One Step Down

Howdy Doody. I have finally completed the first of the many classes I have to do before my adventure begins in earnest. As you probably know unless you have been living in a cave on the moon with your fingers in your ears there was a substantial terrorist attack in Islamabad this past week. Obviously this has given me a bit of concern, but as the saying goes the show must go on. Actually, with the economic troubles in the US and all the other wonderful news going on I'm reminded of a t-shirt I saw once. It said "Where are we going ... and why am I in this hand basket?" So anyway, I now know how to sell weapons to other countries and yes it is complicated (involving Congressional oversight, which we all know makes things easier) and no I can't get anyone a discount on a M1 tank.

As I prepare for my last weekend in Dayton, OH I would like to recount some of the wonderful things I have enjoyed here. First, took the advise of my buddy Marky T. (the quiet one in the Boy Band) and tried Marion's Pizza (or Piazza as they had on their box for some reason which actually means "square or market" which I don't get, but I digress). It was indeed a very fine pizza. One thing I have discovered is that pizzerias here in the Dayton area cut their pizzas differently than I am used to. They use a grid pattern which produces a bunch of small, almost bite sized pieces rather than the wedges that are produced by the traditional radial cuts. I don't mind, it just makes me wonder if this is a state or regional thing. Perhaps those from this area can expound on this issue. I also partook in another regional delicacy; Cincinnati chili at Skyline. Mark also introduced it to me during our Tuesday dinner club in Pensacola. The biggest difference from what most people are used to is that they put the chili over spaghetti. Personally I went for the "Four Way" (insert your own sexual innuendo here). And here ends the food critique for this post. Actually that would be a great job; traveling the world on someone else's dime, eating the great food and just writing about it. Anyone know how I get into that racket?

I feel I have been a bit remiss as I have yet to publicly thank Messlia B. for the intel she also gave me about Dayton. I do not think I would have had nearly as much fun here without it. I had the pleasure of getting together with her and her husband Andy last Saturday to watch the OSU/Troy game. It was great to see you both again.

So the big thing this week (aside from watching USC get beat!!) was my day at the Air Force Museum. Spanning three huge hangars with an addition for an IMAX theater and a silo for a missile and space area it has a copy of most, if not all airframes ever flown by the Air Force; from the Wright Brother's 1908 Flyer (the first airplane purchased by the Army Air Forces) to the F-22 Raptor. It was set up flowing in chronological order from the infancy of aviation through WWII to the conflicts in Southeast Asia to the Cold War and today. While it was neat to see some of the old planes, I really liked the modern aircraft; particularly the SR-71 Blackbird (the fastest plane ever) and the A-10 Thunderbolt II (you have to love a plane designed around a gun).

While the museum was cool (and while I may be biased) I prefer the Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL. I don't think the Navy museum has as many aircraft, but it is much more open. You can get up close and touch them. Shoot, you can actually sit in several of them. Also, the Navy museum is much brighter. The Air Force had it really dim with spotlights on the aircraft which really sparkled on the silver skin of the planes, but it reflects right into your eyes and makes it tough to take good pictures. I took several but I don't have Photoshop on my laptop so I will have to wait until I get home to fix them before I can post them. I also need to remember to bring the video camera I bought to record my journeys (it's hard to take videos when the camera is in a different state). I do have a couple pictures from this trip and I will post the rest when I can.

So what are the take aways from this post:

1. I like food and if you have any recommendations let me know. I also want to eat food for a living.
2. The Navy's aviation museum is better than the Air Force's (though that shouldn't be a surprise because the Navy is just all around better than the Air Force).
3. I am not completely set up for this blog thing, but I will be.

Well that is all for the moment. I will see several of you at least one more time before I leave and for those I do not see I hope things continue to go well. And as always, if you can't be good, be good at it.

P.S. - Congratulations to J. B. (the Boy Band member with the nice ass) who got married on the 12th. I wish you both the best in life.

Ohio ... Where The Wind Come Sweeping Down The Plain

Well friends it’s been a rather boring week but there are a couple things I would like to talk about. The weekend started nicely with a bunch of us in the class getting together Friday night for dinner. I only bring it up because it brought home a point to me about the military that I think is pretty cool. First I should mention that the class is about as joint as you can get. For those not in the military let me explain what I mean by “joint”. The class is comprised of all four services as well as DOD civilians and a couple foreign nationals and has a wide range of ranks from O-3 to O-6. So the fact that a group of us who had never met before this class can just go out to dinner and drinks like old friends is neat. The comradery that exists simply because you are in the military is definitely something I don’t think you get in a lot of other professions.

So anyway, we went out to dinner on Friday and on Saturday we went and watched some football (OU 55 – Washington 14) (sorry to my Ohio State friends). Then that night a few of us went to one of the casinos in the local area. I say local even though it was about an hour away (one of the guys in the group needs to work on his time/distance calculations). Regrettably there isn’t anything to report about that either (I didn’t do so well at the tables) but we had fun.
Sunday I had set aside for doing all my Admin stuff; going to the grocery store, doing laundry, etc. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas, for that morning the remnants of Ike and the high pressure system over the east got together to generate one heck of a wind storm. Like a lot of folks in the middle of the country, we experienced winds around 50+ MPH which did a great job of knocking down trees and power lines (the power was knocked out around 2 pm until about 2 am). So with dirty clothes in tow I headed out looking for a laundromat in some portion of the city that still has power. Maybe not the greatest idea I ever had, driving around Dayton in 50+ MPH winds but it’s not like could do much in my BOQ room. There were a couple times I was driving down some tree lined road with the wind whipping and all I could think of was the scene in the end of Twister were Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt duck into a shed trying to find shelter from the tornado and the shed is filled with shard farm implements. Not the most comfortable feeling when you didn’t get the extra insurance on the rental car.

Now for a little driving test. You are driving down a street and you come to an intersection where the traffic lights are out. What do you do? The answer is you are supposed to treat it like a stop sign. Apparently most of the drivers in Dayton had never heard of this and it was driving me nuts. Anyway, I will get off my soapbox now.

I was unsuccessful in finding a laundromat, but I did stumble across one of the things that my friend Katie L. said I had to try; a Dorothy Lane Market “Killer Brownie”. I must say they are pretty darn good, but if you ever have one make sure you have a gallon of milk available. A vile of insulin might be helpful as well.

Well that is about all for the moment. Not the most exciting of reports I know but I figured I have to get in the habit of making entries if I am going to keep this up. Please feel free to pass this blog on to anyone you think might be interested and I look forward to any comments or e-mails from you all. Take care and remember if you can’t be good, be good at it.

And Thus It Begins

Greetings and salutations one and all.

For those of you who do not know I have checked out of HSL-43 and am embarking on the next leg of my career. Ordinarily this would not necessarily be cause to document it for posterity, but the next leg of my career takes place in a slightly different local; that being in Pakistan for a year.

I can hear it all now coming from all over the country, "What the hell are you doing going to Pakistan? What's there? What are you going to be doing?"

Well let me try to explain. The answer to the first question is I did not break out at 43 like I would have liked and this is a chance at a fresh start and a chance to get healthy a bit. While I'm there I will finish up my JPME Phase 1 and get all my required points to get Joint Qualified. As for what is there, I invite you to visit the link above. Beyond that I honestly do not have a clue. But I am actually looking forward to finding out a bit. Hopefully the current presidential situation there will not lead to too much civil unrest.

So all that remains is what will I be doing. Well basically I get to be an arms dealer. Yes you read that right; an arms dealer. I will be working in the U. S. Embassy in the Office of Defence Representative-Pakistan. So what is that. It is an arms dealer. Well that might be a bit of an over simplification and exaggeration. What the ODRP does is coordinate with the Pakistani government to identify and fill their military material and training needs. This is done through Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales. So basically I am selling weapons to Pakistan. Anyway I am sure there is more to it but I think this sounds cooler. One of the other cool things I will be doing is getting to fly the C-12 Huron which is pretty good considering.

So currently I am sitting in a BOQ room at Wright-Patterson AFB in lovely Dayton, OH going through a class to teach me how to be an arms dealer. I had planned on getting this blog started last weekend, but I managed to catch a cold which pretty much made me want to just crawl into bed. But I am feeling a bit better now so here we go. I spend a total of three weeks here before going down to Tampa for three days of Force Protection training. Then I get to go back to San Diego for a couple days to have all my personal goods packed up and put in storage. After that I am off to Washington D. C. for a couple days of intel briefing followed by a month in Ft. Rucker in picturesque Dothan, AL. I'll be there for the C-12 training. After that I get a couple weeks leave back home for Thanksgiving and in December it is off to Pakistan.

Well, my goal is to post an entry every week or two to give everyone an idea of the great and wonderful things I am seeing and doing. Hopefully this will force me to actually get out and see and do things. The first thing (and honestly the only thing so far due to the cold) is a picture of the Wright Brothers' Memorial.

I plan on keeping my cell phone active while I am in the states and I will set up a Skipe account before I leave. Also, I plan on keeping my e-mail address while I'm over there so you should all be able to keep in touch. I will be sure to send along my mailing address once I get it. So, until next time, if you can't be good be good at it.