Ice Fishing 2008

Well I can truthfully say that Scarlett and I have attempted to do everything Alaska has to offer and Ice fishing was last on our list. So to accomplish this small feat this is what we did. First you should know Scarlett and I have never done anything like this and of course we didn’t really put as much thought into it as we should have. We started with going to the military recreation center and picking up our gear on Wednesday, for our Saturday Ice Fishing Trip. These are the items we picked up: Key (I’ll mention more later) to the ice hut, bucket, 5 fishing poles, gas powered ice drill, and ice spoon totaling $65. Then we went to Wal-Mart and purchased our other needed items: bait, fire logs, hooks, weights, lighter, and fishing licenses totaling $65. Once Saturday came along we slept in, as usual to about 10 a.m. (hey it’s the weekend), watched some T.V., and then Scarlett started getting ready around 12. We left at 1 p.m. for our one hour drive to Birch Lake.

Striders ears started getting cold so what does any loving wife do (she takes my hat off and puts it on the dog)

Continued

Arriving at Birch Lake
Well this is where the putting not much thought into the whole process starts showing up. We set out to find our ice hut, the good old guys at the rec center gave us a number 1 key and you would think that all the huts would be numbered in big numbers 1, 2, 3 etc. but noooooo. Our ice hut was actually numbered F174, along with every other hut, 20 were spread out on the lake. This is a picture of Scarlett walking back from her search for the right hut.

She is still walking and she's saying "Don't! as in Don't take a picture cause she aint happy!"

A picture of the some of the shacks, huts, whatever you want to call it.

Here is our $65 Ice Hut, located at around 3:20. I suppose this is a good time to say Sunrise is 1058 a.m. and sunset is 2:47 p.m. Sooooo, basically we stayed home and watched the tube at the best time or better say, “warmest time” of the day, arriving at our hut 33 minutes after the sun had set.

Continued

Picture of the inside of the ice shack and no the stove didn't come already lit. I suppose the best/smartest thing Scarlett and I did was purchase the pre-made log starters. Took us about 3 minutes to get the lighter to work and then there was warmth.
After we drilled all five fishing holes our water and tea bottles had already froze completely and that's why they are next to the fire. Scarlett is putting the first two fishing poles in the water and the ADVENTURE BEGINS.

One of the retired vets at walmart said they were slaying them at birch with cooked shrimp. This is Scarlett cooking the shrimp on the stove.

This is Strider telling us, "you mean to tell me you brought me all the way out here for this. I'm not that kinda dog!"

Scarlett and I trying to take our picture in complete darkness....

So let us add up this great Alaskan Adventure.

$65 for all rental equipment

$65 for all the supplies

1 hour drive

about an hour to find the ice hut

1 hour drive back

$21 for gas

equalling to $151.

Oh didn't mention, not one Bite! Priceless.........

Scarlett Snowboarding...

She's doing well for her fifth time!

Birch Mountain @ Ft Wainwright, AK

This years Christmas Tree

Scarlett let me pick out the tree and all the decorations; can you tell?

2008 Unit Christmas Party

Every year my unit has a Christmas party and this year we put one of our chinooks in the hanger and dressed up the back so Santa could come and see the kids. Scarlett and Strider getting the first picture taken.

My better half

Scarlett and Strider are back in Alaska for the Christmas break and will head back sometime mid January.

1st Mission Back in Alaska "Burnt Mountain"

This is a yearly mission we do to help out the air force. Basically the mission is fly 8-10 people, two snow mobiles, and over 200 gallons of fuel a couple hours north of Fairbanks and drop them off; two weeks later you go back and pick them up. One of the men there had a fancy camera and took the following pictures.

7/31/2008 @ 1618

There are all my guys in the S6 department, From left to right SGT Cruz, are fearless leader SSG Griffin, and SGT Richardson. The second picture down is the first known picture of SGT Cruz smiling so I’ve made sure to send the picture to his family as proof in case they never see this blog. Everyone is very happy because these are the last of our tri-cons that need to be packed up and shipped to Alaska. Since SGT Cruz was in such a good mood we took advantage of his size to pack the last of our laptops in the far corner.
Basically here in a few days we will have nothing to do but stay in our rooms reading our books, watching our movies, and counting the hours down for our plane to take us back home.

7/31/2008 @ 1600

Our last Landry turn in day, basically every Monday and Thursday were turn in our laundry before 0600. A few select individual get tasked (usually supply) and they drive all our bags of laundry (usually anywhere from 80-145 bags) to turn in and then individual pick up the 80-145 bags last dropped off. The Above picture is of Dave Lyons filling in his inventory paperwork before placing the bags in the drop off area.

7/31/2008 @ 1555

On my second to last flight I was privileged enough to fly with our Task Force Commander MAJ Dimon. We were lead and before I knew it we had flown 5.9 hours.

7/30/2008 @ 1610

Our final Two Aircraft awaiting the day to take off and head to Port. The ROCK looks lonely these days with the other six on their way.

7/30/2008 @ 1602

This picture is amusing to me in a few reasons: one – he’s a toothpick and once he sees a camera he puffs out but mainly it’s because every morning my roommate and I meet Jeff for Breakfast at his room at exactly 0515 +/- 2 minutes. 9 out of 10 times this is the way we find the guy; know where near ready to go.

7/30/2008 @ 1550

I came into work early one morning to find these gentlemen sitting quitely in front of the TV watching Yoga of all things. Wonder if that count that as their PT for the day?

7/26/2008 @ 0450

Some have asked about what it may be like landing in the desert with the sand sometimes being the texture of flour. What I love most about my job is that we can be called up at any time, given a grid coordinate, and have to fly to a FOB (Forward Operating Base) in the middle of nowhere for resupply. Just so happened to come along and find pictures for this mission so hope you enjoy. Always feel free to ask and I’ll try to explain as well as I can. The key things that go through a pilots mind before landing a 32,000-50,000 pound aircraft into a LZ (Landing Zone) are: 1.) Which way is the wind blowing to help in pushing the dust away from the aircraft upon touchdown 2.) Landing with forward airspeed - This helps again keep the dust cloud away from the cockpit windows and usually right at the cabin door behind the pilots until we hit the ground and start applying bakes 3.) Good Crew Coordination, we have three other crewmembers that have a lot of experience and are in charge of calling the aircraft to the ground and where the dust cloud is in comparison to the cockpit so that the pilot knows if he’s landing to slow or too fast. With all these things taken into account a successful landing to the ground can be assured of.

7/22/2008 @ 2035

Today was a big stepping stone for my unit today and the moral was high. Today we all came together and laid out personal gear, marines inspected, repacked everything, and sealed our tri cons for shipment. The process took about 4-5 hours in the blistering heat but this stepping stone is now out of our way and were continuing to move forward. The marines that have come to replace us have begun signing for most of our gear (computer, vehicles, transformers, etc.) So each day that goes by the more stuff we notice disappearing which is always a good site. As of today, I fly another few missions and just finished my last 4 hour NVG (Night Vision Goggle) flight last night.

7/22/2008 @2020