11. November 2008 by Ponch.

Howdy All

I am…of course… in a particular foul mood.  I think we all knew this was going to happen; and now we are faced with the reality.  So… I avoid watching much television and news paper reading, internet news ect ect. 

Still I keep reviewing over and over again in my mind and in my nightmares the notion that we “the Americans” are riding on the Titanic that just hit the mother of all ice burgs, in the middle of shark infested ice water….and most of the passengers are planning to attend the inauguration ball for the new captain.  Hell the ship stewards are all out crying “change is coming and the new captain wants everyone to start taking swimming lessons!”  The ships officers are all in meetings developing plans to sue the maker of the ice burg and the kitchen staff is holding contest on who can hold their breath the longest. Of course the ships finance officer is handing out dixie cups so we can start bailing when the water gets over the gunwales.  The captain has assured us that he has signaled the SS France, SS Russia, SS Cuba and SS Iran for advice on navigation.  They have all forwarded detailed plans for replacing the port holes with screen doors.  The ship’s news paper men are broadcasting that under the new administration everyone will be employed in new high paying jobs as whale watchers.  Hell you won’t even have to leave your birth to see the sea life. You will have your own port hole view!  Who needs internet porn when you can watch half naked mermaids!
As for me and my lot we have purchased our berths in the California section were the Cali nut-jobs have decided not to wait for the ice berg damage to sink the ship.  No they have listened to the NEA teachers section and have decided that Archimedes was wrong –because he was a bitter old white man — So they have started drilling holes in the boat hull (and each other) to let the water out.  As for the upper class berths, there will be no escape on the few life boats.  No the California groups have launched all the life boats with the livestock on board to provide more living space for the chickens, hogs and cows.  Besides all the San Francisco men have are already dressed as women and children…no not to escape on the boats…they are holding a protest rally on the promenade in drag, until the new captain marry’s them to each other. Down below in the third class berths all the poor assholes, after drinking the blue cool-aid, are trying to lift the boat and make it fly by pulling on their shoe strings chanting “yes we can”.    

 I can’t imagine having to tred 30 degree water for eight years. My only solace is being able to watch some of the idiots who voted for this
Moron drown first. 

Oh yeah Happy Vets Day!

Peace Out!

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14. October 2008 by Ponch.

Hi All,

Finally got some time to write a little for the BoB.  I have enjoyed Andy’s videos.  Probably too much as it reminds me of the hole in my heart left by not being able to fly the Buff anymore.  It always amazes me how few people really know what we did and how we did it - from the sacrifices we made to the absolute sheer fun and enjoyment we felt.   Gratz to Andy for getting a small part of the history out for folks to enjoy.  I was looking for my password for the Blog in old e-mail and a found an e-mail that I sent to Chuck back in 2006.  We had just moved to Southern California from Shreveport and the shock of what we found out here was in full force.  I did’nt realise that my rant about conditions locally and in the country in general would be so accurate.  Here is what I wrote Nov 2006: (”How are things in Shreveport?   We miss this time of year there when it finally gets cool. We sure miss the people there.  Britt made the same comment that California is full of some weird and bad people.  Nobody on our block talks to anyone else.  Hawaii was the same way.  They have made everything so competitive and restrictive and have given rights to the wrong people out here so that everyone looks at their neighbor with suspicion and hatred.  Just in our community (Palmdale/Lancaster) there are over 3000 section 8 homes. This makes owning a home a real crap shoot.  You can buy in a nice hood and have a piece of crap move in right beside you devaluing the whole area.  The homes are going for $400,000 to $800,000 for a place comparable to the place we left in Bossier.  These prices are extremely over valued as there is nothing….and I mean nothing! about the local area that is worth that much.  I truly believe the prices reflect a hidden wave of real-estate speculation that hit the nation over the past few years.  I also think that a huge correction is in order along with a real bad ass-whipping for the economy for supporting so much fraudulent speculation.  You can not believe what sells for one half million dollars here!  All sorts of people who should not have gotten loans have property that is way over their heads.  You can tell because there are scores of newer homes with absolutely no landscaping or improvements from the time they were bought.  I think when these people start going bankrupt –because they can’t flip the house and get out with a handful of cash — the economy will decline steeply. The fool banks are going to take a big hit — oops I mean the fool tax payers because the loans are federally insured. Oh well I guess the fool tax payers are going to take a beating from all sides again.  There is something about living in a democracy when the people figure out it’s easier to vote your neighbors money into their pockets instead of working for it.  I think the Greeks warned that this is what kills democracy.  We are right there now.”) 

Ouch!  I’m no Prophet for sure!!! Though it’s really gotta make you think that if a stupid Schlub like me could see this mess coming two years ago, what has that got to say about our country’s fearless leadership, both current and future wanabee’s. Alas being a “Casandra” is a punishment only the Gods can levey against a human. I have to watch TV with a time delay because anytime Obama or McCain show there lying mugs on the screen I have to fast forward past until Sara Palin is playing (now there is a a short skirt and a pair of legs you can vote for…Oei vegh!!).  Honestly..how did we get in this mess? Obama scares hell out of me as I see him as being the last great bomb thrown at our country by that hippy commy asshole Bill Ayers.  Then of course, to our rescue rides McCain and his campaign of middle of the road luke warm tapioca pudding for all….lord help us(:-O  Well enough about that stuff.  Still working on the telescope project.  I missed our completion date for the California State Star party.  The mirror vendor we contracted last January was unable to complete the project.  It was a gamble from the outset as we where investing in new technology that was supposed to help alleviate allot of the problems with large glass mirrors.  We had to fire that vendor and I contracted with a guy from Portland Oregon to make a more conventional mirror.  He quoted a delivery date of this October so we are still waiting on the optics for the scope. My son and I still attended the California Star Party and had a great time.  It was a week of perfect weather and grand viewing.  We slept next to our telescope on cots I rented from the base.  We had allot of fun abusing the hippies from San Francisco that sponsored the event. Most are from the silicon valley and are ubber rich so we could’nt lord too much over them.  We did hang a McCain Palin sign from our tent to offset the Obama bumber stickers and Toyota Prius’s parked around.

Till next time..

Ponch

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18. August 2008 by Ponch.

Chuck and all,

Yes the WIFF… as a said I flew the WIFF with Yuke Smaby.  Don’t remember the specifics of the maneuver other then the purpose of the demo was to show you that if the two aircraft and pilots were in sinc with each other and they both understood the aerodynamic interaction between the jets, that ”any” attitude could be achieved successfully in contact.  It was a confidence and teamwork maneuver. I remember that we did get just a bit past the 90 degree bank on one of the series of maneuvers.  The WIFF was a dynamic process, not just one big turn.  It was a series of lazy-chandelle type maneuvers (without the 180 degree turn reversal) that started out small and increased with each reversal until the target attitude was achieved –or sometimes exceeded—hence the name WIFF.  This concept was re-enforced on the subsequent CFIC MITO sortie where we had to do a 12 second MITO with the tanker and achieve a contact shortly after flaps up - below 2000 feet  - on the departure, then fly contact through the climbing turn on the CID.  Also I remember Yuke abusing me hard on the night sorties when we re-fueled and had to maintain contact thorough many turns, climbs and descents over and over again.  I remember never being so tired and wrung out post flight.  I also remember some harsh thoughts I had for my instructors every time the tanker turned and started climbing or descending.  At the time I didn’t understand the purpose of the pain…only that it was painful.  As on my last BoB this level of training and the detail involved was to prepare us for any mission and any situation in the future.

Mine came just three months after returning from CFIC.  We ended up in IRAQ short on gas and carrying a load of new weapons on converted cruise missile pylons… yes a WESP.  The drag was more then expected, hence that’s why we where short on the gas… big time….enough so we needed an extra refueling to make it to the post strike base.  We asked the AWACS and we got a snap vector to a group of tankers holding south of the border.  Well snap vector was not part of the SAC lexicon and neither was the anchor refueling that we where headed for.  I don’t think any one in SAC could spell anchor let alone fly it with the jets in the configuration we had.  Oh bye the way… did I mention it was at night and the tankers were orbiting right in the only cloud deck in this part of the world.  Well Andy and Bob worked their magic and got us close enough behind the tanker to make visual contact.  I can’t remember how many times we had to chase the tanker around the orbit with radar before we got close enough to see them.  I do remember that every time we made an orbit, chasing the tanker, the fuel gages got lower and lower.  We were already well below what we needed to get to the post strike.  When we finally got contact the vis in the clouds was to the point we could not afford a disconnect and pre-contact position.  We would not have been able to get back.  I remember a feeling of relief when the gas started pouring in to the tanks…until the crazy turns started as we went around and around.  It took every bit of concentration I had to stay connected.  Then out of the soup, an F-4 showed up on our wing in full afterburner yelling on guard to “GET THE BUFF OFF THE BOOM NOW!”

I guess he snap vectored to the biggest return he had on his radar…which was the two of us… with only fumes left.  We had enough gas to afford a little break but not enough to get were we needed to go.. so I backed off the boom.  No way could I afford to loose sight of the tanker and go through the blind man’s bluff rendezvous again…so I opted to slide to the right on the tanker wing then back off to the F-4’s wing position to wait our turn, again.  A few more turns in this formation and the F-4 took a disconnect, rolled inverted off the end of the boom, and disappeared into the night soup with not even a thank you.  We slid back into contact and started suckling again.  By this time I was exhausted.  We had already been airborne long enough to see the sun rise and set and it was already near sunrise again.  We discussed our low fuel state with the whole formation of tankers (we were a three ship with Russ Bennet and Gary Konnert on our wing) they agreed to drag us towards the post strike base while we were refueling.  I remember being filled with gratitude for the gesture and told them we owed our first borne or what ever they wanted.   

The whole point of the story is that we were prepared for this by the blood and sweat at CFIC.  The confidence and skills that it took to do what none of us had ever done before, under the most adverse scenario you can think of, was forged by the tough curriculum at CFIC.  This curriculum - including the WIFF - was the creation of men who had their turn in the meat grinder and understood the need for blood sweat and tears during training to forge aircrew who had the confidence and skills to do anything.

Cheers

Ponch

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27. July 2008 by Ponch.

  July has been typically hot, Gas prices are ridicules so We sit at home, watch way to much TV and sweat.  I have been busy in the garage on my Sisyphean quest to own a large dobsonian telescope.  The attached pics show the progress so far.

It’s been allot of fun, and stress relief, except for the dollar usage that keeps the wife agitated.  Oh well that’s hobbies.

I am sickened by the loss of the B-52 in Guam.  I knew Chris Cooper.  Met him at the 11th after he returned from an ALO tour.  I talked to him about his experiences as ALO and shared mine with him.  He had served in Iraq and Afghanistan on the ground and had some great stories and had contributed greatly to the effort there. He was a decent folk.  I had heard much before he came back about him from Bartels.  Seems that B2 had nothing but bad to say about him as a student.  I had heard that the 20th BS had problems with him and sent him to ALO as a co-pilot.  I don’t remember flying with him at the 11th and I don’t remember any bad reports on his performance or who his instructors where. But I suspect that if he was having trouble again , that the mess that the 11th turned into probably masked it.  Also I  suspect  that B2 wasn’t the right instructor for him.  He was B2’s only student as a Buff IP, and Brian spent most of his flying career in T-38’s .

Alas we all used to joke about how it was wise to sell your property under the flight path because of the upheaval in the training at Barksdale and the lack of attention to what was right and earned through years of trail, error and blood.  I don’t think we truly meant it though.  I enjoyed living under the traffic pattern and loved to watch the Buffs fly.

I believe that this accident, the nuke buffoonery the fratricide in Africa, the accidental bombing of the dam ect. ect. are all related to the same problem.  Some how, some where the focus of leadership turned from getting the job done to getting promoted.  Oh I guess there were always people who thought that there personnel glory was more important than service to your country and to the pride of being the best aviators on the planet. However the ones who did serve always outnumbered the goons and were able to overcome the stupidity.

How many of us experienced ORI’s were the stupidity would get so bad everyone was sure that a bust was imminent.  Then the ‘crew dogs” would get an chance to do what they did best…fly. Then all was good and the celebration was on. The physics of flying is pure…you get it right or you get dead.  You can’t bulls**t your way past the laws of nature.  That is part of why we as a group (aviators) were so harsh an had the sharpest criticism for those who tried to be part of us and didn’t have the skills.  In times of stupidity the crew dog was always the one who straightened it out and made it work.

Who was it that tried to explain this in one of the stupid meetings at the 11th?  Can’t remember his name only his face.  He stood up in the meeting and declared “ You can’t feed me a s**t sandwich and then accuse me of having bad breath!”   He also relayed a story about how they got a screwed up mission to Diego,  to attack Iraq.  He relayed that everything about the plan and the leadership was bad.  But because of the training and the fortitude of the Buff crew concept that the crew dogs made it work spectacularly. Of course what he was speaking out against was the willful destruction of the crew concept by those who felt they knew better then the thousands that came before.

There were others who spoke out too…Jim Blackwood, John-boy most notably.    Alas this we have all vented about before to no avail… now the damage is done.  Well more to come on this subject as the accident report comes out.

Cheers

Ponch

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25. June 2008 by Ponch.

All,

Sorry for the late BoB entry.  It’s been pretty busy here with the log jam of aircraft that needed to be fixed and pushed out the gate after the crash standown.   Now that the news is out, Yes it was an pitot tube problem, except the B-2 doesn’t have pitot tubes like a normal jet.  It has a weird collection of flat air data panels with small holes that work something like a pitot tube.  Because the jet is all electric and -robot like- the data from the air data tells the computers which way is up down, left right and (where the mother ship is!-).  Neglecting to remove the water from the holes before a baseline reset is preformed is probably a bad thing, all things considered and 1.3 billion dollars later. But what are ya gonna do…I guess fire the Chief and the Secretary is a start.  Mmmm let me splain…no too long…let me sum up.  Three B-1’s one B-2 and half a B-52 raydome some lost nukes and misdirected nuke parts….ect ect;  yup time for some new leadership. 

On another less happy note…time for the weird and strange in “your’s truly” battle with the fickle finger of fate. God really hates me I guess.  Today I got an e-mail from…not my boss…but my Boss’s Boss, the head of the whole unit out here.  Seems he was laid up in New York city at the airport when he should meet and enjoin in casual conversation with another traveler.  Of course he mentioned he is the director for the B-2 bomber Mx facility at Palmdale CA.  The would be traveler then related that “he” used to fly B-52’s.  Where upon the “Director” stated that he knows a B-52 pilot (former) who works for him.  Names passed back and forth and who do you think was the former B-52 traveler…none other the former Captain Mark Casady!!!!! Yes the same Mark Casady that was blinded and lost his flying career due to a paint-ball shot by…you guessed it!  ME!!!! During Project Warrior 1987 (remember Mike Leffler POC for PW87!!). (For those who were not there, the whole paint ball thing started with Capt Linwood Mason Shooting me in the leg at the same time I tried to shoot back while ducking and covering from Mark, who was on the other side of a bush on the - hill behind the base shopette - about six feet from me—my unlucky shot hit Mark right smack in the eyeball as he had lost his protective eye guard a few minutes before.)  I e-mailed the Boss that I did know Mark and had painful memories of the time ( not as painful as Mark’s but pretty bad!!) Leffler and I got arrested by the skycops for assault on an fellow officer.  We then had to stand before the wing commander as he read a message from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that paintball was banned from all DoD facilities because of the loss of a B-52 pilot.  The last rumor heard about Mark - years ago - was that he had taken the loss of his eyesight and career pretty bad… which resulted in a divorce and drinking allot.  Mark was a lawyer before he earned a pilot training slot—The last e-mail I got from the Boss stated simply:  Mark is looking for me.  I can’t imagine what Mark was telling the Boss about my earlier days in Oscoda MI.  Yes God truly hates me.

Later..maybe;-)

Ponch

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12. May 2008 by Ponch.

All,

I’m guessing the big news across BoB land is the weather.  For the global warming crowd, it’s sure been kinda cool.  Today was like a February morning with temps in the 30s and the typical blustery winds.  Our renters in Seattle said winter keeps hanging on with one storm after another.  The last one blew down our fences to the tune of a couple of thousand dollars….at least we will have something to write off on taxes next year. 

We are still looking at houses to buy.  The prices are starting to come down from outrages to obscene.  The wife is discouraged and gets angry with the real”looters” who continually chirp that they are so busy and the market is so good.  The folks who are trying to sell their property are still on California drugs as many of them expect to sell their little castles in the desert “hood” for two to three hundred thousand more then they paid.  We have looked at some nice places, however it’s always tempered by the fact that we live in a filthy desert always within a few blocks of the local “Crips, Bloods or MS-13 types.   Lancaster / Palmdale never figured out how to zone or control the growth so many a nice house sits on dirt roads next to the all too ubiquitous desert nut job that collects highway trash and old junk cars. 

When I say “filthy” desert that’s literal.  The wind blows here at 20 to 50 kts for most of the year.  The sand and dust gets everywhere.  When you couple that with about one third of the city streets that are not paved you get dirt and filth everywhere.  

If I didn’t mention it before,  I decided I needed a bigger telescope.  We belong to the Central Coast Astronomical Society (CCAS).  Once a month we meet on a hill top north of San Louise Obispo.   It’s a beautiful place and the folks that belong to the group are all super people.  Many are Cal Tech egg heads and professors from Cal Poly and such.  My old scope is near the smallest on the hill so we got scope envy and now we are knee deep in building a 22 inch dobsonian.  It’s been allot of fun so far with a zillion little engineering task and woodsy craft things to accomplish.  On one of my many hardware store searches for parts, I came across a little hobby store in a crappy little town called Quartz Hill.  Andy would love this place; called War Eagle Hobby – named after War Eagle Field, home of the Polaris Flight Academy.  They have half a zillion model kits of tanks, airplanes ect ect.  Allot of them (from the smell of things) are one of a kind treasures that have gone out of production.  Along with the model kits the owner keeps a really well done museum of Antelope Valley aviation history complete with plenty of crashed airplane parts.

As you can imagine, with Edwards AFB close by there is allot of historical stuff.  I guess this guy is some sort of history buff and has amassed a huge bunch of knowledge about crash sites and odd knowledge about the goings on at Edwards and surrounding area.  Contrary to Chuck Yeager’s story about the Antelope Valley’s remote location, this area has a rich aviation history with tens of thousands of aircraft and pilots who shared the skies during the golden days of flight.  Besides Edwards AFB there were several very large training bases were WWII pilots learned to fly.  These are all within 20-30 miles of Edwards. 

I’m willing to bet he has a website too.  Will need to search for it. War Eagle Field is just up the road from were we live, Maybe a mile.  Its now the site of three prisons, one federal and two county.  It’s the lock-up for all LA county illegal gang members.  Nice…not!!!

Cheers

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14. April 2008 by Ponch.

All,

Sorry of not posting the last couple of months. The only time I get to read BoB is a work, and the Air Force in it’s wisdom had blocked all Blog pages from our view.

Its been two whole years since I retired and moved to sunny Californica. Northrop has been a fine place to work with allot of interesting folks to work with. Most have worked with this company for many many years. I had forgotten that outside the military people stay in one place and work at one job as long as they can. Some of these folks have near forty years at the same place doing the same
job. Job security is nice but variety does add to life.

Not allot is going on is our personnel lives that’s much to report. I’m still flying out at Edwards. I got to land on the lake bed last Friday just for grins. Was pretty cool. They look allot smaller from the air, once on he ground they are immense.

The lines that make up the runway edges are foot wide. I was on a check ride so I didn’t get to fool around much. Would have liked to do a couple of touch and go’s and such but an out of time.

It’s tax time again and of course the tax man was cruel and unusual. I’m still not settled in on the number of withholdings and such to get the right amount held from my paycheck. Seems like the more I make the more money they take. We are making more money then I have ever made before (including pilot bonus) yet I feel like our standard of living is below what we enjoyed in the military. I hope all those folks who get my tax money are enjoying it.

We have made a few trips to my dad’s place on the coast. The recent rains have made everything green and pretty so the drive is pleasant. We will have to back off the trips though as the price of gas is horrible. We are paying 3.70 a gallon and it is still going up. I don’t know what folks are going to do to keep living.

The price of food has shot up along with everything else. The paper this week end said the number of folks losing their houses in this area is over 1000 a month. There are five abandoned homes on our street alone. Part of me feels sorry for the people going though this but part of me feels like they are getting what they deserve for being greedy. A lot of they folks bought thinking they would flip the house for big cash. Many bought in on the whole “get rich quick” off of real estate idea that was nothing more then a pyramid scam. Unfortunately many innocent types got ripped in the process. Now there is a growing problem with abandoned houses that will fill up with undesirable types.

Do you think that the church lecture on “greed” has some merit to the subject?

Later

Ponch

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12. December 2007 by Ponch.

All,

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New years!  Had some great fun this past month with Britt.  We took the C-182RG from Edwards and flew some ILS approaches at Plant 42.  Britt was in a bad  “need for speed” mood and needed to get airborne again.  We did some air work north of the airfield then dropped in for the approach work.  The C-182 is a fast aircraft for its class and very slippery ( hard to get it to slow down) as both of us worked hard to keep from tearing off the gear and flaps.  After the landings (Britt’s first in a couple of years was great!) we headed back to Edwards on the
Lancaster recovery.  This was a blast cause it’s a low level recovery (500 ft agl) on the desert floor to stay under the R -4800 complex airspace.  Again we tested how fast the little bugger would go and had no complaints.  You push the nose over to get to 500 agl from 5000 and 150 kts was easy.  The air field was closed and the weather was perfect (Sunday) so we elected to take a tour of Rocket Ridge east of the Rogers dry lake bed (low level again!). Attached are some pictures.  It was spectacular!  We finished up the day with some overheads and I stole the last pattern with a nice closed pull at max speed off the deck…how sweet it was!

Both of us are looking forward to flying the new GS100 C-172 that just arrived.  We got a tour of the sucker before we flew.  It is sweeet!. Brand new leather interior and the Garmon GS1000 avionics are to die for. All glass cockpit!! Two big color MDU screens with every bell and whistle to include internet access though the XM satellite (go figure?) for weather and runway conditions ect ect.  Even has TCAS.  Full digital autopilot and FCS that will fly approaches automatically.  Only problem is that there is so much stuff its easy to loose SA just playing with the “video game” gismos.

Till next time.  Merry Christmas all!

Reed

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12. November 2007 by Ponch.

All,Happy Veterans Day all.  Still hard to think of myself as a veteran.  I remember folks like Steve Moore and Donny Paragoy talking about going to the VFW and drinking nickel beer.  I found it hard to dismiss the mental picture of old fogies with grey beards and lost limbs telling stories about “WW-Vietnam”.  Now I look like the old fogy (no beard) grey haired and willing to match stories with anyone who will listen about “WW-Iraq” ….Although not at the VFW…yet.  Chuck, I think wearing ones medals would add to the deranged fogy look that Hollyweird loves to smear on people who answered the higher calling to serve.  Along with James I mourn the nation that forgets the sacrifices made by our brothers in arms and even worse, views them as patsies and dupes who were fooled into military service by those smarter then the rest of us.  A new movie by Robert Redford just opened with that very theme.  I’m somewhat heartened in that the attendance to this outrage is relatively low, and that the hollywierd bunch stands to loose some cash for attempting such a lie.   Alas they seem to have endless supplies of money to blow.  Chuck maybe you can pry some away from them by writing scripts.  The fools here seem to think that their writing skills are underappreciated and are on strike.  Seem they think that America will fold and collapse if they are not there every night supplying the world with the crap that comes out of actors and so-called
Celebes mouths on moronic talk shows. Hope the strike last a long, long, long time;-)  Not much happening here to talk about.  We just hired a new guy fresh out of the Air Force.  His name is Steve Walden.  I didn’t even get to ask him if he was related before he asked me if I knew a Steve Walden at KBAD.  He said he was not related but that he and Waldo have had cross e-mails for years and that they have talked on the phone several times trying to get it figured out.  Small world thing again.  He says he knows lots of Buff guys so we will have to do the old fogy thing here and tell war stories…again.  Andy I’m jealous of the duck hunt.  Wish I was there…although you look like your hang’n with a pretty tough crowd…all backwoodsy and the like.    I never was real comfortable wadding around in those swamps up to my chest in black water.  Especially when a few short weeks before there were alligators swim’n in the same spots.  For those of you that haven’t done it, most of the wadd’n around goes on in the dark… well before sunrise in stuff you would not normally even think of gett’n into if it was daylight.  Stumbling over big alligator like stuff on the bottom was creepy… let alone get’n snagged on something that puts holes in the wadders….eeewwww!! Shoot’n at the ducks was fun though.  We had our monthly star party this week end and the night sky held a beautiful surprise for all.  A comet that normally never gets bright enough to be seen even in telescopes, exploded into a brilliant display.  The word must have gotten out cause we had a huge crowd of folks who wanted to have a look.  It was and still, is a spectacular sight.  Best to all until next month! 

Reed 

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11. October 2007 by Ponch.

All

Not much goin on in the So Cal except the usual daily crap that feeds my misanthropy.  Like tonight while headed home for lunch some big dude was stopped in the middle of the road beating the crap out of someone else sitting next to him in his car… girl I think.  I was on the cell phone and had just enough time to look over and gasp.  By the time I turned around to go see what could be done, they were gone.  I hope it wasn’t another murder goin on.  That’s been pretty regular around here lately.  Seems like they find a new body every night. 

Oh well prices on houses are goin down, we hope to move soon and get out of here. 

Chuck I’m sorry about the job thing.  Can’t but feel guilty about advising you to hold out for more money.  I never expected they would treat you like that.  I don’t understand how unprofessional and cheap the HR folks acted. How can they get good people to work for them if they treat folks like that. (Again the misanthropy thing gets fed)   No matter… there are plenty of good jobs out there for very talented people like you.  I’m surprised the manager that wanted to hire you didn’t call?  Well screw them anyway.  I’m kind’a in the same boat cause I’ve not heard about the Global Hawk position yet.  Mmmm maybe there is a conspiracy against old Buff guys (misanthropy). 

Oh well..on to other stuff.  Andy any ducks yet?  I have not been out quail hunting this year.  Been busy finishing the Cal Tech school thing.  Now that’s done I will start on getting my CFII.  I still have GI bill money available so I will try to work that issue.  Yuck dealing with the government to get benefits is a huge pain.  Chuck keep trying on the disability… I just found out the junior college tuition is free for kids of disabled vets. No matter what level of disability.  Of course this means going to the government with the tin cup in hand (misanthropy again).  However every little bit helps;-) 

Headed for the hills for three days this weekend.  It’s the annual CalStar Party at lake San Antonio. 

Lots of fun look’n at expensive telescopes and making fun of the weirdo’s that come down from San Francisco (vegetable Lasagna types..oops misanthropy !-) 

All if you havn’t read any of Michael Yon stuff I highly recommend it.  This weeks post is extremely moving. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

Chuck your article on the draft was the best yet…why they didn’t post it, I can’t believe it those no good …were can I buy a sniper rifle… %#@&*…… misanthropy!!!

Peace Out!

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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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13. August 2007 by Ponch.

All,
 
Long week end working on the bathroom.  Andy who said the project was done?  Like you this remodel job is sucking all the free time out of my summer.  Also it;s sucking my bank account dry.  Oh well it keeps me out of trouble running the streets at night with the “boyz in the hood”.   I stopped to get a haircut the other day and three Mexicans were there each relating when the last time they got out of jail and who they knew in prison.  One of them was driving a new Lexus with fancy after market rims and tires.  All had tattoo’s all over their bodies (I understand they a’int cheep).  Of course this is over in Pismo beach in a very nice area of the planet.  Wish I could live there and drive a Lexus. Oh wait I got sentenced to a life of labor for being honest…yeah I guess I deserve what I get. It won’t be long before I’ll be paying for their health care too…mmm can’t wait; especially the one Mexican who declared he loved crystal meth. Damnnnnn!

Yes Chuck welcome back to the work force.  Work harder your fellow humans depend on the money you make to make their lives of leisure more comfortable!!!

On a happier note the bees are back!  Chuck I did talk to Ed a few weeks ago he gave me some pointers on what to do with the original hive that had invaded one of my surfboard bags.  I don’t know what happened but this time I’m just going to let them alone for a long while.  The hive is buzzing with activity.  I wonder if the last queen we dropped in there finally got busy (or is that buzzy…sorry) Any way looks like they are starting to expand their population. 

Work is still plodding along. I’m doing kind of a weird schedule.  The guy on night shift got really sick.. Started with Hep C followed by chemo then his gall bladder went bad… long story but he is out for a long time.  I am trying to cover both time periods so I come in at 10:00 and leave around 20:00.  It’s getting me spoiled as I get to wake with the family and get home before the tribe goes to bed. 

James, I feel your pain.  the last time my back went out that bad was on alert at Wurstsmith AFB. I wrecked my back shoveling snow off the driveway.  Well not snow more like boiler plate ice.  I was trying to slide the shovel under the ice sheet when it stopped smack into another sheet of ice that was still frozen to the ground.  The shockwave went through my arms and hands straight to my back.  Of course this was right before going on alert and I had to drug up to get to the shack then spent the week laying in bed praying the horn wouldn’t go off.  Lucky I haven’t had any reoccurrences that bad.  Of course haven’t shoveled snow in a while either.

Here is a history quote I saw last week.  I Always liked Churchill.  He has a way of cutting to the meat of a subject.
 
Winston Churchill on Islam

 Winston Churchill was arguably the most important personality of the 20th century. Had it not been for his steely will, for his steadfastness and his ability to mobilize the British people and to infuse them with his strength and confidence, the Second World War might well have been lost, and the Nazis — with all the horrible consequences that would have had — might have become the masters of the globe. Evidence of another aspect of Churchill.  Many years ago, in 1899 (!) he formed and published ideas about Islam that are fully resonant today. Here is a paragraph from one of his books, cited below.

by Sir Winston Churchill
The River War, Vol. II, pp. 248-50, London; Longman, Green & Co., 1899

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live…The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities…but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa…and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”

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