17 Mar 07 1st night Sherpa flight

I depart Camp Al Asad on a Sherpa C-23 plane or the “Flying Boxcar” as it is called. This isn’t my first flight aboard one of these old planes but it will be my first one at night. I notice right away the windows are covered with cloth as I sit down. It is a pretty uneventful flight until the flares are released. A tall civilian contractor kind of freaked out when this happened because when the flares hit the bottom of the plane it made a sound like gunfire (plus the sky was lit up by the flares). After several hours waiting for a C-130 Transport Plane at LSA Anaconda, I flew back to my base, Camp Adder, the next day.