Russ and Frances

Flying, Flying, Flying

Russ — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:30:12 +0000

Well, I hit the ground running. I got here and had a day off before they threw me into my first flight, and luckily it was an observation ride, so I got to shadow another guy and see how everything was done. Since then I’ve gotten 3 more flights all sitting at the controls, and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been to 5 countries so far. It’s been pretty neat. Iraq is pretty flat, dry and boring. Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan so far have been my favorites with all of the mountains and scenery.

I finally moved into an actual room too, so no more trailer for me. I’m starting to get use to the food a little more, I’ll just be glad when I’m done and can get back to my wife’s amazing cooking.

I just started getting used to the schedule as well. It can get pretty crazy. Typically we fly between 12 and 18 hours and then get between 12 and 36 hours off before we have to fly again. It leaves me a decent amount of time to do some reading, mess around on the computer, go to the gym and sleep.

Thats it for now. Signing out from Southwest Asia.

I’ve Arrived

Russ — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:30:10 +0000

Well I finally made it. It’s been a long 48 hours of very little sleep between Saturday morning when I left and Monday morning when I finally got to sleep. 2 flights and 3 bus rides later, I made it to the desert. We are 8 hours ahead of EST.

The base so far seems pretty nice. We are staying in a trailer right now, which beats the tents a lot of people are staying in and we are hoping to get a hard billet here in the next couple of days (ie a room). The worse part about being in these trailers is that we have community bathrooms and they are a good 500′ from our trailer which is just a tad inconvient, not to mention they are community bathrooms. Enough said. We do have wifi access, just not in our trailer, but will have it in the hard billeting, so that should really help pass the time when I have access to that from my room.

The food hasn’t been too bad either. Breakfast is the best as it’s hard to mess up waffles, pancakes and eggs. The other meals so far have been mediocre.

I’ll start flying some combat missions tomorrow hopefully and start getting into the groove of things. I’ll hopefully be doing a lot of running, working out, and if I can get Rosetta Stone, maybe start trying out another language.

I’ve thrown some pictures in of our trailer and “Tent City”.

Richard & Dan – The Stilly Run

Russ — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:55:10 +0000

Well, Richard and Dan finally decided that college wasn’t cool enough for them anymore and went ahead and graduated. Richard also commissioned the evening before and Richard asked me to give him his commissioning oath. So Frances, Whiskey, and I packed up the jeep and made our way to Stillwater, our old stomping grounds.

Now this trip was monumental for several reasons. 1) Richard and Dan graduated. 2) Richard commissioned. 3) This marked the first time I had taken leave since going active duty and after taking 5 days leave, I still have 52 days left. Woo hoo!

And being thrifty as I am, we decided to complete the entire 12 hour drive in 1 day. Turned out to be not so bad once we got past San Antonio. Oklahoma has been getting rained on for the last 3 weeks and it was beautiful (see picture).

We also decided to purchase a trailer to facilitate our full dity move. Now we have our 6×12 trailer already but needed something larger for all of our household goods so I found a sweet deal in Tyler, Tx which was 4 hours out of our way. Luckily the seller said we could meet them on our way back so I didn’t need to tow it up to Stillwater and then all the way back down to Del Rio.

So we picked up this 8.5′ x 24′ bright red trailer and started on our way. The only item which I failed to think about was that the Jeep didn’t have tow mirrors so I could not for the life of me see around to the back of the trailer. Not cool. So Wal-Mart to the rescue with attachable tow mirrors. Minus a little swaying, the rest of re trip back was uneventful; all 18 hours of it. Yeah that’s not a typo. 18 HOURS on the road.

That’s all I got for this post. Tired of reading yet?

T-1 X-Country

Russ — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:27:27 +0000

Well, this is a little late, but I was going through my iPhone and realized I had a picture or two from our cross country and thought I’d give a quick recap.

We decided to go to Oklahoma City so I could meet up with Richard and Dan. I may have also had a special delivery of one cheesecake that I needed to deliver to them as well so it really worked out great. We stayed in a Courtyard Marriott which was very nice and then ate out the next day at the Toby Keith Bar & Grill. Pretty good food but the best part was eating for free (one time only be a member of the military). So if was a pretty fun trip.

Nav Checkride Complete

Russ — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:35:36 +0000

Well, I just finished the next to last checkride that I’ll have before finding out what plane I’ll be flying. Even though I have another checkride, the score doesn’t actually count towards my overall score.

So for all intensive purposes, I just have a few more rides before our future us revealed to us. Exciting times!

A Military Wife

Russ — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:28:23 +0000

So, I cam across this and thought it was very fitting and descriptive of what Frances has to go through and what she does, so I thought I’d share. Pretty cool.

What is a military wife?

Each one may look different and each is wonderfully unique,
But this they have in common:

Lots of moving…
Moving…
Moving…
Moving far from home…
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog…all riding with HER of course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won’t go in THIS house;
Moving curtains that won’t fit;
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.
Moving away from friends;
Moving toward new friends;
Moving her most important luggage: her trunk full of memories.

Often waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting for housing.
Waiting for orders.
Waiting for deployments.
Waiting for phone calls.
Waiting for reunions.
Waiting for the new curtains to arrive.
Waiting for him to come home,
For dinner…AGAIN!

They call her ‘Military Dependent’, but she knows better:
She is fiercely In-Dependent.

She can balance a check book;
Handle the yard work;
Fix a noisy toilet;
Bury the family pet…

She is intimately familiar with drywall anchors and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes;
Sell a house;
Buy a car;
Or set up a move…
…all with ONE Power of Attorney.

She welcomes neighbors that don’t welcome her.
She reinvents her career with every PCS;
Locates a house in the desert,
The Arctic,
Or the deep south.
And learns to call them all ‘home’.
She MAKES them all home.

Military Wives are somewhat hasty…
They leap into:
Decorating,
Leadership,
Volunteering,
Career alternatives,
Churches,
And friendships.
They don’t have 15 years to get to know people.
Their roots are short but flexible.
They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.

Military Wives quickly learn to value each other:
They connect over coffee,
Rely on the spouse network,
Accept offers of friendship and favors.
Record addresses in pencil…

Military Wives have a common bond:
The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands; his commitment is unique.
He doesn’t have a ‘JOB’
He has a ‘MISSION’ that he can’t just decide to quit…
He’s on-call for his country 24/7.
But for her, he’s the most unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign
TDY
PCS
OPR
SOS
ACC
BDU
TAD
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long- distance link to keep them informed; the glue that holds them together.

A Military Wife has her moments:
She wants to wring his neck;
Dye his uniform pink;
Refuse to move to Siberia;
But she pulls herself together.
Give her a few days,
A travel brochure,
A long hot bath,
A pledge to the flag,
A wedding picture,
And she goes.
She packs.
She moves.
She follows.

Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind.
But actually it is because she has lost her heart .
It was stolen from her by a man,
Who puts duty first,
Who longs to deploy,
Who salutes the flag,
And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military Husband,
She will remain his military wife.

Updates …

Russ — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:57:51 +0000

Well, it’s been an eventful last month and a half. I’ve transitioned over into the T-1 now, and am having a blast. It was fun flying the T-6 but now that we are getting into the crew concept and flying with more than one pilot up front, it makes everything a whole new ball game. Suddenly I have to worry about not only flying the airplane, but making sure that everyone on the plane knows what is going on. The good news is that once everyone knows what is happening, they can help out with the flying. Soo, in the long run, more heads are better than one, or that’s the principle anyway. So, T-1′s are a blast.

On another note, I finally got the entertainment center built and stained. Of course I couldn’t have done it without the advice and know-how of Pap, so I’m slowly replacing our furniture with nice, sturdy additions.

Track Select

Russ — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:34:57 +0000

Well, I haven’t written in a little while but a good bit has happened. We had our Track Select about 2 weeks ago and I’ll be flying the mighty T-1A Jayhawk for my last phase of Pilot Training before I get my wings. Here in 6 months is when I’ll drop and see what I’ll be flying for a good number of years and where my first actual base will be for 3-4 years as well.

We are in academics right now, so it’s just a matter of staring at a computer screen and getting our nose buried in the systems of a new airplane. Good time!

T-6 complete

Russ — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:44:19 +0000

Well today marked the end of one chapter, the T-6 chapter to be exact. In a week I’ll have track selected and will be thrilled to not be wearing a g-suit, helmet or mask when I fly. One step closer to the C-5!

Formation complete

Russ — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:06:24 +0000

Friday marked a significant day for me in pilot training. It was the last formation flight that I’ll fly in the T-6. While I enjoyed formation to an extent it was more about the challenge than actually enjoying the flying portion of it. Since my flight on Friday was my checkride I can now focus on my last checkride which will be instruments and should be sometime this upcoming week or at the very latest early next week.

On a separate not I’ve really started to enjoy blogging more on the iPhone now that I’ve got a WordPress app that I can write to my blog from my phone. Pretty nifty.