Archive for the 'USAF' Category

Laying Low

Sunday, September 21st, 2008
     Not that I’ve been posting a lot lately, but I’m going to be mostly offline for the next 7-10 days.  We’re getting ready for one of those "Major muscle movements" that occurs every 18-36 months in the life of a government employee in my line of work. 

Returned To Base

Saturday, June 28th, 2008
     I’ve done a reverse MacArthur.  I have returned from the Philippines.       As it happened, I rolled home and straight into an exercise! I’d like to say I swapped my ‘Battle Rattle’ for a chemical defense ensemble, but rather the chemical defense ensemble went on underneath the Interceptor body armor.  Mercifully it’s [...]

The Best Thing About This Tour

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
     The best thing about this deployment was meeting this guy:                    . . . At least according to him! You know how these young folks can be brash sometimes.      You’re doing great work, AJ! Keep it up! [...]

Battle Rattle

Monday, April 7th, 2008
     I’ve found it nearly completely unnecessary to wear this stuff in the current theater.  The primary danger is from pickpockets.        I can’t believe I traded in a G-suit for kevlar! Update 11 Apr 2008:  Due to popular demand to know which one of these fighter pilots-turned [...]

Shouldering the Load Together

Sunday, March 9th, 2008
     From a long way off, I had a very small hand in a very small way in some of this. 

AFA Article About Aging Aircraft

Friday, February 22nd, 2008
     The Air Force Association put out an interesting article relating the age of various USAF airframes to popular culture historical events.  It’s kind of a twist on that e-mail that one university puts out each year to the professors that describe the shared cultural life-experiences of the incoming freshman class. 

Blue Sky Hawaii

Monday, February 11th, 2008
     I’m blogging from Waikiki beach again.  I’m here for a short TDY to Hickam AFB to see the folks at PACAF.  You know, the sky in Hawaii just seems to be a slightly different shade of blue than anywhere else I’ve been.  It’s always green here, too.  I’m not sure I’d want to live [...]

February “RAP-up”

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
     Today was a superb day! Scrappy, Pitch, Scooter, and I were going to double-turn ACM sorties.  The original plan was to try to play "ACM Baseball," with Scrappy and Pitch "batting" first sortie and Scooter and I "batting" second.  We set up four waypoints in the sky in the shape of a diamond.  The [...]

Tuesday Two-fer

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
     Today Drago, Motor, Sox, and I flew a pit-and-go pair of ACM sorties.  Drago and Boat flew Blue first sortie, Sox and I flew Blue on the second.  We had a great time on both sides (so to say).       It went like most ACM sorties.  The one interesting moment happened when Motor intelligently [...]

Friday Flying

Friday, February 1st, 2008
     Today’s mission was to be a medium altitude surface attack tactics flight.  Rost would lead our four-ship while Drago led a second four-ship against a pair of actual Red Air and a bunch of simulated SAMs.  It was a little benign, but still fun.  Red Air leaned on Drago’s flight, so they got to [...]