Thanksgiving for Family Time

 Well....Campers welcome to December. Day before Yesterday, AKA November 29th the temperature down here in Texas was a balmy 80 degrees.  Sunday morning, when we left for Church, the temperature was a balmy 42 with a wind chill in the low 30s.  So much for November

Ahhhh, Texas!  If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes it'll change.  So,  I've now got a fire in the fireplace, a wool shirt and sweatshirt on.  Gotta like it.

As most of you are aware, in December the days get shorter.  In our case, not only are the days getting shorter, they're getting fewer in number.  We'll be moving out of our current house on December 15th and closing on it on the 18th.   So....Lots of balls in the air.

However,  we did manage to get the whole family together over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We went over to MBD and family's house in College Station on Tuesday.  Little Juvat, LJW and LJD flew into Houston from London on Tuesday also,  They then rented a car and drove up to College Station.  

Then promptly took a nap! 

Prepping for Thanksgiving dinner started Wednesday and continued til noon on Thursday at which time dining commenced. 

Lots of chowing down and story telling so, all in all, a great holiday.  Leftovers were consumed on Friday and also were quite delicious.  

MBD kept track of the recipes, cooking time and temperatures and all the other minutea required of a successful Thanksgiving Dinner.  Most Excellent it was.

RTB to the 'Burg was on Saturday.  As expected, US 290 between Austin and Houston was bumper to bumper both directions.  

 

In the photo above, the only reason there's a bit of space is the guy in front of us pulled out to make a left turn.  I think he may still be there waiting for an opportunity to complete his left turn.  Once we got to the Y in Austin, things got much better and we made it safely home. 

Little J and gang went back to Jolly Old on Sunday.  Our hosts, MBD and gang, are probably engaging in Naptime as this is being written.

Unfortunately, all wasn't joy and laughing.  Little J, and LJW endured a bit of sadness as their second daughter was born prematurely and didn't survive.  The Family and a few friends had a quiet interrment cerimony.  She's interred right behind her sister's shoulder.  

Happens to all of us. Just wish it hadn't happened so soon.

Peace out y'all! 

The Good, Bad and Ugly (no, not you Beans)

 Sorry, hit the wrong button and deleted my post. Yes, late in the evening.

Mea culpa, Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa!

Next Monday

juvat

 

 

 

 

Updates on a Happier Scale

 Having trouble with my computer. It and the photo's I clipped from websites didn't seem to get along.  Finally got them tamed when I deleted the problematic page I was working on and started all over.  Just something to file away in my  limited brain in case it happens again.

So,  This is the 5th day in a row I've published a post.  I have no earthly idea how Sarge can publish 1 per day 313 days per year.  (He gets Monday's off.). Every day has challenged my post authoring skills to the max.  However, he deserves a break.  I just hope he comes back soon.  His fictional stories are much better than my pissing, moaning and complaining.

But, here we go!

As most of you regular readers are aware, Mrs J and I are about to move to College Station.  Our Daughter, her Husband and two children live there.  In addition, my Son, his bride and daughter will be retiring in a couple of years and have expressed an interest in settling in College Station also.  Since all 4 of that generation in my Family graduated from Texas A&M University, I guess that explains things.  

So, getting on in years, Mrs J and I thought it wise (OK, she thought it wise, I just said "Yes Dear!") to move there also.  But, there are some caveats.  We don't want to live in downtown College Station, or Bryan for that matter.  Just don't want the hustle and bustle.

So, we've decided on a piece of property about 15 miles south of town.  4.8 acres, so we can bring our horses with us.  They're good listeners when I'm frustrated, annoyed, or just in need of a quiet listener.  They're very good at that, and I don't want to give them up.  So...They're coming with us.

In any case, this is the property we're purchasing.

Yes, it's got a lot (OK an awful lot) of trees on it.  That will be one of the first projects we'll need done.  

If you look closely in the center of the Red Rectangle, you'll see the prior owner's house.  It was probably built in the early '60s.  It is NOT in good shape,   The owner and seller of the property  is a widow and is also the daughter of the original owner.  The house is a wreck,  According to our Real Estate Agent, the furniture such as it is, is still in it.  Such as it is, being defined as a hospital bed and a TV. The original owner lived in the house until she passed and was there a bit longer.  In adition to that, the house is now lived in by about 20 cats.  The good news is no mice are in it. Not much else in the good news pile.

So, that house is being razed.  A beginning part of thinning the forest will involve creating a clearing to build our house in.  That will call for a Well, Electricity and a septic tank as the first things that need to be put in.  Then barring any further excitement, actual construction might go forward.  However, our contractor said the project will take a minimum of 8 months and quite likely a year.

So, Mrs J and I have been packing things in two categories, things we need and things that we can wait for.  We've been ruthless in the latter category.  Why?

Well, this is the house we'll be renting.  Quite a bit smaller than our current house and so...Stuff has to go to storage.  The yard is fenced in, so the dogs will be able to go outside.  Don't know if there are additional dogs in the vicinity they can "talk" to. Should be interesting.  That move in, should be Mid December. We've got to be out of this house by the 15th of December.  

Times a-wasting!

‘

But, we've got something to look forward to!

 

Courtesy of Akashi Designs

 

The plans were from Akashi Designs, just in case anyone is interested.  Really a nice home.  Looking forward to that move. 

 

Peace out, y'all! 

Praying

I don't know if all y'all have read Sarge's Post titled "The Mail".  It is an exceptional story (and ALL Sarge's stories are pretty darn good).  It's the story of a young infantry man (Boy really) doing sentry duty on the front Line of WWI.  If you haven't read that posting, please do so, it'll help with the tale I'm telling this morning.  While the situation in his story is unique, it had a lot of things about it that I said to myself "Yep,  I understand that thought" which is the source of this post.

So...There I was...I'm stationed at my first “real” fighter assignment at Kunsan AB Republic of Korea (aka ROK) as a fully qualified F-4D driver and brand new First Lieutenant .  Have been there for a little while and have been (barely) qualified to carry and employ all the various weapons the F-4 could employ.  There were a lot, I did more studying for that duty than I did for my first Master's degree.

Source

Anyhow, there I was sitting Special Weapons alert in the alert hut located abour 250 feet away from our Steeds.  The first couple of days was spent reading books and magazines looking forward to our next meal. I'm pretty nervous given the realities of the weapon. 

But the daily grind is boring.  Not much variety on TV on the ROK.  So...Boredom begins to seep in.

Source

So, the four (two pilots, two weapons systems officers AKA WSO's) of us are sitting there playing cards when the Klaxon goes off.  There is about a microsecond of "WTF?" and then we're off to the races.  First guy to the truck starts the truck and gives about a 5 count for the others to dive in.  Then no gas is preserved in driving to the jets.

That takes about a minute or so.  Screech to a halt as the doors are opening and the other three are jumping out.  Run the 50 feet or so to "my" jet and up the ladder.  My chute harness is spread out on the ejection seat.  I start the right engine as the back seater and I are sitting down on the seat.  The crew chief and assistant chief are strapping us in as this begins.  We grab the leg straps as the chief grabs the shoulder harness.  We're strapped in before the engine is at idle RPM.  The chief has slid down and removed the ladder.  As soon as the RPM is at idle, we start the left engine.  Meanwhile in the back seat, the WSO is turning on all his equipment.  Radio and Radar are the two priorities right now in this incident.  The code word to travel to the end of the runway could cause the blood pressure to go even higher.  Most of the time once we're up and running, the code word is shut down, exercise complete.  A taxi to the runway code keeps that heart rate high.

This time it's the latter, a rare exercise event, we're headed to the runway at a very high ground speed.  Pull in to the arming area and put our hands on the canopy rail so the ground crew knows we haven't and won't touch any switches.  That ground crew goes around looking for leaks or other issues. A member of the arming crew pulls the safety wires off the weapons and walks out to the side and holds them over his head to let the aircrew knows that "Fight's On" has a new and terrible meaning.

At that point, the aircrew is waiting either for the launch code or exercise over code.   Fortunately, though I've gone through a few of these exercise, as you may have surmised I've never received a launch code.  Nor is it this time. The next thought through my brain when I get the endex code is "Thank You, Lord"! 

The jet is safetied before taxi back.  Yes, Beans, even though flags "from the weapons" were shown to the aircrew, they were never pulled unless it was for real.  They had extra flags to make the exercise more realistic.  There were a couple of WSO's who after their first of these exercises, came in and told the commander they couldn't do this. That was another objective of the exercise.  They were relieved and reassigned immediately.  Nothing was held against them, they just quietly left the squadron.  Probably a good thing for all concerned.

Those TDY's taught me a lot about myself and how I handle stressful events,  Sitting that "special" alert is the most effective at showing ones handling of those events, there are others.

Source

So, when I read Sarge's post, I remember the similar feelings that I had had when combat seemed to be possible in my close future.  Many were very similar to those described in the post. Not wanting to influence Sarge's story, but I hope the soldier gets through it.  

Peace out y'all!

What a week!

 Well, campers, the good news is I was released from the hospital Saturday and am headed home as this post is being written. (No Beans, I’m not driving, Mrs J is kindly taking care of that responsibility.)  We have made it safely home.  Safely mostly because of Mrs J's driving abilitiy rather than the driving performances of the people who have recently moved to Texas after having sold their 1500 sqft BUNgalow for a couple of million and now feel entitled to dictate to us mere mortals  who have lived here for the majority of our lives. Those numbers on the freeway signs are not indicative of the minimum speed allowed by law.  Back the hell off my bumper, just in case one of your colleagues in the "how close can I get to his bumper" competition screws it up and is splattered on the highway.  Thereby tempting you to test your brakes and potentially join him.

A Pox be upon thee.  

Anyhow, back to the update.  Surgery went fine, however recovery is a bit slow.  They've got me in a neck brace which was pictured last Mondays post.  I didn't worry about it too much as I wasn't given the full story.  Evidently, I've got to wear that brace as close to 24/7 every week for the next 3 months.I did get a short break when I switch from normal to “My Lord! Would you please take a shower?”.  Showering requires a different brace. It can get wet. Nicest shower I’ve had in a while.

Yay!

But Mrs J and I are back in the Burg.  We’ve got lot of things still left to do vis a vis the move. But progress is progressing. Cracking my sternum and fracturing my neck hasn’t helped. But we have hired professional mover help now and adjusted our travel schedule to give us a bit more moving time. 

Well…THAT didn't go well!

 There we are!… Headed to College Station. Had some business to attend to vis a vis new home.  We’re on cruise control which is set to speed of traffic(about 75. Yes Beans, it also matches the number on the Speed Limit sign). 

In any case,Cruise Control is on, Map on the phone show route to MBD and family’s home.

Life is good! Mrs J had bought some jalapeño sausage and some jalapeño cheese @ Bucees! Pretty tasty!

Sausage and cheese has been consumed. Started to feel a bit of heart burn. No big deal.

Except the heartburn is getting worse. we make the last highway change and we’ll be “home” in about 10 minutes. I’m starting to feel a bit woozy.  It’s getting worse fast. I click the button to turn off cruise.

About this time the world starts spinning, I hit the brakes and start looking for an off ramp.

Unfortunately, I become unconcious. The last thing I remember is Mrs J yelling something.

The next thing I remember, I’m opening Mrs J’s door and let her out. I look at the truck, The engine compartment. It’s squashed against a pile of rocks.  Did you know that an Apple watch will call the nearest emergency response team and tell them where the accident is?

Less than 10 minutes later the ambulance is here. I’ve got several sensors attached to me. Medicine has been administered. And I’m having an IV installed.. 

Trip to the hospital was uneventful. Both Mrs J and I were sent to the ER. About 15 minutes later she comes in to my treatment room. Nothing serious.

Thank You Lord!

I unfortunately am not so lucky.

XX-rays, and other scanning devices were used and I’m shown to my hospital room, I’m still there as of Sunday. Diagnosis has Fractured sternum , neck issues as well as heart beat issues. 

Hospital room is assigned, been 3 days at time of posting this.  Haven’t been able to sleep much and my usual sleeping habit of rolling over has proven to be a tad painful.

 I am a bit nervous. Looks like the tentative go home date and moving date two are getting pretty close.

We shall see what will be.

juvat

 P.S. I’m in a hospital ER writing this on my iPad with no external key board. Not responsible for splling errors and sentences tHat make no cents.

Peace out y’all.  Oh and drive carefully!

It's another Tequila Monday

 Well, time is running out.  Lots of boxes either full, half full or still to be taped into readiness.  

The Wine Closet

That having been said, still a lot of packing to do.  Progress on the moving front is OK not great, but it has made some progress.  These are the contents of our wine closet.  60+ bottles of PDG* wine.  That will be loaded into my truck (inside the cab of course) and transported to CStat (AKA College Station) and stored at MBD's house.  Too big a risk of theft/heat damage to move it with movers.

Mrs J and I went to College Station last Thursday, spent the night and returned on Friday.  Took a look at the property that Mrs J was interested in.  It was a lot nicer than it looked from the air photo.

We'd set up an appointment to meet with a builder to talk about what was needed, what issues we might have, water, all the things that are needed to build a house.  The property is about 4.8 acres, which we feel is enough for a house, a barn, grazing area for the horses and privacy.  Lots of tall oak trees, but quite a bit of underbrush to be removed.  Fencing-in the perimeter will be one of the first tasks.  Then we can bring in the horses to graze.  

Mrs. J also had a pretty good idea.  She had done a bit of research on situations like this.  Apparently, there are people who have herds of goats that they will rent to "mow" the underbrush.  Gonna have to check out that a bit more, but if that works, well...

Got boxes all over the house, some full, some partially, some still need to be "built".  Got until December 18th to be out as the house changes hands at that point.  So...Time's awaistin'

Oh, one more thing,  after a long day, Mrs J and I were sitting out front having a medicinal glass of wine.

Being somewhat interested in aviation, Austin Bergstrom and San Antonio Airports flightpaths are within viewing range.  (Yes, Beans a glass or two of Josh Rose' aids the visual acuity).  In any case, I happened to notice this rare vision.

Given the bearing of the X and from where I'm looking. I'd say that they three Airliners passed over a TACAN station along I10 northwest of San Antonio.  Just thought it kinda cool that they all (well except for the fourth one) passed over pretty much the exact same spot.  The accuracy of the station is a couple of miles, so pretty accurate navigation, Mates!

Yes, Beans, they were also altitude separated as well as time over the TACAN.

So, sorry for a short post, Gang, that's all I've got at this point.  Gonna be a very (OK very, very) busy next few months.  Looking forward to completion and move in.

Peace Out, y'all!

*Pretty Darn Good!  (Sarge wouldn't allow the other "D" word!)

Oh! What a week!

 0800 October 13. Mrs J and I are finishing breakfast when the phone rang.  Mrs J answered and it was our realtor, my fingers immediately crossed in the hope he had a bit of potentially good news.  (Yes, Beans, good news is always potential until it actually occurs.  We're not there yet.). But the realtor asked if our Dogs could be gone from the house for about 4 hours without rioting.  I said sure with enough rib bones.  The cat however...

But he then dropped the big one, he was going to be showing the house to 2 different potential buyers.  

OK, then, we'll handle the dogs.  (We just sat them down in the living room and explained how important this was in trying to sell the house.  We also told them how we'd show them parts of town they hadn't peed on yet, so they could mark new territory.  Tails went into full flogging mode at that.  Cat, however, wasn't impressed. ) 

Ah well.  

1200 October 14. The showings went well, very well.  The first showing of the day was the second showing of our house to a couple from  Colorado.  This time the wife came along, that may have made a difference as they told our realtor they'd be making an offer when they got one on their house.  That's definitely good news, but a long way from a signed contract.

Still, better than nothing.

When the realtor told us about the second showing, something had me a tad bit more confident.  The two viewers live about 15 miles south of us in a medium sized city.  He relayed to us that they were not comfortable in the neighborhood they were living in,  too crowded, noisy, close together...Well, none of that is a factor on our 30.9 acres.

Our property

 They said they liked the property and, to me, it just feels like a better fit for them.  They also told our realtor that they were very interested.

We shall see what will be!

0800 15 October. Well, it's a couple of days and things are speeding up.  We did get an offer from the people in the vicinity.  Yes it was a very low ball offer.  We went and visited our realtor about what he thought the house would sell for, his price and mine were almost exactly the same.  So we had him put together a counter offer which still allowed for some negotiation above our high end sale price.

As I mentioned above, we shall see what will be!

0800 16 October. Given the activity going on, we realized we've got to get the move-out side of the move started.  Getting stuff ready for movers is now in progress.  We're also headed over to College Station sometime in the next couple of days for an out and back.  We've got a couple of properties that we're interested in, but the photos are not all that satisfying.  We’d like to do a walk through and see what the truth is in the listing. We also reminded the selling realtor that Mrs J’s travel schedule has a River Cruise tour in Portugal in November and a Disney cruise in December for our family, so scheduling the sale and move will take some planning and mid-January would be the earliest jumping through all the hoops could be accomplished. 

So, progress, but, unfortunately, circumstances changed that moving schedule.

0800 17 October. Things quickly started to roll.  The folks from south of us called this morning  and said yes.  The only drawback (such as it is) is they need to move in in Mid December.  Their Daughter is in a difficult pregnancy and needs to be in one of our guest houses where it's peaceful and quiet.  That's the determining factor on the sale.  I think we're probably gonna have to borrow Santa's sleigh to move our "stuff" to College Station by the 17th of December. 

So, gonna be a "fun" couple of months and Mrs J and I may sleep through the cruises.  But...we are officially under contract for essentially our asking price.

0800 18 October. Now the priority is getting things sorted on what we're taking, what we're donating and what we're junking.   Mrs J is being ruthless.  Sentenced me to cleaning out my workshop.  Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.  If offered the opportunity to criminals to avoid capital punishment by cleaning the workshop, I think they'd just go ahead and end it all.  Unfortunately, that is not an option for me.  

0800 19 October.  Actually once I got started, I made quite a bit of progress. 8 large black trash cans full of "stuff" (swahili for "junk") were taken to the dumpster. All the tools and good stuff I want to keep are in Plastic boxes with snap on lids.  Back wall and work bench back there are pretty well ready to go.  Stuff along the right wall are still needing some dumpster/no dumbster decision making.  But progress is being made. 

 

C'est la vie! Most of the stuff along the right is small and hand tools, so that will be packed into shipping boxes as we're taking it with us.  The packing process has progressed about halfway up the right wall just on the far side of the crumpled Lowes (plastic) bucket.  Still a lot of junk to be thrown out but ... progress.

Update: Right wall has been de-junkified.  Found quite a few tools that I didn't know I had (e.g. I now have 4 contour gauges. I'm sure they'll all come in handy when I gain three more hands.) 

But, we're under contract!  Never imagined that things would change so fast.  Still a lot of hoops to jump, but we're making progress and will be on our way or will be soon. But, it ain't over until it's over, so fingers are crossed (unless I'm carrying out trash, which means they aren't crossed very often).

1600 Oct 19: The Buyer asked if she could bring her daughter and the daughter's husband by and look at the property.  We said OK.  They seemed happy with the property and were satisfied that it would accommodate the daughter's pregnancy requirements.  So...Finally...All happy all round.

What a week! Thank you, Lord, for keeping me calm and sane!  Please continue to help until it's official.

Been a helluva week. If you're still reading this it's my normal Monday publishing and therefore.... 

Peace out y'all! 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Manic Monday*

 Ok, Campers,  still not a lot going on at Rancho Juvat.  Weather has been beautiful, not too hot (mid 80's), not too cold (low 60's).  Just about perfect.  The good news is, my leg seems to be getting a bit better.  I can walk a bit more comfortably, most of the time.  I think I've been to virtually all the Doctor's in town, none seem to know what to do about it, but, as I said, it does seem to be getting better.  We'll see.

My favorite travel agent (AKA Mrs Juvat) is planning vacations left and right.  Mid-November, she's set up a wine cruise for the "gang" from our friend's previously owned winery.  The Husband, the winemaker had passed away.  The Wife, the Business Manager decided to sell the winery.  The folks who bought it,  well, they're not really personable.  So, the "gang" has kinda gone out on our own.  

 

This is pretty much the group going on the cruise, as I said, "The Gang"

In any case, about 14 folks are going on a riverboat cruise in Portugal on the Duoro River which runs through the Portugese Wine Country.  The boat holds about 100 passengers, so, it won't be too crowded.

And...They provide wine on the boat.  So....We've got that going for us.

This is where we'll be.

Should be a lot of fun

One of the many reasons I married Mrs J is she is a very kind hearted person and goes way out of her way to try and help folks having "difficulties".  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Little J and LJW had a miscarrage.  Mrs J and I went through a few of them between Little J's birth and MBD's, so we (especially she) understand the feelings.  So, we're sitting out on the front porch enjoying a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc a couple of evenings ago (temperature was about 75 with about 5K of wind, quite delightful), while watching Axis Deer transit our property.  (Drives the Great Pyrenees bat-shit crazy.  I like to laugh at the looks the deer give the dogs, since they're on another side of the fence.  Yes, it's a great life we live here!). 

Anyhow...we're sitting there when Mrs J, out of nowhere, asks if I'd like to go on a cruise sometime around Christmas.  Since we'll have come back from a cruise less than a month before, the cash register bells in the back of my head started going off. So, I hemmed and hawwed a bit.  Then she ran over our out of pocket expenses for the Portugal trip.   Hmmmm!  Seems our trip was covered by her commission with quite a bit left over.  

She then mentioned that since Little J, LJW and Miss B would be coming home for Christmas, it might be a good opportunity to get them in a family adventure with us, them and MBD, the Rev and their two kids.  Take their minds off of things.

She's a smart cookie, way smarter than me (not that that's too hard), so I said "Great Idea!" and gave it my blessing.  Just a 5 day cruise, get's back on Christmas Eve. It's a Disney cruise ship which pretty much ensures it'll be a very Christmas and Kid oriented cruise program.  I mean, they've even got a Pirate Knight Night.  ARRRGGGHHH, Mateys! So, it should be a blast. The whole gang is excited.  Which is good!

Beans, I think they've got room for one more (Big) kid if you want to tag along.  I'd pay big money for photo evidence of you in an elf costume.  Yes, I would!  (And I'd have subject matter for several future posts, which'll keep Sarge happy.)

So, as I said, a lot of ups and downs lately, but it looks like the more prominent vector now is a 90 degree Afterburner Climb.  Thank You, Lord!

Much like this!

 

 Damn, I miss that! And, that's with 2 external tanks,  You should try it with a clean jet!  Gotta get the landing gear up REAL fast.

Peace out, y'all!  

*Just in case you want to listen to the Bangles 

Just another Monday! Manic? Magic? Who Knows?

 So...Sarge goes on a family vacation and comes back with Dengue Fever (or something) and now I'm in Charge! There'll be some changes around here, I can tell you that!  Given that Tuna has defected and is providing comfort and content over at Borepatch's place, the first thing I'm going to do is reassign his paycheck to someone in need.

AKA me!  Bwaa, Ha, Ha (you'll have to insert the sinister laugh yourself).

What's that Sarge?  No paychecks????

Well, if that's not just a big pile of Bovine Fecal Matter!

Anyhow, and in all seriousness, this has been a tough month, lots of things happened and not a lot of them good.  I think I've mentioned that Little Juvat and LJW, had a miscarriage a week or so ago.  All the required medical procedures are completed and LJW should be released from the hospital shortly. Needless to say they're pretty upset, so prayers will be much appreciated. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, I've just about jumped through all the hoops necessary to get some treatment for my fall.  (I had tripped on the way to the horse barn, landed full impact on my left side.  Hurts from my ribs down to my ankle, most painful on my thigh.  Best I can manage walking is about a third of my normal pace.  Pain level on a good day is about 5 but other days are sometimes as much as 7-8.  Sleeping is hard, even on a good day. 

Finally got an appointment for the MRI that the Doctor needs to see what the heck is going on.  That will be tomorrow (Tuesday). We shall see what will follow that appointment.

But, given the lack of mobility, not much of entertainment interest has gone on at Rancho Juvat.  So... A retelling from a couple of years ago, when Little J and LJW's first child had a bit of "issues" in her first year or so.  Long story short, she's now doing fabulously and is funny, smart and a lot of fun to be with.  Thank you, Lord!

Equipment Malfunction

 Folks, bear with me on this one.  It's going to take quite a bit of setting the stage before I get to the point on this post.  I'll get there, I promise. But I'll start with the hero of the story.

No Beans, Not Princess Leia.  Miss B!

Back in the day my folks would try and teach me the need for trust in the world.  One needed to trust their fellow man to do the right thing or else one would spend his entire life looking over his shoulder for protection instead of ahead for opportunity.  

Of course they also taught that once someone had proved themselves untrustworthy...Well, don't trust them.  Ever.  I'm not talking a simple "letting you down", but actual betrayal.  Failing to do their duty to honor their word deliberately regardless of reason.  That was the ultimate sin.

Then I joined the military and realized where that ethos came from.  My instructors insisted on trustworthiness in themselves and their students.  That expectation extended through all members of the military.  If you wore the uniform, your word was your bond.  You may fail, but you failed while giving your best.

Source

 

As a "For Instance", even non-flying readers will realize that an In-Flight Fire is an extremely serious event.  They would not be wrong.  Unlike a sailplane, the engines are the things that keep you aloft.  Without them, you are going to be landing.  Whether on a runway or not, is not generally your choice.  The airplane is coming down. Period.

Ok, how does the USAF address an Engine Fire?  The "Bible" on aircraft operations in the Air Force is affectionately called the "Dash One".  The F-4E Dash One can be found here.  Just as an example of how important that document is, 40 plus years after the last time I read it, looking through the Engine Fire or Overhead during Flight Emergency Procedure, I recognized some subtle changes in the wording and punctuation of the procedure from the previous reading.  That's how serious we took that book. In any case, here's the procedure. (It's found on Page 3-9 at the link above.)

Engine Fire or Overheat during Flight

1. Throttle bad engine - IDLE
2. If warning light goes out - CHECK FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM
Depress fire test button to determine that the fire detecting elements are not burned through.
3. If detection system check is satisfactory (i.e., warning lights illuminate when checked) - LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE
Increasing thrust on the bad engine after the throttle has been retarded and the warning light has been extinguished may cause fire or overheat damage, and/or possible burn through the fire detecting elements.
4. If warning light remains Illuminated or fire detection system is inoperative or fire is confirmed - SHUTDOWN ENGINE
5. If fire persists - EJECT
6 . If fire ceases - LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE 

CAUTION
Do not attempt to restart the bad engine. If the fire ceases, and a landing is to be accomplished, make a single engine landing.

Pay particular attention to #5 in that procedure.  If the fire light does NOT go out, you are to eject from the airplane. Period-Dot-End of Story.

So, juvat, interesting, but where are we going with this story?

Trust, my Friend, Trust.  We had an E-model at Moody that was pretty much a hangar queen. (For the non-familiar, the term indicates the jet has a boatload of mechanical problems which are difficult to ascertain, expensive to fix and the fix may not fix the entire problem.) One of the requirements when a Hanger Queen is thought to be "Fixed" is to give it a "Functional Check Flight" or FCF.  This is always flown by a VERY experienced crew and is flown on a fixed profile with specific parameters to make sure the airplane is fixed and ready to be put on the daily schedule.  This jet had passed it's FCF flight and was back on the schedule.

I'm Flight Lead for a 4 ship range ride to go and drop practice bombs and fire the gun at the gunnery range at Eglin AFB FL.  

No those are not 25Lb Practice bombs, those are inert 500Lb Bombs, but that is Eglin Range. Source

Typically the aircraft is loaded with 12 x 25Lb practice bombs and 100 rounds of 20mm bullets. 

 

Source

 Fighter Pilots, being the competitive type, typically bet on the scores.  Quarter a bomb, nickle a Hole.  So, worst case, one could be out 8 bucks, plus the requirement to buy beer in the Debrief.

Bragging rights, however, were worth much more than that.  So, one tried their very best.

Unfortunately, I've drawn the Hangar Queen and, even with my best body English, couldn't get the bombs very close or the gun to hit the target.  I'm irritated at myself on the way home and we're about halfway there when I simultaneously hear/see the Master Caution light come on and hear the WSO yell something about "Fire" over the intercom.  Suffice it to say, I am focused at this point.  

The right engine fire light is on.  Technically, at this point, I'm supposed to ask the WSO to get into the check list and read me the procedure after which I will perform the procedure.  That works well in the Simulator.  (AFAIK no one has actually died in the Sim.)  I immediately pull the throttle to Idle.  Nothing.  I decide on a count to 10 before skipping to #4 on the Emergency Procedure.  I know it didn't take 10 seconds for that count, more like 1  maybe 2.  

Light's still on.  So I shut down the engine.  Soon as it spools down, the light goes out.  I push the test button, it lights up and goes out when I release the test.  I have one of the wingmen give me a look over.  Nothing, no smoke, no visual damage.  OK we get to skip #5 (Thank you, Lord.  My takeoff #s will continue to match my landing #s.)  

Approach and landing are normal, well, as normal as a single engine approach and landing gets, well, except for the fire trucks, ambulances and other crash vehicles near the runway. Other than that perfectly normal.  We pull into the dearm area.  Dearm crew safes the crucial stuff and give the shutdown signal.  1.6 nanoseconds later, myself and the WSO are on the ground and vacating the immediate vicinity.  

The jet goes back into maintenance, the maintenance repair checklists are applied and she  gets back on an FCF schedule.  The same thing happens.  Back into maintenance and another FCF.  Again a Fire Warning Right Engine.  In that afternoon's Wing Honcho meeting, the Maintenance Commander wants to annotate the problem in the maintenance forms as a "glitch" and keep the jet on the schedule. Maintenance Stats...Gotta love 'em.

At that point in the meeting, the Wing Commander relieved him from command.  As he did so, he said "If the warning light comes on, how does the pilot know that the jet is not on fire? If he stays with the jet and it IS on fire, he and his WSO will likely be killed.  Is your in-service rate worth that?"

In other words, the Maintenance Officer had betrayed our trust.

The jet went to depot maintenance and AFAIK never flew again, at least not at Moody.

BTW, that Wing Commander went on to 3 stars.  IMHO, shoulda had 4. Great Pilot, Excellent Leader, Talented Instructor.  One of the leaders I tried to emulate.

Interesting story, juvat, but what's behind this story? That would be Miss B's monitoring equipment and sensors.  More knowledgeable medical readers may correct me, but I believe that one of the last organs that develop when a Baby is in the Womb are their lungs.  Therefore, premies, spending less time there, tend to have lung issues after birth.  Miss B is (was when this was first published, she's normal now) currently on O2 while her lungs get better.  She also wore a Pulse Ox sensor that kept track of her pulse rate and oxygen saturation level in her blood.  It set off an alarm when either reading goes below the minimum level. 

That alarm can, and should, be heard throughout the house.

However, the Damn thing went off ALL THE F.....g time!  The medical equipment company says that's caused by the baby moving.  OK, maybe.  But, then, why does it go off when she's sound asleep and not moving.  AKA one of us is sitting right beside her watching when it goes off.

So...Next they said it's a faulty sensor cord.  OK.  They send a new one.  Except that one is for a different model sensor. 

Top two are the new cable.  Bottom two are the old cable.  I'm not an electrician, but something tells me the new ones won't work.

 They send a new, new one with a technician.  No change.  Course the baby's awake while he's here, so moving.  Later that same day.  No movement, still alarms.  

Drive down to San Antonio to meet with the Pulmonary Docs.  They hook up their device side by side with ours.  There's doesn't squawk and their readings are virtually the same as ours.  Guess what squawks.

I mentioned to them my story about Trust and the fire light and asked what, worst case, might happen in the middle of the night if LJW, being extremely sleep deprived and tired, decided it was a false alarm and rolled over and went back to sleep.

After a bit of testing of the new equipment,  suffice it to say, the NICU Staff and Docs are on Santa's good list while the Medical Equipment folks...well...aren't!

Nap Time!

 

The problem was resolved and improvement was measurable immediately.  As I mentioned, she's doing fine nowadays. She and her parents are in England.  She's now attending pre-school at a school near London.  

 

Fashionista!

She's one of the few American's at the school, so she's picking up a bit of a British accent, which is a hoot for a three, going on four, year old.  They're coming home for Christmas!  Can't wait.

 

Peace out y'all! 

 

Another of my Heroes

 So, still in quite a bit of pain.  A little more than a week before I can get in for an MRI and find out what the.... is going on.  Not much fun.  Just found out that Little J and Wife had a miscarriage on child #2.  So...again, not much fun.  Decided I'd resuscitate a posting from one of the first posts I put up 13 years ago or so.  Through the years, we've discussed one of my heros a few times.  Here's one of those stories.  Unfortunately....

Source

 

 So...Off we go!

We were both assigned to the 435TFTS at Holloman AFB NM. Suffice it to say that even though I was qualified as an "experienced" fighter pilot flying time wise, I learned a lot from Ras during flight briefings and debriefings, and in the air.  Some of the most important things I learned from him were taught in the Squadron Bar. After he PCS’d to Fort Carson for his last assignment in the Air Force as an ALO, I lost touch with him and didn’t reconnect with him until I saw his book “When Thunder Rolled” on Amazon.  Bought it immediately, and started reading.  It was like being in the Bar again; I’d heard most of those stories. A few years ago, I managed to track him down and restablish our friendship.  Unfortunately, he's no longer with us.  As I mentioned last week, Heaven to me would be flying fighters in against and with both He and Vegas. Yes, that would be heaven.

But the post really triggered a memory of one flight he and I had together while at Holloman.

Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) are  exactly what the name implies, at the most basic level, how do you maneuver a fighter so as to kill another fighter and/or avoid being killed yourself.  It’s not just pull on the pole as hard as you can.  It’s using your energy wisely, regaining it when you can, using gravity to enhance the effect.  Most of the Lead In Fighter Training program consisted of BFM rides, and throughout the flying portion of my career, a sizeable portion of my rides were BFM also, whether I was in an Air to Air Squadron or an Air to Ground Squadron.  BFM skills are critical and very perishable. 

BFM rides involved two aircraft, a 1 v 1, and typically there were two types of setups.  In the first setup, one jet takes a position 30 to 45 degrees off the tail of the other and 6000-9000’ away.  In a real world fight, this is a very dangerous position for the person in front to be in.  Once participants are ready, the fight is started with a “Fight’s on” call and maneuvering commences.  The fight typically continues until a kill shot is taken by one or the other fighter, a fighter manages to disengage successfully, the desired learning point has been achieved, or a safety factor is encountered.  (Over G, going through minimum altitude, min fuel etc).

The second type of setup is a neutral setup, typically called a “Butterfly”.  The two jets start in tactical formation about 6-9K’ apart and the flight lead calls for a turn away from each other of 45 degrees.  At some point the flight lead calls for the turn in and both aircraft turn back towards each other for a head on pass.  The flight lead will call fight’s on at some point,  typically immediately prior to the pass so that maneuvering can begin.

This now leads to a decision on the part of both fighter pilots.  Do I want a two circle fight or a one circle fight?  There’s an excellent discussion of this here , but basically, if your turn radius is better than the other jet's, try for a one circle.

 

Back in the day, I used to be able to draw a fight diagram much better.  My apologies.

  If your turn rate is not better than the other, try for a two circle fight because you’ve got more turning room to use.

 

  

I say “try”, because the other guy also gets a vote in the fight. He has to turn in the direction you expect him to otherwise ....  I was about to learn how to make that happen.

So,  There I was………….*  Ras and I were scheduled for a 1 v 1 BFM ride in Beak Charlie, the closest air to air area to Holloman.  Basically Cloudcroft NM was the Western Boundary  Roswell the Eastern and  Ruidoso the Northern.  That proximity meant we’d have maximum gas for fighting.  Typically, when these rides went on the schedule, they were immediately filled by students riding in the back seats, however, this time it was just Ras and I.  (He had told the Duty Officer not to allow any students, you’ll understand why shortly).

Briefing was short and sweet, here’s the frequencies, joker and bingo fuel levels and a discussion of which BFM setup we were going to use (Butterfly).  We had flown together enough as IPs that not much else was needed.  We step to the jets, crank up, formation takeoff and we’re in the area.  A couple of G awareness turns . (The AT-38B was getting old and we needed to “tune” our bodies to what the mandated G limit was, so that we didn’t overstress the aircraft and reduce its lifespan.  Must have worked, this story occurred about 30 years ago, and the airplanes are still flying.)

Everything’s ready to go, a quick fuel check from Ras and he calls for the turn away.  I check 45 away and rollout, snap my head around so as to keep sight of Ras.  Got him, we continue on heading for a bit and he calls turn in.  I’m pulling right on the g-limit, get pointed at him and unload the aircraft to get some speed back.  We’re about a mile out now and I’m planning for a two circle fight, since I’m a little above him, I plan to slice down to the left leading the turn as much as I can.  At that point, Ras calls fight’s on and pulls up and takes a head on gun shot. 

At the time, the safety rules prohibited any gun shots within 45 degrees either side of head on, so I’d never seen a head on shot.  Also, since the guns on most fighters are boresighted with the aircraft, where the gun is pointed is where the aircraft is pointed. If Ras has taken a gunshot, the gun is pointed at me and so is his aircraft.  Ras passes close aboard.  This has left me somewhat startled and there’s a pause before I start to maneuver.  I roll left and start the pull, expecting Ras to have done the same which should put him somewhere above my tail pointed away.  I can’t see him and call blind (another safety thing, if he calls blind also, we knock it off and get altitude separation).  He calls “continue”.  I’m in big trouble, he sees me!  I’m still frantically searching for him looking over my left (down) shoulder, when something catches the corner of my eye.  I crank around to the right, just in time to see Ras swooping down on the back side of his vertical circle. He's gone for a one circle fight, using the vertical and by virtue of being below me and pulling up for the shot, he's lead turned me.  When he got to the top of his loop, he was slow and inverted, so gravity helped him turn much faster.

Fortunately, he’s not in guns range yet, but he’s closing fast.  I break back right and up, trying to force his nose into lag  (pointed behind me), but I’m running out of airspeed and he’s not.  I see his nose slide out in front of me and I start to make out the intakes on the side of his jet (with my eyesight at the time, that was my indication that he was about 2500’ away, AKA guns range.  With my eyesight now, I think he'd be in my back seat before I saw intakes).  I roll the aircraft until the canopy is about 45 degrees below the horizon and plant the stick in my lap.  I’m jinking…Hard.  Roll the aircraft again,  push the stick forward.  Again,  and Again and Again, but Ras is still back !there, he hasn’t called any shots, but I ain’t getting away either.  I’m expecting a knock it off for lesson learned, but no.  I’m jinking for about a month and a half until we get to bingo.  Knock it off and head home.

Back in the debrief,  Ras walks in with a couple of beers, hands one to me and says “Juvat, there are no safety ROE (Rules of Engagement) in combat, and there’s no knock it off”.  Then he took a couple of sips of beer as he let me ponder that.  He then followed with “Best Jinking I’ve ever seen, I never got a shot.  Let’s talk about how you did that, I want to learn how.”

I miss him.

 

If you'd like to read more of his stories (and I highly recommend you do), he published three books before he passed, One in conjunction with Robin Olds, the other two autobiographies about his assignments (yes, Beans, more than one) in South East Asia.  Excellent stories.

 

 Rest in peace, Warrior! Ed, you deserve it!

Peace out, y'all!

• What’s the difference between a fairy tale and a war story?  A fairy tale starts with “Once upon a time” and a war story starts with “So there I was”.