This won’t even be short, it will be ephemeral. Here and – poof! – gone before you know it.
Just so’s you know.
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There’s a new bypass open on the 5 North, just past the 5/805 merge, which takes your humble scribe out of the heaving, boiling morass that is the normal merge traffic and whisks him home on the wings of angels, like.
I love this new bypass. It’s the best bypass ever. I could hug it, and kiss it, and call it “George.”
Is how much I love it.
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The Danish Embassy protest. It was ver nice.
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Bill Buckley throws in the towel, and now I suppose I should rent my clothes, go crawl into a corner and softly weep. I decline, joining Jeff Goldstein in noting that Buckley never really was on side anyway, and seemed to be happier in the old days, when he could sit in his armchair murmuring intellectual aphorisms from opposition than he has been ever since his movement came to actual power. All of this dreary scurrying about with the foreigners – It interferes with the digestion, not to mention that “standing athwart history shouting, ‘Stop!’” thing. Which was so much fun. And sailing.
It also interferes with sailing.
Not that he couldn’t be right. Not that it won’t necessarily spin out of control. Just that one bombing, after all that poor country has been through in the last three years, can’t possibly be the one thing that broke the camel’s back. Not unless we make it so.
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And finally, I bring you the photographic evidence of occasional correspondent Jonboy’s first familiarization flight in the TA-4J. Which, I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel so much better about my first fam.
Stay tuned tomorrow for his side of the tale.
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Speech went well (and there was much rejoicing!), Master Chief and his wife piped ashore, and I made it to the Midway not merely on time but with time to spare. There are not one but two aircraft on that ship as museum pieces whose bureau numbers grace my own log book. Between that and speaking at the retirement of Master Chief Petty Officers my age, I’m starting to wonder if maybe, you know: Someone’s trying to tell me something.
Speech up when the pics come back. Kind of a multi-media sort of thing.
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And have a great weekend!
First flight? Isn’t that the kind of plane they use to familiarise people with fast(er) jets?
Interesting baptism….
Ouch. Time for tea and bickies with the Boss, and perform a quick dance on the rug.
Hey Cap! I was tooling around on the net and found this link. Right there in you’re own back yard!
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sandiegocajun
Ooops! Bad grammar, ‘your own backyard’
And if you’re passin this way, it’s Mardi Gras this week! Any excuse to have a party!
Tommy
Nice Jonboy. They told us that would work if you couldn’t get ‘em down and those drops would keep you upright! Vertant or inadvertant? Just kidding folks.
Sim-
In jet training we used to start in the T-2C Buckeye (basic jets) and progress to advanced jets (TA-4J). 1st fam flight would have been dual but J-boy would have been up front and seen it all! Maybe he’ll tell us his sea-story.
B2
Which two aircraft there did you fly? Can any of them be seen in this picture?
I’m glad everything went well at the retirement ceremony. And yes, I’m looking forward to the pics of all those sailors in their dress whites. *swoon*
CAPT Lex,
Actually, cancer and sucking chest wounds are someone’s way of telling you it is time to slow down. I don’t think you’ve met the criteria for receiving such messages yet. Retiring Master Chiefs your age and finding aircraft you once flew onboard during the retirement of an “Old Friend” (as all our ships were in such recent past history as our memories) doesn’t mean you are too old, just that Time is marching on.
I went to the decommissioning of USS Sea Dragon long ago. After the speeches, you watch the crew step off the ship, and walk away. All during the ceremony, somewhere on the ship a fender was loose over the side and as she rocked in the slight swells of the tide, it beat against one of the ballast tanks topside, with a hollow thump, thump, thump. And after the Men left the ship, the beating slowed and stopped — forever.
Don’t tell me ships aren’t alive. Don’t tell me that ships don’t live and breathe with the breath and the blood of her crew. I had to leave quickly to keep from being seen with tears in my eyes. It was like putting your Sister or your Mother to sleep for the last time.
And I don’t need to go through either of those three things to know I don’t like them and I’d rather avoid them — forever.
Subsunk
Retiring the Command Master Chief is but one sign. When the Admiral reminds you of the days when he used to work for you…that’s another.
Happy “flying” on the new George.
Great comment, Subsunk! I believe ships live too – or at least conventionally powered aircraft carriers do. Not so sure about the nukes. While they may live, I’m pretty sure they never had a soul installed…
FbL – it’s not a great angle, but if you look just behind the tail of the F-4 Phantom in you pic, you’ll see an FA-18 nose-on. That’s in my log book, an old FA-18A. The other one is a Meridian-based T-2C that I flew long ago.
Thanks for the pointer on the Cajun band, Tommy! Right here in Sandy Eggo. Who’d a thunk it?
Have a great Mardi Gras. Wish I could be there for it…
Camel-tipping with Bill Buckley…
Link: William F. Buckley Jr. on Iraq. the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.WJB sees the demolition of the golden mosque as sad evidence of freedom from dictatorship leading to the destruction of Iraqi society and a sliding off…
Any bypass that gets you passed the traffic on I-5 is worthy of being hugged and kissed!
- hfs
Ahhh, Grey Father Lex,
Trust your poor and humble servant, Subsunk. Nukes do live and DO have a soul. It just has more power and lasts longer between refuelings than the rest of the conventional Navy souls. And at times it tends to eat its young to maintain its life. Sort of vampiric in nature.
But this nature is nothing that I’ve never encountered in the O Club at Miramar. Once the sweetest young thing in her zoomie bag (flight suit) acosted me at the bar when she heard I was a submariner and she fairly sneered at how she (as a helo driver) ate submarines for lunch. I merely smiled and suggested she bring it on and show me how it was done.
Of course as a subhuman nuke submariner, I was far beneath her sex appeal flight level and ended up single that night. A professional hazard for those with a face only their Mother could love, and some humility in their character.
Nevertheless, only once has a helo driver, aviator, or hostile or nonhostile surface target ever shown me the way it should be done. And it was my own fault for closing too near without due regard to the sterling habits and excellent training of US Navy surface sonarmen. All I ask is that you and your peers respect the fact that the United States Submarine Force is the primary defense of your homeplate from diesel boats which enemies possess in spades, everywhere, and the reason you have anything to come home to after Bingo sounds and your missions are complete.
And we ask nothing but your respect for this action. After all, what good is a Silent Service if one is not “silent” about doing one’s job well.
Subsunk
PS, I will say that the performance of deployed P-3 squadrons is second to none on Westpac. Those boys practice hard and work hard, and were excellent foils for our skills. You knew you’d been in a fight for your life trying to get away from them. Of course, once told the general area one’s target submarine would be passing through, it is much easier to target said sub than to have to search 55 million square miles of Pacific Ocean to find same. But your fellow avaitors have earned our respect for their professionalism nonetheless. Subsunk out.
Ah, Subsunk. I think you’ve maybe taken a sliver of offense where not even a gram was intended.
I was referring of course to my own “nuke” experience. CVN class aircraft carriers. Would never dream of dissing the silent service, nor their power plants.
I stick to what I know, mostly.
Cheers!
Oh Great Grey Father Lex,
Perhaps I wasn’t following the humorous thread quite as closely as I should have. But rest assured, no hurt was received by me or intended by mine own meager words, CAPT. I still think even CVNs have souls. They just have more victims to feed off of. And of course, the turning radius is a bit wider than most. (Does this flight deck make my ass look fat? No more than usual, darlin’.)
I believe it is just that she is a bit more “majestic” than the other grand ladies of the ocean racecourses. That, and she damn well gets her way more often than her smaller sisters.
Press on, CAPT Lex. No offense was taken. I just saw a chance to plug the life on the smaller boats and took it, perhaps in poor taste. But with love and affection for their kind.
Subsunk
I too LOVE George. So much I perfer to refer to her as Georgette. Makes my ride from the big city to RanchoPen much much better.
Yup, the Danish demonstration was fun…I’d never been to a real live demonstration before. Blogged about it, a bit. Vi elske Danmark!