Flight to the ice

Sorry I haven't posted an update in a couple days, but you get one now so there!  I'll probably break this up into a couple posts too since there is alot to say and a couple days worth of pics.

So we finally made it to the ice yesterday.  Had breakfast, got dressed in our ECW gear, went through a security screening for the umpteenth time and hoped on the C-17.  As you can see in the pics there was a shit ton of cargo on the aircraft with us. The AirForce guys were really cool.  We got a chance to go up to the flight deck and see what the pilot was up to. It was pretty much badass and they were all really nice. There was only a couple tiny little porthole like windows to look out of in the cargo area. So it was cool to go up and check out the awesome view the pilots get. It was mostly an endless sea of clouds but you could see some ice way down there too. We started decending so we all got the rest of our gear on and got ready for the landing. It's really a weird sensation anticipating the wheels touching down when you can't look out a window and see yourself approaching the ground. We were also landing on an ice runway so that's a little different. 6 or 7 feet of ice between you and sinking 2-3,000 feet to the bottom of the sea. It was a good landing though and I didn't drown in an icy grave so, wooohoooo! 

The passenger terminal...

Chillin outside the aforementioned passenger terminal...

 On the bus on the way to the plane...

 Grabbing a sack lunch before boarding the plane...

 I was last on so I ended up in the first seat, which turned out to be a pretty good place to be...

Here is a video I took from my seat of what I got to stare at for 5 hours...

 Old Glory flying high son...

 Lots of clouds and it looks like huge chunks of ice way down there...

Here is a video out that porthole of basically the same thing...

Dude, way more leg room on the cargo plane than on a commercial flight! Bad. Ass...

 This is what was on the other side of the cargo, lots of Airforce folks going down to live on the ice with us...

Flight deck...

Here is a video from the flight deck...

 I was there in case the pilot needed me, you never know...

All geared up coming in for the final approach...

Here is a video of my first steps onto the ice. You can hear me giggling like a school girl a couple times because it was so cool...

 On the bus headed to station...

 Some of the guys who had been there many seasons had a welcoming party...