NVG's, romantic like sand in your thunderstorm... and if you don't have a ball, use a dead sheep.

These are a few experiments with combining Night Vision Goggles and my camera.



To continue the dead animal theme: I was chilling in the squadron building and the power was on. The guys had a TV tuned to some local channel. I couldn't believe what I was watching... I thought it was a game that was made up for Rambo 3... not a real sport that gets locally tellevised! The national game around here is sort of a horse version of smear the queer but played with a dead calf or sheep. The way it works is that there is a dead sheep in a circle. The players try to grab the dead sheep while riding a horse. They then take the horse and ride it with the dead sheep around a flag that is down at the other end of the field. They go around the flag and try to take it back and drop it in the circle. The other players try to stop the player with the dead sheep from dropping the carcass inside the circle any way they can. I think there is usually two teams that play each other, but I am not totally sure. This is a pretty realistic depiction of this REAL sport as it is played here. The fact that this is the national sport of Afghanistan should explain a lot about this country... though I have also been told that, "in Logar province, everybody, they like play the volley ball! Hah hah hah!" (Sometimes I think I miss the humor... sometimes I think things are just that crazy)

Here it is:



Today we had a combination thunderstorm/sand storm... We stayed on the ground for this one.

What do you do when your ride breaks down?

Nothing more chilled out than hard-broke off home station.

The morning of the big mish and your main gearbox shits the bed, what can you do... I took my cue from Oddball.



Well, as close as I could. Substitute bottles of water and pears heisted from the chow hall and you have the idea. It's amazing how high quality Z's you can catch in the shade of a Hip on a busy flightline. As long as you don't let jet blast and rotor wash disturb you to much, you can chill the most for hours.

And we end this animal's life in celebration!

There are a few big events that will be taking place... to include a large portion of the Americans that are here will soon be leaving. So of course for good luck and celebration, the Afghans sacrificed a sheep... maybe it was a goat. A weird looking animal of that sort anyways. They called it a sheep.

Superstition... how can you argue with that? At first I thought it was going to be like a sheep cookout, but no... it was really just a sacrifice.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...










I was told the meat was given to the poor.