A Day in the Life

So I thought I would tell you all what a typical day is like for me out here....

Right now I am on the night shift.  This means I am officially "on shift" from 2030 (that's 8:30pm) to 0430 (you guessed it, 4:30am the next day).  At first this sounds bad, but it is not all that horrible.  For starters, this means I am working during the coolest part of the day.  While the average high right now is about 104deg F, it rarely gets above 85deg at night.  Besides, I work in a nicely air conditioned space so I really don't have to worry about the heat anyway.

I typically get up around 1900 (7:00pm) and head into work.  I procured an old beat up bicycle from the guy who had this job previous to me, and I ride that to work; it's about a mile.  I drop off my gear and head over to the chow hall for dinner.  Usually I get my dinner to go and bring it back to the office to eat.  This allows me to gradually build my situational awareness about what is going on at work while I eat.  At about 2015 we do a formal turnover brief and I officially take over the watch for the next eight hours.

There is a lot of classified stuff that I deal with so I can't go into too much detail about the work I do.  But it is safe to say that I am kind of the air battle director for the Marine forces here.  I have the authority to launch aircraft on their various missions, divert them as necessary to accomplish something of higher priority, as well as launch alert aircraft that we have standing by for contingencies (such as a MEDEVAC, or when ground troops get into a firefight).  It is a lot of responsibility and there is a whole crew of Marines at various stations in the TACC (Tactical Air Control Center) to assist me.

So I manage the air campaign for the time I am on the floor and then at 0430 we do another turnover brief and I pass it on to the guy after me.  We have three officers who stand this watch, so with each of us taking an eight hour shift we are on 24/7.  After I turn over, most days I grab a quick workout.  The gym is right there in the Wing compound so I literally only have to change clothes and walk 50 yds to get there.  After my workout I head back to the cans and take a shower.  Then I settle in and maybe call my family, watch a movie or TV show, read a book, or write some emails.  I try to go to sleep around 0900-1000 at the latest so that I can get a good eight or so hours of sleep.

Pretty soon we will be switching shifts and I will rotate to the 0430-1230 shift.  I will have to deal with the heat, but it will be closer to a normal schedule with the daylight.

Take Care everyone, and I will see you soon.