In case you're wondering, the silly pilot in question this time would be my boss. Remember the previous post where I was talking about the wall of pictures that go up in headquarters? Yeah.... So they just put up the picture frames at my battalion's hq, but not everyone has had their official photos taken yet. So my boss thought it would be funny to find some other pictures to use as placeholders. The picture of "me" is in the top row, third from the left:
Saturday, March 22, 2008
What Warrant Officers do when they're not Flying
I apologize for the pre-explanation, but otherwise this picture wouldn't make any sense to non-military types....
In the headquarters of just about every army unit, on the wall, there will be pictures of the chain of command. It starts off with whoever is charge of that unit, usually a Lieutenant Colonel. The next picture will be his boss, a colonel. Then the colonel's boss, a general. Then the general's boss, a general with more stars, and so on until you see a picture of the president.
Then, on the other wall, they'll have pictures of the commanders (usually captains) that work for the lieutenant colonel. Get the idea? So anyway, when we went down to Fort Campbell we moved into an empty hangar, where they had taken down their pictures, but left up the frames on the wall. The pilots thought it would be cute to make sure that the temporary chain of command was properly represented on the wall:
I thought it was pretty funny. Apparently my picture started off with just the red skirt, but they said my stick figure looked topless at that point, so they added the cool square blue shirt. And yes, we left the pictures behind after we were done.
In the headquarters of just about every army unit, on the wall, there will be pictures of the chain of command. It starts off with whoever is charge of that unit, usually a Lieutenant Colonel. The next picture will be his boss, a colonel. Then the colonel's boss, a general. Then the general's boss, a general with more stars, and so on until you see a picture of the president.
Then, on the other wall, they'll have pictures of the commanders (usually captains) that work for the lieutenant colonel. Get the idea? So anyway, when we went down to Fort Campbell we moved into an empty hangar, where they had taken down their pictures, but left up the frames on the wall. The pilots thought it would be cute to make sure that the temporary chain of command was properly represented on the wall:
I thought it was pretty funny. Apparently my picture started off with just the red skirt, but they said my stick figure looked topless at that point, so they added the cool square blue shirt. And yes, we left the pictures behind after we were done.Waverly friggin Ohio!
Not too long after I got back from California, I volunteered to be in a small group (six crews) that would go to Fort Campbell, KY for two weeks to do some training down there. I was really hoping to be able to check out our rental house while I was down there, but never made it out there, dang. I was able to visit some old friends that I used to work with though, so that definitly made the trip worthwhile. The weather was mostly great down there and all the crews got a lot of flying in - certainly more than we would back here.
The best part of the trip for me, though, was getting there. We "self-deployed" the helicopters to Fort Campbell by flying them through Pennsylvania and Ohio. My mother's house in Waverly just happened to be right along our route of flight so I took a couple of pictures - I wish we had more time to stop at the little airport there, but we working on a tight timeline.
The best part of the trip for me, though, was getting there. We "self-deployed" the helicopters to Fort Campbell by flying them through Pennsylvania and Ohio. My mother's house in Waverly just happened to be right along our route of flight so I took a couple of pictures - I wish we had more time to stop at the little airport there, but we working on a tight timeline.
Ma - sorry the picture isn't better, I forgot my good camera and had to use the disposable :(
Where I've been these past few months...
I took company command back in October, which is a blessing and a great job, and is the primary reason that I've been so busy lately. Because the weather up here is so crappy in the witner the unit will travel to warmer locations to conduct training. Nowhere exotic, just places with fewer clouds and blizzards. My first stop was to Fort Hood, Texas for two weeks back in December. The only picture I have is from one day when we "snuck away" to Dallas and landed on a rooftop downtown:
The crew chiefs are the two standing outside, I'm sitting in the front right seat.
NTC / Fort Irwin, CA
This is where I spent the entire month of January :
I would like to flatter myself and say this is a horrible picture of me, but no, I always look this silly. So it is an accurate representation, unfortunately. For those of you unfamiliar with NTC, its an Army post in the middle of nowhere (Mojave desert) in California where units will go to for a month-long training rotation. During that month you get to "rough it" and pretend you're somewhere like Iraq or Afghanistan. Except, generally speaking, the living conditions at NTC were far more miserable than Iraq. Exhibit A:
What is that, you ask? That's my sleeping tent, being blown away in a sand storm. That happened twice, good times. But enough complaining, I got to fly a good bit out there so it wasn't too bad.
.... and this is a picture of the flightline with one of the mountains in the background, hooray!
I would like to flatter myself and say this is a horrible picture of me, but no, I always look this silly. So it is an accurate representation, unfortunately. For those of you unfamiliar with NTC, its an Army post in the middle of nowhere (Mojave desert) in California where units will go to for a month-long training rotation. During that month you get to "rough it" and pretend you're somewhere like Iraq or Afghanistan. Except, generally speaking, the living conditions at NTC were far more miserable than Iraq. Exhibit A:
What is that, you ask? That's my sleeping tent, being blown away in a sand storm. That happened twice, good times. But enough complaining, I got to fly a good bit out there so it wasn't too bad.
.... and this is a picture of the flightline with one of the mountains in the background, hooray!I'm back! (Happy Easter)
Hooray!
I know I've been busy lately, but I can't believe the last time I updated this thing was back in September.... unbelievable. Since then I've spent over two months away from home (in bits and pieces) and what seems like the remainder of my time at the office. But I really do enjoy my new job, and with Matt being away its not a bad thing to always have something to do.
I finally developed a roll of film from an old-school disposable camera that I took with me on my "adventures" so I will post some of those, along with the obligatory lame-ass picture of what winter looks like at my house, enjoy:
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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