A Lieutenant in England!

The squadron has had an "Honorary Commander" program for some time now. A few of us Lts started the "Honorary Weapons Officer" program

Here's a pic of the diversion into Canada. For my trip to Vegas and Louisiana, I didn't really think to pack a parka.

April just came out for a week recently. Man...it sure is nice to have someone around the house all the time to help out. Yes, I know it won't be that way once we get hitched. Still, it provided for some relief.

What else is new? Not much, really. Since getting back from the road show, my life has been consumed by work stuff. There's just about a month left untill I disappear for the summer. Man, I don't want to miss summer in England. That's one of the best parts about living here... The sun sets at 11:30, and everyone in Cambridge hangs out on the greens.

Its been forever and a day since I've updated this thing. Just after the New Year, I went to Las Vegas for a month for Red Flag. Red Flag was concieved in the mid-70s to give aircrew the closest thing to full-up war that they'll see without actually getting shot at. It was a post-Vietnam initiative to strenghthen fighter skills in what, after WWII, had become a bomber-driven Air Force. How does that fare in the 21st century? Without a big Red menace to fight, but a number of budding opponents, is quasi-realistic. However, the war of the present is very very different than the war of the future.
The war of the present has us doing convoy support, searching for IEDs, and generally being a rather expensive version of a police helicopter. Enter Green Flag. Green Flag used to be an electronic warfare exercise hosted at the Nellis Range. Now, it has become the largest joint Army-Air Force exercise ever held. Following Red Flag, we went to Green Flag at Barksdale AFB, LA. About an hour south of Barksdale is Fort Polk, LA. Inside of Polk, the Army has build many small shanty towns, villages, trailer parks, huts, etc. They've also hired locals to play the part of...well...locals. The Army units there for training are supposed to train the local militia, disect any odd tribal bias, keep the peace, and somehow win the hearts an minds of the locals. Sound familiar? Yeah...it should. Above all of this is us, the 492nd, waiting to roll in if anything goes to crap. However, a good chunk of the action down range is in urban areas. The Army can't just build a city in a forrest. To counter that training delima, the DoD has basically gotten the Mayors of DeRidder, Oakdale, and Leesville Louisiana to play along in the worlds biggest urban training environment. I personally rolled in and bombed the "terrorist arms cache" that was the DeRidder WalMart (an arms cache in its own right) a handfull of times.
That was my last two months. We've got two more months of training, and the we go downrange for four months. Oh yeah...I'm getting married on the 20th of October. All in all...a busy year.

The reason for my TDY last week was to bring some jets from Warner-Robbins AFB (outside of Atlanta) accross the pond, and to England. Eight hours in a jet was actually pretty fun.

Ever seen whales humping? Me either...but I imagine it looks something like this.

This is a pic of Newfoundland, Canada. It was the last land we saw before Ireland...6 hours later. It looks awesome down there. I'd like to camp and fish there sometime.

Last week, I got a good deal TDY (temporary duty). The Air Force bought me a plane ticket to Atlanta so that I could fly an F-15 back to the UK. I was able to stick some leave on the front end of the TDY and use some frequent flyer miles to go see April for a few days.

Here's some shots of old Ellicott City, MD. Its an interesting hodge-podge of antique stores, cafes, and hippie-type stores.

Following the Bath trip, the three of us Musketeers took the train back to Paddington Station in London and spent a few days there.

It turns out that Her Majesty has a pretty big party pad. I think she was slamming up in her winter palace this weekend, though.

So there we are, just chillin' in front of Buckinghamdizzle, and the fuzzy hat brigade marches by. Hopefully, they're not off to an intense fire-fight. The Enemy might scoff their choice of brass instruments as weapons. Maybe there is a tuba ninja master hiding in there. Don't screw with a guy with a tuba.

This is really good English weather. How can I tell? Well...the top of Big Ben is visible and there is no water on the lens.

Mom, Jill, and I went to Bath for day. Bath sits about 40 miles west of London right on the river Avon. Back in the day, its hot springs were home to some fancy-pants Roman baths (hence the name).

Here's a picture of the Bath Abbey. Technically, its a cathedral from the vertical gothic era...similar to the King's College Cathedral right here in Cambridge. To me: old building.

This is the baths of Bath. Everything below the base of the columns is Roman built stone work. Back in the day, the Romans had their own column-work and a roof over the complex. Somewhere in the 400 AD time-frame, the Romans retreated from Britania and the roof collapsed. Her Majesty's government, in the 19th century, built the columns and upper deck.

LAKENHEATH STRIKE EAGLES RETURN FROM BULGARIA
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123024263

Bulgaria was a blast! We spent two and a half weeks there doing some of the coolest flying I've ever done! The Bulgarians pretty much gave us most of their country to go rage in. So, of course, I've got some good pictures of us tearing through the Bulgarian mountains. On top of most of the peaks are monuments of the Communist "victory" in WWII

The country itself is in the middle of some major changes. Some parts are fully modernized, others seem like it is stuck in the pains of communism. It was very common to see a new BMW, Opel, or Mercedes on the same roads as a donkey-drawn cart or a dude hearding goats.

We got to know the Bulgarian pilots pretty well. All were good dudes and fun to hang out with. All of them were older than me, I think.

I was lucky enough to get picked to represent the 492 FS and the USAF at the RAF Waddington airshow from 30 June through 5 July. RAF Waddington is about a ten minute flight away. However, the flight up there ended up being a 1.7 hour sortie. We had a change of command ceremony here (which I was more than happy to miss...) that required us to take off early. Up at Waddy, they had controlled landing times for all the inbounds so that they could properly line everyone up for the airshow.

As a whole, the airshow was fun. Its always cool to meet dudes from other airframes. Fighter dudes are the same everywhere...regardless of country or capability.

On Monday, I was in on Stoker's fini-flight. We planned to do a low-fly through all of Scotland. Dude -that was awesome! We flew at 500AGL above most of the big lochs in Scotland. Heck, we even engaged some French Mirages above Loch Lochy. It was awesome untill we climbed out from the lowlevel. During the battle damage check, we noticed some fluid leaking from lead's jet. As we diverted into RAF Leuchars (about an hour north of Edinburgh), we figured out that it was a mix of fuel and oil. Once on the ground, the powers that be decide that me and my pilot are to stay with the broke jet untill maintainance arrives and fixes it. Nearly three days later, I'm home.

On the good side, I got to see some cool stuff. Tuesday, we took a tour of Glamis Castle. Glamis Castle was prominent during the union of the crowns period, and was later the summer home of the Queen Mother when she was alive. I think Prince Edward hung out there for a bit also.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT, PRINCESS!!!

We also got a chance to hang in Edinburgh a bit. Right in the center of town is Edinburgh Castle: it sits high atop a rock and has a row of neat shops leading down to the rest of the city centre. I think I could hang in Edinburgh more...

While in Holland, we happened to be parked next to some other US jets. Of course, I couldn't let this opportunity be wasted. Notice the funny-looking sticker there on the shield.

Here's a close-up of my work.

As an irony to this story...I notice some odd looking jets on our ramp today. As it turns out, the Blues' tanker fell out and they got stranded at RAF Lakenheath. They ended up hanging out in our bar for a bit.

I think I'm officially a Dutch citizen now. I spent 14 to 19 June in Holland for the Leeuwurden airshow. When we first got there, we were greeted with Dutch whiskey and a lovely herring.

This is a picture looking east from on top of the mighty F-15E. Working near to far, there is a Belgian F-16, a German F-4, a German Grippen, and a German Eurofighter.