Rick's Chime In 31 August

Hey everyone.

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted on here. Apologies for you Soap Opera-like followers of this; I know you've anxiously been waiting for Rick's next post!

Rachel and I have had quite the last couple weeks. As is normal in Korea, people are always coming and going here. We've had heartfelt farewell's to our close friends; drunken hello's to new friends; and everything in between. It's funny because when I flew A-10's at Whiteman, people never left unless they were retiring. Here, they come and go almost as if it's just a normal activity.....which it is in the Active Duty force. So to our friends Chris Delao, Bryan and Kat Nickola, Justin and Lisa Teague, and Rachel and I's most favorite Doctor ever, Suds, we will miss you. Godspeed and to most of you, we'll see you again......I'm sure.

As for me, my job is about to change. As of 1 September, I will no longer be a Flight Commander in the 25FS. It has been an awesome job with awesome responsibility, but it was time to move on. 13 months as a flight commander is a little too long. Most guys usually have it 7-10 months. It's been too long because as a flight commander, you also inherit a lot of other taskings in the Squadron. 14+ hour days is almost standard and in fact, I've worked several "2 in 1" days over the past 2 months.......that is 2, 8 hour "normal" workdays in 1 16 hour period straight. Pretty crappy, but both Rachel and I have done our best to work around it and make the most out of our limited time together. As for why I"m moving on, it was just time. My guys in my flight were not getting the best from me that they deserved. I am pretty burnt out right now with everything going on and it was time for a change. Don't take this the wrong way people, I did NOT get fired; it was time for a job rotation in the SQ. So where am I going you might wonder? Good question. For the next 2 months, I am 100% responsible for our Red Flag Alaska deployment. As the Project Officer, I have to make sure everything is taken care of and fix any problems that arise. With over 200 hundred people going, it's a big daunting of a tasks, but I'm confident it'll go well.

So the best thing about Alaska is that I'll be off the ROK for almost 2 months. Admittedly, Fairbanks, Alaska in September-October time frame is not the best, I won't be here in Korea!!! Not that Korea sucks that bad; it'll just be nice to get out of here and be surrounded by American people again and have the luxuries of Target, movie theatres, and American food joints. It's going to be pretty cold up there. Expected highs in the low 30's and low's around 5-15 degrees so that will keep us bundled up. On the flip side though, the jets will fly very well in that nice, oxygen molecule thick air! I'm pretty excited about the training we'll get up there.

As for Rachel, some of you will get to see her. She'll be home for nearly 7 weeks with a primary destination of Phoenix and a possible trip to Kansas City. She'll know more about that than I do. When she gets back to Korea in early November, we're going to China the very next week, then the Holiday season and our trip to Thailand (possibly Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos). After that, it'll be the springtime and Rachel and I will be off to our next assignment.............exciting.

Ok that's it for now. Rachel and I are going to do some shopping today, book our China trip, research the Thailand trip, and just run around and do stuff today. We are excited about our upcoming trip to Busan, Korea for Labor Day weekend. We are staying at a nice hotel right on Hyundai Beach. Expect many pictures!

Love you all!

Rick