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For the last three weekends in a row, I’ve found a way to avoid playing golf with my flag officer at 0730 on Saturday mornings, usually because he hadn’t asked directly. Either his writer or his aide came down, canvassing for players in a general way. Them I could say “no” to. But last [...]  Ran the PRT (physical readiness test) last week. Didn’t care for it very much, never really have. You only have to do it twice a year, but still. There are three elements to the Navy PRT (four if you count a ludicrous flexibility drill – touch your toes: Good!). First you will do as [...] Son Number One, as I believe I may have mentioned, has earned a four-year scholarship to a rather expensive private university, courtesy of the US Navy. Along with making his pop pretty proud of him, he’s saved the old man quite a bundle of your tax payer’s dollars. So yesterday, we bought him a [...] We got the orientation package for Son Number One’s NROTC program this week – he starts down at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot here in Sandy Eggo in mid-August. There were the general orders of a sentry to memorize, a list of things one could (and could not bring), haircut regulations, etc. For as [...] Going to sea for the very first time… In the summer of 1979 I had just finished my plebe year at the vocational school I attended. Our class had scaled Herndon Monument, a vaguely phallic tower, disturbingly slathered in grease, encircled in filthy mud (the metaphoric imagination ran wild), to exchange the plebe hat [...] Sometimes the mission doesn’t make much sense. Sometimes you do it anyway. Everyone has a store of sea stories that makes him looks like a hero. This is not one of those. Fighter aviation is mercillessly unforgiving of weakness of any sort, personal, professional, or character. The pressure to compete and succeed is remarkable [...] Hand it to NPR – just when you wonder what you’ll write about today, they throw you a bone. Today there was a discussion on about a soldier fleeing to Canada, with the assistance of the “underground railroad,” pacifists helping him to flee. I thought at first was a retrospective, something to do with [...] There are few words so immediately blood-chilling in their effect upon tactical aviators, as these: “mid-air.” It is an abbreviation for “mid-air collision,” and conjures up images of once sleek, purposeful and lethal high performance aircraft reduced in a moment to odd pieces of flaming trash, fluttering to earth – instant chaos from order. [...] In air combat, there are no points for second place, and the winner is he that combines arduous training with luck and opportunity. When you I was promoted today! That’s right, a full-fledged, eagle wearing, four stripe carrying, O-6 type Captain. For the last 16 months I was a Captain (select). Captains (select) are known throughout the Fleet as, “Commanders.” Which is pretty much what we were known as before we were Captains (select). But now it’s official! Which [...] |
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