Fort Hood, TX

Getting loaded out in North Carolina

Taking off out of Raleigh, NC bound for Fort Hood, TX on April 3 2009. CW3 Danny Piland and I were the two pilots to fly the 24th of 24 Apaches to Fort Hood, a full week after everyone else had left. This helicopter was down for maintenance and it took us longer than expected to get it fixed. On the bright side, Jane and the girls were in Raleigh with me so we had a bonus week long vacation together.

The extent of my personal space in the barracks. There are 4 of us to a room, and we only have hot water every other day. They say they are going to fix that soon. We'll see.

My over-stuffed wall locker. We got issued a ton of gear (which is all cool), but we don't have much room to store it.

Apache sunrise at Fort Hood out on our flight line.

Enter the Panther

Hello All. I am deploying to Iraq with the North Carolina Army National Guard. My unit is the 1-130 Attack-Recon Battalion (ARB). We are the Panthers, and will soon be prowling the deserts of Iraq. Our unit boasts 24 AH-64D Apache Longbow Attack helicopters, and I am one of the pilots. This blog will be an easy way for me to let everyone know what I am up to, and to share some of my experiences. Enjoy the flight.