier or the squadron?

[@CWLemoine]

Squadron

[@eugenealbrycht2132]

C.W. Be like America F-yeah, coming again to save the mother f-ing day yeah.

[@stealthfinger]

So who got the water slides?

[@neiloychaudhuri]

"That's a threaded hole!" that's what she said..

[@SP4D3-s69]

“And then I found five dollars” 😂

[@po1ly414]

Is that why it’s mover?

[@EthanBSide]

Marines never get love

[@manhalen7046]

I was a commo guy in the army at Ft. Campbell and we attached and worked alot with different units inside the division (ie. infantry, aviation, air defense artillery, arty etc etc) We worked alot with the 159 aviation brigade and other 101st aviation battalions and it was just so much better than working with 187 inf brigade or 502 inf. The infantry officers and senior nco's simply made you wanna slam your nuts in a car door over and over and the aviation guys were always so gdamn logical and easy to work with. Thats simply my take from inside the division (101st AASLT), aviation guys kick ass and infantry guys eat ass. Just my opinion.

[@northwesttravels7234]

What no space force?

[@nycat7906]

What about the most important branch - The Marines. I know talking about Marines is scary for a former Air Force guy, but they are the best. And yes we all know the Navy is part of the Marines but they are not the same.

[@Rdgoosmicp]

And then I found $5 😂😂… great ending

[@jakejacobs7584]

Durka Durka.

[@GrumpyNCO]

My brother in christ... if the food was "bad" in KAF why didn't you just steal a TaTa and go to the AF side chow hall? Prime rib was on the short order.

[@Nukeaon]

great vid! oh and then i found $5 lol!!

[@Zardra77]

Fly Navy!

[@NuclearFalcon146]

I'll take five dollars over getting shot any day of the week.

[@barryfletcher7136]

Ear plugs and sleep masks!

[@averyp.9315]

Mmmm Spad

[@Kaatu-barada-nikto]

New details have been revealed Wednesday related to the Ukraine war, at a moment the West is beginning to admit Ukraine's counteroffensive is failing, despite billions of foreign military hardware (and counting) shipped to Kiev thus far. "Secret diplomatic talks are ongoing between former senior U.S. national security officials and high-ranking members of the Kremlin, a U.S. official directly involved in the talks has confirmed to The Moscow Times," the Amsterdam-based publication reports. Washington is looking for a way to exit from this losing proxy war. Zelensky will be the ultimate bag holder because he failed to deliver. With friends like NATO, who needs enemies?

[@apostlestumpy]

The army sleeps under the stars. The Navy navigates by the stars. The Airforce picks hotels by the rating stars.

[@ligmasack9038]

Go Navy!

[@bolyami1975]

Gonky you Nub! Carriers are SHIPS…we bubbleheads we on boats

[@CWLemoine]

Aviators call it the boat.

[@bolyami1975]

Yeah I know. I was on 3 subs then after injury a carrier. 12 years on subs and one year on the carrier. I fully admit I was waaayyyy too submarine indoctrinated.

[@bolyami1975]

Incidentally during that one year on the big stick, I ran the catapult shop. It was eye opening to say the least

[@sanchous85]

@@CWLemoine Everyone in the navy call it the boat.