Chapter 382

Julie and Bambi – the other two chopper pilots - had stayed at the airport. They were to test fly the Blackhawk after Tommy Bell and Daniel Owens (the two mechanics) reinstalled the rotors and completed the necessary test and inspections.

Bambi called on the satellite phone that they were ready to do the test flight.

“If the test flight is OK, fill it with fuel and fly it to the embassy. Fly north-north east; we are on the east side of the main road that cuts through the city. I will send you the GPS numbers in a moment. The men have already made a landing pad,” I replied.

I found Andy and relayed the conversation. Andy made the call to make sure the last security persons with the Suburban saw to it the mechanics got over to the terminal building for the flight home and then return to the embassy.

The truck and vehicles arrived with the last of our crates and people. The skid steer driver now had it down to a science. The crates were quickly unloaded.

There was still plenty of daylight left so Andy assigned Mac Desilva (one of the team leaders) and his group the duty of sorting the crates. Derek Wilson, who was operating the skid steer, was one of Mac’s team.

Two of the food crates and one of the bread crates went into the kitchen to be emptied into the walk-in freezer and refrigerator. Two of the men and two of the ladies who had volunteered to be cooks were already in the kitchen getting operating instructions from the cook who was leaving.

My men who were going to take shifts in the communications room were getting their final lessons from the ones leaving. Even though all the systems were the same, they all seemed to have little quirks that made each system unique.

Ambassador Bernardi found me out back to tell me all his team was packed and ready to leave for the airport on time. While we were standing I could hear the thump, thump of the big blades of the Blackhawk coming.

Bambi circled to get a good look at the site and wind direction by looking at the direction the flag was flying, before sitting the chopper on the pad. It did not put up as much dirt and dust as I expected.

I made a mental note to secure enough fire hose to reach the pad; in the walk around I noticed that there were attachments and a hydrant near the rear of the building. We had brought a dozen 20 pound dry chemical fire extinguishers with us, but with fire more is better. Those 20 pounders were now loosely tied together in groups of four at each corner of the pad.

“Wow, you get your own chopper and it is a big one, at that,” he replied.

“Unless the department wants to pay to swap it out to a 407, it will be assigned here when you come back,” I replied.

When the rotors stopped turning, Ambassador Bernardi and I walked over to the chopper.

“Fly’s great! Do want to go for a ride and look at the city?” Bambi asked.

“When we get everything done, if there is still time we will go. Right now we need your hands. I want everything done we can get done before dark. Andy is going to pull 10 people and send them to rest so they can do the night security shift,” I replied.

At six Andy loaded the ambassador and his staff and carried them to Kampala International for their trip for to the US.

“Good luck with your surgery Ambassador and have a safe trip,” I said as I closed the door on the limo.

When the men returned, it was the time to shake down today’s progress over a quick easy supper of hamburgers and hot dogs.

Andy was the commander of the RRT; with 37 men and ladies today he also had a crew assigned to him. There would be three shifts of 12; each with a pilot for the chopper, a cook and a person to man the communications/security room.

During the day when the communications room would be the busiest, one of my girls would be assigned there to help. Each shift had two leaders, two teams of six. Between the burgers, shift assignments and team assignments were made. Part of that process would start tonight.

It was time to tell the group why we were here, what we thought was going to happen, what our mission was and the outcome we expected, and then how we were going to accomplish that.