Heading North

The last couple of weeks have passed in such a blur that I'm just today finding time to post about Kirk's recent big adventure. Last week he had the opportunity to go to Alaska to take part in a training activity sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. For the last 3 years, he has been part of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Task Force #3, and this was his first major deployment as part of that group. Ordinarily a task force from the Pacific Northwest would have been sent up, but that team was occupied assisting with the enormous mudslide rescue efforts in Washington state, so the Bay Area team was called up. There were 73 people in his team, two of whom are Kirk's co-workers at San Mateo Fire Dept. 

After 12+ hours of waiting and anticipation, they deployed on a Thursday morning from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, CA, and flew to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, AK in a giant C-17, which he says was an awesome ride. He got a chance to visit a bit with the pilots during the flight, and picked up the interesting fact that the flight alone cost FEMA $400,000. Ouch! 

This is where "Find My iPhone" told us he was:

This is what it looked like for him:

From what Kirk says, the sleeping arrangements were NOT his favorite part of the adventure.  It was 8 degrees outside, and he wasn't quite cozy enough either night.  So as not to offend your delicate sensibilities, I won't repeat here the other things he said about it... 

The truly fun part of the trip was the training exercise itself, which took all day Friday. Kirk is a rescue specialist on the task force, so he was assigned to a team that practiced all sorts of intricate and challenging rescue scenarios. They got to use petrogen torches to cut holes in elevators, lifted giant chunks of concrete off of cars, and rigged all sorts of rope systems to perform simulated rescues. 

Kirk came home in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday, exhausted and ready to get warm. Even though in the course of his trip he only got to see the base and the Anchorage airport, we decided it counts, meaning that he has now visited every state in the union.