Wednesday, May 4, 2011

We made it.

Last blog I said I hoped we would soon catch a flight from Manas, Kyrgyzstan to Bagram Airfield. Well we did. Sooner than expected. Thanks to the persistent inquisitions to high ranking officials made by our new friend Sgt. Castillo, Jeff, myself and the Sgt were able to catch a last minute flight on a military cargo plane to Bagram. We rushed to gather all of our gear together and got organized just in time. We boarded the cargo plane to find it nearly empty; realizing just how much of a waste it would have been had we not been granted access to the flight. The trip to Bagram was short, roughly 2 hours, but much more bumpy than our other flights. The descent was especially turbulent as the pilot made routine evasive manuevers as a safety precuation. This made for quite the exciting landing.

While de-boarding the plane we were greeted with one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen. As I stepped foot onto the landing strip I did a full 360 and saw that the entire base is surrounded by gigantic sprawling mountain ranges. A true site to be seen. Once all our gear was unloaded, Jeff and I quickly interviewed Sgt Castillo about his outstanding story of survival and dedication before he had to split for his next flight. It was sad to see him go, but he was remarkably intent on reconnecting with his men asap. Next we loaded all our gear up into the media relations vehicle, settled into our living quarters, got ID badges and chow, interviewed the commanding General Campbell, and edited our first full story of the trip. If it sounds like I'm lumping a whole lot of events together into a string of run-on sentences it's cause I'm tired and need to go to sleep. Zzzz....








3 comments:

  1. Wow! What an amazing trip so far!

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  2. If I remember correctly, it wasn't through your major degree at U of I that you learned to take great photographs. Regardless of how or where you learned, I love them all. Other people would might just remember these pictures show somewhat nothing. I'm eager to see all you create.

    -Dan

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  3. @dethomp, I'm not sure where I "learned" to take good photos. I guess I've always been kinda particular about making the elements in an image fit together aesthetically. I didn't major in photography, but the few photo and video courses I took at the U of I certainly developed my eye for composition. I enjoy stills, but my passion is video. My 2nd story for the news so far will air tonight (after I finish editing it) and you should be able to watch it tomorrow at http://newschannel5.com. There should be an Assignment Afghanistan section where all our stories will be organized and viewable.

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