Merrill, Hernandez, and Reeder had a meeting a couple days ago, discussing what sort of stories we wanted to do in the future, how best to open up the site to new contributors from our readership, etc. Everything was going great until time came to figure out who was going to pay the bill for all those tacos.

Luckily everything was resolved and they decided, among other things, to start running the occasional pictorial essays from talented photographers. Or guys like Hernandez. Mad Duo

Not long ago I had the opportunity to photograph the Texas Army National Guard’s 143rd Airborne Battalion as they practiced seizing a north Texas airfield. Since I’m a tanker trapped in an intel weenie’s body, this was a new and eye-opening experience. I was able to observe the operation from beginning to end, which really made me miss going on real missions overseas.

Prep and loading.

Last minute rehearsals and the long, tense wait to hit the objective.

Charging down the ramp. Not much different than infantry units at Normandy 72 years ago.

Clearing and consolidating on the airfield.

Assaulting a building and recovering casualties.

Rallying and pulling out.

And finally, back home and off the aircraft.

I’ve said before that I have no regrets about my non-infantry military career. But grunt life looks like a lot of fun. And on operations like this, it might even be glorious.

Note: if you’re interested, Hernandez recently set up a Facebook page for his photography. It’s called “For My Old Gaffer Photo” er, Chris Hernandez Photography.