What happens when austere conditions, extreme hours, and accumulated stress combine with the challenges of operating archaic equipment in a remote combat zone? Welcome to the gritty world of heavy military aircraft maintenance. The US Air Force's Air Mobility Command pushed its personnel and equipment to the upper reaches of their operational limits in an effort to facilitate mass troop and materiel movements for the 2009 Afghan Surge. This raw portrayal of the realities faced by one such C-5A Galaxy crew skipping across the globe in a forty-year-old cargo jet will leave you reeling. Patience wears down to bare metal and tempers ride on a hair trigger in this brutally honest, character-driven novella as the flight crew attempts to compartmentalize their emotions, focus on their mission and return to their families in time for Christmas.