Ospreys

We took a fixed wing plane from Kabul to Helmand base, called Bastion (on the Royal Marines side) and Leatherneck (US Marines).  It was a Beech 1900, which apparently refers to the year it was built and the wood it is crafted from and/or the chewing gum that holds it together.  The seats didn't even recline, which was probably a good idea since we were wearing 40 pounds or so of body armor.  But to get to the British PRT in Lashkar Gah, you have to either drive in a military convoy or take to the air.  We went in an Osprey.  I had never been in one before.  It's a tilt-rotary plane, which means it takes off like a helicopter, with the blades horizontal, but once it has some altitude, the rotors tilt forward until they are like a propeller airplane's.  It's kind of a roller coastery ride, especially when the rotors are changing their axis.  In the second photo you can see the way you get on - the tail opens up into a ramp.  During flight the ramp comes partly up, but there is always a tailgunner ready there.  When the Osprey starts to descend - and especially as we flew over a city in a region with fairly high insurgent activity - the gunner was at the ready with the 50 caliber, sweeping left and right looking for something he needed to shoot.
Also, as you can infer from the pictures, it's pretty dry down there.  I came back home and made extensive use of the nasal saline and eye drops.  But then again, my sex life is none of your damn business.