Archive for the '"Downrange"' Category
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 [...]
Posted in "Downrange", F-16 Operations, USAF | 1 Comment »
Sunday, June 1st, 2008
I received an informative article awhile back from Mr Gary Patriquin, father of my late friend CPT Travis Patriquin (the author of the PowerPoint slideshow How to Win in Anbar). If you’d like to know how the West was won, see Ramadi from the Caliphate to Capitalism by Andrew Lubin in the April 2008 Naval [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs | No Comments »
Sunday, June 1st, 2008
Today my colleagues and I were invited to a Boodle Fight with some of our host-nation counterparts. The Boodle Fight is a tradition in this country that builds esprit de corps (team-building, in modern business parlance). I’m not sure how far it dates back. The cooks would prepare as much food as was available. Then they would [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Food | 5 Comments »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Some of my friends were not too far away from this event. They’re alright. They couldn’t tell me which of these reports about the event were correct.
I think I’ll be redirecting my search efforts.
Posted in "Downrange", Asia/Pacific, Military Affairs | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
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Chris points at a large spider
I was on my way into one of the buildings with some other folks here when I espied this spider. As best I could tell it was an argiope spider. This one was about as [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Asia/Pacific | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
I’m the type of guy who doesn’t shy away from wildlife, no matter how wild the life. If a trail at a national park says to "Beware of mountain lions," it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll find me on that trail looking for a mountain lion.
This place is no different, [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Hunting | 4 Comments »
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! [...]
Posted in "Downrange", USAF | 3 Comments »
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 [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs, USAF | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 17th, 2008
I just recently returned from one of the far-flung camps in our area of operations. It was one of those places where you couldn’t drink the water without boiling it first (not even to brush your teeth). Pretty much all the food was fried, even the vegetables (and sometimes even the fruit). The mango [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
It looks like Admiral Fallon just resigned.
His deputy will be the acting CENTCOM commander. Lt Gen Dempsey was in command of 1st Armored Division when I was working over in that neck of the woods. He helped me get some medals pushed through for my Airmen that had gotten downgraded by [...]
Posted in "Downrange", Military Affairs, US DoD | No Comments »