May 2013

Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan

“Raven”

FRG Newsletter

Issue 1 May 2013

Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan offers beautiful snow

capped mountains for your daily viewing pleasure!

From left to right: PFC Windham, SPC Wilson,

SPC Gately, SGT Kalinowski and SPC Lira, your

Raven Air daytime manifest team.

Dear “Raven” Family & Friends,

I take pride in writing you the first of many

newsletters to come as the Charlie Company

Commander as we begin our “Climb to

Glory” here at Bagram Airfield, Afghani-

stan. It has been a busy two weeks taking

over the Rotary Wing (Helicopter) Passen-

ger Terminal from our Signal brothers from

the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade but we

have embraced the challenge and so far have

performed superbly. On a daily basis we

manifest and push over one hundred person-

nel traveling to Forward Operating Bases

throughout the region on different Rotary

Wing assets as well as loading and unload-

ing thousands of pounds of cargo a day. So

far, every Raven on the ground has experi-

enced the thrill of walking out to a helicop-

ter while the blades are spinning, escorting a

group of passengers, being responsible for

their safety and proper loading of the air-

craft. Our mission is truly exciting and we

are looking forward to performing it these

next 9 months.

In addition to taking over the Rotary Wing

Passenger Terminal we have been in the

process of “validating” all of our signal

equipment that we brought with us. Most of

the equipment has to be configured and pro-

grammed so that it is compatible with the

network over here. With the help of the Bri-

gade S6 shop, Sergeant Espada and Private

From left to right: SGTs Espada and Kalinowski,

CPT Wall unpack signal equipment for validation.

Newly promoted SPC Troung works

diligently to order the supplies neces-

sary to support our mission.

Windham have taken on this task over the

past week and have performed flawlessly,

ensuring all our systems are ready to go if

and when we are called upon to employ our

signal communications in support of the mis-

sion here.

We are all just about settled into our rooms

that we will be staying in for the duration of

the deployment. Most of the guys and gals

are sharing a decent sized room with other

members of the team. It will be nice to fi-

nally unpack our belongings into wall lock-

ers and/or closets, have a permanent bed to

sleep on and just get comfortable.

Private First Class Truong, our supply Sol-

dier, was promoted to Specialist on April

15th, the day we arrived at Bagram. He is

taking on the job of Supply Non-

Commissioned Officer in Charge as a newly

appointed Specialist and doing an awesome

job. For his first deployment, he is learning

all the ins and outs to the deployed supply

system. Much of our mission relies on a

steady stream of supplies to support the ter-

minal and Specialist Truong is ready to make

sure that the stream of supplies continues with-

out interruption.

I want to share our heartfelt appreciation to all

our families at home. I ask that you continue

to shower us with your kindness and support

as we take on this mission here in Afghanistan.

It is you who provide us with the motivation to

accomplish the mission. More than ever, the

strength of our company, our Soldiers, and our

ability to operate as a team will carry us over

any challenge that we face during this deploy-

ment.

Sincerely,

CPT Nicholas Wall

“RAVEN 6”

From front to back: SGT Espada, SFC Aponte

(BDE S6), CW2 Geary (BDE S6), PFC Windham

programming equipment.

RAVEN SHOUTOUT

SPC James Barrall

“I’d like to say ‘Hi’

to my wife Jessie!”

SPC Kevin Elkhill

“I don’t know what to

say, I talk to her every

day … I love you

Jamie and Peanut!

IN OMNIA PARATUS