My thanks and prayers go out to those serving, especially the folks downrange, and to our families. Special thanks to those who’ve gone before in service. Thanks most of all to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and to those who they left behind.
Archive for May, 2006
Happy Memorial Day
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006BFM Complete
Thursday, May 25th, 2006Yesterday I flew my last BFM ride in the re-qual course. It went fairly well. The jet I flew was fairly heavy, and on a hot day with a Pratt & Whitney 220 engine, it wasn’t really as intense a workout as a normal high-aspect BFM flight in a Block 40 or 50 usually provides.
Today was my first of two intercepts flight, and overall it went really well. Of course, we were fighting cooperative "Red Air." Still, intercepts after long layoffs can be somewhat of a challenge.
After the Mount Soledad Cross
Sunday, May 21st, 2006 When I die,
I want a cross marking my grave. I want
everyone to see the symbol of my Lord and know that there is little else I want
people to remember about me than that I was a Christian.
If any
atheists don’t like it and attempt to make future generations take down my
cross, I hope some good folks will refuse and ensure it remains standing.I hope that the democracy I will have spent
the best part of my life protecting will honor my eternal vote to display the
fact I was a Christian during my life here on earth.
I also
harbor a guilty hope that the good folks will tell the atheists where to go,
both figuratively and literally.
The Right Filters
Sunday, May 21st, 2006 Some of my left-of-political-center friends are surprised
when they find out I like to watch Fox News whenever I can, partly because it’s
often not available in the countries in which I’ve lived. I usually quip
"It’s nice to run the right filters once in awhile instead of having to
constantly run the left filters."
The most recent and annoying item I’ve had to
filter: The rumor I heard on Fox News yesterday that claimed there was a
law being passed through the Iranian parliament that would require Jews and
Christians to wear a badge, after the manner Jews, Gypsies, and others were
forced to self-identify in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied countries.
Apparently, the law in question was designed to encourage women to wear chador, or
clothes that reveal little feminine beauty, almost as drastic as a burqua.
I’m certainly not a fan of this move, as the world would then be denied the
sight of lovlies such as Rudi Bahktiar (the former CNN Headline News anchoress
who recently moved over to Fox News). The point is, I’m already irritated
enough with Iran’s
facist wannabe that I don’t need to hear fictitious proof. Enough said.
Basics
Saturday, May 20th, 2006I flew two basic fighter maneuver (BFM) hops this week, one offensive, one defensive. I’ve managed to prove to myself I can turn high-G circles in the sky and shoot down a bad guy or keep a bad guy from shooting me. My classmates and I all had a week full of academics and two simulators. We’ve finally started air-to-ground academics. We’re down to just under a month, with about 11 flights left to go.
This evening at the Officers’ Club we were treated to a brief speech by Medal of Honor winner Col Leo Thorsness (plenty of good links at POW Network.org, Neil Mishalov’s blog, 357 FS Website, and Medal of Honor.com). The mission he won the Medal on was pretty incredible. I’ll let you all read for yourself! It was an honor to get to listen to him.
I-Check Complete
Saturday, May 13th, 2006Yesterday I finished my instrument checkride. I’m once again technically qualified to fly an F-16C/D wherever I might need to go. I won’t have another hurdle like that until my mission checkride, which ought to take place in late July or early August.
After flying yesterday, and in a strange twist of small-worldness, some of my flying buddies and I went to a restaurant on Bell Avenue near Arrowhead Mall last night. A group of Airmen from my previous assignment had been TDY to Gila Bend (Luke’s auxilliary field near the Barry Goldwater Range) to practice coordinating/controlling close air support. They all showed up at the same restaurant! It was good to see them again. The chances of unexpectedly running into old friends is probably my second-favorite aspect about the Air Force.
Food Critics ‘R’ Us
Thursday, May 11th, 2006Tonight I’m going to try my hand at explaining what I ate. This ought to be interesting. I’m the most utilitarian eater I know. In general if it’s food, cooked, and isn’t made from something rather gross, I never complain. I’ve noticed most of my friends can explain things about food that I never seem to even notice. So I’m going to start trying to pay attention and perhaps someday I’ll be able to talk barbeque with the best of them! Or at least maybe I’ll learn how marinade is supposed to be used.
This evening Nitro, Tonka and I hit an Asian restaurant near
loop 101 and 67th Ave. If I remember correctly, it was called Pei
Wei. I wasn’t very adventurous, I went with sweet and sour chicken,
and it was good (the rice was a bit dry). The chicken was surrounded by tasty, crunchy fried batter and was nice and tender.
After dinner we
stopped at the Cold Stone Creamery next door to the restaurant. I
picked up a small cup of butter pecan. That triggered a lot of fond
memories of our summer camping trips when we were growing up. The
local Jaycees always had chocolate, vanilla, and butter pecan, so if we
wanted something other than standard flavors, we got butter pecan. The
Cold Stone ice cream was good, but it lacked actual pecan chunks.
If you’re in Phoenix and you’re in the mood for Korean, Hannibal and I tested Seoul Jung restaurant, it was in the vicinity of 67th Ave and Olive, but check the address before you take my word for it. It was the best Korean food I’ve ever had, and I lived in Korea for 16 months once upon a time.
More Flying
Thursday, May 11th, 2006Yesterday was the first formation flight I’ve done in awhile. Today was the first flight in a C-model since January 2004. Both flights were pretty vanilla, but it’s always a good day to fly!
A Short Tribute to My Last Assignment’s Last Hurrah
Sunday, May 7th, 2006
My friend Mad Max back in my last assingment in Germany had the good fortune to meet a man named Giro, a ranger in the Bundeswehr (the German Army). Giro introduced Mad Max and our squadron to the German Military Efficiency Badge (GMEB) program. Despite the name, anyone in the military could enter the program. In order to earn this badge, one had to participate in three days’ worth of events. The order of events wasn’t necessarily important. The three events essentially were a sports day, a shooting day, and a foot march.
Several folks from our squadron earned the badge in mid-2005. I wanted to get in, but the program days seemed to always fall on days when I was TDY, or on a weekend that I didn’t want to lose with Christina. Mad Max mentioned that civilians could participate in sports day and earn the German Sports Badge (below left). So finally in November Christina and I took a Saturday and we participated.
To qualify for the GMEB, one had to earn the German Sports Badge. You had to qualify in five different sports categories. Everyone had to perform a 200 meter swim within a certain time. The time requirement (for this and all swimming or running events) depended on gender and age*. Afterward, we planned to go to a gymnasium and knock out the high jump, then go outside to a track to run the 100m dash, the 3K run, and throw the shot-put.
I initially had some concern about the swim. I was a blazingly mediocre swimmer back on the high school team, and the last time I swam laps was 1999, and that was only two or three times while I was at Laughlin AFB. I hopped in, warmed up, and ultimately finished in somewhat under three minutes (well below the seven minute limit). Christina had never swum competitively, so she elected to forego the 200m swim. I felt good enough about that that I went ahead and performed the 50m and 1000m events, passing each of them easily (as I recall, I finished the 1K in under 23 minutes). I had qualified in three of five events, so I was feeling pretty good. I think Christina did swim the 50m and passed that.
Life is never quite so simple. Since I used to dive better than I swam in high school, and since I had tried high jump back in high school, I figured that event would be a piece of cake. I ended up being one of only two people that day (out of around 30) who couldn’t jump high enough to qualify. Fortunately the alternate event for the high jump was the running long jump, which after six attempts I finally passed. Christina easily made her high-jump goal. I did throw a qualifying shot-put, mostly because I’d never thrown before and wanted to try it.
Both Christina and I made our 100m dash times, although after over 20 attempts at the high jump, I hit my time exactly. Had I been one tenth of a second slower, I wouldn’t have made it, and I didn’t have the energy to go faster a second time! Could I have made the 400m dash time? Probably not. I may have been able to make the 1,000m run, but that would really have been tempting fate. I find it unusual that I can go without swimming for six years and then go 1,000m with plenty of time to spare, but I can run every week and still have trouble.
To cap the day, I wanted to run with Christina while she completed the womens’ 2,000m run and go on to see how well I’d do at the mens’ 3,000m run. I was so worn out, I couldn’t keep up with Christina, and I didn’t even make the womens’ 2,000m run time. Lucky for me, it didn’t matter. I’d finished the Sports Day. Christina finished most of the events, so we’re looking for an opportunity for her to do her 200m swim and earn her badge.
As my tour in Germany drew to a close, Mad Max found a Friday and Saturday and put together the shooting and foot march events on my last weekend before I had to leave for my TDY. I have to say, it certainly is nice to have friends who’ll arrange a squadron schedule around you!
On Friday, 7 Apr, a bunch of my squadron mates, half a company of Army soldiers from various units, a platoon’s worth of Bundeswehr soldiers and I rolled out to the Wackernheim range. We got to shoot 15 rounds with the German’s HK P8 pistol (link to US site) (a rather nice piece with better sights than the M9 Beretta that we use in the US armed forces), it was a fairly short-range set, all 15 shots were at 10 meters. Some of the folks got to shoot the MG3 machine gun (due to a comedy of errors, the Army folks brought tracer rounds to the range, which were not authorized for use. One might think the Army would know what kinds of ammo they could take to their own ranges, but one would be wrong). I had to forego the opportunity to shoot the MG-3, and in any case, I’d fired the US M60 back in my ROTC days, so it wasn’t a huge loss. We all shot 20 rounds from the Germans’ H&K MG36 assault rifle at 100m. I hit 100% with the pistol, and 95% with the rifle. The holographic aimpoint on the rifle was set for the rifle’s owner, not for me, and as a result, I was shooting high and right, and I failed to make the required adjustment for one of the shots, and just missed the target sillouhete’s left shoulder. In any case, I qualified* for the Schuetzenschur at the gold level, and had a good time on the range.
The following day, many of the same folks that shot yesterday showed up for the foot march. The folks who organized the event picked a mercifully flat stretch of 15 kilometers along the scenic Rhein River for us to walk along. We all had to carry 10 kilograms (22 pounds) in a backpack, we had to be in uniform, and we had to meet a time goal*. It turned out to be a really nice, mild day. The weather and terrain really could not have been better. I went to sign in with one of the attendants, who advised me that based on my age, I had to complete 25 km within 4 hours and 10 minutes to qualify for the gold GMEB. I actually thought I’d be able to run much of the way, and go the full 30 km, but at about the 10 km point, blisters started taking their toll on my enthusiasm, and I simply walked out the required 25 km. I finished with about 20 minutes to spare. I scored one gold GMEB!
I drove home with some sore feet and walked with a slight limp for the next three days, but meeting the challenge made my entire week. I owe a huge thanks to Mad Max for setting everything up, to friends who made the experience more fun, and to Christina for sparing me for a couple of Saturdays to get this knocked out!
*For anyone interested, I found a li
nk to Texas Christian University’s ROTC page. Some time ago the cadets apparently participated in the GMEB. Click here for the Sports Badge qualification requirements. Click here for the GMEB qualification standards. Or click on the images.
Emergency!
Saturday, May 6th, 2006Today I knocked out the emergency procedures (EP) simulator. That constitutes almost half of the instrument checkride. I still have a pair of exams to take and a flight to make to finish the checkride. After that’s all done, we can get on with the tactical portions of the course.