Deployed with a B-Bag? Kyrgystan is no joke with cold weather. When I went to Al Udeid in 05 I took a stash of cold weather gear in case I ended up there. I ended up working the OIF Plan ID so no Kyrgyzstan trips for me.I once deployed to the Persian/Arabian Gulf with a complete set of Arctic cold-weather gear, including the Mickey Mouse boots, because the deployment order said so. I guess maybe there was a super secret plan to possibly redeploy us to Kyrgyzstan or something? It was certainly a PITA to haul around.
Being at an F-4 Wing (347th TFW at Moody AFB/Valdosta, Ga) in the Cold War? Man, we lived and died by mobility exercises. Thankfully the cold weather bags stayed on the shelf since our real-world deployment location was anything but cold.
If you've heard this one before don't stop me, I want to hear it again
Summer 1986: Young USAF mosquito-wing Airman KellyinAvon is a Supply Troop and Moody AFB, Ga. The 347th Tactical Fighter Wing had Operational Readiness Inspections (ORI) coming in September for Phase I (deployment) and in December for Phase II (operating in a deployed location/chemical environment) so every time we turned around, we were in an exercise.
I'm working night shift, hauling truckloads (International 1.5 ton trucks) of mobility bags up to the marshaling area where they were put on aircraft pallets. Deploying 72 F-4s to a forward location took a big chunk of people (3,300 military on the base, most would deploy, multiplied by 3 mobility bags for everyone deploying, that's a lot of bags!)
I pull up to the marshaling area where there was usually an NCO out in front, he'd tell us where to go to unload the bags. I see one guy, so I got out of the truck (think there were two more trucks with bags behind me) to ask where to drop them.
I get closer, this is a Captain. I figure Transportation Officer and the NCOs were busy elsewhere.
(Something like...) Evening sir, I'm Airman KellyinAvon from the Supply Squadron. We have XXX number of mo-bags for the chock your building. Just let us know where you need them.
After listening to everything I said, he looks straight at me and says, "I have no idea, I'm a Chaplain." We laughed, then I went and found someone who worked in the marshaling yard.
This Chaplain, had a very short yet very unique last name. Three letters, no vowels (Y is not a vowel.)
18 years later in 2004: Still young USAF MSgt KellyinAvon is at Langley AFB, Virginia. One day sitting in the barber shop (this was headquarters Air Combat Command, there was two 2-Stars, one 1-Star and 40 Colonels in my building) I noticed a Colonel, who was a Chaplain (the badge in the shape of a cross was my clue), with a very short yet unique name.
I asked if he was at Moody back in the 80s. Sure enough, he was. Then I asked if he remembered the one-striper asking him where to drop the mo-bags one night during a mobility exercise. He started laughing and asked, "That was you?"