Friday, March 23, 2012

By Way of Introduction

That's the bird I used to work on, the F-4D (also worked on the F-4C, but the Weapons Control Systems are very similar). As a matter of face, in looking at the tail number, I actually did work on this particular jet. When I knew her she had five red stars painted on the left vari-ramp. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was born and raised in the Green Mountain State, a long time ago. Had a variety of jobs, none of which I wanted to do for 30+ years, so in 1975 I enlisted in the United States Air Force. Spent 24 years there and look back at the experience with a great deal of fondness.

Along the way I obtained a family. And they are:

  • CINCHOUSE - My incredible wife of 34 years.
  • The Naviguesser - My oldest son, who did a 5-year stint in the Navy as a SWO and is literally a computer genius
  • The Nuke - My oldest daughter, currently on active duty in Naval Nuclear Propulsion. She is not your typical female officer. Her first department head wondered where she picked up her, shall we say colorful, vocabulary. When she explained that her Dad was a retired Master Sergeant, he then understood. (And yes, that gives CINCHOUSE fits!)
  • The WSO - My youngest daughter, also on active duty in the USN. Backseater in the Super Hornet, something else which keeps CINCHOUSE awake at nights. Especially after a day cruise on the Ike in which an F/A-18F did a low-level supersonic pass very close aboard. Dad was thrilled, Mom, not so much.
  • DIL- My daughter-in-law, wife of the Naviguesser and mother of my first grandchild.
  • Big Time - Son-in-Law #1. He's an honest-to-God Naval Aviator. Flies the F/A-18E. Husband of the WSO and father of my first granddaughter.
  • TRex - Son-in-law #2, husband of the Nuke and also a Nuke and a graduate of the Boat School. I thought about using RingKnocker as his handle, but TRex is a better story. Which I will elaborate on some time down the road.
  • Big O - My grandson, son of the Naviguesser and the DIL.
  • Little Bit - My granddaughter, daughter of Big Time and the WSO.
  • And, as they are glaring at me, wondering why they were not mentioned earlier. Our two cats Anya and Sasha. They are sisters and look very similar. Anya has a lady's sweet, shy demeanor, whereas Sasha thinks she's a Siberian tiger. She would scare the Devil himself when she's in one of her "moods".
After my stint in the, ahem, Chair Force, a term which bugs the hell out of me. (More will be revealed in due time about that but I have to save something for future posts, don't I?) Now where was I? Oh yeah, after my stint in the USAF I went to work for the proverbial "major defense contractor" and still toil there, living not-so-large in cubicle-land. But as my passion is for all things military, the job ties in with my life-long interests. And the pay is way better than it was while on active duty.

So, enough about me. Besides CINCHOUSE is glaring at me because we need to go to the hardware store and Sasha is glaring at me because she wants my computer chair. Her favorite place to sleep. Darn, I'm not in the chain-of-command anymore. To paraphrase Mongo (the blogger and the movie character) "I'm just a pawn in the game of life". Old AF Sarge is RTB at this time...

12 comments:

  1. Welcome! Good to have another blogger who doesn't mind writing over 144 character tweets!

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    1. Hi Kanani- glad you could stop by. Yeah, tweets, I'm just not young enough to get into those. My cell phone pretty much does one thing: phone calls. It's all I need.

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  2. Good job, you've a fine voice and make for an easy read. Do keep it up. Speaking of which, I owe another one as well. Still, it sounds like a fine family and life. I look forward to other stories.

    mark

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    1. Thanks Marcus. I look forward to your next post.

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  3. Replies
    1. Why thank you. I need to check out you blog as well. I just can't get enough of them. I only started dipping into the blog world a few years back. Now CINCHOUSE says I'm addicted. Oh well, there are worse things to be addicted to then reading!

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  4. With a family like that you could have used the handle MaxMil (a term I picked up from my bestest pal who joined the RAF when I joined the Met police and ended up being a groundie for 29 Sqadron RAF (F4's). Looking forward to a few posts ;)

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    1. Hhhmm, MaxMil, I like that. Around these parts people look at me strangely when I say my kids all went into the family business, the military.

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  5. Never worked on F-4's myself - Was around quit a few of them growing up as my Dad was in the AF. Spent some time around them in the 70's as well, but those were the Naval versions. Cool plane.

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    1. Yup, loved the F-4. A big, solid serious aircraft. Only time I didn't really love them is hitting the flight line at oh-dark-thirty during a Korean winter to work on 'em. Still and all, I miss it a lot at times.

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  6. Here's another F-4 pic for you...

    "http://airpogue.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-ones-for-oldafsarge.html"

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  7. Ah, the venerable F-4. Physical proof of the aerodynamic theory that, given enough thrust, even a brick will fly...

    Welcome to the Blogosphere.

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