My First Video

Here is a collection of some A-10 footage and pictures. I don't have 95% of my pictures here with me so there are many, many more I'd like to include that many of you are in. This is my first hack at it with the exception of a small video I made for the Squadron. Eventually, I'll get this all mastered and can create some really cool video's and slide show's for all to see.

Love Rick

Mt. McKinley

I got the good deal of doing a "tank check" flight the other day. When we cross over the Ocean, we have to carry these external fuel tanks that hold 4,000lbs of gas each. We fly with 2 of them on the airplane. Well, we don't fly with them very often (like once a year......if that) so when we do fly with them, we have to do these "tank check" flights to ensure the fuel is transferring from the tanks into the internal tanks and ultimately, the engine's. If it's not, you're in for a not very long flight out over the water......

So for my tank check flight, I decided to go and check out Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain peak in North America at 20,320 feet. It was an amazing experience to get to see the beauty and mystic of Earth's natural geographic phenomenon. The sun glare and clouds provided for such a beautiful backdrop. I was flying with the callsign of "Hawg 01" and when I checked in with Anchorage Center (a radar controlling agency) I told them my intention to fly over to Mt. McKinley and "check it out". His reply without missing a beat was "Hawg 01, go ahead and proceed at your own discretion. Enjoy the view that we'll never know." Then, as I was circling the mountain top, he came on again and said "Hawg 01, that's gotta be an amazing sight you're seeing right now." It was pretty cool to have the controller commenting during my tour.

Now, while it was amazing, it also was a little nerve-racking as well. Like I said, I was single-ship, (no wingman) and there I was up at 21,000 feet flying right over and around this huge, cold, icy and snowy mountain. The wind was howling up there and it made the ride a bit bumpy. I couldn't but help think to myself, "if I flame a motor out here or simply have to eject, I'm screwed!" First off, at that altitude, I'd have to manually open my parachute, no fun and probably unlikely because I'd likely be knocked unconscious from the ejection sequence. Secondly, I'd be stuck on a 20,000 foot mountain peak in -75 degree weather with 80kts of wind, not good for survival chances. Thirdly, I'd probably slip off the side of the mountain and hit the glaciers below, obviously, not fun either. Lastly, no helicopters can get that high, so I'd be stuck. Bottom line, it was just a little nerve-racking to know that if I had to get out of the jet, my chances of survival were slim. But, the chances of all that happening are extremely low, so I pressed on and enjoyed nature's treat.

Love Rick

When Do I Get to Go Home?

Well, I was supposed to be waking up in Rachel and I's bed over in Korea about now, but here I am, still sitting in Alaska waiting to get out of here. As of right now, it looks like late next week or perhaps even into the next week is when I might be returning back to Osan. So why the delays? Well, we have an A-10 that is broken. It needs parts that have to be sent in from Korea. We are waiting for those parts to get here. After they get here, it will take maintenance a day to fix the plane, then the next day, we fly it to "ops check" that the airplane is fixed. IF that goes well, then and only then will the unit called AOS (Air Operations Squadron) try to book us 2 air-to-air refueling tankers to drag us back across the Ocean. So we have 1 broken A-10, how come we are keeping another one here? It's simple: mutual support. Trust me, you don't want to be alone, crossing an Ocean for 11-12 hours in a single-seat fighter jet. It's a lonely world out there and if you have to divert, you want a wingman with you. Speaking of, we have 3 A-10's divert into Shemya Island (Eareckson Air Station) yesterday. This 8-square mile island in the Aleutian Chain is a isolated and desolate place. It's manned by about 100 contractor personnel for the exact reason of our divert. Needless to say, it's a lonely place, but an interesting experience for the 3 A-10 pilots that are there right now. If you're interested, look it up on Google and Google Earth.

Well, that's it for now. I'm stuck up here in Alaska until the jets get out. Who knows when that'll be. Heck, Rachel might end up beating me back home as she gets back to Korea on Nov 6. We'll see......

Love Rick

New Assignment!

I am so happy to report we have received our next assignment!  

As some of you may know, when the list of possible assignments was published, only the top 50% of pilots would even receive a flying assignment.Yikes! Obviously, it's very important that Rick remain flying in order to continue with our 'plan' not to mention his professional happiness.

The Good News - My wonderful husband landed a flying assignment at an Operational Squadron at Moody AFB.  (I never doubted he would be flying)  Our new home will be in Valdosta, Georgia!  Being an Operational Squadron means that he works in the same capacity that he has been, opposed to training new pilots.  It isn't common for a pilot to go to multiple Operational squadrons in a row, and I am very proud of this accomplishment.  Additionally, he will have to be trained on how to fly the newer model of A-10s that the have at Moody AFB, and he will be reporting to Tucson, Arizona by June 7th for that three week long class.  Right now, it looks like we will report to Moody June 30th.

Moody AFB boasts an interesting history, and is the only base where you can fly the A-10s that have the face on them.(Rick will love my technical terms).  See picture above.

Here are some links for additional information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody_Air_Force_Base

http://www.moody.af.mil/index.asp

The Bad News - There isn't any.  See above.

I will update the blog when we have more information on the details of that transition.  We are both very much looking forward to the next adventure!

Next Stop: Georgia

As Rachel pointed out, assignments have been released. All I'm going to say is that I'm very happy and honored to have been selected for another A-10 operational flying assignment. So what does "operational" mean? Operational is a term given to military flying units whose primary mission is to support National Command Authority taskings, objectives, and missions. Uh, yeah, ok got it..........so what does it really mean? It means that the unit is constantly ready and always prepared to deploy in "x" amount of time anywhere in the world in order to execute combat operations. In more basic terms, we go to war. So how does that differ from Korea? It doesn't; it's just that Korea is a strategic and political operation and the war over there likely won't ever happen again, but we must maintain a presence. So how would an assignment to Davis-Monthan or Spangdahlem in Germany have been any different? It "could" have been different, but only at Davis-Monthan. Davis-Monthan has the unique mission of training new A-10 pilots, but also has a real-world operational mission just like Moody and Spangdahlem. How do they do all that though? Well, they have 1 fighter squadron, the 354th Fighter Squadron, that their mission is to deploy and support command authority missions just like Moody. If I would have gotten selected for that assignment, I'd be going to a operational assignment as well, just at Davis-Monthan in Arizona as opposed to Georgia. However, if I would have gotten selected for the training unit (they have 2 squadrons that are strictly for training), I'd still be going to Davis-Monthan, just not to the deployable, operational squadron, so no deployments to the Middle-East area of operations. Well, that sounds like a good thing right? No. Rachel and I spoke at length about this very topic. Honestly, I don't really need to explain it to anyone except her. The bottom line is that she is 100% supportive of me going to a squadron that WILL deploy to combat zones around the world. It was a mutual decision with multiple variables considered. She understands the sense of duty I have and she knows that our nation requires the people she has come to know to go and simply get the job done for our troops on the ground.

So that's it. Pretty simple right? Probably not and I understand that. My Mom has been trying for years to fully grasp the weird world of military life. It really is an interesting life that has many, many things that those of you in the civilian world may never fully understand. All you really need to know is that we are very happy to be continuing on in the A-10 attack community. Rachel and I have developed life long friendships and relationships and we look forward to keeping those alive, and forging new ones in our new home in the Southeastern corner of the United States!

PS - Remember, the guy at the top could be our neighbor down there!

Sick In Alaska

As some of you may know, I've been sick up here in Alaska. This is no ordinary sickness; it has kept me bed-ridden for 3 days now and even has made me cancel flying. This is not ordinary for me as I typically only get sick about once every year and a half or so and when I do, it's usually gone in a day. Even though Mom and Rachel told me to go to the Dr. this weekend, I waited until today (Monday) to do so because "I just figured it'd go away like usual". Well, it certainly has not. The Dr. gave me some Sudafed, Afrin, and even an Inhaler! Funny thing is, the Afrin and Sudafed are strictly for de-congestion and that hasn't really been my problem. I have those wheezy lungs, you know the ones that sound like a gurgly noise. Yuck, I know, I'm sorry, but I have to paint the picture for you. My chest has been real tight and honestly, Bronchitis and Pneumonia have started creeping into my mind. The weather up here leads itself to a prime environment for this as it's mid 30's with constant drizzle and cold rain. For those that played sports growing up, it's like conditioning for basketball where the coach would make you run outside in that Midwest crappy fall weather, meanwhile you swear your chest is going to freeze shut since it's got that cold, sharp pain. That's what I've been dealing with up here. Nevertheless, I've finally got some medicines, I've gotten lots of sleep, and let's hope I knock this thing out in the near future.

Moving on, nothing much else has been happening up here. We are scheduled to leave on the 22 of October now. That's 2 days later than originally planned due to "tanker slip". What that means is that the two air refueling tankers that had been allocated to support our jet movement from Alaska back to Korea got re-tasked for other missions. This happens quite often, especially since we are not deploying to the combat theatres (Iraq/Afghanistan) and those movements get priority, rightly so. You'd probably all be surprised what all goes into getting 12 A-10's from one continent to another. It's quite an undertaking.

On that note, I'm going to check out for the night. Hopefully, I can go to work tomorrow to start getting back into the groove of things. Whenever you're trying to come back from sickness, it's always tough to get caught up. Not only is your body still recovering, but you're behind everything that has been going on while you were absent. I remember as a kid, I loved being sick and staying home from school. Not so much theses days.

Love Rick

Adding comments to the blog

My brother graciously offered some constructive criticism regarding the blog.  It seems  it was difficult for folks to add comments.  I have now updated the settings so anyone can leave a comment without needing to create any kind of account first.  I hope this encourages feedback as Rick and I would love to hear from you.  

I also hope my brother can sleep easier now.