1/3 done with ASBC!!!

OK, so I am done with week 2 of 6 (1/3 done!!!). There is only one test while I am here and it is at the end of week four. The week days are sometimes boring, and sometimes interesting. Sometimes the lessons are boring or hard to understand, and sometimes we get guest speakers that talk about cool stuff!

My squadron is called the Gryphons. A gryphon is a mythological creature that is top half eagle and bottom half lion. My flight's name within the Gryphon's is the Gamblers. So, we needed to make a t-shirt with a picture on it. At first a clip art picture of some cards was chosen for our picture, but I couldn't let that happen. I told them I would draw a picture...and here is the final product! I dew a gryphon with a royal flush.
Saturday, my next door neighbor over here got promoted to a 1st Lt. so its traditional when you get promoted to a higher rank you buy liquor for everyone or throw a party. So.., he did. I BBQ'd (sshhhhh... don't tell anyone, but that was just my 2nd time BBQing, and my 1st time on charcoal..... But I did good and everyone liked them). We had a keg and BBQ burgers, and alot of 2d Lt's! Someone even broke out a slip n' slide! I'm meeting alot of fun, nice, and professional people here.
Also, since my flight did so good this week (top flight), we received an award to carry around for this week. His name (the award) is "Nutter". He is a stuffed squirrel. We heard that if he could talk that he would have some good stories to tell. So we wanted to add some stories to his library (keg stands, M-4 pointed at his head just to name

We wear these shirts a couple of times a week... usually when we have a flight challenge (game). Oh, by the way, we play this game called Icarus. It is an Air Force game that has a LOT of rules. Its one of these nerdy games that combines mind skills, with physical ability. We played our first game this week and beat the other team 34-3. We were awesome. That win also gave our flight the top flight honors for the week!

This week coming up will be alot of fun. We have a fun "out" day on Monday. Another "out" day on Tuesday. Special Operations brief on Wednesday. Icarus on Thursday. Friday is not that great, but I am coming home that day. I think this will be my last weekend in town before the move.

OOhhh... I also got my real ID this week! I'm official. Also, my orders finally came through on Friday (I needed those to start getting paid). All I have left to do for in-processing is give blood and get shots.

My current mailing address

Box # 1356
550 E Maxwell Blvd.
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112

My room @ ASBC

Here is my room. It is small but full of dressers, drawers, and spaces. I have ALOT of stuff tucked away in here! I have a fridge/freezer (full of Abita), microwave, internet connection, and a flat LCD TV mounted on the wall, what else could I ask for?

I have two briefings already this week (Wednesday and Thursday)! Aaauugghh!!!
This is a picture from my webcam.....I was just trying it out...

Dinner and a movie........I mean play.

Today I drove back from Maxwell AFB. Picked up Kristen. Then drove to Ashley Furniture in Baton Rouge. Picked up or table and chairs. Dropped them off at Paw's house (for storage). And then back to New Orleans. Only to take a shower and meet Granny and Grandpa for dinner and a play. It was a long day, but very productive! Kristen and I had a great time tonight at dinner, and the play was great! Thanks Granny and Grandpa.

I'll be heading back to Maxwell AFB on Monday afternoon for another couple of weeks. Yaaaay!

Awesome week!

So it is now Friday night. Tonight after we got back I took a nice hot long shower, and went to Applebee's! I am kicked back in my room on base with a cold one.... life is once again....good. So Monday was a hectic day to say the least. After my 5 1/2 hour drive here I got rushed into my room, given a packing list, and told to get ready as quick as possible. I did, and soon met up with my flight. A flight is usually 15-20 members of a military unit. Mine over here has 14. Most of us commissioned through ROTC, but one was USAFA (US Air Force Academy), one was COT (nurses, doctors, and lawyers), and five were OTS (Officer Training School). I got luck and have a really cool flight.
My training here is 6 weeks long. The Air Force is trying to make their training like a deployment environment and my class (lucky me) is one of the first guinea pigs to go through this experience. So the first week and the last week we will be "deployed" (on base).
This was my cot. We slept in tents. We ate MRE's. Our tents were A/C. We had showers and toilets. It was not that bad.
This is me dressed in my "battle gear". It was really acting like one of the HUA's (Army guys).
We were treated to an airshow on Wednesday for some graduating Colonels or something. we saw a b-1, b-2, b-52, f-16, and an f-22!!! It was SICK!!!

I got gassed (there were a few tears)!

I am driving back to New Orleans tomorrow to see Kristen and pack some more stuff. I miss Kristen alot this week. I think it was mostly because I left on short notice. I love you Kristen. I'll see you tomorrow.

This seems like it will be a fun experiesnce.

"Flexibility is the key to Air Power"... So I'm told...

Wow again...!!!

So, I guess welcome to the military. That is my feelings after a long night tonight. This afternoon I was called by my esteemed former ROTC colleague, 2d Lt. Benjamin Botnick, who just got to Maxwell AFB (Montgomery, AL) today awaiting the start of ASBC training, which starts tomorrow. It is a 6 week training that every new 2d. Lt. must complete. It is basically a refresher course of everything that we have learned the past four years in ROTC. Its purpose is also to assure that everyone is on the same page.

Ben called me tonigt because he heard that my name was on a list of people who did not show up for training. This is crazy I told him because I am going to Laughlin AFB 20 Jun, then Purblo, CO 21 Jul, then finally my ASBC date is 19 Oct. So that couldn't be correct.

Then I received a call from another 2d. Lt. over there. This time it was someone who recognized my name on that same list also. Hmmmmmm. That's funny.

I decided to call my Col.'s cell # on a Sunday afternoon and ask him what his thoughts were (WARNING: This call was performed by a trained professional. 2d. Lt.'s and cadets, DO NOT TRY TO CALL YOUR COMMANDER ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON...EVER). He told me not to worry about it and he'll check with the NCO's in the morning.

Well, I got a call back from him around 2030hrs (8:30pm for you civilian type) telling me that he went to the office, checked on the computer, and he DID see my name on an updated roster, and that I WAS supposed to report to ASBC last Thursday (Sound the alarm)!!!

So, he told me to pack my bag tonight just in case they tell me to drive up there tomorrow and allow me to miss a the first full day of training. So I did. And tomorrow, I fully expect a call from him telling me to report to Maxwell AFB ASAP!

I have heard that the first week of ASBC training is in tents (Air conditioned, cement floors, basically a hotel with waterproof fabric walls, that's how the AF does it!). And that probably means that I WILL NOT have access to a computer or my cell phone until Friday. So, if I didn't get a chance to say good-bye... GOOD-BYE! You can call me, or email me, or message me on this blog... Who knows, they might call me tomorrow and tell me not to worry about it, and give me a new date.... who knows...? I don't....

So the long and short of it is.., I did not know I was leaving so soon. Kristen and I thought we were leaving on 20 Jun, and now I am leaving tomorrow! Kristen will stay working here for the next six weeks and we will move together to Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, TX, I am guessing around 25 Jun or so.

Commissioning Day!

Wheeeww.... Dude, Almost everyone in my ROTC class is now finished/commissioned (minus cadets Sylve, Kalsow, Nguyen, Hollis, Jenkins, Adley, and Lundy <---who is commissioning in August....right?)!!! Wow, so maybe it is a big deal to commission...? We started our class with 12 cadets in our sophmore year..., and I commissioned in January, four more today, and one hopefully in August. That is a total of 6 2d Lt's! That is just 50% of the cadets who started in our class actually finished!!! Who ever said that I dont finish what I start. I'm awesome! Congrats 2d Lt.'s Austin, Ke, Rudolph, and Zimmerman!
Off yall go in the wild blue younder!

The picture above is from our brunch after commissioning at Court of two Sisters;
top row: Ke, yours truly, Zimmerman.
Middle is: Rudolph.
Bottom row is: Adkison, Nguyen.
Austin is not pictured because he was busy accepting his degree at UNO!! Congrats man! Go Privateers!

It was a pleasure to be in yall's class while in ROTC. Each and every one of yall is special is your own way. We will all make a difference in the Air Force, our country, and the world. See yall on the other side!

ROTC

OK, so four of my ROTC buddies went out the other night to have one last drink with (Lager's of course!) them just being cadets!!! Yaaaay! On Friday morning they will be the Air Forces newest 2d Lt.'s! I am proud to have gone to ROTC with them and hope to see them in the future "on the other side". I will have more pics on Friday with their gold bars on!
That is us giving a big 'U'nsat! (unsatisfactory... you had to be there I guess)
Cheers!

I'm a celebrity!!!.....sort of... OK, not at all.

Wow! I am kinda shocked right now. I visited one of my favorite web sites on Monday morning (afblues.com, which I have a link to on the right ---->), and Kristen and I were mentioned! That's just scary, crazy, yet awesome!!! I don't even know Farva (the author/illustrator of afblues.com). But I do read it everyday religiously and so does a lot of others in the Air Force. This is what the website said under Monday's comic:

Oh, and since I can see where traffic to this site is coming from, I wanted to say thanks to Coy (you know who you are) for linking to my site on his blog. Hope Laughlin treats you and Kristen well.

-Farva

Whaaa..... Am I a celebrity?! Did a celebrity just mention our names on their website?? Probably neither of the two. Just two AF geeks giving props to each other over blogs (Chair Force!). None the less it was very cool to me. On Monday I received a bunch of emails, texts, and phone calls from friend of mine who saw the mention. It was a fun day.
Also, I was being told to lay low while entering into pilot trainig by VERY good source. Well, my good source checks afblues.com on a daily basis and saw my name on there and just about flipped out. So much for laying low. At least Im not at Laughlin AFB yet. That would have got my name out quick!

PS. Farva, if you read this, thanks for all the great laughs. We have inserted Lt. Dahl's name into many of our conversations around my old ROTC detachment. Also, I have installed that same traffic monitoring thingy, and I believe that I see that you visited my site as well...(you are the only visit from the UK).

Nawlins' Air Show 2009

So this weekend was the local air show (Belle Chase NAS/JRB). There were a bunch of good acts this year.
The 159th's F-15's "Bayou Militia" were out there (Go Air Force!)
The Navy's local F-18's "River Rattler's" were out there too.
This is the inside of one of the Hurricane Hunters C-130's. It's a glass cockpit (that's cool!)




My favorites were the Army Golden Knights parachute team, F-22, and the Blue Angels. This may sound funny to most but I kinda enjoyed "Fat Albert", the is the Blue Angels c-130. I guess sometime recently my interests changed. Maybe its my age, or maybe I'm wiser. I don't know..., maybe I'm stupider. But the C-130 is a cool airplane! The jets, of course, are cool. But what are they good for? They just fly in circles in he sky. I think that I am leaning towards the cooler mission oriented airframes like the C-130, C-27, or bombers. Just a heads up to everyone in case yall were interested.
I also saw a KC-135 refueling plane there. Shout out to the two pilots that I know who fly that beast!
Oh, and the coolest airplane of all that was there..... a T-6 Texan. From Laughlin AFB!!! That is the plane that I will start training on in Del Rio, TX! By the way, it's just 51 days away from move day (20 Jun)!

Today Kristen and I are going to see my little cousin's/godchild dance review in Baton Rouge. They are always boring but cute at the same time.

Next weekend is Mothers Day. So if you are reading this before then make sure that you remember your mommy on Sunday.