That rarely happened in the C-5 community. You'd land at a big airport and drop off dozens of pallets of cargo that would go into a holding facility to be distributed by C-130's to smaller airfields. If an Army unit is out in the hills of the Hindu Kush at a remote fire base and they need ammo and food they request it via radio. The powers that be request a 130 to pick some up and bring it out. The cargo has already made it's way from, say Ramstein, to Bagram air base Afghanistan. We then get tasked to take it and air drop it close by so that they can resupply, in battle if necessary.
These missions are different because they aren't that pressing, but the user at Dira Dawa needed his stuff. Which leads me back to my original explanation attempt. I have an idea of what kind of cargo it is by the user. If it is the Navy SeaBees construction battalion I know they are building an outpost and need construction materials and survival stuff (food, water, ammo). In today's case it was a grizzled senior non commissioned officer (what you'd call an Army Master Seargant) with a Combat Infantry Badge (you have to be in an infantry career field and served in combat to earn it) and a set of jump wings.
I cannot state what the mission is as I am a member of the United States Armed Forces sworn to protect my country, her interests, and our allies and as such I cannot speak on behalf of my country concerning our foreign policy. How'd you like my disclaimer? I feel like a large corporation or a midnight infomercial!!!! If I wasn't in the military and I was a betting man I'd say perhaps a combat oriented mission. Given that it's northern Ethiopia, on the horn of Africa, adjacent to the Red Sea and shipping lanes.............Maersk Alabama or something like that. Or maybe it's an assistance visit; an attempt by our government to train our Ethiopian military counterparts.
At any rate it's a remote assignment in the highlands of a desert in north central Ethiopia. We landed in the morning so it wasn't hot, but it was definitely a desert. I was struck that the surrounding countryside looked very familiar. Growing up dad would put on these slide shows for friends and family so I got to see a lot of pictures of my birthplace!!! Often it looked hot, dry, dusty, and generally inhospitable. Very few trees and not a lot of infrastructure. My dad has fond memories of Ethiopia and he describes the Ethis that he interacted with mostly as warm and friendly. I found that to be the case at Addis, but at Dira Dawa I think the heat and dust made these Ethiopians grumpy!!
It is a military field and they take security more seriously than we do I think. Perhaps because they've been at war for so long. No pictures were taken because I didn't want to be fodder for the morning talk shows and evening chat fests!!! There were signs that it was a military airfield (Russian helicopters and French fighter planes), but other than the Ethiopian customs guy (in civilian clothes) I saw no military personnel other than ours. A crew that had been down there a week prior was telling us that they had a guy get a mail package and it was coffee. He opened it in front of them and the customs guy was standing behind him. He realized his mistake (no coffee allowed to be brought into Ethiopia by any means, especially by Americans) and grabbed an orange Fanta and the customs guy was happy....Do you wanta, wanta, FANTA!!! We have found that orange Fanta is the icebreaker with many workers at these locations. It is amazing that no matter where you come from, or what your life experiences are, we all have some small treasure that makes us go gaga! Triple chocolate Galaxy ice cream bar anyone?
After a very brief visit at Dira Dawa it was time to head to Entebbe, Uganda. The flight from Dira to Entebbe was a short three and a half hours, but what a difference that made. Dira Dawa was hot and dusty. Entebbe was cool and tropical. It sits on the northern shores of Lake Victoria, the largest and highest lake on the African continent; It should be noted that Lake Victoria is the second largest fresh water lake in the World!! It's so green there, and the lake is so large, you feel like your somewhere in the Carribean! Of course as soon as you land and try and taxi around the airport you instantly remember you are in Africa and that you aren't going to get clear and concise instructions to do anything unless they feel you aren't doing what they want. Case in point. We were taxiing and we had a follow me vehicle in front of us going about ten miles an hour. We are going to give plenty of clearance between us and the vehicle, especially in Africa, in case the idiot decides to stop on a dime. An Entebbe controller comes on the radio and says, "Lion 156, expedite your taxi!" Really? Really? What are you #$%^!@ stupid?!!!? We following your people. Man do these people need to get their shit together!
The cool thing was we taxied past the old control tower and old passenger terminal. You are probably aware that in 1976 a group of Palestinians hijacked an Air France jet and landed in Entebbe. They held all the Jewish passengers hostage and the Isrealies went in there and tore them a new asshole. Of course, there was a lot of gunfire and today the passenger terminal still stands as a reminder complete with very large bullet holes. I have lots of pictures:)
To keep it short and sweet: 1) parked us short of where we needed to be, 2) only one person could operate the forklift and drive the automated loader, 3) the Navy commander, SIR, had his head up his ass, but more on that later, 4) the airport liason had no control over the refuel guy. Other than that it was a nice visit!
They had one of those cool loaders with the spinning wheels, but the cargo was on a 1970's flat bed truck that had seen better days (it probably saw the raid in 76). They had to transfer the cargo from there to the automated loader via forklift. One guy doing it all. When they took our cargo off and put it on the truck they bent the frame big time. I felt sorry for them because it was the only truck these Ugandans had. I'm absolutely certain they got a newer vehicle from the Navy (perhaps a 1977 model).
The Navy commander said two things that instantly marked him as stupid. He told us to taxi further down the taxiway and get out of there that way, then minutes later he demanded to know why we hadn't started engines. Go back to your ship sailor, we are doing you a favor dropping off and picking up your cargo. Don't dictate the manner in which we provide the service. We start engines when we have permission from the controller not the idiot in the flightsuit who looks as if he's eaten all the UN humanitarian aid!!! We would have loved to start engines and taxiied forward, but the controller didn't get back to us right away and then they towed a UN humanitarian C-130 opposite us on the same taxiway. It's a one way street. Lucky for us we just put the propellers in reverse and back the hell out of danger!!!!!!
When we climbed the hill and parked at the main terminal, our fuel truck arrived on cue. However, he demanded our credit card to which we replied we had already made arrangements for payment. He just shrugged and drove off!! We sat there for ten minutes wondering how the hell we were going to find this liason to tell her what happened when she appeared. She left angry, but we didn't get our fuel until the fuel truck driver was damn good and ready. I agree with a woman I saw on CNN who said that Africa as a continent has had too much interference when it comes to humanitarian aid. She said that Africans didn't need a handout. I couldn't agree more lady.
We had made a late takeoff out of Djibouti courtesy of the Navy's inability to run an operation and had made up time at Dira Dawa and Entebbe, but now with the fuel debacle we were behind again and would remain so for the day. Oh well. At least the chow hall would be waiting and then a nice feather bed at the hotel so who can really complain?
On the way back we hit evening thunderstorms. Man were they intense, yet beautiful!!!!! Luckily we have a really good color radar that paints precipitation returns. The faster the rain is falling within the cloud the greater the doppler effect and the higher the intensity of returns. Blue means: Get the @#$% out of there now, and green means a gentle cleansing of the aircraft will commence! We had a lot of blue returns and we must stay 20 nautical miles from the large clouds lest they reach out and bite us!! After a little deviation and a great job by the navigator keeping us clear of Ethiopian restriced military airspace, we made it safely to the D!!! Another successful mission completed by the A team!!
Tommorow is Safari Day.
The pictures will be up sometime this week. I hope you enjoy them. As for what I put with the post I only get five. You'll see that the first one shows us eating breakfast. The military always gets screwed when it comes to a hot meal and this was the first hot breakfast in a week and we fly everyday on one meal a day. Breakfast.
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