Getting Into a Flow

For me the best way to deal with being away from the family is to develop a routine as soon as possible.  For short trips this generally involves my unpacking my suitcase and putting everything away.  For longer trips (greater than 2-3 weeks) I revert back to a technique I used while at the Air Force Academy in which I would break my days up into significant milestones, usually in the form of the next meal.  I love traveling but I also love my couch, its a tough combination some time.  So I've been deployed now for almost 3 weeks and of course I've settled in to my routine.  The first thing I have tried to establish were goals for my time deployed.  Of course everyone goes down range planning to work out and lose some weight.  I always found this ironic that we deploy to combat to get in to shape.  Shouldn't we be in shape when we get here?  Just a thought.  So I tried to work out as much as i could prior to leaving which of course was not enough but I didn't die the first time I went running so I'll call that a little victory.  I just realized the potential misunderstanding for words like "die" while being deployed; for these purposes die meant I didn't fall off the treadmill looking like a gold fish out of water gasping for breath while making noises similar to a hyena that just found a bowl of freshly ground water buffalo.

Thus my days are basically comprised of moments between meals, workouts, and flights.  The food is the same, the workouts are pretty standard and our sorties over here are very long but productive in the grand scheme of things.  For a fighter guy who has about 75 hours flying in the last 13 days...that's a lot of flying.  It is different flying though where once airborne we basically monitor the autopilot and listen to the radios until on station.  7-8 hours later we pack it up and go home, so a 10 hour mission contains about 30 good minutes of flying, but this is probably one of the best deals out there.  Here is a picture of one of our birds, not a bad ride if you have to spend 10 hours sitting next to someone. For you aviation enthusiasts it is the Bombardier Global Express XRS, the AF calls it the E-11A.

On the days we fly that is pretty much all we can accomplish, I try to get up early to go work out but sometimes the 0430 gym push is a little too much for even a Spartan Warrior like me to muster.  When that happens hopefully I can sneak an evening workout in or I just make sure to over eat that way there is no question about what went down.

My next goal was to read legitimately good books.  Books in which I feel like either I learned something or that made me a better person.  I realize a Garfield comic book could probably make me a better person but you get the idea.  I am already through four books and while I don't intend to plug any I do feel compelled to recommend War by Sebastian Junger. He also wrote The Perfect Storm.  His account of the battle to contain the Korengal Valley is very impressive and I think it can give us an idea of what our ground forces are being asked to do on a daily basis.

So now you have a general idea of my routine, I wish it was more exciting but in some ways I'm glad its not.  Life is good and all is well.  until next time.

Beast