Withdrawal symptoms

 

In a post several years ago, Old NFO had a tale of woe about the trials and tribulations involved in his move from the (ptui!) DC area to some as yet undisclosed location in God’s Country. (Those of you unlucky enough to not live here might refer to it as Texas.)  In that tale of woe, he mentioned that he had somehow misplaced his coffee pot.  

That harmless statement, as it always seems to, set off a flood of commentary.  One commenter went so far as to describe coffee as the “Lifeblood of the Navy”.  Included in the comments were the Top Secret procedures for making that Lifeblood.  (That should be good for an extra hit or two from the NSA.)

While most readers know that “back in the day”, I was in the Air Force as a Fighter Pilot, some may not have read these riveting posts on my first tour as a Joint Staff Officer.

One of the benefits of that job, other than, you know, being based at Camp Smith Hawaii, was spending time aboard the flagships of the USN’s 3^rd Fleet and 7^th Fleet, USS Coronado and USS Blue Ridge respectively. 

 

USS Coronado AGF-11 (decommissioned in 2006 and sunk in the Marianas during an exercise in 2012)
Public Domain

USS Blue Ridge LCC-19
Public Domain

 A small benefit of that time was getting to sample some of that “Lifeblood of the Navy”.

I also got to spend a good bit of time with 3 MEF on Okinawa. (I also spent time with I Corps at Ft Lewis WA, but that’s a different story).  All these deployments involved exercises in which contingency planning was the objective.  Coming up with an operations plan on short notice with a tight deadline necessitated some very long days.  Long days meant Coffee. 

I think I started drinking coffee in pilot training, but I was never more than a cup or two at a time person at that point.  Strapped in to an ejection seat and pulling G’s is not a fun thing with a full bladder, and the restroom facilities are sadly lacking in fighters.  (Never used a piddle pack! Not even on the Trans-Pacific drags.)

So….Where was I?  Oh, yeah.  Coffee and “Lifeblood of the the Armed Forces”.

So…There I was*

Camp Smedley Butler, Okinawa Japan.  Deployed to 3 MEF for a Joint Task Force training exercise.  The Joint Staff (in the Pentagon, believe me nothing good comes out of that building) has decided to test USCINCPAC’s ability to stand up a Joint Task Force, develop an Operations Plan and have forces ready to deploy on very short notice.  We get the Warning Order and, within 3 hours, my team is airborne on a C-141 bound for Okinawa. That's at least a 10 hour flight (more if it’s winter) and we couldn't afford to waste 10 hours of planning time.  This was back in the early 90s before airborne WiFi was commonplace.  We had a specially modified hatch panel that had a satellite antenna on it and so used that time to begin building the Plan, coordinating both with Camp Smith and Camp Butler.  Very exciting stuff at the time.  (Yeah, I know, it takes very little to get me excited nowadays.)

In any case (which, again, is Texan for “Anyhoo”), we arrive on Okinawa and continue to build the Operations Plan, sending drafts back through Camp Smith to the Pentagon.  We’ve been at it for about 36 hours and it’s me, another Lt Col (USMC) and a USMC Warrant Officer.  

My counterpart Lt Col referred to the Warrant Officer as “Gunner” with a high measure of respect in the tone of his voice.  I elected to follow his lead.  

We’re putting out the latest version of the Plan and it’s oh-dark-thirty.  The Gunner comes in and says he’s going to turn in and asks if we need anything before he does.  I ask him for a cup of coffee figuring he’d tell somebody to make a pot.  He walks off and shortly thereafter brings back a couple of cups. 

He’d made them himself. 

I didn’t sleep for at least 12 more hours. (At which point, the Joint Staff called EndEx as they couldn’t keep up with us.)

Navy Coffee was good, but I thought it was kinda weak after experiencing Marine Coffee.

We’ve had a Keurig in our house for a while, and my brew of choice was always Jet Fuel  for a couple of reasons, but the primary reason was it is as close to the Gunner’s coffee as packaged coffee could get.  Lately however, even that seemed to be getting weak and disappointing.

On a vacation we took a few years ago to Australia, in the B & B we rented in Sydney, the kitchen came with a DeLonghi Espresso machine.  Now, I like Espresso, but I want my coffee in something other than shot glasses.  This machine had a setting that allowed you to make the Espresso as large as you wanted.  Suffice it to say, I was adequately caffeinated while in Sydney.

Coming back to the real world was tough, and the Keurig didn’t help.  However there was a posting on Instapundit about DeLonghi Machines being offered on Amazon at a special price.

 

Santa brought me one for Christmas that year,   I could put whole coffee beans and water in the machine, push one button and Espresso would come out.  Life was good! Unfortunately, it's engineered usage level and my coffee consumption level were not simpatico. After a few years, it died and I had to go back to the Keurig.

 

Which worked ok up until my last Doctor's Visit a month or so ago.  Apparently the old ticker is having "issues".  Not hospital serious, just "need to make some changes to your livestyle, juvat!" serious according to my Doctor.  Guess what one of the first things he said I needed to stop.

 

You got it...Coffee.  And not only Coffee, but no caffeinated beverages! Oh and I should stay away from Decaf Coffee also, since it seems it's not totally without caffeine.  Well, it's been a very tough few weeks but I've stuck it out.  Got an appointment with the Doc next week.  We'll see what the readings look like.  If it was all for naught....Well..Me and the Doc might have a "conversation".

 

Peace out y'all.  Oh, and enjoy your coffee!  Just don't moan as you're sipping it if I'm within earshot!  

 

Rain, Rain... Redux

 

In my flying career, I've dealt with a lot of weather, some of which was pretty exciting (Not in a good way).  Low on gas with the weather on final approach at about a half mile and a few hundred feet will get your blood pressure up.  I can attest to that both from the Pilot's point of view and the Supervisor of Flying's.  This story addresses the latter.

By Staff Sergeant Jeffrey Allen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 I am now flying an F-15, (The finest fighter ever made, thank you very much), have been promoted to Major and commensurate with that promotion is the requirement to check out as a Supervisor of Flying.  The SOF is the person who makes the decision whether the weather is good enough to fly at all, on restricted missions, with a higher fuel reserve or unrestricted.  He coordinates with base agencies in case of emergencies. Since he holds the Wing Commander’s future stars in his hand, he is frequently second guessed while things are happening and is always included in any accident board investigation. Fortunately, at this time, the Wing Commander is a very talented leader and Fighter Pilot.  Went on to retire with Three Stars and deserved each one.  He didn’t tend to get into his people’s business.

Typically, a SOF tour was about 4 hours and would start about an hour and a half prior to the first briefing.  This would allow the SOF to make an informed decision about the weather and every so often issue the beloved “Roll Over” call to pilots in the first go.  “Flying is cancelled, go back to sleep.”  The Wing’s flying schedule was staggered throughout the day, so one squadron would launch their sorties and as they were recovering to the base, the next squadron would launch, then the third, then the first, second…

So, There I was…..* Last SOF of the day.  The tour started with Base Operations, where you would speak to the various agencies to find out if there were any potential problems, a barrier down, broken fire equipment, whatever.  Rarely was this a factor, but you never knew.  The final place you visited was Weather.  Flying from an island where the usual divert base was 8 miles away and the next closest was 400 miles north, meant paying attention to the weather.  I’m talking to the weather NCOIC, an E-7 (Sarge knows what that is) and, having dealt with him before, I’m comfortable in his competence.  The forecast for  my flying period is VFR with short periods of intense showers.  I ask him how intense and how short.  He says, very and no more than ten minutes with intervals of 30 minutes to an hour between.  Not good, but good enough to fly.  I set a high Bingo, Not high enough to divert 400 miles, but high enough to hold for a while until the weather improves. 

As I’m sure, you, the reader is picking up, this turns out to have been a mistake.  But Hindsight is 20-20.

So, we launch my squadron’s 12 sorties, all two ships, so 6 flights.  The other squadron’s flights are starting home and I am settling in as SOF having done the handover brief with my predecessor.

 A short pause, to describe the settings.  Kadena’s tower is exceptionally high, perhaps 150’ or so.  I was sitting in a glass room and can see the entire base.  It’s a pretty exceptional view. I’m joined in this setting by the tower crew.  4 people, all enlisted, The Ground Controller, The Tower Controller, The Tower Supervisor and another person, an E-3 who’s probably in training.  Served several tours with this particular team, and the Supervisor is one of sharpest I've seen. (E-7 also.  I don’t think they hand those stripes out in Cereal boxes.)

So, I’m settling in, and give a quick 360 look around to see what there is to see. To the south off the approach end of the runway, I see a rain squall.  Looks pretty heavy to me, but there’s nobody in the pattern and the closest flight is still 10 to 15 minutes away.  I call them on their secondary radio and tell them about the squall and advise them they may want to slow down a bit and stay high.  I’ll call them when it passes through.  The squall hits and my understanding of the word “intense” changes.  It is raining so hard that I can’t see anything outside the tower, no buildings, lights, not anything.  The island could have sank leaving only the control tower , but I’d never have known it.  Sure enough, it blows through and although the runway is wet, the field is clear, I tell Approach to get the returning flights headed inbound.  One flight comes in and lands, and I see another squall approaching.  Hoo Boy! Hold High and wait for my call.  It passes,  I get the second flight on the ground when Tower Supervisor tells me that the winds have changed and are now coming in consistently from the south.

 She recommends changing the runway.  My call. However, there is that thing about ALWAYS being part of the Accident Investigation. Not taking the advice of the Tower Supervisor would probably not reflect well in that case.  The problem is, landing to the north, there are instrument approaches for both runways.  Landing to the south, there’s only one for the western runway. Changing runways effectively turns the field into a single runway airport. But since the weather system is approaching from the south and landing on a wet runway with a strong (very strong) tail wind is, well, problematic.  We change runways.  About this time, I get a call from the Weather Man who says, the system is intensifying and will be more intense with longer duration and shorter interval.  I get on Guard and have all flights contact me on the SOF freq.  They all check in.  I explain the situation and have them all RTB at max endurance.  I get a fuel check from each and pass a holding stack  plan to Approach.  Our plan is nobody leaves holding until the previous flight is on the ground.  That way if they miss approach, RAPCON can vector them around without having to worry about spacing. 

This works quite well, we have a couple of jets who have to go missed approach, but in general we are getting folks down without too many problems.  Except it’s now dark.  I’ve got my last two aircraft starting the approach.  It’s a 1LT on his Element Lead Check Ride and my Operations Officer as his wingman in Radar Trail.  On Rollout, the previous flight had reported that getting the jet stopped was becoming difficult because of the volume of standing water  on the runway. 

I called the Barrier Crew and told them I wanted them to head out to the runway and not wait in their office.  My last two jets had been up for a couple of hours and were getting low on gas.  They’re on 10 mile final when the storm blows through the base, they run into it on about 3 mile final, come out of it and report runway in sight.  I watch the 1LT touch down and realize he had done a normal F-15 landing, flared the jet into a soft touchdown. In order to avoid hydroplaning and potentially running off the runway, he should have had minimal flare and a firm touchdown (AKA a standard run of the mill Navy landing) to break the surface tension of the water and get the wheels in contact with the runway.  Sure enough, he’s not slowing down very fast.

It was a bit unusual but time seemed to slow and while I’m watching him roll further down the runway, I think back to a Mentor telling me that in an emergency you have to plan your words, so that if any of them are blocked, your message will still be understood.   So, I key the mike on SOF and Guard frequencies and say “PUT YOUR HOOK DOWN”.  I’m watching and don't see anything happening.  However, the E-3 who’s watching through Binoculars, says “Hook’s Down”.  I see it engage the barrier and stop the jet.

I pick up the phone and call RAPCON and tell them the runway is closed and to vector the last jet around.  I ask the Ops Officer how much gas he's got left. He’s got enough for one pattern. But….

This wouldn’t be a problem on an Aircraft Carrier, they get guys out of the barrier on every landing.  However, PACAF regulations say that the aircraft must be shut down and towed free of the barrier and runway, then the barrier restrung before the runway can be reopened. 30 minutes minimum.

 #2 doesn’t have that much gas.  

I call the Weatherman and ask about Naha, the close divert.  Weather is below minimums and that’s headed our way.  I make my decision.

 I contact the Barrier crew and tell them we’re going to slingshot the jet out of the barrier.  He starts to balk and bay.  I finally tell him that this is the only way we’re going to get the runway open before #2 flames out and unless he’s got a faster way of opening the runway, that’s what we’re going to do.  He asks for my name, I give it to him. 

About this time, my phone rings, I glance down at it.  It's got buttons to connect me to or be contacted by almost any flying related agency on base.  The top left button is the hot line to the Wing Commander.  It's lit. I'd spoken to him earlier when I'd recalled the jets and had them hold, he was ok with that.

"Shogun Six, Major Juvat speaking Sir".  "Major, what's the plan?"  He'd been listening to the radio and so knew about the barrier engagement.  I explained the fuel situation and my plan to slingshot the aircraft out and the impending radio call to the 1LT on procedures.  He agrees with me.  I've got top cover!

 I get on the radio and talk to the 1LT, and in very plain English, tell him that the Ops Officer’s life rests on him, that slingshotting the aircraft will seem unnatural, as the aircraft will begin rolling backwards and that the absolute worst thing he can do is use the brakes.  If he uses the brakes, the aircraft momentum will force the tail of the aircraft down and potentially standing it on its tail.  At that point, the runway will be closed for a very long time.  I tell him to put his feet on the floor and control the rollback with small power advances.  We’re all ready, the barrier chief tightens the tension, the 1LT adds power, then cuts it, the aircraft rolls back , the hook clears the barrier.  The chief gives him the hook up signal and he taxies across the barrier,  The barrier chief restrings a few doughnuts and retensions the barrier and as the Ops Officer calls runway in sight, the runway is opened.  The Ops Officer lands, HARD, gets the jet slowed to taxi speed before the barrier and taxi’s clear.

I clean up my station, and get ready to call it a day.  Went to the Tower Crew, shook their hand and told them great job.  (I also called their commander the next day and told him the same thing, the Tower Supervisor had a big grin on her face the next time I saw her.)

Headed back to the Squadron, checked the schedule and saw I had an early flight, so I left.

Got home…

Evidently, there had been just over 7 inches of rain in the 6 hour tour I was SOF.  My wife, 5 year old son and most of the people from my wife’s office, were building a sandbag wall to try and keep the water running through the drainage ditch behind our house from running through our house.  The day ain’t over, til it’s over.

The foundation of Chateau Juvat is all that remains.

As I looked for pictures for this post, I realized there was a bit more to the story than I thought.  The battle to keep the water out of the house was lost as was carpeting and assorted furniture.  When I filed my claim for reimbursement, the housing office disapproved it, saying that the flooding was a normal occurrence.  I countered with “If flooding is a normal occurrence, then the house is uninhabitable, and you should move us to a different house”.  They paid.  However, as I looked on Google Earth at Kadena and did some reminiscing, I noticed that the house we’d lived in had been demolished and not replaced.  I guess my words were heeded.

Under the Sea *

 

 So, There I was.....* At the top of my game, flying F-15s in Okinawa, Japan.  We're in the process of working up for another deployment to Cope Thunder.  Kadena AB had the only 3 PACAF air superiority squadrons, so we went to Cope Thunder.  A lot.  Which was good, because it was excellent flying and we flew against and with some of the best fighter pilots in the world.  Not THE best, mind you, cause that was us! But...Some of the best.

In any case, we're in the midst of the workups but it's Friday and flying is done, so we're in the squadron bar (yes, they had them back in the good old days.  That's where the REAL debriefs occurred.)  We're sipping a cold one, or three, and discussing the upcoming deployment.  One of the guys mentions that since the mid deployment weekend is a long one for some federal holiday or the other, he's going to go scuba diving.  He's got a tour guide scoped out who insists he knows where a WWII Japanese aircraft wreckage site is.

This is not THE wreck.  It's a Mitsubishi G4M1 ("Betty") bomber wreck in Truk Lagoon, Micronesia
Source

That piques everyone's interest.

However, there's a small problem.  Not everyone is scuba certified, including me.  It was difficult to do without some time off as the probability of getting the "bends" is increased if you fly within a day or two of going diving.  Getting the bends while flying a single seat fighter a couple of hundred miles out over the Pacific Ocean might be...problematic.  So to get certified, you either had to take some leave, or only take the lessons on long weekends.

Another guy in the squadron, let's call him Jim, is also interested in seeing the wreck and is similarly lacking in certification.  But,  he knows "somebody".  This somebody can certify us (5 dives) in a weekend.  All we have to do is get off the flying schedule on Monday.  Since he is the squadron scheduler, that's not an issue.  "Juvat, you'll be the SOF on Monday and then Top 3. I'll be writing the schedule anyway so won't be on it."  "Yippee!  I get to sit around pondering my navel, while completely responsible for any flying related problems.  How good it that?"

You want to see the wreck doncha?

OK.

So, it's Saturday morning and we're introduced to our dive instructor, let's call him Norman (for a reason).  Turns out Norman is a DOD Civilian working at Yontan Army Base.  He listens to Radios.

Norman doesn't look like most other DOD civilians in the late 80s.  Hair in a pony tail, with an earring in one ear.  One might think "odd duck" when sighting him.

But, he's going to certify us for scuba diving by afternoon the next day, so why don't we get started.  We've met Norman at the sea wall, just south of Kadena's runways.  This area, for history buffs (Sarge?) is where the Okinawa invasion took place.  In fact, Yontan, where Norman listens to Radios was the first airfield captured and was where Bock's Car made an emergency fuel landing after rescheduling sunrise at Nagasaki.

Top Elipse is Yontan, Lower one is where we had our first lesson.

What made it good for invasion also makes it good for scuba,  deep water, not very far from shore.

I should mention Jim and my attire for our little training session.  One might think we'd be all decked out in wet suits and stuff like that.

For a multitude of reasons, we didn't look this good.
Source

Nah!

Looked much more like this (at least in my mind anyhow)
Source

The only difference between us and Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt, is we're wearing our flight suits.  Jellyfish don't you know.  Bad ones!

Hey!  We wear them at least once a year for water survival refresher training, why not for scuba certification.  Well....More to follow.

We're ready for our first dive, so we get all our gear on and head out into the water.  Burn through the air in the tanks doing a bunch of emergency procedures.  Not much of interest or fun.  Drank quite a bit of sea water as I recall.

Head back to shore and Norman debriefs us on how we did.  I believe that consisted of "You guys did just fine, except for that drinking sea water stuff, might want to avoid that."  Really? I believe that's called ...drowning.

Saddle back up with new tanks and head back out.  This time we go further out into the sea, beyond the beach dropoff, but not quite as far as the dropoff to the South China Sea.  So, the water's maybe 30-50 feet deep. Visibilities good, and we can see a lot of stuff on the bottom.  Norman had told us that it wasn't unusual to see strange things on the bottom as the locals used it to dump off unwanted things, Refrigerators, cars,  bicycles etc.  The island is crowded, space is at a premium, so a landfill is not really an option.

Norman also told us that if we've still got air in the tanks after we finish the drills, we'll swim around and look for "stuff".

We dive and begin our drills, the South China Sea level drops an inch or so due to sea water consumption by the two of us, but we finish and still have air left.  Norman taps his dive knife on his tank to get our attention and gestures that we're going for a look around.

We swim around a bit and spot an old stove, a bunch of tires, nothing really of interest.

Suddenly, Norman stops and points down below.  There propped against a rock is what I think is a concrete drainage pipe.

Source

Norman has said he'd interested in seeing Lobsters.  Harvesting them while scuba diving being illegal, I'm thinking he's spotted a lobster near this pipe and wants to take a look.

We swim down closer.  The pipe appears to be about 8" in diameter and has a flange on the end it's resting on.  It's quite encrusted with sea life and the residue there of.  I can't see any opening in the top end due to the encrustation.  I start swimming in search of the lobster that I think Norman has spotted.

Jim and Norman are looking closely at the drainage pipe.  I'm a bit puzzled, but hey, different strokes.

Pretty soon, I hear hammering noises and I turn around.  Norman has his dive knife out and is banging on the encrustation on the top end of the pipe.  He goes after it for a few minutes and suddenly a large chunk falls off.

Revealing an Ogival end to the drain pipe.

Drain pipes don't have Ogival ends.

Naval Rounds do.

Ogive means the curved but pointed business end of the shell.
Source

I wasn't sure what the underwater blast radius of an 8" Naval Round was, but Michael Phelps would have had a hard time keeping up with me swimming back to shore.

You don't want to be anywhere near.
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Debrief on that swim was quite a bit more colorful and pointed in a different direction.

I believe I heard "It hasn't gone off in 40 years why would it go off now?" 

Rust and deterioration might be a reason.
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Oh good Lord!

Our next dive is scheduled for after lunch and will be on the Pacific side of the island.  Good news, bad news,  it gets very deep, very fast over there.  E.G. Mariannas trench deep.  That's the bad news.  Good News.  Any unexploded ordnance will be well out of reach.

We tell Norman, no more dumb stuff.  Just get us through the next three dives.

Lunch over (it seemed very salty for some reason), we meet up with Norman on the other side of the island.

Two things are noticeably different.  First, it's the Pacific Ocean.  The waves haven't seen land since Hawaii.  They're anxious to make it ashore.  Second, the water is significantly colder. Our flight suits don't do much to keep us warm.

As we talk about what we're going to do,  we notice Norman is now carrying a spear gun.  When asked why, he mentions there are sharks on this side of the island.  For some reason, that Duh, Duh sound from Jaws starts playing in my mind.

We hit the water and are doing our drills, when suddenly Norman excitedly taps on his tank and points to the bottom.  I see a lobster walking on the bottom.  As Norman starts swimming towards it, the lobster accelerates towards a small hole in the coral, eluding Norman's grasp by a few inches.

Lobster
Source

As he looks into the hole, he realizes that it's a tunnel, not a cave.  If he reaches in to it, the lobster will exit the other side, so he motions for Jim to go over to the othe side and "lock the back door".

Jim does so, by putting his flipper across it.

Meanwhile, Norman is poking around the front door with his spear gun.  I'm thinking he's trying to hook the lobster and pull him out.

Nope

Off goes the spear into the hole, through the hole, missing the lobster and, without slowing down, through the webbing of Jim's flipper where it stops, missing his foot by inches.

I look over the top of the coral, half afraid that I'm going to see Jaws and his friends swimming down a blood trail towards dinner.  Instead I'm treated to the dinner plate sized whites of Jim's eyes.

He takes off the flipper and shows me the spear and points towards the surface.  I nod enthusiastically.

Back on shore, Jim's got Norman by the scruff of his neck and giving him an earful.  Norman is sounding a lot like a poorly tuned motor boat (but..but..but..).

We decide that we're done with Scuba by Norman and we'll see a Japanese wreck another time.

Later on, we run into the guy organizing the tour and he asks how the lessons went and were we in on the tour.  We related our horror stories and he goes "No!  you did not get him!  He goes by Norman, as in Norman Bates from Psycho.  That man's bat sh!7 crazy!"

Are you coming back for Dive 4, Juvat?
Source

No kidding!

* A rerun from my first year of blogging with Sarge!

Vegas!!! Part Deux Redux

 

Ok, so back on our regularly scheduled programming. ;-)

 

So there I was…an At-38B Instructor Pilot at Holloman Airplane Patch New Mexico.  I’ve been there about two years and my non-flying duty is squadron scheduler.  I have been blessed with a “good deal”, and I have made the most of it.

Current Wing Policy is that all senior Wing Personnel will receive check rides from the Chief of Stan-Eval.  The actual name is Standardization and Evaluation, most of us called them Stan Evil.  Ostensibly the requirement for the Wing King and the like to get their check rides from the Branch Chief was to reduce the likelihood of “undue Command Influence” in passing their check rides.  Works for me!  A Lieutenant Colonel looking for a Squadron to Command and therefore, earn his ticket to Bird Colonel.  No possibility for influence there…..

In any case, those thunderstorms raged far, far above my limited horizon.  My immediate problem was simple.  I had busted the Director of Operations (The number three guy in the Wing, call sign Vegas) on his last ride before his check ride.  Apparently, he had forgotton everything he’d learned in his 4000+ hours of flying about landing a jet, therefore he required another practice ride and his Check Ride was scheduled for tomorrow.

The Chief of Stan-Eval had booked a cruise for the day after and would not be available for the next two weeks. When dealing with the gods, scheduling is important.

I get back into the squadron, and the squadron CO is waiting for me.  Already having  been chastised by Vegas for having questioned my busting him on the ride, he asks me what my intention is.  I look at the schedule and see a three ship of IPs scheduled  for a continuation sortie.  Continuation sorties were missions where the IPs flew front seat and actually got to fly the jet and remain proficient at flying a fighter.  Students may or may not get to tag along in the back seat. Didn’t get a lot of them and these three guys were going to go out and fly a 2 V 1.  This was about as fun and complex a mission as we were allowed.  Highly sought after. Schedulers were able to get IPs to do all sorts of unpleasant things on the promise of a continuation ride.

I walk up to the schedule, draw a line through the 1 in the 2 V 1 and wrote Vegas and my name in.  The IPs would now be going on a 1 V 1.  Vegas and I would get our refly.  I was not popular.

Obviously, this ride was going to be later in the day and at Holloman during the summer, a later sortie made everything just a little bit more difficult.  The pressure altitude was higher, the engines responded different, winds were gusty, dust frequently blew so visibility was worse.  In short, for a person having difficulty landing a jet, flying late in the afternoon could make or break him.

We blast off, go to the area for a few minutes just to get down to landing weight, then return to the pattern for touch and go’s.  I’m a bit tense, but Vegas doesn’t seem to be worried.  He flies down initial, pitches out, configures, starts the turn, rolls out on speed and greases the landing.  Requests closed, granted, rolls out on downwind, configures, starts the turn, rolls out on speed and greases the landing.  Starts the go around, and says, “You want to fly the rest?”

I clearly had passed the test.

It’s now towards the end of the program.  Vegas had flown with other IPs, but I still was his primary IP.  We’re now in the first ride in the Air to Ground phase and Vegas is in the front seat.

 Once he sees the bombing range from the front seat, he will switch to the back seat and “instruct” me in Air to Ground techniques. Truthfully, I’m looking forward to it.  We had just completed Air to Air, and having him in my back seat instructing me (note the lack of quotation marks), had been VERY educational both for my IP skills as well as my actual Fighter Pilot skills.  I was looking forward to experiencing the same in Air to Ground. 

We’ve been to the range, dropped our 6 blue practice bombs and headed home.

We’re coming down initial for runway 16 and I hear the tower clear a flight of 4 F-15s on to runway 25 to hold. 

We pitch out, configure, turn final for a Touch and Go.  Roll out on final, I do a quick look out the nose of the Jet to check lineup, configuration etc.  (I’m still the Aircraft Commander, and IP, it’s my butt if something happens.)  As expected, Vegas is on the numbers.  I glance out the right side of the jet as we cross over the overrun….

Pause for a scenario setting .  Runway 16 and Runway 25 butt up against one another.  The overruns intersect.

The problem will occur in the light gray area at the top center of the photo.

Clearing a flight on to hold, gives that flight permission to do just that.  Taxi into position and sit there until given clearance to do something else.

It does not give you permission to run your engines up to military power in anticipation of takeoff!!

So, enough interlude.  I glance out the right expecting big wide exhaust nozzles  from 8 Pratt and Whitney F-100 Engines .

 

This is what F-15 engines look like in Idle as they should be while waiting for permission to take off.  Below is an F-15 in Mil Power and what I'm seeing

 

I advance the throttles into afterburner, while at the same time calmly communicating to Vegas that I was going to take command of the aircraft and would he please let go of the stick (I slammed the throttles to AB while I screamed “I got it!!”), just as we hit the turbulence.

The jet rolled to the left, and my guardian angel kicked in at that second, because my expected reaction should have been to roll back right.  I didn't, I added right rudder, which yawed the nose away from the ground as well as countered the rolling moment. I have no idea where that reaction, the only and absolute right move, came from.   I’m not sure what the angle of bank was, but I have a very clear picture of looking up at the runway.  The jet begins to yaw the nose above the horizon while rolling back towards level. We exit the turbulence as the aircraft rights itself.  I clean the gear and flaps up and remember the burners.  About this time, Vegas calls from the front seat and says “Well, that was exciting, do you mind if I fly the full stop?”  “No Sir, not at all.”

These guys practice it,  me, not so much!

Full stop, and Vegas asks what happened.  He’d never seen the four ship and all he knew was we had almost lost control.  I explained what had happened.  Debrief began later than usual that day as my student was unavailable.  Evidently, a flight lead lost his flight lead status.

About 6 months later, I’m now the Wing Scheduler and am up for assignment.  The F-4 is being phased out and F-15s and F-16s are starting to be assigned.  However, the AF still needs folks assigned to F-4Gs as well as F-111s, so the policy is that IPs  up for assignment in the next 6 months will be divided into Top Half/ Bottom Half.  Top Half will get the jet of their dreams; Bottom Half will get needs of the AF.  I’m fairly certain I’m in the Top Half, but, since I also want to be assigned with my wife, also military, and 2 year old son, I’m a bit tense.  Today is the day.  I get the call from my assignment officer.  F-4G to George.  I’m disappointed, but it is with my wife, so that’s the way the ball bounces. 

Vegas also knows this is the day.  He comes walking in to my office and asks what I got.  I tell him, his jaw drops and he says “Captain, can I borrow your desk?”  Dials an number and says (I’ve forgotten the name, so let’s use Stan)”Stan, Vegas here, do you personnel wienies still subscribe to the Top Half/Bottom Half policy?....Well, I’d like to know why Juvat here, my number one guy in this assignment tranche, is getting an F-4G? …..Yeah, I know about his wife…..Look, Colonel, I've got a retention problem here (he did) and if I can’t get my number one guy a new jet, what am I going to tell the rest of the guys to keep them in the AF? Why should they stay? I want him in an Eagle, and I want his wife assigned to the same base.” 

At that instant, it no longer mattered to me what my assignment was, I was reassured there were still people in the AF that cared about their people.  I would stay.

There’s more conversation on the phone, finally Vegas hangs up and says “Juvat, you and Mrs. Juvat are going to Kadena. You've got an Eagle!”

And it was the absolute highlight of my flying career!  Loved the Jet, the wife and I did quite a bit of touring the orient.  She had a great job and made Major BZ.  We both were sent to Army Command and Staff (after a 1 year separation.)  Little J and I went to Leavenworth, she and the new daughter came the next year.  I went to the School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), AKA the Jedi warriors that did so well planning the Gulf War. I was a little late for that, but got a great job at Camp Smith HI, again along with the wife.  

 

So, Vegas, I never got a chance to say thank you, Sir. Hopefully, someday on some cloud somewhere I can.  I'm very grateful.

 

Peace out, y'All! 

Wow! What a Great Weekend!

 I've had a lot of Good to Great weekends in my lifetime.  Some were exciting, others just extremely relaxing.  One or more of Family, Friends and Flying were usually involved in the enhancing the weekend outcome.

This past one expanded the definition of the word "Great".  We traveled over to College Station for two reasons.  First was to see our Grandkids again (Yes, Beans, also to be with our Daughter and Son-in-Law of course).  Our oldest GrandKid is the GrandDaughter.  She's a couple of months short of 4YO.  Lovely, Friendly, and Smart (as a whip), a joy to be around.

Our GrandSon is a couple of months short of 3YO (Their BD's are only a day apart.). He is amazingly smart.  He speaks in complete sentences which are understandable.  If he hears a sentence he can repeat it and he seems to have filed it away so the context is there if he needs to repeat it again in conversation.   I would read him one of his books.  He could repeat the verbage while pointing to the word he was speaking at that moment moving to the next when he started saying that one.  The rhythym of the reading wasn't perfect, but much better than I expected from someone his age.  

One of the other reasons to visit the Daughter's Family was also accomplished.  Since both adults have jobs, they need a sitter during the day.  Which leaves them with no sitter at night, so they can't go  out and have a little adult recreational time.  We assisted them in accomplishing a little time off from parenting and reacquanting each other as loving adults.

We had fun, the grand's had fun and Mom and Dad had fun!

Win, Win, Win!

While the Family reunion was a big reason for visiting, it wasn't the only one.

Since we are planning to move to College Station, we also wanted to look at some houses.  We had engaged a Realtor via phone a few weeks ago, telling her what we were looking for and why and what constraints we had. (The biggest one being selling our current house about 150 miles away).

She did her best and fortunately (mixed blessing...Hard to sell ours, prices are down for buyers) the market isn't all that hot right now. So, quite a few houses on the market.  Wednesday, we got a call from the Realtor handling the sale of our current home saying he had some folks wanting to take a look-see.  We did a quick simplifying sweep of the house moving things into closets, drawers etc, just so it looked a bit better.  

We loaded up the dogs and cat and went to City Park and walked them around for an hour.  Got the call from the Realtor that it was safe to come home.  He also mentioned that they really liked the house and were considering a contingency offer of 60 days for them to sell their existing house!

Yay!!!!!!

So, that's my first order of business today.  Did they actually make the contingency order?  

Why?  Because our excursion with the College Station Realtor showed us a couple of houses we really liked this weekend. That set the other half of the Real Estate Cycle in motion. 

We'd like to make a contingency order on the house we REALLY liked if it's still available or one on the one we also liked a lot if not.

 

This is the Street View of the house we really liked.

Front porch looking out over the front yard

My Cell Phone pictures don't even begin to do it justice.  Just beautiful! It was formerly owned by a retired Army Lt Colonel who became widowed and put their home on the market.  Very nice, neat and well kept.  Much as I expected when I was told about the owner.

The contingency we would need on either would be based on the buyer of our house actually selling his house and signing the contract to buy ours. At that point, assuming both houses are still on the market, we could commit to the house we liked. Hopefully, the one pictured above.

Lots of if's, and's and but's in the situation, but...it is progress.  We haven't had anybody else visit us and show any serious interest.  At least, if this goes through we can progress to the next step. We shall see.  Lot's of prayers going skyward nowadays.

So, we drove home Sunday, and as we're driving along, Mrs. J's phone rang.  It was Little Juvat, LJW and Miss B calling from England.  Ain't Technology Great?  A phone call from halfway around the world into a car travelling at 75 MPH. (Yes, Beans some of the Highways in Texas are 75.)

In any case, they wanted to video chat, but that was a bit much for the bandwidth available to the phone in the car, so we asked them if we could call them back when we got home in about an hour.

Sure!

So we did!  The phone was answered by Miss B and the video came up immediately.  She was sitting there wearing a T-shirt which said "Big Sister".

 

Yep, Grand Child #4 is on the way, a late January, early February due date.

So, as I said...It was a very GREAT Weekend.  Hope your's went well also. 

Peace out, y'all! 

juvat