Letters from War, Part 3

Note: this is one of my favorite ones so far; I got goosebumps reading it!


All's well here. I'm catching up on movie watching and listening to my music on my ipod and computer in my off time. I still haven't got skype to work here but I'm still hopeful. Our crew was talking today of how the time has gone buy and soon we will be coming home. Staying busy makes time go buy faster, which most of us want while we are here. I guess we shouldn't wish our time away. This has been my best deployment. I'm not sure why. I'm on a great Crew and we have had good missions. Maybe it's partially because I kind of know what to expect and don't have too many surprises. Most likely it's because of Prayer and the Hand of God.
The other day we were on an air drop mission that was not going well and looked impossible. After trying several times to get the drop zone we had decided to just abort the mission and return to base. The dust was so thick we could not see or get good communications. Our navigation and wind equipment was just not working. We could occasionally see glimpses of the ground and terrain around us so we decided to make one more attempt and drop down as low as we safely could. We gave up on the high tech equipment and went back to the most basic procedures relying on basic instruments and visual cues. Hoping (actually I was praying) on this last attempt we would be able to find the drop zone to deliver the load. I was actually standing up leaning across between the pilots straining to see the ground over the instrument panel and running the checklist. While cross checking the altimeter, airspeed and power, I was trying so hard to see the drop zone but couldn't see anything in front of us but dust. The navigator called one minute, then 5 seconds, and finally saw the Drop Zone within the last 3 seconds. Green Light and the cargo was on target!
The Army now had supplies. One of them must have been praying too! We pushed the power in and climbed up out out of the dust and headed back to base. I believe it was a miracle.The Good Lord must have been smiling.
We were exhausted. It felt good to get back on the ground. Slept good that night!
Love you,
DAD