half way....i think

Well, we have made it almost three months out here in the desert. Things are somewhat interesting when you are flying, but other than that there really isn't much else going on out here. I am getting plenty of working out done but even that is starting to get monotonous. On the off days we pretty much have to entertain ourselves. I should really be getting my SOS done, but I keep finding things that get in the way. On a positive (I think) note, I was accepted into grad school at Mississippi State. This is going to be an interesting couple of years as I try to balance out work with school and other commitments. I am extremely interested in most of the subjects that I am going to be studying. I am not looking forward to a few of them, but I am sure that i will learn some interesting things. I feel like this post is starting to ramble, but I guess this is how i fill my off time.

Good Times

The last couple of weeks have been pretty interesting. We are flying all over the place and carrying all kinds of people to different places. I am finally getting settled after we switched from nights to days. It was a pretty rough transition after spending so long on nights. I am really enjoying getting to fly as much as we are over here. It also feels good to finally be doing what I have been training to do instead of practicing at home. It really sucks being away from Rachael and all of my family back home but it really isn't that long of a time to be gone. This last week we flew the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders 3 times around the country. We got to know them pretty well. They were a nice change to be around and they were a lot of fun to hang out with on the airplane. We also got to fly several congressman back from their meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq. They were alright but they really only like to talk about politics. We also lgot to fly the guys from Bikes Over Baghdad. They are a group of BMXer's that come out and put on shows for the troops at different bases. I regret that we did not get to see their show, but we did get to have them up on the flight deck and spend some time talking to a few of them. Over all it has been an interesting few weeks and I hope it stays that way.

one week down

Well, to those of you that actually follow this thing, I have finished my first week on my first deployment. My crew and I have been flying about every other day, except when we have to go to stupid meetings about how to have a good deployment. We are doing lots of interesting stuff and some really boring things. All in all, it has been a pretty productive week. I am getting lots of working out in as we have a full 24 hours between flights most days. Hopefully Rachael is keeping up with me like she promised, but we will see. We spend a lot of time just sitting around reading when we aren't at the gym or flying. The food here is pretty much some of the worst food that I have come across. It is good enough to keep you alive but they can really butcher some of the simpler food (salad, burgers, french fries). Other than that, not much is going on. I will update again when I actually have something to say. Later folks!

In country

Well, i am finally out here in country and getting ready to fly my first mission. Things are going pretty well. Other than breaking my wedding ring on the first night here everything seems pretty normal. It is really hot here (as expected) but it still kind of hits you in the face every time that you walk out the door. We are laying around our room right now just resting up so that we can go out and start flying tonight. It should be a pretty plain Jane mission with not much going on. This will be good for me so that I can get used to the weird accents that all of the controllers have out here. I was pretty bad on the way in, but it worked out anyways.

I am living with my aircraft commander and our navigator in a room that is about the size of our second bedroom in little rock. It is pretty tight living but we have set things up the best we can. We have had some air conditioning issues since we got here but those may have finally been worked out by our mid night maintenance call.

That is really all that I can put on here for now.

Stuck in Canada

So I have officially left on my first deployment in the military. It was definitely one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. Things started out pretty well when we were able to get out of little rock on the first try. The seven hour flight to St John's Canada was pretty easy since it was all high level cruise. The IP on the plane was busy at the galley cooking up some brisket that he had been smoking for the trip. We had a gourmet meal at 21000 ft of brisket, corn, and rolls. It was a goof way to start a deployment. Once we got to St John's the FBO team had some cold beer waiting for us at the parking ramp. We got checked in to the hotel and then we went out and celebrated all that newfoundland had to offer. We were supposed to leave St john's late on saturday night but our managing agency at Scott gave us a 24 hour hold because the weather was so bad for departure. We should get to england on monday morning just in time to catch the royal hangover from "the wedding". After that we will see how the plane holds up and that will determine whether we press on or vacation at another locale before getting into the sandbox.

I hope that you all are doing very well.
Rick

Really Rangers? Really?

I don't really like to vent on this blog, but this is one thing that I am having a hard time understanding. The Texas Rangers are making what has to be one of the most pigheaded moves in the history of sports. I understand that the upper leadership of this team is probably just trying to make what they believe is the best team that money can buy, but that is not who the Rangers are or ever have been. You are not the NY Yankees, with their billions of dollars of salary and the financial situation to handle it. You reached the world series with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball (not counting Rodriguez) and now you think that you can pick up a bunch of high priced free agents that probably won't live up to their contracts. Michael Young is THE leader of your team. He has been pushed around, and under appreciated since he started playing here ten years ago. It is understandable that you want to go back to the World Series and win, but you don't start that campaign by disrespecting the most tenured player in your clubhouse. Sure, Beltre will probably do fine on the field, but Young contributed much more than just his time on the field. It was gracious of Young to accept the "super-utility" role with at bats at the DH position just because he wanted to stay with the franchise, but why sign Napoli who is probably (unless Moreland totally collapses in spring training) going to see most of the at bats in the DH position. This is very typical of the Rangers if you look at their history. You can almost count on them to take the most recognizable, respected, hard working player on the team (a la Sundberg and Pudge) and cut them loose because they think they can gain something by dropping their contract or picking up some other position players in the deal. If you look at the Rangers' history it is riddled with pitfalls after they make this kind of move. They gut the team from the inside out, and this time the fall will be monstrous because they actually have something to lose.

I will always be a Rangers fan, but it is times like these that make you want to stop liking the team. To me, this is very similar to J Jones taking over the cowboys and firing Tom Landry. Not quite the same, but it feels the same to the fans. I hope that they find a way to reconcile this feud that ends amicably for Young and the Rangers. Maybe they can get some much needed starting pitching out of the coming trade, or maybe he'll get to spring training and show them the mistake they were about to make. Either way something needs to happen fast, and personally I think it needs to involve a lot of apologies on the part of the Rangers' ownership/management team no matter what the outcome.

Off to North Carolina

Well, this is the beginning of what should be a good but stressful time for the next week or so. I am heading off tomorrow, Tuesday, to Pope AFB in North Carolina to work in the mission planning cell for a large exercise for mobility aircraft. It will be interesting because I have never done this kind of thing before but it will be very stressful with 12 hour days and no flying. I am debating on whether or not to take my bike. I don't think that I will, but it would be really nice to have it out there to get some rides in while the weather is nice. I am going to try to at least get some nice runs in while I am there and maybe even a couple of swims.

what she's doing now

I think that rachael might have entirely too much time on her hands these days. our new house is almost spotless and then she will go and completely destroy all of what she has cleaned, just so she can go and clean it again. it's madness, i swear. now she is posting entire rundowns of our family dinner menu just for the people on the internet to read.....way too much time. i think that she needs a hobby or a new job or something.

As for me, I am getting ready to deploy in may. I am actually ready to go just so that I can actually fly instead of sitting around begging to fly. Rachael is ready for me to go because I look like a little hurt puppy because I don't get to fly as much as I want to. The squadron is actually starting to get to be a little more fun now that the copilots have decided we want it to be that way.
I am also getting out on the bike a bit this january. I had one really cold ride, but I am looking forward to the nice 70 degree temps today. should be a good ride.