In May of 1992 my unit was deployed to the Italian island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea for an annual exercise called Dragon Hammer. It involved units from all the NATO countries. Most of my unit went down to the port in Italy by bus while the equipment went by train. They loaded everything onto the ferry for the 24 hour trip to the island. Myself and the platoon leader flew straight to the island a few days later. Here are some of the pictures I took during the whole thing.
Here we are at Nathan Hale Depot in Darmstadt, Germany
loading the equipment onto the train for the trip down
to the port in Italy. We practiced for this day many
times before by loading here and unloading at Ray
Barracks in Friedberg and then going to the field.
This is me showing off a bit as they lock the chains on the
truck down. This railloading took a lot more work than the
one we did for Kosovo because they wanted the trucks actually
chained down instead of just chocked like we did for Kosovo.
This is the platoon leader, 1LT Varela, doing what LT's
do best... watching everyone else work. ;-)
This is a picture I took of the MP's who were flying
down on the plane with myself and the platoon leader.
It was my first time flying in a C-130 and I was
pretty excited still being a brand new E-3. :-)
Here is a picture of myself before getting off the back of the
aircraft in Sardinia. The first thing that hit us when they opened
the door was the blast of hot air. There was much more to follow
in the next three weeks!
Picture of the plane from the back.
A two-hour bus ride later and we were on the site. Everyone else
had already been there for almost a day so it was all set up. We
we set up on a hill with NC02 from the 17th Signal Battalion from
Kitzingen, Germany. Each and every night we could see the "fighting"
going on as the war waged. We were part of the blue team and the
red team were invading and trying to take over the island.
Looking at the tac-sat truck/shelter from outside the camouflage
door. Just before we deployed, we found out that the tac-sat platoon
would become part of a new signal company, the 504th Signal Company,
and moved to Muenster Depot in the coming months. The sign says:
"504th Sig Co Tac-Sat Platoon Charge Hard!" Charge Hard is the motto
the new commander, CPT Butera, had picked when he met with us.
Picture of the satellite antenna.
After the first couple of days, the whole thing seemed to drag
on forever. Here I am passing the time by writing a letter and
listening to something on the walkman I'd brought along.
This is SGT Houck, my team chief, hard at work in the
shelter trying to figure out Mario Brothers on a Gameboy.
Some of the events going on included many airborne jumps
into the training area. Here is one group floating down.
Time to leave! And of course anytime you go from the field to
the rear, a stop at the washrack is a must! Here we are trying
to wash the dust off the equipment. It got into everything!
This is me once again needing a haircut badly. We were
waiting for the buses to take us on the two-hour trip
to the airport on the other end of the island.
In the hanger waiting (for like eight hours) for the flight back
to Germany. Anytime you have soldiers sitting in one place for
more than five minutes, cards and a card game are sure to break out!
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