Okay, so the other night we were supposed to have a simple mission over Iraq, but things got a little hairy with the brakes on our C-130 and, when we landed, we found out that we had a brake leak. To have the problem fixed would take a while and we ended up staying the night at Joint Base Balad. While we were waiting for a transit bus to pick us up and take us to the tents and USO for check-in, we decided to… relax a bit. A few glow sticks, couple of flash lights, and a good anthem helped us do just that.

The fun didn’t start with the crazy dancing, however. After we landed, we had to tow the plane from one location on the runway, to the flight line far on the other side of the area from where we were at. In order to make sure that we could stop the plane due to bad brakes, we had to have two guys on each side to throw chalks in between the wheels when we were told too – if that was necessary, of course. The brakes still worked for the most part, but it was still a gamble. We figured: no problem. As we were walking, the four of us (two loads, and my partner and I) decided to switch out with each other five minutes; two would walk by the wheels as the plane was being towed, and the other two would rest on the back of the ramp.

About half way to the flight line the loads either turned their thinking caps on or off… I’m not sure which. One of them strapped a cargo belt to the outside of the plane and sat on it so he wouldn’t have to walk. Funny. I would have gotten a picture, but alas, my iPod touch doesn’t have a flash to it. The second load master thought it would be a hoot to grab a glow stick and parade around behind the plane; that was before he ran up to the cockpit, popped the forward escape hatch on top, and boosted himself out of the hole to spin the glow stick around in the air above the plane.

I love this crew.