Okay, So...I’ll start with a Mea Culpa! Last week I got distracted and hit the publish button on my post without setting the date and time first. The result was Instant publication on Sunday which squeezed Sarge out of the way. Being somewhat smart (Easy Beans, no comments), today the first thing I did before I started writing was to set the correct publishing date and time. Who says retired fighter pilots can't learn from their mistakes.
Anyhow, as you probably remember from my last post as well as the news, this area of Texas had a very catestrophic flood, with at last count, 129 folks dead and at least 170 missing.
(Update according to Fox News. Nearly 100 persons that had been on the missing list have been found alive. Thank you Lord!)
Search and rescue forces have been cycling in and out and still are. In fact, at the time of writing, (Thursday), we're waiting on the arrival of a search team who'll be staying in our larger guest house. Each of them will be bringing their trained dog with them. Unfortunately, they are cadaver dogs.
Not unexpected, almost 2 weeks after the flood, but still...
It's been a tough time since the fourth, loss of life obviously. However, in addition to the original flood, it's been raining virtually every day until this past Thursday. According to our rain gauge, our property has received ~20" of rain since and including the 4th of July (9"). To say our grass is green is a mild understatement. Lush green is a more accurate description. Both our stock ponds have water in them. That hasn't happened in a few years.
However, Thursday we woke up and the weather was clear and a million. Our river is still a muddy mess as are the other rivers in the general vicinity, but they are basically back in their banks. Although there is a lot of not nice stuff floating in them.
Yesterday, they found a F-150 Pickup in the river, buried in silt. I haven't heard anything about passengers.
To change the subject...
Being somewhat restricted to the premises, I've been doing a lot of internet searching.
Found an interesting video which I will attach below, but first a little background.
As most of you know, in my first career, I was a USAF Fighter Pilot. I flew F-4's, AT-38's and finally, my dream machine, the F-15 Eagle. It was exciting virtually all the time, terrifying occasionally, saddening at times when we lost one, but very rewarding.
Would I do it again?
In a F'in nanosecond!
Anyhow, I found this video. Pretty well done for a computer generated film. I felt myself, by force of habit, tensing up my legs and abdomen in the G straining maneuver. (Keeps the blood in the head where it keeps you concious, not in the legs where you get to take a nap. Unfortunately, that's been the last nap for an awful lot of fighter pilots. So...important!)
I hope you enjoy it. Quite well done and realistic.
Just in case anybody is interested (I was), I looked up the "kills" the US had in Desert Storm (105 to 0!). Here is the list of who shot down what, with what and when. I found it very interesting and I knew a large number of those folks.
Oh, by the way and back to the present situation here in Texas, the first pair of searchers staying with us arrived. We went down to meet and greet them at our guest house. They're from Minnesota, both retired Air Force. She's a Nurse, he was a Pilot in the Air Force and then Airlines . Flew F-15's back in the day and his last flying assignment was to the 12TFS at Kadena. He left there about 6 weeks before I signed into Kadena and the 12th.
Small World!
Yes, Beans, we exchanged a lot of war stories when they arrived and we found this out. Good Folks, doing horrible, but necessary things. God Bless them and keep them well. The report is that the Guadalupe River is severely contaminated. If y'all think about it, a prayer for all of them (and there's a lot of folks doing recovery work) to keep them safe and healthy would be appropriate. There but for the grace of God....
Peace out y'all!
Excellent vid choice, pretty tense watch.....where did three and a half decades go juvat? What are the odds that searcher was also a F15 driver eh?
ReplyDeleteYep, I enjoyed it. The odds were small, even smaller that he’d been in the same squadron and almost at the same time. We spent a bit of time discussing squadron mates we both knew. A very nice afternoon.
Deletejuvat
"Good Folks, doing horrible, but necessary things. God Bless them and keep them well."
ReplyDeleteAmen. May Sts. Michael, Barbara, and Florian watch over them.
"The report is that the Guadalupe River is severely contaminated."
That;s a given in any flood. Water clears out sludge ponds, cesspits, sewage and septic systems, fuel tanks, garbage dumps, and, to add insult to injury, poison oak/ivy oils.
Amen, indeed.
Deletejuvat
Good news finding so many of the missing alive!
ReplyDeleteAmen, again. Thank you, Lord!
Deletejuvat
Amen, ditto.
DeleteJB
Agreed,
Deletejuvat
20" of rain. I can scarcely conceive of that amount is such a short time.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, contamination of water sources is not something I think a lot of people think about (including me).
It is always pleasant when you find an unexpected connection.
I didn’t think about contamination until I was talking with our guests. Apparently it’s a very big concern and rescue team decontamination is an important aspect of flood rescue operations.
Deletejuvat
Contaminated water is always an issue after heavy rains and/or floods. It's one of the big known issues of flood waters, though surprisingly under-emphasized by media.
DeleteMust be the latter, I had no idea of contamination other then mud and debris until discussion with my F-15 Brother.
Deletejuvat
Throw in the danger from damaged propane tanks that get washed downstream. Big potential for KABOOMS if people aren't careful with earthmoving equipment during cleanup.
DeleteHere in Sonoma County the Russian River floods at least once a year, and we always see household propane tanks washed away.
Did not know that! Thanks for the info!
Deletejuvat
As to last week's over-posting, don't sweat it. I figured you were trying to get one out before you were underwater! Also the immediacy of the situation dictated, I think, a post right damned now and not later. Prayers continue for the folks caught up in all this.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding video!
Thanks ,Sarge
DeleteGood thing beancounters aren't in charge of counting kills, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten credit for that CFIT!
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad tragic event there along that river. My heart goes out to those families that lost loved ones, especially the little girls. Sirens have got to be installed.
Good point, but...Running him out of airspeed, altitude and nose positon is just as deadly as a 20MM.
DeleteYeah it is. Our SAR team is still here, They look pretty tired and beat up when they come back in the evening. An important job, but I'm almost positive I wouldn't be up to it. I wonder if the Camp can install them themselves AND tie them into the EWS. Pretty sure there's going to be some chatter about doing something like that. Terrain is a big factor here in conducting sound thoroughly. Not an expert, but that's some of what I'm reading. I don't have a complete understanding, but...
juvat
You wrote "It was exciting virtually all the time, terrifying occasionally, saddening at times when we lost one, but very rewarding. Unfortunately, that's been the last nap for an awful lot of fighter pilots."
ReplyDeleteYou're quite correct. You get nine of these occurrences, I had five (air-to-air refueling over the Pacific somewhere, flying with the Wing DO, 37mm, Phantom student trying to land, another student trying to "tuck it in". Being canopy-to-canopy (3 feet, or so) was certainly exciting for a moment. Sixty years ago, and yet I can still re live them all for some reason. However, I cannot go to Publix and remember why I'm there.
D4, Fuzz
For the "why am I here?" question I use 3x5 cards & keep that list in my shirt pocket.. :-)
DeleteFuzz,
DeleteYep! And I’ll add another “thriller” to your list, Combat. All the rated guys @ Army Command and Staff volunteered to go to Desert Storm. Unanimously turned down. A lot of bitchin, moanin, and complainin at the time, but now a few decades later I’m happy how things turned out.
As to the grocery store issue…right there Lead. All tucked in.
Rob,
DeleteI have a small 3x5 notebook with a pen in my back pocket as we speak. I write everything down and scratch it out if I buy it, do it, order it…
Surprising how wellI remember things now.
😉
juvat
I can remember the "combat" hours, as well. As they say poetically these days: "little golden puffs, followed by the black cloud of death. Some bit, some didn't." Strange, I feared the fully loaded, after burning, night-time air to air refueling more than the gifts from the ground. Whoops, there I go descending into my poet's heart. Check six.
DeleteFuzz, D4
Fuzz, Refueling on F-4s, correct.
DeleteMan! It took quite a while before I got any good at it. (For non F-4 crews, the fuel is loaded in severa tanks the length of the fuselage. Fuel has weight and it doesn’t fill up the tanks simultaneously. It fills up one, then the next one then the next…I don’t remember the order, but, by the 4th Tank if you weren’t paying attention to keeping the jet in trim, you could lose control. Which is not a good idea when your 10 to 15’ below a very large airplane. Took me quite a while to get it right.
The Eagle however had the tanks much less fore and aft and more right and left, but the best thing about it was to get the jet back into trim you just held the stick rock steady for a couple of seconds and voila’ you were back in trim.
Just one more reason I love that jet!
juvat
i am really sorry to about the troubles in Texas. but thank you for letting me know
ReplyDelete