11. October 2007 by DB.

Howdy all

Time for the monthly update from Northern Virginia.  Not too much has happened in the last month.  We did run up to Westminster, MD to help our brother-in-law at the Maryland State Wine Festival.  By volunteering to help pour wine we got into the festival for free.  We’ve been helping out at various festivals since we returned from Germany.  Usually, I attract the lunatic fringe (”Do you have any wine that tastes like grape jelly?” or “Why is your dry wine tart, it doesn’t taste anything like my dandelion wine.”), but this time I got lucky.  Just poured lots of wine, although more and more of the customers tend to chug the sample. 

At the end of the month we took a week vacation and headed out to visit some friends of Marcia’s from Mt. Home. They are retired in Phoenix so we hopped on Southwest for a quick jaunt out there (anybody we know fly for Southwest?).  We also got to visit with some friends from Germany while we were there.  After a couple of days in Arizona we flew to Albuquerque, where we met my sister and her husband and then drove up to Santa Fe to see the rest of my family.  It was the first get together of all the sibs and my parents in quite awhile.  We had a great time in Santa Fe; we also were looking at the area because we’re considering it as a possible retirement spot once Marcia decides to retire.  After Santa Fe Marcia and I flew to Dallas to see my oldest daughter, her husband and their two children (that’s right, I’m a grandfather twice over).  We just did a patented Miller “Drive-by” visit (less than 24 hours), but I got to reconnect with Brandon (almost 3 years old) and met Ethan (1 year) for the first time.  Nice thing about being a grandfather was that I got to spin the kids up and then hand them back to their mother.

We flew back to Baltimore on Saturday and drove back to Virginia that night. 

Well those are my highlights for the month.  All is well in Northern Virginia.

I do have one question for you all though;  What happened in the 11th after I retired?  It seems like all the experienced field graders were moved out of the squadron or off base within six months after I departed.

Well take care everyone and keep in touch.

Later
DB

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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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