Speaking of deployments with the mighty 'Rod' and adding to the above. just after 9/11, I well remember operating from a desert base - not far from Carrefor, in recently erected 12 x 12's. They had no windows, no aircon and the daily shower was a do it yourself black bag!
Then, I remember camping out close to the main runway at Thumrait. My body physically shook as the fully tooled up B1's launched at 0300 every morning with full on reheat. No chance of sleeping through those puppies, I can tell you.
I also have to say that the Samsonite was great at keeping out the dust etc. but the whells on mine were never the same after wheeling the thing through 500 yards of sand before arriving at the tent.
Oh and GASOs went out the window. As the FS visitor from HQ STC said at the time. If anyone really wants to complain, we will just re-write GASO's to match real world ops.
Good days......
