The Band

The Band has arrived in Diego Garcia.

After a swing-and-miss military flight yesterday and a subsequent downtown Singa hotel stay, our flight left as scheduled today and I write from the footprint island.

One of our fellow passengers who was scheduled to embark on the flight-that-wasn't wandered up to us yesterday and asked what we were going to be doing on Diego Garcia. He is a desalinization engineer for the Department of Defense. After telling him we were meteorology students about to launch a couple hundred weather balloons over the next couple months, he was like “Oh. Ya see we all thought y’all were the band.” Apparently they swap out the local entertainment here every couple months. We were all pleased that we at least appeared somewhat musical. We’re thinking it was the hair.

Before leaving for the Air Base from the hotel in Singapore this afternoon, we hit the gym and the pool. Before that we experienced a crazy urban thunderstorm from 4:30-5am. James video-captured a strike hit the building opposite his window no less than 50 yards away.

The military flight itself was quite an unparalleled experience. Yesterday we were scheduled to be on a DC8, a cushy version of a cargo plane with five rows of forward-facing seats and an in-flight meal. Today’s flight was on a C17, a less-cushy version of a DC8 with no meal, rudimentary benches along each wall, and a central boulevard of pallets. The pallets were stacked high with airplane parts, fresh produce, and human blood.

This ended up being the most fortuitous flight plan change that could have happened to us.

Not only were we able to sprawl out on the floor and roam around with lax rules (click to see video), but the crew was also a fresh one out of Hawaii and thus freshly friendly and willing to let us check out the cockpit once we were at cruising altitude over the Indian Ocean. James was so enthralled with the pilots’ lifestyles and experiences that he’s thinking about joining the Air Force if balloon launches on a remote atoll don’t end up cutting it for him.

Upon arrival on the island we hopped on a van that took us to our military hotel, went to the only open establishment (the grocery store) to grab some grub in a desperate attempt to raise our collective blood sugar and energy, and ended up running into one of the sounding (balloon launch) team members, Tim Lim. We are all set to begin training tomorrow. But first, we will sit back, relax, and enjoy a few celebratory and government-subsidized brewskis on this fiercely starry night. We made it. We are finally here. Let the agonizingly-anticipated adventures begin.

-Gavin