Jordan - Eager Tiger 2010
A few days after returning from Europe, I was on a plane back across the Atlantic enroute to Jordan for another squadron temporary duty assignment (TDY). Each year Jordan holds an international exercise called Eager Tiger, and this year the Jordanians, USA (F-16s and F-18s), UAE and Pakistan participated. Our main goal was that of diplomacy, with goals from our leaders that are way above our pay grades.
In all the TDY lasted about 3.5 weeks in which time we flew some large formation exercises (LFEs) and close air support (CAS). We were flying out of a base about 1.5 hours east of Amman in the middle of the desert, so there wasn't much to do during the week except fly, eat, work out, and sleep. It was actually like being back in Iraq, with minimal infrastructure and amenities. A few different times my flight had the chance to fly down low and fast over the southern part of Jordan...near Wadi Rum, which looks like another planet when flying over.
On the weekends, we were able to get away from the base and visit places like Amman, Petra, Jerash, the Dead Sea and Jesus' baptism site. The baptism site and Petra were the most impressive. So much Biblical history took place in many of the places we visited and Petra was just amazing...felt like Indiana Jones ought to ride around the corner. Lana and I had swam in the Dead Sea during our time in Israel (click here for that blog), but I have to say the Jordanian side was much nicer...some of my fellow pilots and I spent an enjoyable night at the Marriott one of the weekends and actually got kicked out of the Dead Sea for swimming at night...guess they didn't want us to float across to Israel.
I was one of the pilots to fly a jet back to the USA. Our route of flight took us over Egypt, then the Med on our way to Moron Air Base, Spain. When we were about half way between the Italian island of Sardinia (where Lana and I spent our honeymoon) and the Spanish island of Mallorca, my wingman had a minor engine malfunction which required us to land at the nearest airport...that was Palma de Mallorca. I had landed here once before, but just to get gas on an F-16 cross-country during my time at Aviano. This time it was for five days, and the time was spent exploring as much as we could see. One of the towns we visited was Portocolom, a town Lana worked in for four months back 2002. When the jet was fixed, we flew on to Moron Air Base on mainland Spain and had another five days to wait until we could get a tanker aircraft to take us back across the Atlantic to SC. So, we made the most of it and did some exploring around the local area. In all, it was a very nice change to Jordan, but I was ready to get home and see Lana and Liam. After a nice hour flight and 10 air refuelings later, we were back home together as a family once again.
In all the TDY lasted about 3.5 weeks in which time we flew some large formation exercises (LFEs) and close air support (CAS). We were flying out of a base about 1.5 hours east of Amman in the middle of the desert, so there wasn't much to do during the week except fly, eat, work out, and sleep. It was actually like being back in Iraq, with minimal infrastructure and amenities. A few different times my flight had the chance to fly down low and fast over the southern part of Jordan...near Wadi Rum, which looks like another planet when flying over.
On the weekends, we were able to get away from the base and visit places like Amman, Petra, Jerash, the Dead Sea and Jesus' baptism site. The baptism site and Petra were the most impressive. So much Biblical history took place in many of the places we visited and Petra was just amazing...felt like Indiana Jones ought to ride around the corner. Lana and I had swam in the Dead Sea during our time in Israel (click here for that blog), but I have to say the Jordanian side was much nicer...some of my fellow pilots and I spent an enjoyable night at the Marriott one of the weekends and actually got kicked out of the Dead Sea for swimming at night...guess they didn't want us to float across to Israel.
I was one of the pilots to fly a jet back to the USA. Our route of flight took us over Egypt, then the Med on our way to Moron Air Base, Spain. When we were about half way between the Italian island of Sardinia (where Lana and I spent our honeymoon) and the Spanish island of Mallorca, my wingman had a minor engine malfunction which required us to land at the nearest airport...that was Palma de Mallorca. I had landed here once before, but just to get gas on an F-16 cross-country during my time at Aviano. This time it was for five days, and the time was spent exploring as much as we could see. One of the towns we visited was Portocolom, a town Lana worked in for four months back 2002. When the jet was fixed, we flew on to Moron Air Base on mainland Spain and had another five days to wait until we could get a tanker aircraft to take us back across the Atlantic to SC. So, we made the most of it and did some exploring around the local area. In all, it was a very nice change to Jordan, but I was ready to get home and see Lana and Liam. After a nice hour flight and 10 air refuelings later, we were back home together as a family once again.
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