Land of the Midnight Sun

While Jordan was exploring Scotland with the girls, I went on my first TDY from Aviano. I went with our sister squadron,the 555FS, to Kallax AB near Lulea, Sweden. It was quite an experience. First, the country is beautiful, at least during the summer, and we really enjoyed the town and interacting with the Swedes who were excellent hosts. It was strange to have the sun set around 11 pm and rise around 2-3 am; even at the darkest point it was only dusk.

Lulea, Sweden

The flying was pretty great. I flew two upgrade rides there: Close Air Support (CAS) and Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM). The CAS ride was awesome because I was able to drop two 2000 lb inert (concrete) bombs and strafe with the gun. We don't have these opportunities often at Aviano, so it was great training to drop actual weapons on my upgrade ride and work with forward air controllers on the ground. A lot of other pilots were able to fly against the Swedish Gripens stationed at Kallax and they really benefited from the dissimilar training.

The pilots and maintainers with the Gripen and the mighty Viper!

We enjoyed the town of Lulea even though almost everything in Sweden is far more expensive than Italy (i.e. it cost around $30 for a burger/fries). There was a large music festival the second weekend we were there and it was fun to walk around and listen to some music. That same weekend the 555FS had a naming ceremony for a lot of their wingmen and they rented a great place on a beautiful lake near the town. I helped out the other new guys and we ran errands to get food, etc for the rest of the guys.

View of the lake where the naming was held

All in all it was a great couple weeks and I was able to see Sweden. We'd like to go back and visit Stockholm and see all the sites. The TDY was nice because it made Italy really feel like home and I was very happy to return to Sacile to see Jordan, sleep in our bed, and be at home.

Ciao