On 14 Dec 01, I got to work my first Russian flight, an IL-76 that arrived with supplies and troops. The crew only requested 2.5 hours on the ground so we were working with a pretty compressed schedule. While on the ground, my job is pretty simple: escort the flight crew from the flight line to the Post Exchange, to the dining facility for a quick meal, and then back to the flight line for take off. If they have any need to talk to the Transient Alert folks, then I take care of translating for them.
The trip to the Exchange was truly an odyssey. I have never seen one group of people buy so much shaving cream, mouthwash, and perfume in my life! They knew exactly what they wanted and even had shopping lists. The big items though were a couple of 29" television sets. One of the officers said that he, along with his entire extended family pitched in to buy it...
We returned to the aircraft to find that they had not finished off-loading the cargo. As it turns out, nothing was on pallets and they were unloading the entire plane by hand. They brought an infantry company up from their camp at Uglevik, Bosnia to help unload. As it turned out, they were on the ground almost 4 hours but all went well. Though it was fun, I was glad to see them go. I spent the last two hours waiting out on the flightline, where the temperature was around 12 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lessons learned:
1) Don't believe them when they say 2.5 hours will be enough
2) You can never have enough layers of clothing during winter in Tuzla
On 16 Dec 01, we invited the Russians to join us in the 401 EABG volleyball tournament. They only brought five people with them so I played as their sixth. We lost our first game, but came back through the loser's bracket to find ourselves in the finals versus the Security Forces Team. We won the match, 2 sets to none, but because we were coming from the loser's bracket, we had to play another match. Unfortunately, we lost 2 sets to 1 with the final set score being 15-11. A great time was had by all and I significantly added to my knowledge of Russian curse words!
I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday season. It is tough being away from home, but the purpose of our mission here and the help we bring to the people of this war-torn country help make time away from family during the holiday season a little brighter.
Lt Col Grankin, a Russian Federation Liaison to the US Army, goes up for a spike after receiving my perfect set!
401 EABG/Liaison
Operation Joint Forge
APO AE 09789
