4 - eyes

We had out PHA (preventative health assessment) today (three days before class). This is another area I could see people going crazy, but you have ZERO control over it. The AF screens you a good dozen times to see if you really are as healthy as you say you are. So they took some blood, foot prints (cuz boots don’t burn as well as the rest of your body), gave me half a dozen needle sticks, TB screening, complete physical (with cough), color blindness test, depth perception test, and the letter test. The 20/20 line on the old standard charts is DEFPOTEC, too bad they don’t use that anymore cuz it turns out I can’t see. Luckily the docs are helpful and want you to do well, so I get some reading glasses to take stress off of my eyes, but don’t have to wear them to fly (some people do). We also got some sweet drugs to see if we’re allergic to them, some antibiotics, a couple different no-go (sleeping) and a few go (mild speed).

Up-date: one of the no-to pills was ambion - it was awesome, i was as loopy as could be, and apparently called Wes after I was in bed - but I don't remember that...

NEW SUITS

Today was freakin awesome! All of your taxes are well appreciated, as I try on all of my new gear (see picture for a taste). We got a helmet bag, 3 flight suits, jacket, 2 pairs of thermal tops n bottoms, flask to fit in flight suit, G-shock watch, aviator sunglasses, a lame flashlight from the 30s, gloves, boots, fuzzy hat, crazy protractor thing, leg strap to attach checklists, and hearing protection (quickly put to use while shooting the 38 later that day). The suits/jacket aren’t in the pic cause we’re getting rank and name tags sewn up at the parachute shop, we made the name tags with a red hot stamp press that burned silver ink into the leather. I had to contain my excitement when we pulled my patch out, only to find I had mis-spelled my own name, whoops, so I didn’t do so well at containing my excitement after all...

Killing time: not really AF related

Waiting around for things to speed up is pretty easy for me, I’ve been catching up on movies and burning CDs thanks to the base library: all 10 Band of Brothers, 6 Star Wars, 3 Bourne’s, 2 Ninja Turtles, the classic series. We’ve also been working out/running a lot. There is a 4 mile route that runs parallel with the flight line, its awesome in the morning when its still hot (not yet miserably hot) and you see a dozen or more aircraft at once: some taxing, holding short, landing, taking off, in the pattern, its amazing, you almost forget you’re running in ridiculously humid Mississippi. I also enjoy bike riding around the perimeter of the base, it weaves in and out of the woods along the far side of the flight line. Head out about sunset, put some good tunes on the ipod, I feel like I’m in a movie. I figure that will be my get away over the next year, that and going shooting, we’ve been doing a lot of that too, with a little fishing thrown in here n there. I’m pretty much free to roam, just have to sign in during the day.

OPSEC

My dad, being the ever vigilant warrior that he is, reminded me that having all this info out there might not be the best idea, so I removed my name and all other personalizing info. fun stuff.

Movin to MS

I'm finally moved into the dorm - I have pictures if u want to see them. Its not much, but its plenty for a year. Everything went smoothly, they have a class of 30 starting every 3 weeks so they have this down pretty well. Class starts on the 20th and until then all I have to do is sign in by 1030, and I'm free to do whatever. I have an occasional briefing to attend, but most time is filled sittin at the end of the flight line watching planes. Life is hard. It blows me away how many students are here, this base isn't very big and it seems like there are nothing but Lts runnin around. There probably won't be any updates till school starts.

Red Flag

I just got back from a 2 week TDY at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. It was freakin AWESOME! Nellis is the "home of the fighter" at least that what it says as you drive on base. Speaking of which, I've really been rethinking what I want to fly, and becoming less enchanted by fighters, they and especially fighter pilots are not nearly as cool as you always dream of growing up. While there I got to fly in a C-17, B-52, Huey, and Pave Hawk helicopters, and a C-130 on a low-level mission acting as Red Air (enemy) trying to avoid getting shot down by F-22, 15s, and 16s.
The 17 was cool, very new and advanced, floated a little bit in my seat when we did a little negative G action. They have a similar mission to the C-130, but seem to be babied more than a 130, so not as cool. The B-52 was cool just to be in a 52, but we didn't really do anything, just flew really high and released an ordinance (not really just simulated). They are really old and "not as nice."
The highlight was getting to act as a down pilot. They flew us to the middle of some restricted area we won't talk about, and dropped us with off with a flare, radio, signal mirror, compass, and other fun stuff. At the prearranged time (that we crashed) I sent our coords on the radio. An A-10 called back asking us for our info, and instructed us to signal with the mirror so he could get our exact location. We were on a hill overlooking an "enemy complex" and three guys came out of the village with rifles, so I called in the A-10 for cover. Just about the time, I was getting impatient cuz they were getting closer I saw a silent gray frame zipping up the dry river bed at a lower elevation than our 60 foot hill. The hog pulled up just enough to clear the hill after dropping flares because the complex shot off a "smokey sam" but made another pass to make sure he had taken care of them (they were now laying down acting dead) and it started raining little while fuzz from the flares. In a little while a black dot came down a nearby ridge, which turned into two dots that instructed me to pop my flare when they gave me the signal to verify it was really us. They circled twice to find an area to land, there wasn't enough room on our hill so they just put their front landing gear down and out rushed some of the scariest giants I have ever seen, the blast from the pave hawk was so strong it picked me up and slammed me against our down aircraft (an old van) but didn't even phase the PJs who grabbed us and threw us in the helos which proceeded to blast out of the canyon barely clearing ridges to get us back to safety. IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME.
So this is really long but the trip was awesome, the low level mission in the 130 was bout as cool as the rescue, I got to sit in the bubble on top to look for the guys trying to shoot us down. A few times I thought we were going to hit the dirt we were flying so low, but we still got "shot down" every time we had to cross open flat terrain.
The strip in Vegas was cool, but got old quick, I perfered the hike on Mt. Charleston which was probably the most intense hike I've ever done, 9 miles one way with about 4,000 ft gain on the way up, then there was the 9 miles back down.
Again, when on TDY you get a per diem on top of regular pay how freakin awesome is the AF, u should join...

C Springs finally

Caleb Osborne recently gave me some free publicity so it is forcing me to update this. I'm going to make this strictly AF stuff, kind of my experiences in the AF - and reasons people should join the AF.
So to finish the Colorado TDY (temporary trip that we take), another really cool day was going to another DZ (drop zone). We spent the entire day there even though it was a night drop. We passed the time shooting skeet, stalking antelope, grilling steaks, garlic buscuits, potatoes/onions/peppers, corn on the cob, pineapple, and cookies (all on the grill). Ya it was a pretty rough day. After the sun went down, we got out the gear (radios, NVGs (night vision goggles, wind reader) and called in the C-130s for a drop. My job was to spin glow sticks (that could only be seen on NVGs) on a rope making a visible marker for them to drop on after my boss called in the cords. While out there we also got to go to a Rockies game, hike some of Pikes Peak, the Manitou incline (that thing is INSANE look it up, it gains 2000ft over 1 mile), Garden of the Gods, and 7 falls. On these trips u get paid an extra per diem on top of ur regular pay - see u should join the AF.