11GTCS
Regular
I've been posting some of these on my socials while I've been doing this TDY (Temporary DutY, what the military calls a business trip), but I figured people would enjoy seeing them in a more curated way, so I'll use this as a rolling thread on my time and what life is like at a rear echelon contingency operating location. It's a lot different than most imagine. Obviously I can't go into a ton of details, but hopefully it's a fun experience for those curious and helps me channel my shooting!
For context, I'm a Civil Engineer Officer for the USAF. In my current TDY I'm the commander of the flight in charge of all contracted construction, so I spend most of my time dealing with that. That also gives me a lot of freedom to basically go anywhere I want, so it gives me a lot of chances to capture some unique moments. our PA (public affairs, the USAF photojournalists) are severely undermanned here, so I also get asked to cover squadron events and other similar things that PA can't handle.
This first post I'll use to document my trip out. We all have to travel to a single port of embarkation and get on a rotator, a process which takes days to a week and is pretty painful, a blur of baggage terminals and early report times. This time it was compounded by needing to get COVID tested, so that added a day or two.
I used the opportunity caused by that extra delay to make the trip over to the Military Aviation Museum south of Virginia Beach. I was only traveling with my X100V, A7iii, and a pair of primes, so I tried to get creative and focus on some of the aspects of the planes and museum that were unique (you can actually walk right up to the aircraft there, which is fairly unique for a warbird museum).
After the brief time waiting to go, we boarded the rotator and spent the next ~20 hours winding our way over to our final destination. Once we got there, we waited a few hours to be transported and in processed, and then we were finally officially done traveling for six months. It was time to get settled and learn our new jobs!
For context, I'm a Civil Engineer Officer for the USAF. In my current TDY I'm the commander of the flight in charge of all contracted construction, so I spend most of my time dealing with that. That also gives me a lot of freedom to basically go anywhere I want, so it gives me a lot of chances to capture some unique moments. our PA (public affairs, the USAF photojournalists) are severely undermanned here, so I also get asked to cover squadron events and other similar things that PA can't handle.
This first post I'll use to document my trip out. We all have to travel to a single port of embarkation and get on a rotator, a process which takes days to a week and is pretty painful, a blur of baggage terminals and early report times. This time it was compounded by needing to get COVID tested, so that added a day or two.
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I used the opportunity caused by that extra delay to make the trip over to the Military Aviation Museum south of Virginia Beach. I was only traveling with my X100V, A7iii, and a pair of primes, so I tried to get creative and focus on some of the aspects of the planes and museum that were unique (you can actually walk right up to the aircraft there, which is fairly unique for a warbird museum).
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
After the brief time waiting to go, we boarded the rotator and spent the next ~20 hours winding our way over to our final destination. Once we got there, we waited a few hours to be transported and in processed, and then we were finally officially done traveling for six months. It was time to get settled and learn our new jobs!
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)