First day at Station 2

Well, today was my first day at Station 2, which is the airfield station. It's actually not a bad gig...We come down first thing in the morning to relieve the last shift, and do all the vehicle checks for the trucks down here. Today we had a C-17 coming in, so the 3 of us down here were supplemented by another 3 from the station for the time while it was on the ground. After it left, the other 3 headed back up to Station 1, and the original 3 of us were left here. We have to man this station until the Kiwi (New Zealand) C-130 (Hercules, or Herc) leaves the Ice. Then we can go back up to the station.

The Herc has been here for about 4 or 5 days. They were supposed to leave last week, but as they were getting up to speed to take off, they blew their number 1 engine. Luckily it happened on the ground, and not while they were in the air. So they had to wait till last Friday for parts. Then they had to wait for a C-17 to be available. They can't leave until there is a C-17 available for SAR in case they go down.

So today, they got their aircrew back, and tested the engines. Right now they are moving VERY slowly to the north end of the runway. Normally they take off to the south, so they could just be moving down there to turn around to take off, or they could be doing their test as they move down the runway. I'll say this though...That plane spits out brown smoke like no one's business. If I had batteries for my camera, I'd take a picture of it. It just took off, so it's gone, and in about 15 minutes or so we can head back to Station 1 and get dinner in town.