Oh, well, gee I suppose I should talk to the folks sometime...
Things have been busy and crazy as usual. I've worked more 12, 14 hour days than is entirely healthy... this last week we've been working 10 hours every weekday and 10-5 on Saturday as well. Still nowhere close to catching up. The chief problem is that the previous BMETs were pencil-whipping a lot of things, or just ignoring them outright. I can't tell you how many pieces of equipment have outdated information or are completely lacking in calibration. And the programs and shop continuity, oy. All I can say is that the new NCOIC is really on top of her game and is working her rear end to make sure that my supervisor and I aren't pouring our work in a hole. The place will be shipshape in a few months, it's just hell getting there.
Oh, and of course, the end of the fiscal year has dried up everything, from parts to equipment to furniture to *shipping* to emergency repairs that have already been performed and the fixed equipment is sitting in a warehouse 6000 miles away... sigh. Congress hasn't signed a new budget, so even when November rolls around we'll be operating at 80% of last year's spending. I've got critical emergency response equipment just SITTING on my shelf because I can't send it out, because we don't have emergency funding approved from central yet. I've got equipment that's been recalled, that will be repaired for FREE, but I can't ship it out through the military mail system because we don't have the new department codes from finance. It's just madness, everywhere. We're not fixing equipment, we're performing triage and Frankenstinian cannibalization, and liquifying broken equipment to be fed intravenously to the living... no wait, that's what the machines do to the humans. Right. Riiight. I think, I think... They... are plotting against me :narroweyes:
On a lighter note, largely in light of my being the only shop BMET last month, I made Airman of the Quarter for the medical group, so, yay me! And then about a week ago, I get a call out of the blue from one of the loggies- "yeah, there's this cultural tour being offered to recent award winners, do you want to go? We need to know now, because the suspense was uh, 3 hours ago." My shop NCOIC gave the ok, so this Wed-Fri I get to go on a Hyundai Motors sponsored tour of all kinds of nifty Korean temples and museums and yes, car factories. Pretty nifty. I'm just glad to finally get a few days out of here. It's not that the rural location has been getting me down, but the grind has just been killing me. Can you believe it has been six months now? I'll definitely get you some photos from the trip.
I won't even tell you about today, just know that it involved hours of MOPP 4 even though we're not in an exercise... ugh.
G
Monday, October 25, 2010
17 September 2010
Sorry, very tired right now. I've been working for 40 of the last 48 hours and really need some rest. My shop chief is seperating this month, my supervisor is on mid-tour, the facility manager left last month, and we've got 2 BMETs inprocessing. So guess who is the only BMET who can actually do BMET work... And it's the end of the fiscal year, so we've got to commit all funding we need for the next 2 months. And I've got about 10 pieces of equipment to send out, and there's only one way to call the states- at 10PM. So I'm really very tired...I thought you might get a kick out of this, though. Public Affairs came around and interviewed the Medical Support Squadron. I got a quote in there and a picture and everything :D
28 August 2010 (one of my favorites!)
Oh boy, more exercises! This last week we had a 3-day exercise, which should have been easier than the previous 5-day one, but the brass freaked and decided they wanted full base security measures in place after all. Now, typically, on the first day of these things, night and day shift personnel are both in place to help set up the barbed wire, etc. When things are mostly up and ready, night shift is released to go home. This exercise was supposed to be a "surprise attack" kind of a scenario, no warning to put up defenses. As such, the official guidance was that security measures had to be in place within 72 hours. So the typical plan is to ramp up patches of barbed wire until the last day, then take down whatever you got up. Usually.
NOT THIS TIME.
Nope, after the shiny ones released the night shift, it came down that they wanted all the defenses up. By the end of the day. Mind you, this is a task that takes 100 people 3 hours to do. Now they wanted us to do it with only the day shift personnel who were available (i.e. not busy working on their own exercisy things). Whisky Tango Foxtrot.
So me and my supervisor had the pleasure of hammering stakes and planning barbed wire deployment, and then dragging out the barbed wire. We had about 4-12 volunteers throughout the day, and we were working an hour at a time when the heat index indicated no more than 10 minutes of strenuous work at a time. Yeah. Slept well that night.
The next day we had a few aircraft/missile attacks, and so we suited up to go out and look for contamination/ordnance. So we get out there in heat condition 5, full gear, sweep the compound in about 20 minutes and come back. The evaluation team meets us back in the warehouse, and tells us to go out again and do another check. We go outside and start our check again... and there's an RPG sitting right in broad daylight. You couldn't have missed it the first time, you would have tripped over it. The jerks went and put it out there *after* we'd done our sweep. Talk about lazy. When you can't even be bothered to hide a dummy prop on time, you decide to half-ass it and blame it on the testees. It was really unprofessional.
So anyways, we start to go through the actions, call in the location and type of the bomb, cordon off/evacuate for the appropriate blast radius, etc. One evaluator in particular is asking us a whole lot of really weird questions. Unrelated stuff that doesn't really apply or is completely out of the book. After a few minutes the evaluators pulled us aside, because of "lightning". Yeah right. It was starting to rain, and they didn't want to get caught outside (mind you, we were all in full gear, rain could only make the situation *more* comfortable. It was the *evaluation team* who wasn't wearing anything more than body armor). So we went back inside and sucked rubber for another hour before the base called the all-clear. Fun times.
Day 3: We get another aircraft/missile attack (well ok, we get a lot of these, but most are declared "clear" within 10 minutes. Only about 1-3 times a day do we go through the post-attack sweep maneuvers). This time we're sent out, my team finds a mortar by the back of our warehouse. Next to the O2 cylinders. And the diesel tanks. And the backup generators. Okay, wow, the evaluators picked a *good* spot this time. Credit where credit is due. So we call it in to the medical control center, while the other team finishes the sweep. And I'm calling in details, and my partner is looking up blast radius guidance, and the MCC guy is gargling with marbles. Or something. He's practically unintelligible. But whatever, I just keep calling things in slowly and carefully, and requesting "how do you copy" after each piece. Bit by bit he's acknowledging that he's getting the information, though he's still speaking in angry Tagalog or tongues or whatever. I recommend evacuation of the warehouse, by the door opposite from the bomb, and so, the remaining warehouse personnel get out of the building. The other team gets back from the sweep and helps us finish the cordon. This thing is nice. I mean, it is text-book. We've got yellow tape and ordnance signs posted up the yin-yang, from one barbed wire fence to the other. Nobody's getting through without being blind or stupid. My supervisor's checking on everybody, making sure we're doing all right, congratulating us on how we're doing. Nobody understands what MCC is saying. He's still in "crazy Filipino strangle-the-mike mode", as my supervisor put it.
But eventually MCC calls in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal guys. Now this is new territory for us, because we've never simulated things up to this point before. It's always been tag-the-bomb, good-job, go-inside-and-wait-for-all-clear. So we guard the area until EOD shows up. At this point, the security team comes around and asks the A1C on my team if they can let in the EOD team. She's like "sure, I guess?". Doesn't even ask me or my supervisor, who are the actual "Facilities" personnel and are in charge of ordnance sweeps. Ah, security. Even when you start with dental technicians, once you put people on security detail, they just lose 20 IQ points. Must be some kind of a fight-or-flight response. So EOD gets out to our position and starts on things. Then the evaluation team tells us we can go inside. About 15 minutes later we get the contamination-all-clear. So at least we can de-mask, though the warehouse is still off-limits. At this point my supervisor starts debriefing us, we're getting water, chilling out on some chairs down the hallway. The evaluation team comes around, they congratulate us, good job on everything guys, etc, etc, got any questions. We ask about some minor stuff, then wonder "just what is going on with the MCC?" Well as it turns out, the guy running the radios at the MCC was getting hammered on by the group commander (the "Hawk"). Hawk was demanding to know why his building wasn't evacuated.
Now ordinarily, he and the rest of the medical commanders and staff work in a building just opposite of the warehouse. During exercises, all of the buildings are secured and locked, and only the main clinic and warehouse are occupied. This has *always* been our procedure. It's been on the books since forever. We just don't have the time or manpower to keep every building staffed and secured during wartime (at least not until follow-on forces arrive and boost our numbers). Remember, we're cutting our numbers in less than half because all the civilians stay home and the military is divided between day and night shift. So his building is locked during exercises, and no one is supposed to be in there. The Hawk is always going to be down-base in the wing headquarters, doing senior staff things with all the other brass. Occasionally he'll visit the main clinic, but he'll never be in the medical command building. So asking why he hasn't been evacuated is just bizarre.
MCC guy was folding under the pressure from the Hawk (which is *bad*, the dispatcher should always be able to stand his ground, regardless of rank). Then they found out that the first sergeant was in the commander's building. Didn't tell anybody, but apparently this oversight was going to get blamed on us (Facilities team). My supervisor and the evaluation team are calling foul. That building is supposed to be empty, and we did everything by the book in our evacuation and cordoning actions. So we'll see how that'll play out when we do the post-exercise debriefing and lessons learned report. Meanwhile, the evaluators get garblewharble boy replaced with someone who can stay cool and English when the shit hits the fan.
After that it was just the standard sit around and wait for the end of the exercise, then pack up the defenses and clean up. Then around 1630 we all got pulled over to the main clinic to wait for the Hawk to give a Commander's Call briefing to the group.
At 1820, he finally showed up. Most of the talk was about how we screwed up, but it was because he didn't "prepare us enough". Yeah, yeah. Why don't you just say "fayure to communicate" and rub a little more lemon juice in it, huh? The doubletalk "I'm going to say it was my fault but imply that it was your fault" is more grating than any actual criticism would be. The group was not receptive to the message, that's for sure. Then he handed out coins to a few strong performers: the first went to an evaluator who "asked a lot of questions, even if they were sometimes the wrong questions". I'm not really sure what that meant, but oh look, it's the same guy who copped out on the dummy RPG earlier. He was indeed asking a whole lot of wrong questions, I'll give him that. The next coin went to the NCOIC of the IT department. Apparently she's been working "real hard" to get his email working again. This is a woman who has difficulty installing a printer. I've seen it. I'm real sure she's working real hard on his email issue. Pretty much anything computery would be "real hard" for her. Sigh. The last two coins went to 2 dentists who are fairly new to the Air Force, but have captain's bars owing to the degrees they held when they commissioned. Officers like that are always worth a chuckle. They're so polite, and they're always (quietly) asking the lowest ranking airmen about the most obvious military things. You just want to pat them on the head "it'll be alright, just follow the lead of whatever sergeant is standing nearby." Apparently they took "very good notes" during a meeting on chemical attack preparation (led by guess who, the Hawk), and have been studying those notes diligently during the exercise. Yup. Getting information second hand is apparently better than studying it straight from the source, namely *THE FREAKING SURVIVAL BOOKLETS* you are issued the first day you get on base!
I'm not really feeling a whole lot of confidence in my senior leadership at this moment in time. Four months down, eight to go.
P.S. Oh, before I forget. Based on my line number, my supervisor is guessing that I'll pin on Staff Sergeant sometime around May or so. It all depends on how many paygrades are open each month for the Air Force to fill (which is ultimately set by Congress). Ideally, I'll sew it on a bit before I get to my next base. It's always a bit awkward to come to a new base at one rank, then gain a rank a month later, because your coworkers only have a first impression of you. You want to sew on with people you know, or before you meet people you don't know. We'll see how it works out.
--
G
NOT THIS TIME.
Nope, after the shiny ones released the night shift, it came down that they wanted all the defenses up. By the end of the day. Mind you, this is a task that takes 100 people 3 hours to do. Now they wanted us to do it with only the day shift personnel who were available (i.e. not busy working on their own exercisy things). Whisky Tango Foxtrot.
So me and my supervisor had the pleasure of hammering stakes and planning barbed wire deployment, and then dragging out the barbed wire. We had about 4-12 volunteers throughout the day, and we were working an hour at a time when the heat index indicated no more than 10 minutes of strenuous work at a time. Yeah. Slept well that night.
The next day we had a few aircraft/missile attacks, and so we suited up to go out and look for contamination/ordnance. So we get out there in heat condition 5, full gear, sweep the compound in about 20 minutes and come back. The evaluation team meets us back in the warehouse, and tells us to go out again and do another check. We go outside and start our check again... and there's an RPG sitting right in broad daylight. You couldn't have missed it the first time, you would have tripped over it. The jerks went and put it out there *after* we'd done our sweep. Talk about lazy. When you can't even be bothered to hide a dummy prop on time, you decide to half-ass it and blame it on the testees. It was really unprofessional.
So anyways, we start to go through the actions, call in the location and type of the bomb, cordon off/evacuate for the appropriate blast radius, etc. One evaluator in particular is asking us a whole lot of really weird questions. Unrelated stuff that doesn't really apply or is completely out of the book. After a few minutes the evaluators pulled us aside, because of "lightning". Yeah right. It was starting to rain, and they didn't want to get caught outside (mind you, we were all in full gear, rain could only make the situation *more* comfortable. It was the *evaluation team* who wasn't wearing anything more than body armor). So we went back inside and sucked rubber for another hour before the base called the all-clear. Fun times.
Day 3: We get another aircraft/missile attack (well ok, we get a lot of these, but most are declared "clear" within 10 minutes. Only about 1-3 times a day do we go through the post-attack sweep maneuvers). This time we're sent out, my team finds a mortar by the back of our warehouse. Next to the O2 cylinders. And the diesel tanks. And the backup generators. Okay, wow, the evaluators picked a *good* spot this time. Credit where credit is due. So we call it in to the medical control center, while the other team finishes the sweep. And I'm calling in details, and my partner is looking up blast radius guidance, and the MCC guy is gargling with marbles. Or something. He's practically unintelligible. But whatever, I just keep calling things in slowly and carefully, and requesting "how do you copy" after each piece. Bit by bit he's acknowledging that he's getting the information, though he's still speaking in angry Tagalog or tongues or whatever. I recommend evacuation of the warehouse, by the door opposite from the bomb, and so, the remaining warehouse personnel get out of the building. The other team gets back from the sweep and helps us finish the cordon. This thing is nice. I mean, it is text-book. We've got yellow tape and ordnance signs posted up the yin-yang, from one barbed wire fence to the other. Nobody's getting through without being blind or stupid. My supervisor's checking on everybody, making sure we're doing all right, congratulating us on how we're doing. Nobody understands what MCC is saying. He's still in "crazy Filipino strangle-the-mike mode", as my supervisor put it.
But eventually MCC calls in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal guys. Now this is new territory for us, because we've never simulated things up to this point before. It's always been tag-the-bomb, good-job, go-inside-and-wait-for-all-clear. So we guard the area until EOD shows up. At this point, the security team comes around and asks the A1C on my team if they can let in the EOD team. She's like "sure, I guess?". Doesn't even ask me or my supervisor, who are the actual "Facilities" personnel and are in charge of ordnance sweeps. Ah, security. Even when you start with dental technicians, once you put people on security detail, they just lose 20 IQ points. Must be some kind of a fight-or-flight response. So EOD gets out to our position and starts on things. Then the evaluation team tells us we can go inside. About 15 minutes later we get the contamination-all-clear. So at least we can de-mask, though the warehouse is still off-limits. At this point my supervisor starts debriefing us, we're getting water, chilling out on some chairs down the hallway. The evaluation team comes around, they congratulate us, good job on everything guys, etc, etc, got any questions. We ask about some minor stuff, then wonder "just what is going on with the MCC?" Well as it turns out, the guy running the radios at the MCC was getting hammered on by the group commander (the "Hawk"). Hawk was demanding to know why his building wasn't evacuated.
Now ordinarily, he and the rest of the medical commanders and staff work in a building just opposite of the warehouse. During exercises, all of the buildings are secured and locked, and only the main clinic and warehouse are occupied. This has *always* been our procedure. It's been on the books since forever. We just don't have the time or manpower to keep every building staffed and secured during wartime (at least not until follow-on forces arrive and boost our numbers). Remember, we're cutting our numbers in less than half because all the civilians stay home and the military is divided between day and night shift. So his building is locked during exercises, and no one is supposed to be in there. The Hawk is always going to be down-base in the wing headquarters, doing senior staff things with all the other brass. Occasionally he'll visit the main clinic, but he'll never be in the medical command building. So asking why he hasn't been evacuated is just bizarre.
MCC guy was folding under the pressure from the Hawk (which is *bad*, the dispatcher should always be able to stand his ground, regardless of rank). Then they found out that the first sergeant was in the commander's building. Didn't tell anybody, but apparently this oversight was going to get blamed on us (Facilities team). My supervisor and the evaluation team are calling foul. That building is supposed to be empty, and we did everything by the book in our evacuation and cordoning actions. So we'll see how that'll play out when we do the post-exercise debriefing and lessons learned report. Meanwhile, the evaluators get garblewharble boy replaced with someone who can stay cool and English when the shit hits the fan.
After that it was just the standard sit around and wait for the end of the exercise, then pack up the defenses and clean up. Then around 1630 we all got pulled over to the main clinic to wait for the Hawk to give a Commander's Call briefing to the group.
At 1820, he finally showed up. Most of the talk was about how we screwed up, but it was because he didn't "prepare us enough". Yeah, yeah. Why don't you just say "fayure to communicate" and rub a little more lemon juice in it, huh? The doubletalk "I'm going to say it was my fault but imply that it was your fault" is more grating than any actual criticism would be. The group was not receptive to the message, that's for sure. Then he handed out coins to a few strong performers: the first went to an evaluator who "asked a lot of questions, even if they were sometimes the wrong questions". I'm not really sure what that meant, but oh look, it's the same guy who copped out on the dummy RPG earlier. He was indeed asking a whole lot of wrong questions, I'll give him that. The next coin went to the NCOIC of the IT department. Apparently she's been working "real hard" to get his email working again. This is a woman who has difficulty installing a printer. I've seen it. I'm real sure she's working real hard on his email issue. Pretty much anything computery would be "real hard" for her. Sigh. The last two coins went to 2 dentists who are fairly new to the Air Force, but have captain's bars owing to the degrees they held when they commissioned. Officers like that are always worth a chuckle. They're so polite, and they're always (quietly) asking the lowest ranking airmen about the most obvious military things. You just want to pat them on the head "it'll be alright, just follow the lead of whatever sergeant is standing nearby." Apparently they took "very good notes" during a meeting on chemical attack preparation (led by guess who, the Hawk), and have been studying those notes diligently during the exercise. Yup. Getting information second hand is apparently better than studying it straight from the source, namely *THE FREAKING SURVIVAL BOOKLETS* you are issued the first day you get on base!
I'm not really feeling a whole lot of confidence in my senior leadership at this moment in time. Four months down, eight to go.
P.S. Oh, before I forget. Based on my line number, my supervisor is guessing that I'll pin on Staff Sergeant sometime around May or so. It all depends on how many paygrades are open each month for the Air Force to fill (which is ultimately set by Congress). Ideally, I'll sew it on a bit before I get to my next base. It's always a bit awkward to come to a new base at one rank, then gain a rank a month later, because your coworkers only have a first impression of you. You want to sew on with people you know, or before you meet people you don't know. We'll see how it works out.
--
G
August 10, 2010
Hey all,
Sorry I haven't kept in touch, things have been very busy. We had our
big exercise at the end of July, and that involved full chemical gear
and body armor for everyone. Everything shuts down on base for a week
(BX, commissary, chow hall, everything), and we sit around eating MREs
and sweating in MOPP 4. Did I mention the humidity is always 100% and
the temperature was in the low to mid 90s? Now visualize running out
in this space suit of clown gea (oh, and body armor over it all) and
having to peer around for unexploded ordnance or chemical
contamination. Fun times, indeed.
For added enjoyment, we usually work 12 hour shifts through the week,
but if the base is "under attack" you can't leave, and if your section
is still unconfirmed "clean", NOBODY moves! 16 hour shifts are even
more awesome!
The med group had people coming in for real world heat exhaustion
every 5 minutes. I think we had 5 times as many actual casualties as
we did exercise ones... and then there were the poor folks who fell
and cracked a skull when they passed out, etc. Yeesh.
After that week was over, I had to focus on finishing up my public
speaking class (classes are delayed, obviously, but the time has to be
made up to keep accreditation). Then the work orders needed to be
finished before the end of the month- because we all lost that week
for the exercise and I had dorm cleanup detail the week prior. Oy.
Now this month we're rushing to push the work out early, because
contractors are coming in next week to knock down several walls in the
BMET shop and install drop ceilings. It'll change it from being this
snaky, crowded labyrinth to one big open area with a few NCO
offices... but still, it means we have to work out of one of the
logistics warehouses for a month or two.
Some crazy times all right. I keep wanting to post pictures I'm
taking, but I just can't find the time to set up a site and do it- and
they really do need captions...
Until next time...
--
G
Sorry I haven't kept in touch, things have been very busy. We had our
big exercise at the end of July, and that involved full chemical gear
and body armor for everyone. Everything shuts down on base for a week
(BX, commissary, chow hall, everything), and we sit around eating MREs
and sweating in MOPP 4. Did I mention the humidity is always 100% and
the temperature was in the low to mid 90s? Now visualize running out
in this space suit of clown gea (oh, and body armor over it all) and
having to peer around for unexploded ordnance or chemical
contamination. Fun times, indeed.
For added enjoyment, we usually work 12 hour shifts through the week,
but if the base is "under attack" you can't leave, and if your section
is still unconfirmed "clean", NOBODY moves! 16 hour shifts are even
more awesome!
The med group had people coming in for real world heat exhaustion
every 5 minutes. I think we had 5 times as many actual casualties as
we did exercise ones... and then there were the poor folks who fell
and cracked a skull when they passed out, etc. Yeesh.
After that week was over, I had to focus on finishing up my public
speaking class (classes are delayed, obviously, but the time has to be
made up to keep accreditation). Then the work orders needed to be
finished before the end of the month- because we all lost that week
for the exercise and I had dorm cleanup detail the week prior. Oy.
Now this month we're rushing to push the work out early, because
contractors are coming in next week to knock down several walls in the
BMET shop and install drop ceilings. It'll change it from being this
snaky, crowded labyrinth to one big open area with a few NCO
offices... but still, it means we have to work out of one of the
logistics warehouses for a month or two.
Some crazy times all right. I keep wanting to post pictures I'm
taking, but I just can't find the time to set up a site and do it- and
they really do need captions...
Until next time...
--
G
June 29, 2010
How's everything going? I haven't heard from you guys in a while, so I
assume things are ok...
I'm just plugging away at work and class. We've got another exercise
coming up sometime after the holiday, so that'll be fun, I'm sure. The
weather is loathsomely humid and hot (90% humidity, 85+ deg F). Even
in ABUs it's awful. We do get a rainstorm about once a week though, so
that does cool things down for a bit.
I just paid off the last of my student loans! $4100 borrowed, $4725
paid back. I can't complain about an interest rate like that, but it
sure feels good to have it off the books at last. Let me know how much
is left to pay on your side, and I'll start saving up to pay that off.
Gotta run and get back to work. Talk you later.
--
G
assume things are ok...
I'm just plugging away at work and class. We've got another exercise
coming up sometime after the holiday, so that'll be fun, I'm sure. The
weather is loathsomely humid and hot (90% humidity, 85+ deg F). Even
in ABUs it's awful. We do get a rainstorm about once a week though, so
that does cool things down for a bit.
I just paid off the last of my student loans! $4100 borrowed, $4725
paid back. I can't complain about an interest rate like that, but it
sure feels good to have it off the books at last. Let me know how much
is left to pay on your side, and I'll start saving up to pay that off.
Gotta run and get back to work. Talk you later.
--
G
June 13, 2010 post
Hmm, I have been kept pretty busy these last weeks. Starting college classes again, studying to test for promotion, and of course all the inprocessing training, quite a schedule. Plus, you know, work.
I'm sure you've been following the news on the Korean torpedo attack. I don't have insider info there, we're all reading the same news sites as everybody stateside. There was some talk of suspending off-base travel for the Memorial Day weekend, but fortunately that wasn't put into place. I did get my chem gear issued last week (didn't want you to worry about that), so now I've got my two sets of vacuum-sealed overgarments. As near as I can tell (based on what I've been reading) the attack was most likely intended to create a crisis just big enough to install Kim Jong Il's third son into higher positions in the party. The same playbook ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_Murder_Incident ) was used to put him in power, so we'll see.
At any rate, on happier tidings, I am again taking a public speaking class. I need 3 classes after that for my CCAF- 1 humanities and 2 in management. I'll see if I can CLEP a management class or two, then take an introductory Korean class. Last week was the worst- I was just starting class (1830-2130 Mondays and Wednesdays), plus I had to test for promotion that Wednesday morning. So here I was studying all weekend and then having to stay up late, and then having to get up early besides. Yeah, I was a real zombie through Thursday and Friday.
I went out on Town Patrol over the Memorial Day weekend. A-town-- excuse me, the "International Cultural Village", (but nobody calls it that and no-one is going to pay to replace the sign anyways) is quite amusing. Mostly in the sense of how little desperate lonely airmen are willing to settle for. In terms of atmosphere, I think I'd describe it as "Six Flags with barmaids" (juicies). There's a few blocks of crowded buildings all in a grid-like layout, and they alternate mostly between bar, food, bar, bar, jerseys shop, bar, food, bar, etc. The bars are largely indistinguishable- pool tables, flashing lights, and lightly dressed Filipinos trying to get you to buy soju. It's really quite amusing. Oh, and the best part is, the whole place has a nice 15 degree slope to it, so the guy who's had 3 too many drinks is always lurching down at breakneck speed. Good times. Anyways, Town Patrol is out there to assist the Security Forces guys in making sure the airmen get back to base before curfew or before doing anything that would involve Korean police. But since it was a 4 day weekend, the place was almost deserted. Only about a hundred people out that night, when there is usually about 600 at least.
Oh yes, I almost forgot: I'm pretty sure I'll be heading back to Texas for field training in August. It's a two week course on the equipment we use in deployed zones (mostly the compressed oxygen system). I have the option of taking leave after that, but the total time I'm off the Korean peninsula can not exceed 30 days per tour. As the course is 2 weeks, I'd rather not burn my other 2 weeks so soon, but I thought I would throw it out there. Our group can only have 6 people off-peninsula at any time (whether training or leave), so that is another restriction. You can take as much leave in Korea as your commander will sign for, though, so that's kind of nice.
The other good news I found out is that if you have a follow-on overseas tour, you're authorized government transportation to your home of record between assignments. Assuming that I still get sent to Misawa, I'll be able to take leave stateside around May or so of next year. I think that will work out much more smoothly than TDY to Texas, commercial flight to California, hi guys, then 2 weeks later catching another commercial flight to Seattle. I've got another briefing next week for all the people trying to keep/weasel out of their follow-ons, so hopefully that will allow me to firm up things. Well, to the extent that I can do so without having the physical orders in my hands.
We play exercises about 4 times a year, so there'll probably be a point where I'll just drop off the face of the earth for a week and a half. I'll still be alive, just spending my time sleeping instead of checking email.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
G
I'm sure you've been following the news on the Korean torpedo attack. I don't have insider info there, we're all reading the same news sites as everybody stateside. There was some talk of suspending off-base travel for the Memorial Day weekend, but fortunately that wasn't put into place. I did get my chem gear issued last week (didn't want you to worry about that), so now I've got my two sets of vacuum-sealed overgarments. As near as I can tell (based on what I've been reading) the attack was most likely intended to create a crisis just big enough to install Kim Jong Il's third son into higher positions in the party. The same playbook ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_Murder_Incident ) was used to put him in power, so we'll see.
At any rate, on happier tidings, I am again taking a public speaking class. I need 3 classes after that for my CCAF- 1 humanities and 2 in management. I'll see if I can CLEP a management class or two, then take an introductory Korean class. Last week was the worst- I was just starting class (1830-2130 Mondays and Wednesdays), plus I had to test for promotion that Wednesday morning. So here I was studying all weekend and then having to stay up late, and then having to get up early besides. Yeah, I was a real zombie through Thursday and Friday.
I went out on Town Patrol over the Memorial Day weekend. A-town-- excuse me, the "International Cultural Village", (but nobody calls it that and no-one is going to pay to replace the sign anyways) is quite amusing. Mostly in the sense of how little desperate lonely airmen are willing to settle for. In terms of atmosphere, I think I'd describe it as "Six Flags with barmaids" (juicies). There's a few blocks of crowded buildings all in a grid-like layout, and they alternate mostly between bar, food, bar, bar, jerseys shop, bar, food, bar, etc. The bars are largely indistinguishable- pool tables, flashing lights, and lightly dressed Filipinos trying to get you to buy soju. It's really quite amusing. Oh, and the best part is, the whole place has a nice 15 degree slope to it, so the guy who's had 3 too many drinks is always lurching down at breakneck speed. Good times. Anyways, Town Patrol is out there to assist the Security Forces guys in making sure the airmen get back to base before curfew or before doing anything that would involve Korean police. But since it was a 4 day weekend, the place was almost deserted. Only about a hundred people out that night, when there is usually about 600 at least.
Oh yes, I almost forgot: I'm pretty sure I'll be heading back to Texas for field training in August. It's a two week course on the equipment we use in deployed zones (mostly the compressed oxygen system). I have the option of taking leave after that, but the total time I'm off the Korean peninsula can not exceed 30 days per tour. As the course is 2 weeks, I'd rather not burn my other 2 weeks so soon, but I thought I would throw it out there. Our group can only have 6 people off-peninsula at any time (whether training or leave), so that is another restriction. You can take as much leave in Korea as your commander will sign for, though, so that's kind of nice.
The other good news I found out is that if you have a follow-on overseas tour, you're authorized government transportation to your home of record between assignments. Assuming that I still get sent to Misawa, I'll be able to take leave stateside around May or so of next year. I think that will work out much more smoothly than TDY to Texas, commercial flight to California, hi guys, then 2 weeks later catching another commercial flight to Seattle. I've got another briefing next week for all the people trying to keep/weasel out of their follow-ons, so hopefully that will allow me to firm up things. Well, to the extent that I can do so without having the physical orders in my hands.
We play exercises about 4 times a year, so there'll probably be a point where I'll just drop off the face of the earth for a week and a half. I'll still be alive, just spending my time sleeping instead of checking email.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
G
May 21, 2010 message
Sorry, things have been very busy, and yet not much of it has been very interesting. Mostly just inprocessing, endless briefings, and training, etc. Contrary to what I was told earlier, the BMET shop actually has 4 slots, and not 2. But we've actually got 6 BMETs here (one is running facilities, another is running the Logistics flight). So I'm still getting used to the idea of having other people who do the same job.
Also, the clinic is much smaller, so most of our work is just on WRM (war reserve material). I've done 2 work orders since I got here. Yeah.
I haven't gotten off the base much since I first got here. Lodging and the dormitories are packed to the gills (there's new construction all over the base), so most people get put in an offbase hotel for several weeks. Fortunately I got a dorm room in just 2 days.
For now I'm focusing on studying for the promotion test (June 9). After that I'll relax and get to know the local area.
Also, the clinic is much smaller, so most of our work is just on WRM (war reserve material). I've done 2 work orders since I got here. Yeah.
I haven't gotten off the base much since I first got here. Lodging and the dormitories are packed to the gills (there's new construction all over the base), so most people get put in an offbase hotel for several weeks. Fortunately I got a dorm room in just 2 days.
For now I'm focusing on studying for the promotion test (June 9). After that I'll relax and get to know the local area.
Travel from California to Korea
Heavily edited for security/privacy, but the string of messages below are the first contacts with son G as he left the States for a 1 year tour of duty in South Korea.
Mon, May 3, 2010 at 10:50 PM
I'm at Seattle. The flight went fine, and I picked up and checked in my luggage with AMC, so I'm now just hanging out at the USO until my flight comes in. That won't happen until about 0045 or 0130 or so. Just wanted to let you know.
Tue, May 4, 2010 at 5:17 AM
After a three hour flight to Anchorage, now we're waiting for the plane to refuel for the 7 hour flight to Yokota. Then another 2 hours for fuel, and a 22 minute hop to Osan.
Wed, May 5, 2010 at 7:20 AM
Just arrived at Yokota. Bleeaargh.
Now at Osan. They're processing us through immigration and customs now. "Do you have any North Korean propaganda to declare?", etc. I probably shouldn't have put those "Soviet Short Stories" books I got from the church thrift shop in my carryon bag...
Ok, I'm at Kunsan now. The base is all locked down due to an exercise, and billeting is filled up... so they sent me to an offbase hotel. I'm going to have to send you pictures of this place! The hallways are... well, "Vegas techno". Yeah. But the rooms are great, and only $50 a night. Craaazy.
Mon, May 3, 2010 at 10:50 PM
I'm at Seattle. The flight went fine, and I picked up and checked in my luggage with AMC, so I'm now just hanging out at the USO until my flight comes in. That won't happen until about 0045 or 0130 or so. Just wanted to let you know.
Tue, May 4, 2010 at 5:17 AM
After a three hour flight to Anchorage, now we're waiting for the plane to refuel for the 7 hour flight to Yokota. Then another 2 hours for fuel, and a 22 minute hop to Osan.
Wed, May 5, 2010 at 7:20 AM
Just arrived at Yokota. Bleeaargh.
Now at Osan. They're processing us through immigration and customs now. "Do you have any North Korean propaganda to declare?", etc. I probably shouldn't have put those "Soviet Short Stories" books I got from the church thrift shop in my carryon bag...
Ok, I'm at Kunsan now. The base is all locked down due to an exercise, and billeting is filled up... so they sent me to an offbase hotel. I'm going to have to send you pictures of this place! The hallways are... well, "Vegas techno". Yeah. But the rooms are great, and only $50 a night. Craaazy.
Updates
Gave this a LONG break, but I have decided to get off my ass and get back into this blogging thing. Need to update some of the intro bits...guess it has been a pretty long lapse!
Son G is in South Korea now. Occasionally he sends out an email. They are always remarkably well-written and insightful, and really tend to reflect his dry sense of humor. He's an interesting young man, always precociously serious growing up, and his writing reflects that. I'm just so thrilled he has found a career field that seems to fit his personality and quirks, and of course I'm crazy proud he is serving a second term in the USAF. I'm going to start posting his letters here, and then I'll link to my facebook page so others can enjoy these missives as much as I have.
Son G is in South Korea now. Occasionally he sends out an email. They are always remarkably well-written and insightful, and really tend to reflect his dry sense of humor. He's an interesting young man, always precociously serious growing up, and his writing reflects that. I'm just so thrilled he has found a career field that seems to fit his personality and quirks, and of course I'm crazy proud he is serving a second term in the USAF. I'm going to start posting his letters here, and then I'll link to my facebook page so others can enjoy these missives as much as I have.
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