This was my very first car as a teenager. It never made it out on the road due to a crushed right front fender. However, sitting in it definitely added to the cool points.
Jun 102011
Jan 242011
Just letting you know I’m settled in at Joint Base Balad. Got my little housing unit all squared away and have been taking care of bookkeeping stuff. I should be flying in a couple days after some briefings and training. Of note, in about a week and a half I’m being sent down to Ali Air Base near Nasiriyah, Iraq. It’s a squadron detachment and is only responsible for two aircraft. That means two launches and two landings per day. Spread across three crews and three shifts, it should be pretty low key down there. Consequently, I’ll be on shift with only my sensor operator and the civilian maintenance guys. I’ll be running the show. Kinda crazy, eh? Best part, however, is that the base is pretty much free of mortar attacks. We get a few here at Balad every couple days, but all the housing is barricaded. Anything short of a direct hit on my room will be a non-issue for me. So Ali is even safer than Balad. 
So Ali should be pretty awesome… lots of time for morale calls and such. In fact, expect to hear from me sometime in the very near future. Dad, you’re easy to call given that you’re in Vegas. Mom, I’ll be tracking down the DSN number to the base operator at Altus tonight and should be able to get patched through to you once I get that. But yeah… arrived here 23 JAN and expect to depart 23 MAY, hopefully back in the States a few days later. Given how wretched my travel here was, hopefully the return is as smooth as glass.
HISTORY
Ali Air Base (ICAO: ORTL) is a military airbase located near Nasiriyah, Iraq. It was formerly known as Tallil Air Base. At present, the base is being used by United States Armed Forces. It is called Camp Adder by the U.S. Army; the name “Ali Air Base” is used chiefly by the U.S. Air Force; the installation, however, is still commonly referred to as “Tallil”.
The base occupies 30 square kilometers and is protected by 22 kilometers of security perimeter. The ancient Babylonian city of Ur, known as the birthplace of Abraham, is located within the security perimeter for Ali Base, and its ancient ziggurat is visible from nearly every area of the base.Read More
Jan 232011
We arrived at 0400L and immediately in-processed. Rain made the whole thing fairly miserable. Mud everywhere, lack of any real knowledge of what was going on… just following the crowd. Really made the first day miserable. But took a hot shower last night and felt great afterward. Climbed into my bunk in the transient tent and watched a movie. I should be on a C-17 to Iraq tonight. Looking forward to a more permanent billet and settling in for 120-day haul.
Jan 212011
Arrived in Qatar. What a sh–hole. Pardon the language, but this place is a–!
Info:
Al Udeid Air Base is a military base west of Doha, Qatar. It houses coalition personnel and assets. It is host to a forward headquarters of United States Central Command, headquarters of United States Air Forces Central Command, and home to both No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group RAF and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing of the USAF. In 1999, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad, reportedly told US officials that he would like to see as many as 10,000 US servicemen permanently stationed at Al Udeid.
Jan 212011
Jan 212011
Just landed in Ramstein, Germany. I haven’t seen old world forest like this since the late ’80s. Oh, what I’d do to be stationed here. About 30 minutes in the terminal, cellphone no workie. First thing I see when I get off the plane is a Subway. I didn’t fly to Germany for Subway. I don’t care that it’s an American airbase. Give me something local and authentic! Off to Italy next. Love you all.
Jan 162011
Hey hey… I’m off on a great-ish adventure tomorrow heading to Iraq for my first deployment as an Air Force aviator. Fun stuff. I should have regular access to the Internet so you can expect semi-regular updates from me probably via email. Maybe I’ll be able to access my website and update there, but no guarantees. For care packages and such, I can be reached at the following mailing address:
My Name (without rank)
332 AEW / 46 ERS
APO AE 09315
I’m expecting to return at the end of May or the earliest part of June so plan a party or something, eh?
– Dustin
Jan 012011
I needed a reason to post so I thought that i would show you a recent couple of pictures that I have been working on. I received a two umbrella lighting kit for Christmas ~ thanks Dustin ~ that I have been getting familiar with. It is really nice to be able to control the lighting and create or eliminate shadows on one’s subject. It is actually a major part of photography and is a lot of fun to figure out. I just started and love every minute of it.
I took a few pictures of an aquafina bottle using the lighting and a black background. It was a lot of fun to see the various shadows and how the bottle was transformed by the use of light. I also enticed Adrastos into posing for a few fun pictures using a white background. Because of the lighting I was able to capture his image without shadows of any kind allowing making it much easier to process the picture in photoshop. The left picture below was not processed in photoshop. It was merely extract from the original and then combined with the backdrop that I made in photoshop. The image on the right was processed from a raw image and then combined with another version of the backdrop that I made in photoshop.
Nov 122010
I have never made any bones about my politics and you that know me know them well. So for me to be reading Decision Points is probably something you would expect. I have only just started to read, but it has brought some memories back and is what lead me to this post. George has always been my President and somebody that I would easily follow. I was talking with my wife about “Decision Points” and how it was written and the unique style that he wrote his memoirs. I found myself reminiscing about 9/11 and the time when George stood on top of the and spoke to America. It was moments of authentic leadership like this moment that were the things that made George America’s President. Click on the link and read some of the article and then watch the video again. Tell me it doesn’t send a wave of pride over your entire body. It did mine.
Sep 182010
It is day 2 of 365 for the project and I have already learned some very small but important things about my camera. The first thing is that I need to pay much more attention to the contents filling up the viewer and how they line up within the picture. What I am mainly talking about are the angle of various things and the stray pieces of paper and artifacts that are detractors when the picture is finally viewed or printed. The second lesson was more about general functionality of the camera. Taking 20 minutes out to be with the camera and play with various settings, knobs, and the lens. You tend to learn a lot and actually start to get comfortable with making changes. Obviously this component is key to maturing as a photographer.
Day 2, Sep 18, 2010
