11. September 2007 by Andy.

Well, it’s my turn, I think…

Wow, the 11^th…when someone mentioned it in my store, hard not remembering where one was when it happened…generating airplanes for “alert’ duty…

Yea, I heard the news about the nukes form my potentially new boss.  I couldn’t wait until I got home to read the MSNNBC version of it.  Wow, it was unbelievable!  I was floored…When I was teaching the CFIC candidates; I use to stress the importance of knowledge & following procedures.  I would try to get across to them that there is a general lack of knowledge that if they (the candidates) didn’t pay attention to the details, that someone was going to get killed.  I would even predict that within five years of our age group retiring, that there would be a major BUFF accident and that I hope they would prove me wrong.  But this?  Yea, it was coming I guess with all the short cuts and to check off the requirement for Nukes. 

Yea, Elwood, a bit peeved about the pilots over RN for promotions comment, but it was the truth then and we lived with it…but we RNs took it just as seriously.  Yep, SAC had it right but the fighter folks won the day and has been trying very hard to get rid of us dinosaurs.

On with other stuff…the job at 8^th is still on the horizon.  ACC released the PRF August 24^th with a due back August 30^th.  Everyone was hoping that a decision would be made last week since the start date is 19 September.  So we’ll see what happens.  In the meantime, there might be something with the WST too.  I’m working that angle as well.

So, in the meantime, our CVS store has moved lock stock & barrel into our new location…nothing like 70 hour weeks for 45 hr pay…O wait a second I feel like a Nav again in SAC, we did all the work and pilots got promoted! LoL

Kitchen 99.5% done, Heather has to paint the modeling & trim to call complete.  Having the house re-sided in vinyl versus aluminum. He-111 model still unfinished.

Reed, bought a Remington 11-87, camo version, for hunting this year.  I sold a few of my dad’s guns that I’ll never use plus the camper shell.  O’ my Canadian goose I shot in January was delivered last week…it’s a cross breed of a Canadian-lesser & a speckled belly

James, glad to hear the news about your dad…still praying

John; yep, 19 is too young to get married!  Told my daughter the same thing last year, no grands kids for awhile.  Also told her I’m not a pap-paw, pee-paw or what other southern name they come up with.  It’s Grandpa, Granddad, or Gramps.

DB & Doug; welcome.

Chuck; great articles love reading them even in the email version.

Until next time…cheers!

Andy

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11. September 2007 by Bob.

Hi BOB,           

Thanks for the updates and I wish everyone a wonderful week.  I do not have any exciting news like y’all.            

This will be short and I apologize now, as I have a ton of homework and research.            

If anyone knows where Walt Ledford, Lance King and Alan Parmeter are I would appreciate their email.            

I have volunteered to help pro se Veterans with their appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims.  I saw the request in a VFW Magazine.  I also am preparing a MOTION TO COMPEL in the same court vs. the VA, as I won a case there in July and the nice VA folks have ignored the Judges ORDER to expedite the actions.              

A sad point is the person who helped me go to Law School (Kevin Ross, Montgomery AMVETS) passed away this last weekend.  The Houston AMVETS folks were nice enough to call me today to let me know.  Kevin was a retired Chief that was a kind and nice person.  He saw past my blindness and later low vision (2 surgeries) to help me stay out of a VA home and fight for rehabilitation.

Hey I have found out how to be a political delegate, let me know if you are interested in serving at your state, and I will tell ya what I have been told.            

As far as the nukes, the CG for one should have been off a little bit, and I wondered how the appearance of the weapons differed.  We did not see the warhead, it was covered.  I was involved on one project that looked at those things and replacing the material with a conventional war head.  So for the aircrew, it should have been paperwork.  But for the guys loading and moving they have a problem.  If you hear who loses their jobs please let us know.            

Jim I pray your Dad continues to improve.  Oh your daughter’s school got a $11.5M remodeling contract awarded by Texas.  She will be gone by then.  For me the entire school is under renovation and parking is bad.  So with that being my major concern,. Life is good.  Thanks everyone for the updates, I really enjoy them. 

V/R,

Bob

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11. September 2007 by Doug.

Well I appreciate the invite to the group. I know I have been in touch on occasion with some of you through work addresses but I think this is real nice to see where everyone is. I am still up at Langley working for Lockheed Martin and running the BLUE FLAG Exercise program in A3J. I picked this up after working  from the TRSS up here my final 3 years before retirement. It is good steady work but I am still in the military in many ways and feel a need sometime to be free of things and move on.    Nancy and the kids are still up here with me. Two have fallen out of the nest on their own and I still have a ten year old. We will be the oldest parents when she graduates from high school. I sometime may get to go back to Barksdale this year and will let you guys know if I do. This place is still crazy (housing market wise) and we have not been able to settle on a home yet. I know California has us beat but the sticker shock of moving from KBAD up here still smarts alot. I run into alot of old head bomber guys up here and will pass them on to you when I do.

    As for the remeberance of 911 I remember many of us were sitting on the ramp up at Minot will full loads on board. Remember the joy of gettig to still real BR alert while the Minotians got to go home. I remeber finally getting to be realeased from the Alert shack and going on base to get some hot wings. What  a fun ten days.

    No news fromm the fallout of the missile issue. We here at the all consuming command have heard of no other heads coming off. I do know that COMACC went up to Minot the other day. Not sure why. If I get word I’ll pass along.

Doug

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11. September 2007 by Elwood.

Guess I’ll be the first to tell you, John—ACM can only go on a pylon, won’t fit on a CSRL in the bomb bay.

And welcome to the soap opera “Marriages of the Young.”  I would say young and stupid, but I’ve had leading roles in that soap opera twice and don’t want to cast myself in that role anymore.  Cheer up, he’s smart enough to pick your daughter.

And DB, I can just about guarantee it was target-arms, Minot always used a pair of RN patch wearers for weapons preflights, call sign “Ogre”, short for OG.  Blame will be spread around, but I’m sure there is plenty of blame to cover the toast.

James, that’s great news about your father, hope the rebound keeps going.  As far as double wing commander jobs, it’s usually because they are too young for BG by the time their initial command job is up, and it’s tough to work them into staff when they are coming off the wing king job, so they give them the same job at top wings until they are in synch with their year group for general-ship.

Cheers to all (man, it’s great hearing from everyone!)

Jim

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11. September 2007 by James.

Hello BOB,
 
Welcome Doug Barnard!  Doug was my aircraft commander for awhile at Castle and I still recall that the instructors had a great time and the students received great training.  Being in SAC didn’t have to be hard!
 
Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers concerning my father.  They really do help.
 
Chuck, I fully expect to see you on CNN/FOX/CBS/NBC/ABC discussing military issues soon.  Why not?  Your opinion is at least as good as anyone else’s on the news shows.  The

Minot nuke thing is perplexing.  I don’t have a lot of sympathy after being the PRP monitor.  Just dealing with the paperwork of people’s temporary medical suspensions kept me hopping for at least an hour a day.  I can’t imagine the inattention to detail involved in sending warheads without authorization.  John, you must be the busiest retired person around.  With your 100 mile commute, new house, new wife, new school year and personal trainer jobs, you definitely exceed the retiree limits.  AARP will not be happy:)  Congratulations?! on your daughter’s wedding.  I hope great things happen for them.  Andy, is the 8th AF job you are interested in connected to the IW command being fought over by Texas, California and Louisiana?  Jim, researching your family history must be fascinating.  Meeting your distant, unknown relative at the library is incredible.  I agree with your comment on the white top in front of the alert aircraft to make sure everything goes okay.  My brigade commander when I was an ALO who is now LTG Whitcomb used to say that if a commander wants his vehicles to work properly, he has to spend some time at the motor pool.  Bob, if I ever need an attorney, I’d hire you!  Britt, that’s interesting about the Kentucky white squirrels.  I wonder if one of them crossed the border into Ohio and migrated to my mother in laws house.  I imagine the F-35 pilots you train are pretty happy about flying a brand new plane.  Reed, I had to wince while reading about your snow shoveling back injury.  Good luck on the Edwards job.  I remember Tom Jones from another one of his Diego deployments in 2003.  Doug, sounds like you’ve had a great time since retirement!  Congratulations on making it to Europe finally. 
 
Does anyone know if Stan Buelt, Tom Tighe or Eric Johnson ever made it to the airlines?  Any news on them at all?   I just found out that Col John Robinson is CV at Whiteman.  I know that Lance King is looking at a job in Germany too.
 
I’m going to the Whiteman change of command on 14 Sep to see my friend, Gary Harencak, take command from Greg Biscone.  John and Melvin, I’ll say hello for you!  Anybody know why Whiteman is a place where guys who have been successful wing commanders at other bomber bases get another wing command?  It’s obviously considered a step up, but I really don’t know why.  I’m not being sarcastic, just wondering.
 
Lynn and I went to Mike Geasley’s daughter’s wedding (Mike was a friend of mine from Blytheville) in Pensacola on the beach.  I was skeptical of a beach wedding, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Everyone was so laid back and the setting was beautiful.  We also visited the Naval Museum at the NAS and enjoyed it very much.  Even my daughter liked the museum which is very unusual.  My favorite plane was the Corsair - just a beautiful aircraft.  They also had a model of a Breguet XIV B2 with a 96 BS patch on it.  The 96th Daylight Bombing Squadron flew them in World War I.
 
My father has recovered from his urinary tract infection which is a real killer for geriatrics and he actually seems a bit stronger than he was before.  Unfortunately, he just lays in bed now and only responds to questions occasionally.  Some days are better than others, though.  For example when I saw him today and asked how he was, he said, “Okay, son.”  Doesn’t sound like much, but his response showed that he knew how he felt and he at least knew that I was one of his sons.   
 
It’s time to start ramping up for the Tybee (Savannah Beach) Half Marathon in February.  I usually only run 3 miles at a time, but I’ll start adding a mile a week to the daily run.  If anyone is interested in joining in on the half marathon, let me know.
 
Our move to the new apartment is now 2 October.  We’ve had our stuff boxed up for over a month now in preparation, so we’re more than ready to get the move over with.
 
I finished Bruce Catton’s, “Reflections on the Civil War.”  I liked his style so much that I’m reading his “Stillness at Appomattox” now.  I’d like to eventually read the entire Army of the Potomac trilogy (Mr. Lincoln’s War, Glory Road, Stillness at Appomattox).
 
I’ve included a few pictures of our Pensacola trip.  Talk to everyone next month.
 
James

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11. September 2007 by Johnboy.

Hey Guys, Man it is great to hear from all of you. Almost like being back in SAC in the gunner’s lounge shootin’ the shit on Friday. Of course I was also stunned at the happenings at Minot. Who on the world did the weapons preflight for the crew (I imagine weapons were on a CSRL) and signed off the forms?  My wife called me from LA and told me about it and I just couldn’t believe it. I remember when I retired the message was it was more importatnt to know tactics than your airplane and weapons and how they all worked. NUKE was just another checkmark and not a pirmary mission. Guys would show up for CFIC and not know the operating limitations of the aircraft or equipment. It was pathetic, and now that CFIC has practically gone away, I can only imagine how unprepared some of the folks are. I just hope we don’t have a significant accident with loss of lives one day attributed to lack of knowledge.

 On the brighter side, we are closing on our house finally next week.  Getting kinda tired of living in a dinky 1 bedroom apartment for the last year. You guys all know that if you ever come to Charleston you have a place to stay and beer to drink!

 My Daughter got married on August 24.  Kinda pissed because she didn’t tell me but a week prior and she and her new husband are only 19! What is she thinking? At least they are both working and going to school full time, but it still worries me!! I told her I am too young to be a grandfather, so don’t even think about it!! I have attached a picture so you can have a few laughs. Ok fellas, time to finish lesson plans! Have a great day and looking forward to hearing from all of ya next month!! JB

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11. September 2007 by DB.

Howdy all

Since this is my first monthly update, I guess I should give you all a quick recap of where I’ve been since I left KBAD.  Marcia and I flew out to Anchorage a couple of days after my retirement ceremony.  I was expecting to spend the entire winter being a ski bum.  I did manage to get a couple of days of cross-country skiing in, but then a pineapple express came roaring in and melted all the snow.  From Jan 03 until spring it did nothing but rain, which made Anchorage a very dark and depressing place (in fact Shreveport was cooler than Anchorage that winter).  We did manage a 10 day visit to New Zealand in March 03, and that is one place that I would recommend everyone visiting at least once (the natives are friendly and the environment is pristine).
In May 03 we relocated to Ramstein, Germany (Marcia took the job as the Civilian Personnel Officer for the wing).  I spent most of my time at the wood skills shop building tables, adirondak chairs, and rockers.  And I did a lot of skiing during the winters.  I joined one of the local ski clubs and got to ski Austria, France, Switzerland, and Italy (funny though, I didn’t make it to one slope in Germany).  Also did a lot of traveling around Europe.  The best discount airline, Ryan Air, flew out of the old fighter base at Hahn and we could get to most major European cities from that location.  I guess our best deal was flying to Vienna for one Euro cent per ticket each way (of course, there were taxes added on but the total ticket price was less than $30).  All in all I had a great time in Europe, I think that it’s kind of humorous that I tried all my military career to get over to Europe and was never successful, but then I retire and within 6 months there I am in Germany.
Relocated back to the states in May 06.  We probably would have spent an additional two years over there, but we had to move from our first house in Jan 05 (nasty divorce of our landlords — German law required that we move when the landlord requested the house back even though we were on a lease) and we ended up moving to a remote village that was so small that it didn’t even have a bakery in it (moving in the winter sucks because there’s no housing available–all the GIs move during the summer).  The commute to the base was at least 30 minutes which was about 25 minutes longer than the commute from our first house.

Marcia was assigned to the Air Staff in the A-1 directorate, but left the Air Force in Oct 06 to become the Assistant Director for Personnel Services for the Washington Headquarters Service (the HR people for the Secretary of Defense).   Notice that I haven’t once mentioned work for myself.  Right now I’m still not working, or I should say, I’m still retired.  I was asked to fill one of the rated officer staff positions at USAFE, but declined because I was having too much fun skiing and traveling.  Things may change in the near future; the cost of living in the DC area is still steep and

Virginia likes to tax everything to the max.

I also was stunned to see the article in the Post concerning the latest AF gaff.  My neighbor retired from the Department of Energy (a Senior Executive Service  - BG equivelent) and asked some pointed questions on how that mistake could happen.  It’s going to be interesting to see the in-fighting between STRATCOM and ACC on who is at fault and where the training shortfall occurred.  I can see the Wg/CC, the OG and the MX commanders at both locations getting the axe, along with the responsible Ops Sq/CC (MMS/CC is already mort).  Chuck is right when he stated that in SAC we all were expected to be experts in the weapons, tactics, and procedures.  It parallels what Chesty Puller said about leadership, no six month academic school will replace the experience of being in the field with the troops.  What are the odds that the AC and/or the RN were target arms?

Well I guess that’s about it from this end of the world.  Take care and keep in touch

Later

DB

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11. September 2007 by The Chuck.

Once the fingers start pointing, the Air Force is in for a reorganization of epic proportion 

Back in SAC, when a wing failed an ORI, the commander was fired.  Even though everyone knew that a wing could bust an ORI for a lot of things that were probably beyond the immediate control of the wing commander, it was certain that the commander was gone when the wing failed, for three reasons.

First of all, if you ever do it, nuclear warfare will be the most serious thing you ever do.  Do it wrong, and you may kill multitudes that don’t need to die, or worse yet, you’ll leave the wrong people alive, who in-turn, will kill multitudes that don’t need to die.  That’s serious stuff.

The second reason for firing a commander is that the blame was easy to assign.  The commander at any level is the reason the commanders below him have their jobs.  If he didn’t have confidence in them, he’d replace them.  So at the very least, the commander displayed incompetence by trusting the wrong people to handle things for him.

Finally, replacing a commander is the best way to flush any system.  When a new wing commander came to power, he was certain to clean out any of the subordinate commanders who had not lived up to the trust of their previous commander.  Self-preservation is a powerful instinct.  Another ORI was certain to come over the horizon after he had been given adequate time to rebuild his organization.

During my last few years in the Air Force, many of the aviators who grew up in SAC were often dismissed as dinosaurs of a by-gone era.  The new bomber aviators were assimilated into a near-clone of the system that the fighter community was comfortable with.  They referred to SAC as the “S-Command” and were bold enough to say they didn’t want to hear stories about the water-wagons we used to fly or the alerts we used to pull.  The mantra was, “the only thing you need to know about the N-mission, is that it’s easy.”  And we learned to silently accept nearly blasphemous statements like, “We’re sick of hearing how it used to be done.”  Or even the occasionally slam, “We didn’t really know much in those days.  We’re much smarter now.”  And one of the surest ways to get them riled up was to say, “Back in SAC . . .”

Well, let me reminisce for a moment. 

In days of old, when SAC was bold, and nothing was more important than the status of your weapons; we verified the numbers and settings and checked them every day.  We were good at it.  And we took it seriously.  It wasn’t a secondary mission.  We didn’t need a small group of certified experts to tell us how to use them or to count them for us.  We were all experts in our weapons, tactics, and procedures, and our commanders expected nothing less than that.

Unless we find a criminal very close to the crime scene, how can we stop the blame from marching right up the chain of command, through the wing, the numbered air force, the major command and even higher when we lose a load of nuclear weapons?

Before the Air Force starts figuratively lobbing the heads off of commanders, who are operating in a system they were force-fed since the dissolution of SAC, we need to take a serious look at why we changed just about everything we used to do.  Maybe we’re not so much smarter now.  Maybe the dinosaurs weren’t so dumb, and maybe they had some of it right. 

It just makes sense.

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11. September 2007 by Mel.

Greetings all! It’s been a few months since I’ve posted, but I have read yours–good reading. My retirement date was 31 Jul: 23 yrs, 0 mos, 0 days. I went on terminal leave on 18 May. Had my retirement ceremony on Mon, 11 Jun; Kelvin’s ceremony was Fri, 15 Jun–I got to roast him! My plans for a whirlwind trip to Kelvin’s in Albuquerque and then to N.C. for a few weeks came to a big halt. Terri broke her wrist the previous Saturday (she refused to use the handrail on the stairs) and I found out the morning of my ceremony that she was sched for surgery the next day (when we were supposed to leaving). Anyway…surgery went ok, Kelvin’s ceremony went ok, and we spent the rest of terminal leave here in NE.

Terri is now in an adult day care program; taxi picks her up at 0730 and drops her home around 1620 or so. It’s all out of pocket until her Long Term Care Insurance kicks in. It’s a big relief not worrying all day long–the best relief since Dec 1991: almost 16 long years! On a positive note, I got a job offer just a few days into terminal leave. Company is Management Technology (ManTech). Kelvin works for Camber; I call him Caster, he calls me ManChild. Did I mention that I work in J7 (Exercises and Training) about 4 cubicles from where I sat while active? Anyway, started work on 6 Aug, and it’s been ok. I’m doing computer/network Information Assurance. Good job, good folks. The kids are doing ok. Taleisha is in grad school (Psychology), Randall is a junior at UNO (Business) and on his own,
Victoria is a senior at Bellevue West HS (specific college is TBD).

As for me, I’m ok. Just finished installing a sprinkler system: parts, mostly from eBay, less than $1K. Labor: priceless! About a $2K savings. Suggest you invite at least 2 friends to the party.Bomber incident: Doug E. Doug: we were on the same crew at

Minot on Sep 11. Anyway, for us here at STRATCOM: if we get a query, refer it to STRATCOM PA. I looked at the articles and almost laughed. Exercises at KBAD were a joke–a scary joke. CCP was essentially “critiqued to 100%.” The nuke mission wasn’t even secondary–it was more or less a hobby. Well, I guess that folks will now pay attention. Wonder if they will hold leadership accountable, or will they not want to disrupt any Academy grad careers?Let’s see: we tried to bomb the Kannapolis Resevoir dam, and now we can’t do a decent weapons preflight. Hmmm…. Mel

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11. September 2007 by Elwood.

All quiet on the southern front.  Still hot and dry, had some thunderstorms, but nowhere near enough rain.  Still taking care of the little old ladies in my family, but at least everyone is healthy.  Took a weekend trip up to Michigan to see the oldest of my two younger brothers, nice relief from the 90’s and 100’s, only in the 80’s and clear skies, no haze.  Doing well and enjoying the single life, like me.  My youngest brother, who is approaching retirement from the Air Force after a 20 year career as a crew chief and flight engineer, is looking hard for a new career and working on a master’s degree in Business Administration.  He’ll retire as a Tech Sergeant, such is the life of enlisted aircrew.  He knew that if he stayed as a crew chief, he’d get promoted more, but he wanted more travel and excitement in his life, and boy did he get it.  At one point, a couple of years ago, he had the most days TDY for his KC-10 squadron than anyone else, and that’s pretty hard to do for an AMC squadron.  If my memory serves me right, he had 421 days TDY over a two year period—and this was during the time when they were suppose to limit TDY’s to less than 400 days over a two year period.  He’s just gotten tired of the enlisted harassment program (similar to the old aircrew harassment program we used to experience on alert.)  The morning after he submitted his retirement application (done over the Internet these days), he was called into his commander’s office and asked why he didn’t tell them he was going to submit retirement papers—no question of why he was retiring, what he was going to do, or any sources of disaffection. I hate commanders like that.  His experience was obviously different than mine, an enlisted guy versus an officer, but he’s going to have a great future in any event.  He’s already had inquiries stimulated by his resume from companies like Norfolk Southern and US Airways about his experience in logistics movements and training (he’s a KC-10 flight engineer FTU instructor at McGuire AFB.) 

Our family research into our genealogy has traced our ancestry back to 1792, to Joseph Blackwood who died that year in what was then called the 96 District, of which Spartanburg County was a part.  He was my great-great-great-great-great grandfather (8 generations, 10 if you include my son and grandson.)  I’ve also been doing a lot of reading about the history of Spartanburg and South Carolina.  No historical figures stand out except the SC governor, I. C. Blackwood (a great-great uncle), during the Great Depression. 

Chuck, I like your article (actually, I like all your articles).  I remember that the aircraft commander was responsible for everything that happened on the aircraft, and we knew that as we got higher in rank and responsibility, we were going to be held accountable for everything under us, and we accepted that.  We didn’t like it, but it kept us on our toes.  That’s why pilots got promoted in SAC (oh, that’s going to piss off the nav’s), our willingness to accept the responsibility and respond properly to it.  I made mistakes, but the chain seemed to always pick up whether it was an error in my training or an attempt to break the rules and disciplined accordingly.  I’m hoping that Gen Raaberg has that good sense—I knew him at JSTPS when he was a Lt Col and I was a Major, and he always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders.  Does anyone know if it was a Barksdale aircrew or Minot aircrew that flew with the weapons?  I know it was Minot who prepped the weapons and loaded them, but then I think of the chain of events and where the error could have been detected and stopped.  The missile prep crew made the big mistake, not properly preparing the missiles for transport, but none of the commanders and supervisors along the way were asking the right questions, or any questions.  I was never surprised to see a white-top car in front of my aircraft during an alert swap-over.  We’d scoff that they were covering their a**, but we made sure we dotted the i’s and cross the t’s.  It was the right thing to do—you can trust your people, but you still need to get out of the office and check things yourself, whether you’re a colonel or a MSgt.

Pontification over, peace out, as Reed says…

Elwood

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11. September 2007 by The Chuck.

All, Reed beat me to the punch this month.  I was up early this morning, writing on other things.  I’ve got an idea for a website . . . hopefully I’ll be sharing it soon.  

Hot days, with occassional heavy rains here in LA . . . or is that La?  Does it ever rain in Palmdale? Good luck with the job, Reed. This is certainly an infamous day.

I know we could all talk in detail about where we 6-years ago.

I had hoped to have some good news to share with everyone about a position I thought I was going to have.  However, there have been some interesting twists to the plot, so I’m still in a wait-and-see posture. If nothing else, I was mistaken enough following a telecom with some HR folks that I offered in my resignation with the local company I was working with.  I went from in a rush to get the house ready to sell, sell it, and move to, “oh, uh oh, well, hmm, okay.” Still, the house still needs the work, so I scrapped old gout with a neat little triangle tool and then applied new gout in the master shower.   I’m looking forward (ugh) to doing something with the floors in both bathrooms, maybe tile, very soon.  If I don’t have stroke doing that, things have to get better. 

Also in the line of handyman stuff, I made some beds for my grandsons.  That was a cool project.   It was an early birthday present, I had thought (for a minute) I wouldn’t be in town for their birthday.  Can you believe they’re going to be two on 7 October?

I’ve written a newspaper article that was inspired by the lost nukes.  I’ve having some trepidation about submitting it.   There are people still in the system that might get inconvenienced.  Of course, not as much as the rest of us would be if some bad guys get a nuke the easy way.   Sometimes when I share an article before I submit it, it gets jinxed, and they don’t publish it.  I’m not superstitious, so I’ll just toss some salt over my shoulder and paste it here for your comments about whether it is too mean or out of line. 

Oh yeah, I collected another rejection slip for my novel . . . 

Take care, and never forget the 11th.

The  Chuck

(I’ve edited my draft article and posted it in the proper category)

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11. September 2007 by Ponch.

ALl,

Another September 11th. a good backdrop for our Band Of Brothers e-mail chain. I have been giving allot of thought to our past adventures together as I prepared for a job interview out at Edwards AFB.  It’s tough to try and condense the experience you gain from the life style we lived for those short years as military aviators. The more people I meet day to day and have conversations with both professional and casual, the more I realize how much we did that was beyond the ordinary. Also it amazing to see how small the world is and that the good people we worked with and around the various bases and places have left lasting impact on all they touched.  I say this as part of the interview process I got to ride in a pickup on Edwards main runway with a young active duty Major.  We got to talking and we discovered that we had both been on Diego Garcia at the same time.  He was there with LTC Tom Jones as part of a Cobra Ball deployment.  Many of you remember Tom from Castle AFB.  He relayed that he and Tom had stayed in touch and that Tom had retired and was now a minister. Yes Tom was and is good people, like you’ all. Things in Lancaster are cooling off after our two weeks of scorching heat wave.  I can’t complain as that’s about all the hot weather we have had this summer, despite all the global warming rhetoric.  We spent the worst of the days on the coast at the beach near my parents house, and Andy …no the bathroom is still not completed yet.  We made the mistake of ordering cabinets from Home Depot.  That was over a month ago…still waiting. I guess all the bad press they have had on the TV is warranted.  By now most of you have heard the news about the cruise missiles that got shipped on a Buff from Minot to KBAD, with nukes added as an exciting extra bonus.  I’m still completely floored by this.  I work with Buea Forgier, former KBAD and WAFB crew chief.  Neither one of us can fathom the number of mistakes it would take to inadvertently load a bomber with real nukes.   It’s something right out a Hollywood movie (James Bond, Thunder ball I think).  Parker W Northup III is the Ops group commander as well as Greg Bell as vice wing.  Those of you that have contacts involved let us know the fallout from this mess.  Parker is good people and I hope he doesn’t get splattered.  Bell…on the other hand… well Andy and I have similar views on that subject.  Chuck and Andy how is the summer there in Shreveport?  Sounds like you been gett’n hit with allot of rain.  Has it flooded again?  Andy, should make for a great Duck season this year. Well its late and I gotta get a report out.  Been on the night shift for a few weeks.  Guy I replaced is out sick with hepatitis.  I’ll let you know about the job thing next month.  If thing go right there will be a job opening here at Palmdale for a B-2 TD and I will get to go back to doing what I love most in the world.

Peace Out! Till next month. 

Ponch

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