Happy B-Day Russ and Trev!

26MAY08

2200 hours

Mood: Tired

Weather: Hottest yet

Milkshake Flavor: Chocolate

What I miss most from home right now: Sushi

Today was memorial day and we had a BBQ to celebrate. It was your typical hamburgers and hot dogs deal. We were going to get steaks but there werent enough for everyone. Frinky was nice enough to buy all of the stuff herself. I like that girl. They had a ceremony on the base where they read the names of the 44 airman who have left us since 2003. Not too long ago we had to load some remains onto a plane to be brought back home to the states. Crazy I was working in the warehouse and i swear i smelled soy sauce. I've been cravin sushi ever since. I'd really like that Tune-it-up roll that joelseph makes at Kamon. I missed Russ' n Trev's bdays this month. Hopefully I didn't miss too much craziness. The only craziness we have going on over here is seeing who can do the most push-ups/sit-ups. Tak

Don’t Touch The Yellow Button

May 17, 2008

1600 hours

Mood: Disgusted

Weather: Hot

Part of my job is to “Fleet” the vehicles. I’ve told some people about it before. When dirty fleet is requested, it means that I have to go out there and “service” the lavatory aka suck the poo and pee out of the plane.

I’m going to try my best to explain this in detail so pay attention:

You back a FLEET vehicle “Lavatory Service Truck” towards the aircraft so that the hose can be connected to the lavatory port. The end of the hose is called the moose head. The fleet personnel screw the moosehead onto the lavatory port so that the junk can be sucked out of the plane and into the truck

In order to get the moose head on, the top of the lavatory port must be opened. It’s opened with a latch. After opening the port with the latch, you screw on the moose head. THEN the moose head has a twisty metal thing that can be used to open the final seal and let the junk come out.

When I tried to open the latch, it wouldn’t. There was a YELLLOW button that said, “PUSH TO OPEN”. I knew there was something evil about this button from the first moment I laid eyes on it. So I kept trying the latch but it just wouldn’t budge. I finally thought to myself, hmm..well I guess im supposed to press the YELLOW button then. I hit the YELLOW button and EVERYTHING came out!

It got onto my boots and my right leg. There was no doo doo but there was definitely pee pee in there mixed with the “blue juice”. Blue juice is what you put into the lavatory.. you’ve all seen it when using the potty in the plane. The worst part is that some of it got onto my glove and spilled onto the hemp bracelet that Sam Tsuru made me. I have that soaking in soap and water as we speak.

I went home from work 3-4 hours early, got a new pair of boots, and 3 spankin’ new pairs of socks in exchange for my one dirty pair of black socks. I told everyone that I did it on purpose because I need new green socks. I seriously did need some more though. The folks think its hilarious to call me piss boy right now. I think it’ll pass with time. As nasty as it was, I can’t lie, kinda funny.

SO, should you ever have to dirty fleet a plane, NEVER EVER FOREVER NEVER push the YELLOW BUTTON!!! If the latch doesn’t open don’t service the plane, UNLESS you need new boots and spankin’ new socks.

Oh ya. I saw a civilian guy wearing one of those dust mask thingys.. he looked ridiculous! I gave him a face that clearly said, “What are you thinking?”

Tak

Pool Volleyball and Sexy Dust Masks

16 May 2008 1511 hours

Yesterday we went to the pool for the first time and it was pretty fun. There were a ton of girls in two piece suites out there (5 total). Yeah.. pretty nice.

I’m doing my best to get tanned up before I come back so I can lose that title of “Pasty”.

We played a game a couple games of volleyball in the pool. It started out just being fun.. we were giving do-overs and all that the whole game. Then it was like one of those movies where a group of bullies come in and ruin everything. Four army guys joined our game and they were being all competitive about it. They were cursing all over the place and were getting mad because I kept saying,

“DO OVER!” The biggest jerk of ‘em all kept saying, “NO! NO DO OVERS!”

A taunt that I learned from Derek Hironaka came to mind as I shouted to my team,

“THIS IS CHAMPIONSHIP POOL VOLLEYBALL! IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF YOUR LIFE!!! GET READY!!!”

For some reason the jerk army guy started to lighten up a little bit after that.

Then they kept serving to the girl on our team because she couldn’t hit the ball… cool guys.

Today at work we had another bad dust storm. I don’t have the dust face cover thingy yet so I wear one of those surgical mask deals.. I’m the only one walking around with it though because everyone thinks that it looks stupid. As I walked back to the dorm with my buddies I received a lot of strange looks from people. After a while I turned to my buddy / roomie Nurse and told him,

“I SWEAR, if one more person gives me a funny look about this mask I’m going to jump kick their face!”

Why wouldn’t I wear the mask?! Does it look like I want to suck in dust all freakin’ day?! They’re the ones that should feel like dummies. I’m the smart one over here. Sgt. Stidham told me that I’d know why they were giving me those faces when I got back to the dorm and looked in the mirror.

Until I get a dust face cover thingy, I’m still going to be wearing that mask, and I’ll still jump kick someone’s face.

Tak

Phone Call

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 1602 hours

There are only certain phones capable of calling back home. I thought the one in our dorm was able to so I was all excited about calling one of my friends. It turns out that the phone wasn’t able to call out.. and my exciting plan for the afternoon went out the door.
I literally sat there and thought, this sucks, what is there to do now? I sat there for a whole 5 minutes. I ended up going back to my dorm and sleeping for the night.

As I walked home from work today, I thought about how disappointed I was when I found out that I wasn’t going to be able to make that call. I thought about how there are guys who don’t even get to make phone calls for weeks or months at a time. AP is probably going to have to experience some hard core stuff like that. I thought about how I’ll be able to come home in 4 months and see my friends and family again, and how back in the day some of our great grandparents left their families and friends to come to America; some NEVER seeing there families in person again.

I don’t think I’d ever be able to do something like that. Would you? What I’m doing here is hard enough for me. I like talking to my peoples! I guess it just started to hit me a little bit more. A couple weeks without seeing everyone isn’t so bad because you know that you just saw them. After awhile it starts hitting though. Your not going to be seeing or talking to these people much at all until the fall.

This blog should help a lot. I wanted to share everything with everyone while I was going through basic training… so it will help me a lot to share this experience. That’s all for now.

Tak

NEW DUTIES and EXTRA SLACKING

13 MAY 2008 0310 hours

I was just starting to get the hang of things! They took me off of my load team and made me the dispatcher. So I started from Block 1 again. The dispatcher position is even more difficult than the job I working on load team 3. I have a little confidence dispatching that I got from helping out my girls at EGUSD. The trick is to understand how the whole system works, so as far as learning about my job out here it’s a really good deal. The problem is, the guy training me leaves here really soon so I think there’s a lot of “learning it the hard way” scenarios ahead of me.

We had quite a few problems today. I swear last week (when I wasn’t dispatcher) it ran a lot smoother. Everything from oil leaks to aircraft malfunctions have taken place in the last 24 hours. I guess it’s the best way to learn though. When things go wrong out here a lot of the southern folk like to say “SWEET JESUS!” Oh man you already know that I was bustin’ up. I’m telling you, I’m in a movie.

Chicken was great today as always.

My friends and I decided that I’d use my southern accent when dispatching over the radio. Apparently it doesn’t sound very southern.

We got off work later than usual due to all the craziness and mishaps that went down at the end of our shift. I was stressed, tired, and even sad.. so I did what needed to be done and had a bowl of strawberry ice cream. The mashed potatoes for dinner tasted really bad, just FYI.. the worst I’ve ever had.

I planned on running afterwards but I was mentally exhausted from all the dispatch so I took I shower and went to sleep extra early. I slept in a little later as well and didn’t get to work on time for my pre-work workout. I’m SLACKING. I’ll get the hang of it here and dispatch and ill be right back on top of my game. Maybe I’ll get to play that ugly kid in basketball again and actually win this time. Alrighty folks!

Tak

Mother's Day

1512 hours Sunday (11May2008)

Last night I finally got to play another basketball game. I lose some serious sleep when I do this but how can I resist? There’s not much fun stuff to do on this base so when I see basketball I get super excited. I lost both games because the other team had this guy that was decent. There was some trash-talking going on as well. He was 6’2 but I was still pissed. I decided to be the bigger man so I just told him he was ugly. He really was though. True story.

Today I woke up early enough to get into the gym before work today, but I was so hungry that I ended up grubbing’ a little bit instead.

There are concrete sidewalks to walk on around the base, but it’s quicker to cut through to rocky gravel. When the stones get bigger it’s harder to walk so you end up talking the longer, sidewalk routes anyway. Who knew that paved roads and flat sturdy ground was something to be grateful for?


I still got in push-ups and sit-ups before work. From 0200 hours to 0600 hours it was pretty slow. When its dark in the morning and im driving out there by myself it gets pretty lonely. I sing and dance to keep myself entertained. I wonder what comes to mind when these people see that Asian guy driving a forklift through the flight line while singing boyz 2 men, blackstreet, and Britney spears songs.

We try to do some cleaning and then some reading on training materials when it’s slow. I also have to stay away from the food because there’s so much of it there and when we don’t eat it all (and we never do) we end up having to throw it all away. I can’t stand being there when we’re throwing all of that perfectly good food into the trashcans. We do save the lunchmeat, bread and cheeses though. I just feel bad asking for care packages and here we are throwing good food away.

In the morning they had fried rice, or at least someone attempted to make fried rice. It looked like rice mixed in with those multi-veggies that u buy frozen. It wasn’t too bad.

Today was by far the worst day of work I’ve had so far. There were a whole lot of planes coming down all at once and everyone was flustered. I was pissed because we didn’t know what was going on or why were messing up. We have to know exactly what the problem is in order to fix it u know? It’s all good tomorrows another day so we’ll get it done then.

We got off late because of all the screw-ups. There was a BBQ but I forgot about it and went straight to the dorm. I bought new socks because mines are all dirty or with the laundry crew. Then I hopped onto the computer and sent some emails and chatted with Jess and my lil sis. Emailing with everyone back home is really one of the more entertaining parts of my day. I know some folks back home must think im going CRAZY without my cell phone.

I’m going to miss everyone’s college grads and AP’s grad from SEAL training. Im pretty upset about that. Congrats ya’ll. I’m very proud of you guys. I brag about ya’ll all the time out here.

RANDOM: A lot of these people out here have southern accents. You know how some people try to talk to foreign people with FOB words hoping that they might understand them better? Well, I find myself putting that southern accent on some of my words when I talk to these folks out here. Maybe I feel like my words are hitting them a little bit harder that way? I don’t know, its not like I mean to do it.


Well this is more thAn I planned on writing. Is it then or than? Whatever. Peace out ya’ll

Tak

My Own Corner

I woke up for work last night at 2200 hours. My buddies Sgt. Flores and SrA Sanchez came and woke me up since I’ve had problems getting up in time for work. I did my usual morning deal but rushed through flossing and rinsing my mouth with mouth wash because someone was taking a crap and it reeked!

I got to work at 2300 hours and worked out for about 25 minutes. I grabbed a roll to chew on while we had our beginning of shift briefing. I told everyone about the milkshakes but no one seems to be as excited as me. Who doesn’t love free milkshakes?! I’ll probably be telling people about it the whole trip and then telling even more people back home when I return.

Work was slow today. I still think its crazy that im doing all of the things that im doing out here. Back home it would have taken weeks for me to get out there on my own and do things comfortably; but here they cant afford to wait that long. I guess its part of the reason why I came here. I know that after this tour ill know all there is to know about the ramp services part of my job. The only part that im a little bit shaky on is the PAX section, but I’ll have a chance to get comfortable with that too.

We had a super long briefing that started at 0800 and lasted until about 1130. My new friend Sgt. Frink was bobbin’ back and forth from the first minute of it! Everyone kept telling me to wake her up but I was just watching and laughing.

By the time the briefing was over it was time for us to go home so we were happy. This was the slowest day of work that I’ve had since working here. Oh and one of the planes requested dirty fleet services during the shift. I thought it was like the other planes I’ve been doing.. thinking that all I had to do was plug in the hose, suck the stuff out and then be off. Oh no, this one had a honey bucket. It’s literally a bucket that the air crew pees in and that you have to take out with your hands and empty into a funnel on the Latrine Service Truck. Nasty nasty. Funny how they call it a honey bucket though.

I came back home and went out to eat with Sgt. Walker. I guess he just got married right before coming here, and he’s trying to go active duty. I don’t think that it’s a bad idea because the military does have a lot to offer. Reserves and Active Duty both have their ups and downs, it just depends on what your trying to do with your life.

I love Matt Curry for introducing me to the red hot chilis because I love listening to this stuff when I come back to my dorm. It relaxes me like nothing else;. I also picked up my laundry, dropped some more laundry off, went to the cyber café, and ran for twenty minutes. Now im only going to get about five hours of sleep but its all good because I took a nap for an hour after eating today. I like to wait for the cyber café to open before I start taking care of business out here. One of the guys here moved out so I got his corner that’s blocked off with sheets, has a whole bunk to itself, with two lockers (one that locks), and an electrical outlet! Oh YEAH!

Davin TAKeuchi

First Post

There are only 4 electrical ports (all in the corners) in each dorm room and my bunk is in the middle so i don't have a way to charge any of my gear right now (cell phone, computer, ipod). The guys im rooming with are going to be moving out here pretty soon so i'll have all those luxuries shortly. People work different shifts so people section off their parts of the room with strings tied to the wall with blankets/sheets hung over there. The guys with bunks by the door can't do that so the bottom bunker just puts sheets around hanging from the top bunk so that no light can get in.

Because i don't have any electricity i don't have a alarm and theyre tough to find out here. Some of my friends take it upon themselves to come in and wake me up each day at 2145-2200 hours. I get dressed in my uniform, walk down to the bathroom and take care of my morning business, then walk back to my room and put my vest, helmet, and backpack on. From there we walk on down to our work area which is about half a mile away. It's not a bad walk though because its late at night so the temperature is cool. You can always see/hear jets and helicopters flying in and out of the base. It may start to wear off, but i still feel like im in a movie everyday.

We have a gym upstairs above our offices so we work out from 2230-2330 hours. There is always food here because we are too busy to break away for chow. After working out we throw some stuff in our bellies and then have briefing at 2330-2345 hours. The guys that have been here have told us that we're going to get sick of chicken, and i think im starting to already.

I work in the ramp section, so our job is to unload the planes and bring the cargo back to the cargo bay, and then pick up cargo from the cargo bay and load it onto the plane. I either drive out there with a car/truck, or take a 10k all terrain forklift. There are three teams with different responsibilities. I'm on team 3 and apparently its the busiest team that there is. We do most of the ERO (Engine running onload/offload). The ERO's are difficult because the engines are throwing hot air right at you. It feels like your skin is about to burn off.. but you get used to it. We also load some commercial planes that are operated by Russian guys. They have different signals that are hard to understand so these guys are always cussing at me in russian. I just laugh and smile, and they cuss some more. We also take the dirty stuff off of the gunships. IT's crazy because your inside this plane that is going out there every night actually killing other humans.. crazy crazy.

Today we had our first dust storm. The four months that ill be here are apparently the four momths where the dust storms are the most severe. When there are severe dust storms the enemy decides to mortar the base big time, but no worries we're in a hardened shelter. The dust is horrible because its everywhere and on everything. Im going to invest in a scarf thingy but right now i have to be like my other buddies and just cover my face with my shirt like someone farted and i can't get away from the smell. The dust storms just look like a bunch of fog in the air. This makes it a slower day because they have to cancel a bunch of the flights.

After our shift finally ends we take off back to the dorms. I quickly change into my PT gear and hop on the treadmill at the fitness center not to far away from my dorm. Today i'll be picking up my laundry. You can give them up to 6 kilos of laundry and they get it back to u in 3 days wrapped in a plastic bag. A lot of guys prefer to do their own laundry because its quicker but i think thats a waste. Where else do you get free laundry service like this?

After running i shower (which can only be 3 mins long) and hit the deck. Although sometimes ill go to the cyber cafe and email/chat.. or ill go to the chow hall and grab a milk shake that they make with baskin robbins ice cream. The chow hall back home doesnt even do that! I have to limit myself on those tho or ill come back twice the size.

The girls out here all look 20x better than they actually do because there is only 1per every 50 guys. There are a lot of army people on base here also. Even though theyve given me the name Tak there are still a lot of people that try to say my real name and still say Ta-koo-chi. It pisses me off because thats why they call me TAK in the first place.. ill take care of them soon. There is probably a lot that i've missed but i think i did a decent job of outlining my day. Pretty boring huh? Talk to yall soon

Ta-koo-chi