1. March 2008 by Johnboy.

Man Time goes by and before you know it the month is gone!! I think that since I have gotten older time has certainly passed at a faster rate!

Sherry came to visit for a week an dthat was great! I will be able to see more of her this semester with spring break and summer coming up. I am applying to a school much clser to home.  Right now my commute is 4 hours every day.  This school is virtually around the corner, Wando High school.  The Senior Aerospace Science Instructor is retiring.  I am one of 6 being considered and my first interview is Wednesday 5 Mar.  You never know unless you try! If I don’t get it, it just means something better is in store in the future!

I was pretty amazed about the B-2 crash.  Pretty much right after lift-off it seems. Incredible for a plane that can virtually compensate for most problems all by itself! Hopefully it wasn’t caused by a MX mistake or something like that.  

I have to say I miss flying the old BUFF.  If you get the chance , buy the book “BUFF”.  it is really good and you can identify with everything that happens in it. It is a Vietnam era story, but it applies even during the conflicts we were involved in flying the B-52.  The same issues, bitches and complaints haven’t changed!!

Have a great couple of weeks guys and it is always great to hear from all of you!

Cheers

Johnboy

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3. January 2008 by Johnboy.

I am finally back in business and able to log in! Here is the e-mail I sent yesterday.

Hey Guys,

sorry for the silence! Have beeen trying to log into the blog and for some reason it won’t let me. Chuck has been great in resetting my password all the time, but who knows why it doesn’t like me!

Anyway, I actually got to see Sherry for quite a bit this past holiday. She was down in Jacksonville and Atlanta for work so I took some time off and spent it with her. Had to do a few commutes from Jacksonville to work (leaving around 3 in the AM) when I couldn’t take the time off, but it was worth it. She will be be back here in a few weeks so that will be great.

Mom came to SC for Christmas and New year’s and we had a great time. She looked for condos to buy or rent and will move here sometime next year. It will be nice to have her nearby again. Maybe our famly will be in one place finally!

The house is coming along pretty well and we are decorating slowly, piece by piece. Too damn expensive to do all at once!! I did get the Flat screen in place and an air hockey table, so at least the neighbors and I can have beer and have some fun.  Eventually we are going to make the game room a bar with all the accessories, but that will have to wait a few months!

Looking forward to going back to work tomnorrow. Being off is fine, but it is easy to get lazy! The new semester starts next week sometime, so we get a whole new batch of cadets.  Should be interesting as usual!

Glad Ted and Steve have become part of the group. You can never have enough great guys. We used to have such fun in CFIC!!

Alright my friends, have a great New year and hope to hear from you when you get a chance!!

JB

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29. November 2007 by Johnboy.

Hey guys, soory for not writing earlier, but the site would not let me in! But it is all squared away now! November has been eventful and great. School is out for Thanksgiving and X-mas holidays are around the corner, so that is somethinf to look forward to! I had a couple of medical issues but nothing big.  My fault , of course! I am training for the Myrtle Beach marathon in Feb. and was on a leisurely (not) 20 mile run with a buddy and around mile 13 started to feel bad.  Well I gutted it out and when I got home felt worse…nausea, rapid heart rate, etc.  Make a long story short, after a trip to the emergency room ($1200 dollars) I was just severly dehydrated. So word to the wise: drink plenty of fluids before you run for a long time!! My wife was pretty pissed at me (and worried since she was in shreveport) so now I have to drink 1 gallon of water a day or the boss will kick my ass!

We just had our first HQ AFOATS inspection and it went well. Just a few minor gliches in the area of logistics.  Ya gotta be a loggy, personnel weenie and finance geek to do a good job in AFROTC! They go through your books like a UCI and you better have your shit together! So I guess I have a job for another couple of years! Our sister school in Orangeburg didn’t do so well and tehy are on the verge of being shut down. The money is tight and there are plenty of schools out there wanting a unit!

It has been great reading all the comments about teh nuke issues.  I have been in contact with Tom Hestermann the current 20th /CC.  He used to be my co-pilot in the 62nd when I was in stan-eval.  Good guy.  We are haveing a partnership with his squadron so that when they deploy, our Cadets will send  the folks cards and CARE packages to help out.  We are doing teh wsame thing with Cadet Squadron 11 at the Air Force Academy. Hopefully it will make their lives a little better! 

Well guys, have a great rest of the week and I will be on board for next month!!

Cheers

JB

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12. October 2007 by Johnboy.

Howdy folks! great to see the posts so far.  I really like this Blog thing, even though I had a hard time figuring it out! I think I have the hang of it now!  Things here are moving right along. My cadets are improving slightly, some are great , some need a swift kick in the ass. It is pretty amazing how defiant kids can be nowadays. They like to test you to see how big your balls are. Fortunately, last time I checked, mine are pretty big, so so far I haven’t had to physically restrain anyone! I do keep any eye out for weapons and stuff like that, though! Most of the kids are good, it is just those few psychotic ones ya have to be worried about. You have heard about the Cleavland shooting, and that kid’s background.  Well we have so many kids like that here it isn’t funny.

On the home front things are progressing. We bought some new furniture which will complement the stuff we have in storage in SHV. Hopefully my wife will be transferred here early next year, so we can have everything in one place! I just bought another LCD Tv for the family room and I had the house prewired for sound during construction. So the guy came out yesterday to give me a quote for getting it all put together, and I almost choked on the price! I think I will do a room at a time and do it myself! I have time and nothing else to do!

My daughter is doing very well in school and working her ass off, so even though I hate that she took the plunge so early in life, she is working hard to improve herself and take care of her family. I’m proud of her and she will definitely know the value of hard work from now on. 

I think it islooking good as far as getting some part time personal training work at one of the local gyms. Although I commute over 4 hours a day to work, I think I can pull off a couple of hours at night a few times a week. Especially the weekends. At least I can get a free gym membership!

Have a great rest of the month guys and I really enjoy hearing from all of you! My new address is 1309 Osmond Rd, Mount Pleasant, SC, 29466.

Johnboy  

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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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13. August 2007 by Johnboy.

Hey fellas!  What’s up? Sorry for the delay but I was out of town and internet-less! It really is great getting to hear from all of you each month and stay in touch. I am currently in the office getting ready for school to start next week. We had color guard duty for the district assembly this morning and that went well, so we started the semester not looking bad in front of the board.
 
It is about  time Brit wrote something!! Ha ha, glad to hear you are working on such an interesting program and having a good time doing it.
Say hi to the kids for me. 
 
Didn’t get to go on any vacations this year since we are building a house and it is way too expensive! We close in a month so I get to not live ina 1 bedroom apartment anymore! I was able to see Sherry in the middle of last month and she is coming to visit on Sept 6. So we average about once a month. (just enough to punch landing currency).
 
I interviewed fro a job as a personal trainer and aerobics instructor strating in Sept. I will do it just a couple of days a week to make some beer money and keep fit. I teach a boot camp class here in Orangeburg, but I won’t be able to anymore after I move.
 
My daughter Erika is going to get married in two weeks.  No she hasn’t told me yet…..my ex let me know.  I thnk she is too scared. I think she is doing it  so her fiancee can get a green card and work. Who knows……she is going to have to grow up fast (she is 19). Daddy won’t be pulling her out of the fire anymore!!
 
Just bought a new Dodge Nitro. Decent car.  Kinda cheap inside, but rides nicely for my 100 mile commute each way to work starting in Sept. My fellow JROTC instructor will be carpooling so we can save gas money.  He lives close to charleston also.
 
Have you heard Norm Balchunas is the PAS at Alabama? Great job for an 06. he will have a blast.
 
Alright guys, hope the rest of the month goes well and James I hope you Dad continues to remain stable so you can spend some time together. Take care and will look forward to next month. 
 
 
Cheers
 
JohnBoy

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