Buried Treasure - Old Friends

While Sarge and his neighbors are recovering from a recent Four'Easter (somehow an appropriate name for the quantity and season), it appears that Winter in the Texas Hill Country is officially over.  There will be no more freezes in this half the year.

At least that's what the long time German Residents of the region are preaching.  They should know.  They've been here For. Ev. Er!

How do they know this, you ask?

Here's a hint

Prosopis glandulosa

According to legend, when the Mesquite trees sprout leaves, there will not be another killing frost that season.  Which is good news to the myriad vineyard owners around here as well as the peach orchard owners, both of which have crops that start to bud about now and which a frost now will significantly reduce their crop at harvest.

So, Good News.  Sarge....(to quote a gameshow host)....Come On Down!

On a different note, last week I talked about some Multi-Culti Meals I had had recently, one of which was Bulgogi Tacos.  The gang had been enthusiastic (well, the 3 of us who ordered them anyway) and wanted me to investigate recipe's.  

Always happy to comply, I settled on this one, and made it last Wednesday.  Everybody liked it although I thought it needed a little help.  So I remade it for Mrs Juvat and I Saturday evening.  While the recipe calls for marinating for 30 minutes, I marinaded it for about 4 hours.  I also added a couple of shakes of hot pepper flakes into the marinade.  This turned out much better.  Give it a shot if you're so inclined.

Why yes, I always leave my mark on my meal.

A couple of weeks ago, I'd mentioned that my faithful wingman, Schmedly, (currently sleeping in front of the other monitor) had discovered a buried treasure in our closet.  She brought it to my attention by knocking it off the shelf causing it to crash to the floor and burst open dispersing the contents throughout the closet.  In the ensuing clean up and ongoing sorting, I've had a few enjoyable trips down memory lane.

These were pictures taken during Birthday Week '91. Little Juvat had just turned 7, MBD was now 1 and about 30 seconds after this picture was taken would be wearing most of that chocolate cake on her face. (I have not been able to find that picture as yet). I was a very young 36 (at least from current perspective). 

My how time flies.  I had just completed CGSC and was a year out from flying.  Mrs Juvat had been assigned there for the next year and had just arrived.  Fortunately, I had been selected to the follow on course and we would be together as a family.

Back to the real world, juvat!

Well, maybe....

As I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there were two VHS tapes in that box.  The second one was actually the first in the series and took quite a bit more "help" to digitize and edit.  

It had quite a few scenes in it that were thought provoking (along with some outside video of gun shots that were from another source, I think it was Red Flag video).  

The title of the post was a result of that video.  It begins with a shot of the flying schedule and I happen to be on it.  The second scene shows how an F-15 was preflighted by the pilot.  I got a jolt as the camera comes around the right side of the jet and pans up at the tail.  

That was my jet!

Well...hello old friend!

That prompted me to do a little research on it's career.  Evidently it is still flying at Edwards AFB.

For the two of you who watched the prior video with the AB takeoff, you'll undoubtedly notice how much longer it takes in Mil Power in this video.  There's a bit of scenery of Okinawa. Then a bit of refueling.  

While that was spliced in there to give a bit of a feel for how a normal training mission might go, the footage was actually of a deployment to the Philippines.   I'm flying my jet.   

Yes, VX and Dave, I was about a foot or two back on the boom....But I was stable, as opposed to the other guy.

Then there's the section of gunshots.  I'd say the F-4s were kills.  2 of the 3 F-16s were also.  I think both F-106 shots were misses.  And the Aggressors, my goodness could they jink!  The first one probably survived albeit his jockey shorts were probably wet.  The second survived initially but stopped jinking and the pipper settled for the kill.  

Never give up....Never surrender.

Recovery and landing were normal.  I'm sure VX and Dave will probably do the same, but as the airplanes came down initial and lead broke, I instinctively started counting to make sure I kept the interval.

Enjoy.