I was gonna blog but decided not to. Will broke his leg. More to follow. Actually, probably not. Any way... ok I guess I'm blogging now. He was playing on a neighbors elliptical machine and jumped off. The machine was still going and hit his leg so hard it completely broke it two inches bellow the knee cap. He was in a lot of pain but he was also really brave. We have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist tomorrow at Bethesda Naval Hospital. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Aviation History

A lot can be said about heroes and normal men and what makes them different. Bravery, commitment and nerves of steel have something to do with it I'm sure. I imagine a bit of ignorance helps. I have a few heroes but the group I'd like to make mention of are the brave men that flew the machines you are about to see.

Just before I left Fort Rucker, the Army's aviation center, I had the opportunity of photograph some of the most rare and historic army aircraft. All of them are the first of their kind and all of them flew. So, on a hot July afternoon, at an undisclosed location on Fort Rucker Alabama, I was escorted by one of my other heroes (a retired crew chief) through the following...

This is the original prototype army gun ship. The front seat was so compact, the gunner rested his feet in the chin bubble. There were no redundant controls for the gunner either. Check out the crude rocket rails on the wing stubs.

Below is the very first tandem rotor helicopter. The fuselage is only about 12 feet long and it sat only one. The test pilot. I looked at Jim, my guide, and said "I bet the pilot kissed his wife goodbye the morning he went to fly this for first time"

Then I stepped behind the tandem rotor and saw this. I just looked at Jim and laughed. This thing has four propellers (two per side) and it uses engine exhaust as thrust. The props to flap and feather but they are wooden propellers none the less.

How about the first NOTAR helicopter. NOTAR is short for No Tial Rotor. Well there it sits, The first one.

This is the only remaining Cessna helicopter out of four built. As the story goes, there was a horrbile malfunction and crash in one of them. Cessna acquired two and destroyed them. The army has the only one left. Its very unique in that the engine is in the nose and the rotor shaft sits between the two front seats.

Mind you, all of this was a surprise. I had no idea what I was going to see this day. And there it was , the original UH-1 Iroquois. Affectionately known as the Huey. The most famous and recognizable helicopter in the world. It revolutionized infantry warfare and evokes indescribable emotion in veterans all over our country. This is the very first one. I was in awe. The legends and bravery I don't dare claim to know, the stories that have inspired my own commitment to aviation center around this helicopter.

Here's an idea, instead of an engine providing power to he transmission to turn the rotor, lets see what will happen if we put jet engines on the blade tips. Apparently, you run out of fuel in about 20 minutes. That's what happens. It flew but I guess it was horribly inefficient.

This is a normal helicopter with a jet engine installed on one side. I guess it was never meant to be a production helo. Just a test bed for high speed rotary wing flight. When they wondered what happened at 400 knots, some poor SOB had to go find out.

This helicopter will go unnamed for the sake of security. All of you helicopter enthusiast and Orange County Chopper fans know exactly what it is. All I will tell you is it has three flat tires and its ridden with cobwebs. I did sit in it and everything is perfectly intact. Staggering!

So that concludes my trip to the Army Aviation Museum storage facility. I know some of you will not be interested and maybe don't understand the emotion this trip carried with it. I have trained for years and have had so many teachers in my career and I still get have a respectful fear of my helicopter. I can't imagine what the test pilots felt when they strapped on some of the machines in this warehouse. I'm not a good writer so I don't express it well but those of you that know me know I'm a fairly passionate person. I'm living my boyhood dream and some of these were flown by my boyhood heroes. Real live pilots.

Still in Alabama

Guess where I am? If you read the title it would be an easy guess. So I said in my last entry that it would be a while before i got the chance to blog again but this has been entirely too long. So I spent a month flying around with a 60 year old IP with more experience flying that I could ever hope to have. The trick is that he spent the whole time pretending to be a mildly retarded flight school student that didn't know a helicopter from a ceiling fan. So of course I had to teach him. I took my first check ride and what was my reward? A fun filled weekend of no studying with my family. That's right, Laura made the 800 mile drive just to be with me. Ain't that a treat.

Of course we took lots of pictures and will show them to you. As I mentioned before, Alabama is a beautiful place and a great place to see nature. So we took the kids on some nature trails.
Don't we look so happy. Well, right after we took this I went to get the camera off the little trail sign and when I picked it up, the strap caught on the sign and rattled the hollow post. You may already know where I'm going with this. So I heard the tell tail buzz and there I was, eye to eye with my long time enemy. Lets lets pause for just a moment to explain something. Now, I've got about 2 years in a combat zone and just about 1000 hours of combat flight experience. During that time I've seen mortar fire, bullets flying past, rockets, road side bombs and various other things that pose a threat to human life. Namely mine at the time. I always seemed to maintain my cool and continue with what ever mission I was assigned. Now back to the nature walk. My current enemy has six legs, a huge stinger and if that isn't enough, God gave him wings too. So he scurried out of the sign post, paused, looked me square in the eye, then leaped toward me. Now imagine this all happening to a seven year old girl and that probably what my arms looked like trying to beat him out of the sky. I did knock him to the ground but not before I dropped our camera in the dirt and he landed on my belly and did his little horny dog routine. I'm just glad he stung me and not one of the kids or Laura. Truth be told, that's why I was waving my arms, so he would come after me.

So the weekend continues and we went to the beach in Panama City. Actually, it was Grayton Beach State Park which is a few miles west of PCB. (have the Rowles ever been there?) It was a wonderfully hot day but the kids had lots of fun playing in the sand and sitting on my shoulders out in the waves.

If you thought the pain was over, we have a little more. After the beach, we went to the public shower to change and Will kept complaining about something hurting on his leg. When I wiped his leg off, my finger started to sting. It wasn't that bad on my finger but poor little Willy's leg was really bothering him. It must have been a piece of a jellyfish?

So the next adventure was something the kids have been bugging me about and I was able to make it happen with the help of an old friend. I contacted my old IP from flight school and went to church with him one Sunday. As it turns out, he owns a helicopter now and gives lessons and rides. Well the kids are always wanting me to take them for a ride in the helicopter but that is against some pretty big rules so the next best thing was to have my old IP take them for a ride in his. He took Laura and the kids on a 20 minute ride all around Enterprise, AL. There wasn't enough room for all of us so I stayed behind and took some pictures. Of course Laura took a few hundred pictures from the air.

About 15 minutes into the flight Will politely asked if he had any gum in his helicopter.

So as the weekend continued we went swimming a lot, saw a movie, ate out, and drove around in my old bug. It was a weekend to cherish. Thank you Laura for enduring that drive and my little hotel room.

My last check ride should be in a couple of days and I'll be on my way home. I'm stopping along the way to visit with my old company commander from Iraq and then I'll be home for good. I'm so tired of being gone and I shouldn't have to leave home for a long long time after this.

Sweet Home Alabama

Well folks, Alabama is as hot, humid, and classy as ever. Don't get me wrong. Alabama is beautiful but some of the people...well...bless their heart. I arrived last Wednesday. The instructor pilot course promises to be a challenge but I'm finding it pretty hard to focus on the task at hand because, once again, I'm away from my family. We have been trying so hard to figure out a way to bring them down here for the month of July but there is just no way to make it work without it costing thousands of dollars. We even thought about buying a cheap travel trailer but we'd have no were to put it when we got back home. We've always wanted one but, we've wanted a small one and we couldn't live in a small one for a month. Oh yah, and even the small ones cost a few thousand dollars. The army wont give me a bigger room and they wont pay me to get my own hotel room. Its looking like the best case scenario is for me to drive home for the 4th of July weekend and enjoy two days with them before driving back for another month of being alone.

Cal, are you driving through Alabama?

So, for the curious, here is a sampling of my study material for the next two months.

Its a lot like any other profession. Its just bits of information from exhaustive books on the subjects. When I study, it does help pass the time but its hard knowing that the kids miss me the same, regardless of how busy I can be. Poor Will is so confused about where I live, I've been gone for more than half his life. I tell you what, these are the days that make me want to get out of the service as soon as I possibly and legally can.

The classes are lecture/discussion so its a bit hard to stay awake. My train of thought usually goes something like this "oh I see, the slow relative velosity causes the induced flow to be less affected by the rotational relative wind thus causing the air to strike the blade above chord line...time for some more sunflower seeds...these sure dry out my mouth and my lips...I haven't kissed Laura in five days...I wonder what Laura is doing...I really like our new car...I hope we keep it for a long time...I wonder where we'll be living in five years...Kate will be in Junior High...man i hated Junior High...are there ever any TV shows about kids in Junior High...The wonder Years...that's it...my all time favorite show...I need to find that on DVD...crap, did he jsut explain retreating blade stall" "Um, excuse me, could you explain that again." "I'm way to dumb to be here!"

Now I'm in my room trying to remember all the things I should have listened too in class and will have to read in a boring book so if this is my last post for quite some time, you will understand. I think I want to quit flying and be President for a while. Then I would make it mandatory for families to travel with their soldier. Plus I would mandate bio-diesel for use in all vehicles. I would send Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears to jail. I would also require that "Lost" be played as a continuous movie from start to end in HD and the entire event would be a national holiday!! DOMINO suckers.

Farewell Werewolves

This is a bit late like most of my post will be but worthy of note. The last four years, I've striven so hard to be as good a soldier as the men that surrounded me. I will never be as brave or true as some of them. Two weeks ago they had a farewell lunch for me and, as it turns out, they thought I was pretty swell too. They made this great parting gift for me. I was so honored by the things it says. I can only hope they all know how I feel about them.


Jeremy Averett and Emanuel "Manny" Vero were two of my best friends in the unit. If the bullets are flying and you can hear Manny's voice, you can know in your heart that he is going to take you home. I'll miss you Manny. Bring them home again.

Jeremy, you are the friend that everyone loves to have. Genuine, caring and loyal to the end. I don't know if I'll ever lead an air assault again but if I do, I want you next to me.

Jeremy, Manny, and Me



The Werewolves will be returning to the desert in about a year. I will pray for you all.

Godspeed

In Virginia

We packed our little house in Harker Heights and hit the road last week. We loved that house so much when we bought it. I had been trying to get this duty assignment for over a year and here we are.

First, the home we left and the truck we packed it in.




We rolled in to Virginia at 10 pm and we still don't have our stuff. Here is our house. The army pays a lot more to live here so we can afford a much nicer place. And we have a basement. We never did have one of them things befur.



I send more when we get settled. Sorry my redneck autorama is blocking most of the view.

Mrs. B

This is a little late but still worth talking about since I'm still reeling from the experience.

Let's go back to 1991 when I tried out for choir. I had never been in a choir. I didn't even know what harmony was. I don't remember what I did to audition for Varsity Choir. I think I just sang a few notes in front of the piano for some lady I'd never met. I had just heard that choir was great and I should be in it. Once in choir I auditioned for Expressions. (the pop performance group) I auditioned by singing "Every Rose Has its Thorn" by Poison and playing my guitar. I really wanted to be a cowboy glam-rocker back in those days. I was so nervous and mostly just wanted to be there because of a girl I had a crush on. The things we do for love. So I made in into the group, barely got the time of day from the girl and spent the next two years as a choir dork. It was the greatest time of my young life. Everyday, Mrs B. (that lady) would pour herself into our lives and demand our most wonderful voice in response. She held us all off the tip of her fingers, guiding us through the notes and shaping our minds to better understand the world.

So two weeks ago she retired after 33 years of conductiong and I went to the party. I have been keeping up with her through the last couple of years but I hadn't seen her if over nine.

Here I am with Mrs B.


I try to tell her as often as possible how much she has meant to me but there is no way I could ever repay the inspiration she has given me. She is the reason "The Sound of Music" and "Marry Poppins" are staples in my house. I can't imagine my kids growing up without music.

Thank you Mrs B.

Her I are some pictures of me with some of my dear old friends. I could write another entry about how awesome it was to see them but they all know.

Here are Cal, Adam and Me. I have no idea how Mrs. B put up with us sometimes.


Sarah and I.



Leanne and I.

Moving

I think I'll start a new blog. I've gotten a few promptings from friends that wonder why I haven't updated in a while and I'm tired of paying for the .mac site so here it is. We'll see how long it lasts. On to the days events.

There is a good feeling when you start moving. We started packing a couple of weeks ago and now we are in the trailer loading stages. No matter how well we plan and no matter how good our intentions are, we always digress from neatly packed boxes to holding a box at the end of the counter and shoving everything in with a push broom. Next comes the trash bags. We start throwing stuff away and giving stuff to Good Will that doesn't fit. We had a perfectly good reason for not selling it in the last garage sale but now its just rubbish. Our semi trailer is filling up and I don't want to load up my truck like Jed Clampett for the 1400 mile trip. I'm already nervous about the new neighbor hood so I don't want to give the impression that we are the new local rednecks with the trampoline in the front yard.

Anther fun thing about moving is how good it is for our marriage. We get along so well and really connect with each other after a long day of manual labor and getting in each other's way. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have a back rub coming tonight. Moving is almost as romantic and therapeutic as when we do our taxes. If we survive this and make it to Virginia, we'll make even more magic memories unpacking.

I can't wait to be out of the army and living in one place for a really long time.

I HATE MOVING!!! I'm pretty sure all caps means I'm yelling. Anyway, I was.