2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 8: Camp Lemonaire Day 2

Alright, get ready because today was a wild one. Djibouti has been one of the craziest experiences of our lives. We’re going to let the pictures do most of the talking but we’ll try to walk you through as much as we can.

We got to sleep in, woke up around 10am, ate lunch, and then went to the “Ammo Unit” where we got to “play” with all kinds of guns including 9mms, M-16s, other crazy machine guns, 50 caliber guns, and finally a fully automatic grenade launcher. We looked like kids in a candy store.

We received some “training” on Call of Duty 2 (this is a video game for all of those not familiar with it) and then played with more guns. This was a pretty unbelievable experience for all of us.

From the Ammo Unit we went over to the Airfield where we got the tour of our lifetime. “VQ-2” gave us a couple hour tour of their EP3 plane and explained as much as they could about what they do. They operate a “spy plane” so we could not take many pictures and most of the information cannot be talked about but they basically explained what they do and how they do it. We got to try on their gear and parachutes, sit in the cockpit and much, much more. We need to thank all the guys from VQ-2 for showing around and just being amazing.

If that isn’t enough for one day, after the airfield visit, we left base for a trip to a “Cheetah Refuge”. We drove through the outskirts of Djibouti that contain the poorest and dirtiest terrain most of us have ever seen. We spent about an hour at the Refuge looking at cheetahs, hyenas, turtles, gazelles, ostriches, and lots of other animals.  After that we headed back to the base to play our second show.

We took some amazing photos in the ammo unit but we are unable to post most of them. We were given very strict orders not to post certain things so these are the photos that we were given the OK.

This is an automatic grenade launcher. It weighed about 4 million pounds.

Brothers in Arms.

Waiting to be taken to the airfield.... we do this alot on these tours

Apparently Malaria is a "thing" here.......

We were not allowed to take pictures in the airplane except for in the cockpit. 

Frey decked out with the flight gear and a parachute

Cant we just stop and ask for directions?

Thanks to all the guys from VQ-2 and CRC-26. This was an experience none of us will ever forget!

After the tour of the airplane we left the base for the Cheetah Refuge. These are pictures of Djibouti. It is definitely a third-world country. We saw lots of camel and trash.

Welcome to the Cheetah Refuge.

This is what the branches of the tree above looks like up close.

BIT with James.

It only took us traveling half-way across the world to find people more stupid than we are.

Hyenas

Gizzlettes (Baby Gazelles)

Chrissssssss and James

The one, the only, Mr. James Hawkins.