ScottishTankerHooligans

Meaningful work?

Sporstfans, the glorious day of employment has arriven.  Am currently located in the beautiful semi-metropolis of Greenville TX enjoying the hospitality and harassment package of my new employer.  The Audie Murphy Museum is a mile down the road.  I do not think I can regard my life as fulfilled without a visit.  The nearest Bass Pro shop has the entire street named after itself.  I may need to investigate the Rapala situation.  The pond is full at home and nothing is hitting on the surface.  It's dismaying.  Though the turtle purge continues. 

More later,
Smokin

BTW I've found someone who thinks I need my own flag.    I'm cool with it.

More remen... reme...eh..

...more looking back.

This is the view from our house (bunker) on Camp Foster Okinawa.  It is the summer of  '96 I think,  the eye of Typhoon Kirk is directly over the island.  The residents have endured twelve hours of hurricane 4 level winds and rain, and for a brief half hour, this is the scene.
Hell no I wasn't there, are you kidding?   Risk the well being of several 40 year old tanker aircraft?  I was with a stalwart section of 2 venerable KC-130's and crew safely ensconced on Wake Island.  That is a different adventure, but the Mrs has the T-shirt from this one, and I get a black eye each year on it's anniversary. It goes something like this:

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

    Me: OhHH (yawn) what a beautiful day honey, look at the rays of sunshine coming through the ..shit,... it's July 28th again isn't it.

    Mrs:  POW!! "THAT'S RIGHT STUPID!! WE WANT SAUSAGE AND PANCAKES!! AND DON'T MAKE US WAIT LIKE YOU DID LAST YEAR!!  You better put something on that.  Happy Typhoon Kirk day asshole."

More 152 stuff

One of the rare and coveted trips to Iwo Jima.  The small size of the place gives one chills as you think of how many Marines died there.  Suribachi was still active and if you flew the VOR approach, you passed right over the venting volcano and it would rock the aircraft.   The black sand beaches have been sun-bleached over the years and are now more of a medium brown.  It's largely overgrown and the caves and crawl spaces are difficult to find.  Since the vocano is still sort of active, all the caves feel like saunas inside.  The JSDF who caretake the place use a few of them as steam rooms.  Though they largley keep to narrow paths and seldom stray far from the air station without good reason.  The Japanese regard the entire Island as burial ground, not to be defiled by random wandering.   

The picture angle is misleading because the picture taking dude wanted to make sure he got the Iwo Control Tower in the scene, which was the point of the whole thing.  We are not 11 feet tall despite what capabilities the Taliban ascribe to US Marines.  The Prop diameter of the Herc is 12' 10".  A normal sized dude with arms outstretched might reach the bottom of the refueling pod behind us.  No matter how badly an engineer might misfuel a herc, it would never lean that far over to one side.   
  Dude number one was with me as far back as 1992 in the RAG at Cherry Point.  We went to 152 on Okinawa near the same time for our first fleet tour.  He left Oki before me to go to Milton Fla for an Instructor tour.  I showed up a year later.  Good times.  We Hurrivac'ed the whole wing to Memphis that year ('98?) and spent four days in Memphis with 128 IP's who we dared to keep up with us.  The FBI denies a report was kept as the Mississippi was well above flood stage that year.  I left in 2000 and Jimmy went on to do some reserve duty and other jobs here and there concurent with his AA gig.  He came back on active duty sometime in 04 or 05 and was diagnosed with ALS.  Lou Gerhig's Disease.  It was ugly and Jimmy passed away in 2006, leaving two daughters.      
  Dude #2 rode along with the same crowd during the same time frame.  If anyone in the Marine Corps could be described as a free spirit, none could be more so than this dude.  If there is a modern day hand off to the legacy of  Hunter Thompson this guy is it.  I'll wait for him to volunteer any details.  Particularly about that weekend in Waikiki, If He can be found.  I last saw him in the Officer's club at Marine Corps Air Station Mirimar in 1999.  He was riding a BMW motorcycle on a cross country trip. 
  Dude 3.  Rockin the Bolle Blacksnake sungalsses.
  Dude #4.  Mumbles was an import from that west coast squadron that shall not be named or talked about here at STH.  Haven't seen him since.
#5 One of my IP's.  Tony did me the honor of taking me to WTI as his augment in 1996 to the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course (his personal choice of co-pilot/assistant). 
#5 and I came back to Okinawa victorious and went on to secure my track to upgrade as a KC-130 Transport Aircraft Commander.  I am happy to have had that opportunity as I got the chance to fly again with one of the greatest pilots to ever strap on a KC-130 Hercules, Maj John Brow.   Maj John "Boot" Brow perished in the MV-22 mishap in Marana, Arizona in Apr 2000, during OT of the MV-22 Osprey.  Jimmy and I flew a section of T-34's up from Whiting to attend the funeral at Arlington.  
  #5 is I think a Captain with Continental Airlines.  If you get on a CA Flight and someone in a Captain's uniform tells you to "sit down or I'll kick your face off"   It's probably him and you probably better sit the fuck down.

Last Flight

So it comes for all of us. 

Not the greatest shot as I'll explain a little later, but it is me at the sticks of the mighty UC-12B Huron on short final to runway 23/05 at New River.  This was my last day to pilot a military aircraft, July 28 2009. 

Here's the ever necessary last flight wet-down.

  The fire trucks line up on each side of the throat area of mat-1 and provide a nice water arch for you, if you have not been too instrumental in any recent legal or disciplinary efforts. 

August 31 of this year was my last day in the Marine Corps.   All the ceremonies and speeches are done but I'd still like to use this space and time to look back a little and share with you some of the things we've seen and experienced over the years.  The job efforts appear to have paid off and I have been provisionally hired by a contractor recently.  There is still paperwork to be signed and so forth so I am not high-fiving myself in the forehead yet but the final table-slap should be soon.  Then I'll have a short notice before it's time to travel again for more training, a new aircraft and a new mission.  But until then, it's time for Smokin to dig up some old pics and share where we've been.  I hope you enjoy them.

July 28 2009.  The maintenance guys and TA line crew are only too happy to hit me with the ice water.  SSGt Hawkins laughs the loudest.  He's still down about 30 bones to me at Texas Holdem.

First beer after a year in Iraq.  Mar 2006.

Anyone who's had a ride on the freedom bird will recognize this bar.  It's in the terminal in Shannon International in Ireland.  A glass of Harp never tasted so good. 

Lest you think it's been one 20 year long bar crawl.  Here's Camp X-Ray Afghanistan in late 2001.

I think this was the most dangerous place Marine Corps Herc crews have flown into since Khe Shan.  Not because of enemy fire, but the pure challenge of the place.  A hard-pan runway in the desert, 4000' elevation, knee deep dust like baby powder, chem lights for the runway, no go-around capability.  I'm open to debate, if you've found a tougher spot, pipe up. Oh yeah, we did this without night vision goggles.
It was a very tough environment for Helo's too.
This was a Huey.  Luckily the crew walked away. 

More shenanigans.  A totally illegal motorcycle adventure in, of all places, Thailand.
Summer of 1994.  The cousins would approve.  The act, not the machine.
Ha Ha Ha mom!! It's me on a motorcycle!!!  And I rode it fast enough to give you a heart attack in a country with no ambulances, hospitals or helmets!  Smoking a grit and not giving a shit for parking regs either.  I think the bar was playing a Frankie Goes to Hollywood tune at the time.  It was an Aussie ex-pat hangout that had cold VB at the bar.  Where else would Herc pilot's hang out?  The Black and White Bar down the street would not rise to fame for 3 more years.

I hope to dig up some more of these gems soon because I like telling the story as much as anything else.  The big boys say you should post something everyday even if you just fart on the screen and I'm feeling it. 
Like Bagheera said to Baloo in The Jungle Book;
    Baggy:  Shh this will take brains, not brawn.
    Baloo:   Yeah baby, and I'm loaded with both!!