The newest way to learn about my life

Catch up through Korea trip and Juju's wedding/my leave

2005-06-27T22:03:00.000Z

I got to korea uneventfully, i got to sit by this really cute hs chick on the flight to mildenhall, then I went to a movie with her family, then a couple days later i caught the shuttle bus down to London, checked in for my flight from london to paris to seoul and got out of the airport for a little while via the tube. I went to big ben and the house of commons and westminster abbey and had fish and chips and a beer at the Red Lion (seen it in a movie before, I think) before I had to go back to the airport for my long flights. The korea trip was awesome, we got to go to a lot of cool places and see cool stuff and eat good food and everywhere we went the koreans treated us like celebrities. There were 400 or so Americans on the trip and we had nice charter buses and a police escort with us everwhere we went so we wouldn't have to stop at stoplights or anthing the whole time. Everywhere we went there were signs and banners "Welcome ATA (american taekwondo association)" and stuff. We went to a couple different temples and monestaries and they all had special things for our entertainment. One place there was a monk that was teaching us how to meditate, another place there was a caligraphy school and they talked a little about caligraphy and most of the places had some sort of musical group perform for us. Lots of drummers and singers and some of the drummers danced around as they performed. Lunch everyday was on our own (or semi on our own) and we had lots of kimchi and gulgobi and dinner every night was banquet-style with different important korean people hosting them (mayors, governors, businessmen, etc) and they had lots of good korean foods. I probably ate $40 worth of sushi and sashimi every night at these, and tried lots of different kimchi's, etc too. I thought when we went that we would be doing more taekwondo workouts than we ended up doing. Every time i've been a captive audience to the masters before we worked out a lot, but other than the tours we didn't walk that much this time. The two taekwondo events were the testing on friday of that week and the tournament on sunday. I had to do my form, spar, and break boards for testing and other than a minor mistake in my form I did well, broke my boards on my first attempt (first time i've broken a board in like 5 years... i would have liked to have gotten a chance to practice, but oh well. :) ) and I have received official word that i passed my testing. now i just have to finish up the midterms i was supposed to have been doing over the last 4 years and i will be a 4th degree. the tournament was sunday and we had schedules ahead of time which is always nice so I know when to be ready to go. The bad thing was that dad and I competed at the same time across the room from each other so we couldnt watch/cheer/coach each other and our camerawoman couldnt watch us both at the same time. anyway, my ring was 12 people, and 6 of them were on the world demonstration team, i got second to last on my form. :P they all had awesome forms and mine is never very good, so i really didnt feel too bad about that. sparring is where i am a little better, and i fought a guy from paraguay, a guy from chile, the florida state champion, and the colorado state champion was the one that beat me. i have 2 of those fights on tape. the first fight is the one i broke my thumb in, i dont know how it happened cuz i didnt notice the injury until between rounds and just thought it was jammed. i had a guy next to me try to pop it a couple times between fights and went on about my business. by the time i got my trophy at the end i couldnt hold it in my left hand (getting trophies is about like an af award, take it with your left as you shake hands with your right.... we just bow instead of saluting). this was sunday and i didnt get any ice or to see a doctor until tuesday. monday and tuesday around my xrays and other hospital business i got my suit tailored and bought a leather jacket and your turtle and other souvenirs. I mps'd my tkd gear and some other stuff back to myself so i wouldnt have to carry it since i knew i was going to be one-handed for the trip, etc. i bought a blue kimono for jacqueline. on wed morning of the second week i started my homeward travels but the adventure wasnt over yet. the doc said on tuesday that i was going to need surgery when i got home and i knew i wouldnt be able to get surgery on island and started making plans to stay at lakenheath hospital for an extra week instead of coming home and going back a week later. the yongsan army hospital in seoul is where i got my xrays and first plaster splint for the trip and 800 mg ibuprofens. the flight from seoul to paris was long, and between the arrival gate and my departure gate in the paris airport i had to go through a security checkpoint, where i put my wallet in the tray (i carry coins in my wallet and have to x-ray it so i dont beep) and didnt pick it up on the other side. it would have been too simple of a trip home with a military id and money, etc.... i realized my mistake when i got to london and the customs guy asked for my mil id instead of my passport. within a half hour i had talked to the person that had my wallet, but it would be 6 days later before i actually received my wallet. (i guess it is a blessing that i got it back at all, and with stuff still in it, but it was frustrating taking that long to get it back after i knew exactly where it was and stuff). i spent about 30 hours in the london airport, making phone calls every half hour to try to get through to someone who spoke english at the paris airport. i felt like tom hanks in terminal trying to communicate and find out how to get my wallet back with the french people all claiming to have no responsibility for delivering it and none of them having any problem solving abilities or caring enough about an american to help me out. i think possibly the most frustrated i've ever been in my entire life was when i was on the phone with a french lady who was so polite and "helpful" but thought that it would be impossible for me to ever get my wallet back. In her little french accent (which might have been sexy if she wasnt so dumb) she kept saying "its impossible" and i, in my nicest voice, said "look, this is how simple this is... you have my wallet in your hand, right? there is a flight to london heathrow leaving in an hour and 15 min from ## terminal. take my wallet and a piece of paper with "Robert Faith" written on it to that flight. give my wallet to one of the flight attendants and i'll meet her when she gets here. and while you're at it, give it to the prettiest single flight attendant and i'll buy her dinner." and her answer was "this is impossible, sir. we dont do that. we never do that." i asked "has anyone else ever asked?" but whatever.... finally got ahold of someone that spoke good enough english to tell me the name of a company that fedex's lost and found stuff to people and next-day'd it to myself... only then i had to deal with the british fedex people who were almost as dumb. 3 days later my 'next day" package got to me... but again, on the bright side it did have all my money and id's in it still. i did finally leave the airport after 30 hours of these phone calls... between arguing about giving it to a flight attendant possibly being illegal but definitely not impossible and talking to the fedex company... i talked the guy that drives the shuttle bus to rafl into letting me on with passport and orders since my id was lost. i was able to get my credit card number from the usaa bank website to pay for my lodging and my mom wired me some money so i could eat a little each day. i got in to see the doc (also difficult without a mil id) and schedule surgery and used the hospital phones to continue arguing with the french about the definition of impossible and to call my boss and get orders so i wouldnt be awol and wouldnt have to pay for my medical care, etc. the hospital staffs were awesome and the phone in my room could dial to france and lajes for free... probably something the comm squadron overlooked and should be changed, since my phone bill alone was probably $100 for the week, with being on hold all the time and stuff. i cant even call internationally from my office phone here. anyway, i ended up getting my wallet back, but not in time to do anything fun in england. I got home and except for the fact that my pins wont stay where they are supposed to my hand seems to be healing like it is supposed to, etc.

i was here for a week and a half and finally talked everyone into letting me take a week of leave for the wedding. i got approval to take leave on wed and left saturday and everything worked out perfectly. i got into bwi and got a ride and free room with a friend for saturday night and had an early flight out to chicago on sunday morning. while i was waiting to board i met a couple of ssgts on their way home from baghdad and one of them happened to be on my plane and have a first class ticket. i dont know if she asked or if they offered for her to have someone sit with her but she came back and got me and said i could sit with her up front if i wanted... first class is so nice. haha, i got some free alcohol and decent conversation and tons of leg room... then i had a cadet chauffer pick me up and take me to the wedding, changed into service dress... i was the most decorated person there w/ my 4 ribbons, haha... then when the bride's limo arrived 4 of the women literally ran over and gave me hugs, some wrapped their legs around me and kissed me on the cheek, and neither of those were jacqueline (she knew i normally wouldnt allow pda in uniform and figured i'd get mad if she kissed me). haha, not a bad start to the week. :) haha, and i was buzzing enough from the flight that i didnt even mind having makeup and deoderant all over my jacket from the women. lol the wedding was semi-catholic... she is catholic and he isnt, so it was a very short catholic wedding, but it was very nice. the cadets (and some Lt's with two hands) did a saber arch for the couple on the way out, which is always nice, then after posing for some pictures we headed to the hotel to change for the reception. open bar and a good dj, coupled with lots of old friends and pretty girls made the reception a lot of fun. slept until noon the next day and then went to downtown chicago (actually brandi's apartment on the northside to drop our stuff off) and then we ate lots of asian food that night, then had like 6 little meals the next day... just to get my chicago food in while i was there. mom brought john (lil bro) up to see us and we went to the zoo after breakfast at my favorite studying diner, then went to uno's pizza and chipotle and chicago rib house and poncho's (fav mexican restaurant) and then headed home. jacqueline came home with me until thursday, then she took the train home and i had a few days to make sure i saw all of my other girls and piss off their boyfriends, etc before i left. thats always fun. i did get out of lawrenceville without getting into a single fight... never something i bet on happening.
oh, and going back to between my tdy and my leave... i got picked to be the lajes poc for a group of wvang DV's with a week notice and General Foglesong came and that was kinda hectic. It went well, we had breakfast at the club, then catered lunch at fiddlers then went off base for a tour. one group went to praia shopping and then to the fort and then dinner at terceira mar (pink hotel) and the other group went to the fort, then the museum in angra, then dinner at the hotel. good times. got beat up a little about making one fairly big, very obvious mistake. haha, i left three of the DV's in their rooms when the rest of us went to lunch. they called and we got them picked up but as they came in they ran right into the General...

February and half of March

2005-03-14T18:15:00.000-01:00

Damn I suck at this.... Anyway, I am still the CORONET Liaison Officer here at Lajes, working my ass off but loving it. I have now taken care of 126 aircrew in 77 different fighter/attack aircraft and over 300 enlisted maintenance personnel on their way through Lajes Field to or from the global war on terror. I cant go into details on when they were here or where they were going, not that I would remember anyway, my days all become a big blur doing this job because its not uncommon for me to sit here kinda bored on weekdays and then work 16-20 hours a day on weekends. Then when you factor in the fact that when I am not working but have aircraft here on the ground I am hanging out listening to war stories, etc, with the fighter pilots it is easy to see how I forget whether I am coming or going sometimes. I can tell you that I have worked with 12 F-16's, 26 A-10's, 9 EA6B's, and 30 F-18's. That all adds up to a lot of dead badguys, some in Afghanistan and some in Iraq. If anyone is interested, one of my last groups, the Gator's from the USMC Reserve at Dobbins Air Force Base, in Georgia, has this awesome website about their deployment. http://gatorsiniraq.com has some pics of Lajes, including a good one of most of their squadron in Fiddler's Green, where I host the burger burns for these movements right after they land.

I should have one or two more movements before I have to go back to the comm squadron and get back to my real job. I should have a good job down there too, one that won't get too boring and will be another broad, special job. I am going to be working on preparing the squadron for the inspection coming up around the time I will be leaving Lajes and it should be another good, very broad ranging job for me, which is one of the reasons I love being the C-LO. I dont think I will be assigned to any one comm flight, but will get to move around to the places that need me the most, learn lots of stuff real quick, come up with a way to quickly fix the problems, and move on to the next problem. The more problems I get fixed, the better the whole base will do on the inspection, the better I will look, and the more the commander will like me. :)

On an even happier note, between when I finish up CLO'ing and when I get back to comm'ing I will be going to Korea for 2 weeks, Permissive TDY. That basically means that I got my commander and the USAF to approve for me to go on leave for 2 weeks and I wont get charged leave! See, I tricked them into thinking I am really good at Taekwondo and got them to approve an International Invitational Taekwondo Tournament, in Geongju City, Korea as an approved sporting event. I will be testing for my 4th degree and competing in the tournament. I am training and I found some sparring partners, so we'll see if I can't do well enough to impress the Air Force into letting me do this again sometime ;). As an added bonus to getting to travel around the world without burning leave and earning my 4th degree black belt, I will get to see my dad. I will also get some good korean food, pick up some good english rum on my way back through london, and I will have 2-3 more countries on my list of places I've been. And all for free! My family's taekwondo school will be picking up the tab, partially because I and my family are cool like that and partially as a birthday present from my parents. :) I'm pretty pumped about that, hopefully I'll do well enough I wont be completely embarrassed to write the after-action report for the HQ USAFSVA (sports guy... the USAF has a program for "world class athletes" in certain sports, taekwondo isnt one of them, but they are the ones that approved for me to go TDY and they want to know how I do to see if they should brag about me or do a story about me or anything like that). Anyway, thats an update on my life! Sorry its been so long. I'll hopefully write more soon.

In other news,

January

2005-01-26T10:56:00.000-01:00

I'm really gonna try to update more than once a month.... really.

Well, the first 2 weeks of January I spent being a tourist with jacqueline... ate out a lot, drove around the whole island, keeping the ocean on the left, then drove up through the mountains a few different times... found duck lake, which was one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen... possibly just because of the time i was there, it was all foggy up in the mountains and it had been raining quite a bit so the lake was full and the creek was running pretty quickly, etc. snappy forgot her camera so you'll just have to believe me. At the beginning of the month i was just doing 2 different comm jobs... I like to say the work of a Captain and 2 MSgts... because i was the flight commander (a captain's job) and my flight chief, msgt jacobs and msgt warner (one of my new master sgts in SCX) were both gone....

Then at the end of jacqueline's stay I was supposed to move from the flight commander of SCS to the OIC of implementations in SCX, but instead I volunteered for the CORONET Liaison Officer position and MSgt Jacobs didn't make it back until two weeks late, so I ended up getting to do 3 jobs the last week jacqueline was here (The work of 2 Captains and 2 MSgt's, as the person that did the C-LO job before me was a Captain also). The C-LO job took up the most time, but it was also pretty cool for Jacqueline to get to see some of.... she got to go out on the flightline to see 2 F-16's that broke here for some maintenance, 14 A-10's that were a scheduled mission for my job, and 8 Marine Corps F/A-18D's (shoulda been 12, but that was part of my excitement that I can't tell about), also a scheduled stopover.

i love my current job... i am the wing coronet liaison officer... which basically means i am a volunteer from the wing to work for the OperationSupportSquadron (our version of a fighter maintenance squadron) and plan and coordinate everything involving fighter planes and fighter pilots and fighter maintenance troops, from all services and countries, as they come through lajes. standard things we do are set up their lodging reservations, plan a burger burn for them when they land, set up transportation for the pilots and maintainers to and from lodging, etc, set up their high protein breakfasts and in-flight meals, etc. some cool other things i get to learn how to do are kinda random... i get to drive around the flightline during operations, and if someone needs help i can help them get equipment and stuff... today i martialed a plane... which means that i used hand signals to tell the pilot where to turn and park and stuff while he was taxiing around the ramp, the other day i got to check the oil on an A-10, which meant i got to climb around on top of the A-10 and stuff. and i helped the marines today get some equipment they needed to start their jets... and i briefed at standup (daily afternoon briefing all the squadron commanders and colonels go to to learn what is up with other squadrons, etc) and i get to hang out with the pilots and listen to war stories, etc.

Since Jacqueline left I've had 6 more A-10's going home from Afghanistan, and 5 EA-6B's going to the desert. Each of these missions has a Maj or Lt Col from the Air Operations Squadron at Langley that comes to do all the mission planning and stuff, and I have to take care of him... then each also has a cargo plane, all C-17's so far, full of equipment and maintenance troops that we also take care of, and they all come in with 2-4 KC-10's or KC-135's for gas needs. So, I am basically at 39 fighters, plus 12-16 support aircraft that I have supported going to and from the AOR... think about all the bad guys they scared, burned, flattened, shot, etc. :) Not flying yet, but at least I am supporting the actual war and not just making sure that people get their mail, have pretty pictures, nice user friendly publications, powerpoints, videos, and storyboards that make the Col's look good to other Col's and higher, etc. (Comm Support Flight commander is responsible for all that.... none of which are essential except in that they keep the morale of the base up)

Then the other excitement I have had is that I was told on a Wednesday afternoon that I was deploying.... can't tell ya where I would have been (still might be I guess) going, but I would have had to be in place by the 30th (about 2 weeks after I was told I got to go). So, I started outprocessing to be ready to go.... I got some shots, I got to fire the M-9, qualified expert really easily.... haha, thats my 3rd ribbon. And if I get to go I'll get 2 or 3 for the deployment (being my first deployment I'll get the Expeditionary medal and maybe a Global war on terror to go along with the achievement or commendation I earn) to go with the commendation i'll get when I leave Lajes. But it turns out I probably wont be getting to go... Capt Miley is taking my place... he has to deploy to get selected for Major and, well, I have 10 years before I have to be selected for anything. Nothing is set in stone still... the orders haven't come down and the deployment has been backed up now, so who knows what will happen. I want to deploy once as a real officer before I get picked up for pilot training and lose all leadership responsibility for 10-15 years.... thats how long it will take as a pilot to be responsible for as many people as I am now, and even then I won't really be responsible for as many people as I am now if I play my cards right. :P But I'll get to actually fight for my country and have more fun and all that if I am a pilot instead of a real officer.... so, thats the goal. Then on the other hand I could be a doc and I'd still have no troops working for me but I could save a lot more lives than I do now and have more fun, etc.

I'll probably edit this later, but I gotta post this now.

Christmas, etc

2004-12-28T10:30:00.000-01:00

Wow, its been forever since I blogged last. I am back from Germany, have been for a while now. My computer got really sick (imagine if you had 20 viruses at once..... throw in 500 bacterial infections (spyware software bacteria?) ) and that is why I haven't blogged. Hmmm, since I've been back.... I got back just in time for the end of the Wing Christmas party, then worked a week then we had our Comm squadron Christmas party. At the squadron christmas party the lieutenants had to do a skit and we decided to lipsync to a boy band song... it was quite funny. we won the skit competition with it, which won us a 3 day pass, I'll spend that sometime in the next few weeks while Jacqueline is here. A lot of the next few weeks was spent working on learning what my new job will be, which i wont start until at least January 10. I've also spent a ton of time at the post office pitching mail and packages getting ready for the Christmas season. On the 18th of Dec, my flight chief left, leaving me in charge of the flight all by myself. Well I'm not really all by myself, I have an awesome flight to help with all problems.... but I am the flight commander. The week before Christmas was nuts. The post office got 5 cargo plane pallets of mail on Monday, 4 on Wed night and 2.5 on Thursday night. We split shifts for Wed and Thursday and depalletized and broke down and wrote up all the packages on the night shifts. I worked from 0730 Wed until 1730, then came back at 2000 until 0600, then again from 1000 until 1730, then I was here at 2200 to discover that the plane was delayed, back at 0000, then back again at 0330 until 0830. Then I got some sleep and came back at 1300 until 1400, then went to the Mission Support Squadron commander's house for Christmas eve dinner with Alani, and Lt Col Ramos (my commander) was there too. That was fun. After dinner we watched the packers/vikings game and then went home and got some sleep. :) I woke up at like 0400 Saturday Christmas day when Aneela messaged me on my computer. I hadn't talked to her forever. Since I was up, I wrote everyone Merry Christmas emails (0500 my time is midnight in Illinois, so I got ya right as it became Christmas. :) ) and then went back to bed to sleep. After my week sleeping was a great way to spend Christmas day, if I'm sleeping happily I won't even notice I'm lonely, ya know? This week is business as usual, except I may be applying for a special duty job (still here at lajes) and that Jacqueline will be here to visit for a few weeks starting tomorrow. She was supposed to be here today but some weather over Newark caused her to miss a connection and there is only one flight here from Lisbon each day, so.... she'll be here tomorrow instead now.

Germany so far

2004-12-02T06:55:00.000-01:00

This has definitely been an awesome little TDY. :) TAP, the portuguese airline that will bring some of you to me and brought me from lajes to frankfurt was late, so we got here late, but that is apparently to be expected from TAP. We got to Frankfurt pretty uneventfully. The only thing notable about the trip is the fact that security at Terceira airport is kinda lax. :) I didn't get carded until I was already at Lisbon. We didn't have time to leave the airport in lisbon, which kinda sucked. It was almost long enough to try... a long wait in the airport. When we got to Frankfurt we picked up our rental car. It wasn't that tough to get around the airport or anything. The rental is as good as I expected. It is a manumatic type shifter... can be automatic or clutchless manual. Not a porche, but it did 140 km on the audobon comfortably. :) We've driven 500 km or so already, and I'm gonna have quite a bit of free time to cruise again this afternoon.

I've been having a blast. Tuesday, the first day I was actually here, I had a doner kebap at this thing that I would describe as the German version of a hotdog/gyro stand. It was yummy. :) Then we went to Trier, which is the farthest north outpost of the Roman empire. There are some buildings and things there from as far back as 100 AD. That was very cool and I do have some pictures of Trier. Trier is really close to the border of Luxembourg, so, we went ahead over the mountain into Luxembourg to say we had been there. :)

There arent gonna be enough pictures to make some of you happy......but its not my fault.... on the way to Luxembourg my camera's battery died. After only 50 pictures or so! I have taken 200 in one battery before....I think the bad power on lajes has injured my battery. And, my VOQ (visiting officer's quarters) has only european jacks.... so i havent been able to charge my battery.

But.... I am still gonna tell ya about it! The bad thing about that is that I don't even have a picture of the "welcome to luxembourg" sign. Coming back down the mountain from luxembourg it got dark, so there werent many more photo ops tuesday anyway. :) Tuesday night I went to Maxi's, a german restaurant that was recommended by the lodging person. I had jagerschnitzel. Then I came back to base and went to a christmas market thing by the bx, as well as visiting the bx, commissary, etc. Then i went to get my uniforms ready and stuff ready for the next day.
This is the sweetest part about my 4 day tdy for a 2 day class..... I went to class on wednesday morning, learned a ton about this program thing.... and along about 11 the instructor takes a breath and says "well... thats all I have for you". hahaha, so we went to lunch for like 2 hours, came back and just worked on learning the program and stuff.... until about 2:30 pm or so. then we were free for the day. and he said that Thursday would be even shorter! haha, some people scheduled flights back tonight, so they have to get to frankfurt early tonight. :)
I realized that I had a friend here at ramstein, from asbc (sandy for anyone i was talking to from asbc.... i dont know if she got into my blog or not) and I got ahold of her and she picked me up and took me to a good place to get chocolate and gummies and wine for my souvenir stuff. I had requests for gummies and chocolates from people who had been here before and stuff. She got lost a few times too.... so i have come to the conclusion that these roads are just frustrating period. haha. then she took me to one of her favorite restaurants and i had a different kind of schnizel (i dont remember the name of it....) and then went to her favorite ice cream place. I got a banana split. The only real difference was the syrups.... they were really good though. The presentation was cool too... sandy had this assorted ice creams and fruits thing that was on a plate that looked like a painter's tray thing.... cant think of the word, but the plate thing where real painters (tv painters) mix their paints to make different colors... haha. By the time that was done it was 9 pm or so and time to roll home so sandy could go meet her boyfriend and stuff. She's gonna come hang out again today too, and I'm gonna try to get some power for my camera and go take some pictures of a castle or something of that sort and i'm gonna do some shopping for a computer, tv, and stereo from the big powerzone at vogelweh for myself and I still have some gift shopping to do probably too.... i'll get some more good food and stuff and then we leave bright and early tomorrow for frankfurt. maybe with enough time for another photo stop (if my battery will charge) at a castle or something on the way there. but maybe not too. :) I'll talk to you later and will see how my pictures turn out and post some of them to my flickr, blog, webshots, etc and let you know where I put them. :)

Forgot to tell ya

2004-11-26T13:31:00.000-01:00

Don't ask me how i forgot this little detail, but I am going to Germany on Monday for the week. I am going to some class on wed and thursday and i come back friday, but I should have some free time and its gonna be exciting. :) remember this island is the farthest east i've been so far. And I will have a rental car there and will be stopping over in lisbon, so who knows what kinds of adventures and trouble i could get into. :) Email any serious requests for things soon. I dont know if i will get to do any shopping and stuff, but who knows.

Crud, Thanksgiving, etc

2004-11-26T10:56:00.000-01:00

Wow, its been a long time since I've written. Actually, this time its because I have been so busy having fun that i havent had time, instead of before when it was just that I didnt have anything interesting to blog. Lets see, I think the first weekend I haven't blogged about was the weekend of Airman Leadership School graduation. All of you future officers who will actually have leadership positions (cant really think of too many people reading my blog that this actually will apply to, pilots, navs, missileers, and engineers really dont lead anyone) should take the opportunity to go to all graduations like ALS, NCOA, SNCOA, etc. ALS is the PME (professional military education) required to become a staff sgt. one of my postal workers was graduating and it was a blast. first time i have worn my mess dress on active duty.

one of the work highlights of my last month is the fact that i have gotten 3 new troops in my flight. the night of the ALS graduation my videographer got here... she gets to start a completely new shop because there has never been a comm-videography mission here before. the other 2 were postal troops, one active duty and one is a national guard augmentee we have for 2 months (for the holidays). Getting new postal troops is definitely a very good thing. We are up to 70% of our authorized postal manpower.

one of my social highlights of the last month has been playing Crud at the club. (Those who don't know what crud is, skip to the bottom, where i will explain the game, then come back so you will understand a little better) i actually have a job, so i probably dont get to play quite as much as poonie, but i've played 5 times i think in the last month. I have a record of about 20-2. Both losses came against the same team, and both games we lost to just one person on the other team single handedly. he's good. I think the most fun part of the crud i've been playing is the fact that no other Lt's here play. So i've been playing with 3 full colonels, 6 or so lt col's and some majors and captains, and some of the coolest, sharpest comm SNCO's (col silver invited the whole enlisted lounge one night and two of my guys got hooked, especially SMSgt Pate). some of those captains are medical officers, so they commissioned as captains and havent necessarily been in all that long and dont lead any troops, so we'll consider them Lt's as far as their military might goes. ;) anyway, col silver, my group commander, played on my team the first night i played here and i saved his ass from buying drinks 3 games in a row, and ever since i've been on his team everytime he's played i think. it wont be as sneaky next time though. so far i've been playing with new people pretty much every time so noone objected when he named teams and i was always on his team because they didnt know i was a ringer. but between the two of us, we are better than any team here, with exception of one guy, who puts up a pretty good game against me and the col combined. he's a civilian who's been playing on this table for years and isnt going anywhere, so he's had some extra practice.... but he is really good. we have a big enough table in the officer's lounge that we dont cover the side pockets.... and it makes a huge difference playing against him... cuz even if you do everything right and get the ball to die in the middle of the table (and often when you make a dunk in the corner he is quick enough to hit it before it falls) he can often make the touch shot in the side pockets, which is just amazing on this huge table. I find myself wanting to not finish off the other guys on his team just because he is so dangerous under single man rules. we play pretty much every friday night and wednesday of this week we had a tournament in the afternoon. i organized a comm team, we played with myself, a captain, and 3 enlisted guys, 2 of whom had only played once. and, we got stuck against med group (the team with ricky, the guy that is so good) first round and though we actually played really really well we lost. we killed everyone but ricky though, and it was a hard fought game for having 3 enlisted guys who didnt play much before. that was the only game i lost wednesday though, and we played 6 games after the tournament was over and me and col silver, among others, beat ricky's team everytime.

I got invited over to Col Silver's house for thanksgiving dinner. that was a blast. lots of really good food, lots of good company. The silver's are awesome.... and my second favorite family was there too, the martinez's. SMSgt Martinez (chief select) is my squadron superintendant and anita volunteers at the post office 3 days a week. They are both active in the chapel and are singing in the Christmas cantata and because he is a senior NCO in my squadron it seems like they are at everything I am at work wise. I guess I havent written this in my blog yet, but i have told a few of you my theory on senior NCO's and ACE Lt's. haha, they use us interchangeably. (not me recently, because i am doing a Non-Ace Lt job (a captain's job) ) its funny though, the way it actually works out. For the most part, Lt's are smarter and more talented leaders, but the MSgts all have 16-20 years of experience and wisdom and management to make up for any lack of inherent leadership ability. and in practice it actually works out really well for the mission to have those old guys who are organized and are good managers working with us young guys, some of whom (me) arent so well organized and experienced managers, but who know how to make good intelligent decisions and have good ideas about how to do things the easy way, and are inherently more confident in our positions (no matter how humble and respectful you are, when you come straight out of hs to college then commission and bam, you're AN OFFICER and you've been told for 4 + years and everything that you are gonna be the man and stuff, you have that confidence that when you say something its gonna happen and its gonna work) than the nco's who have been wrench turners until recently in their careers. they arent used to being in a position where they have to boss people around a little bit and they cant go turn every wrench themselves to get it done.

Anyway, Lt Col Ramos, my squadron commander, ate at the silvers' also, and i got to hear so much stuff that is normally above my scope...(cuz col silver is her boss) which never hurts. :) i really like col ramos too. a lot of people dont like her, and i dont have my opr yet, so we'll see if i still like her then, but she is funny and i think very personable for a comm officer. :) she must be really good at her job too, cuz she's really young for a lt col and has already had 2 squadron commands and already did air command and staff college and her advanced comm school, which are the 2 requirements for her to get her bird. I got to the silver's about noon, played some baseball on the nintendo 64 with luke (the youngest son, 12), then got put to work.... vacuumed and stirred the gravy and helped set the tables..... hahaha, it was fun. karen (mrs silver) is really cool and if ya havent guessed i like col silver too. then there is tabitha, the 16 year old daughter.... probably the prettiest girl on the island right now and very cool to hang out with and stuff. very mature and intelligent... most of the time ya forget she's that young. dont worry, i'm not gonna do anything dumb, just stating facts. I got to talk to sabrina (the 18 year old daughter) on the phone for 15 minutes or so, that was cool. there was tons of good food... mom/dad's broccoli salad and lucy's noodles would have made it perfect. :) but it was awfully good this way. there were 2 other families there that i didnt know previously, but i recognized them all from the chapel. there were also 2 other single guys (airmen) who work at AFN (american forces network) where tabitha works after school. we ate about 2:30 or so, until about 4. then some of the families with kids rolled out, as did the airmen. then it was just me, the martinez's, col ramos, and the silvers. we sat around talking (too much work talk probably for a proper thanksgiving dinner.....) and then they started a movie (clear and present danger....i've only seen it 100 times, whats 1 more?) and col ramos left and halfway through it a bunch of drunk officers came over and invited us out and we had a few shots of this good polish vodka and jerimiah wheat and went from house to house. the weather was amazing. at 9 at night on thanksgiving night we were wandering around the neighborhood in tshirts. again, i was the only Lt involved (scratch that, jerry ottinger, a 1Lt was at one of the houses we stopped at.... he's one of my better friends, active in the chapel and stuff, but he has 4 kids and therefore isnt the ideal.....hhaha) and there were 2 col's, 4-5 lt col's, etc. well.... i ended up crashing in the silver's extra bed (i was invited before the shots or i wouldnt have taken them....) which is sorta weird and funny, but i wasnt driving anywhere. hahaha, i could have crashed at any of their houses too... its so funny hanging out with guys who have daughters old enough for me to date (and who happen to outrank me by 10-18 years, etc) Well, when i woke up this morning everyone was gone but luke and i came home, replied to emails, wrote this, and now i gotta shower, shave, get in bdu's and go to the airman's medal presentation on base.... CMSAF Murray is here to give it. should be interesting. :) maybe some more crud after that. i'm supposed to help tabitha with her physics sometime for sabrina. hahaha, i'm not looking forward to that decision whenever tabi turns 18! hahahahahahaha some tough decisions are fun though i guess. haha

CRUD: Crud is an international game invented by some canadian pilots who were bored between flying, etc. It uses a pool table, but only 2 balls, the cue ball and the 15 ball (any stripe will do). the story of the invention of the game is that they were bored and the weather wasnt conducive to sports outside and all they had inside was a pool table and alcohol. pool is normally not that exciting to watch and can only really be played by a few people at a time. well, crud is a way to involve 10-12-14 people in the game and its a fast, furious, contact sport that is much more exciting to watch. there are tons of rules and it took us a few hours to learn atthe luke afb o'club and it takes years to "master". Basically there are 2 teams of 5 or so players per team and the players rotate through taking their turn. the object ball (the stipe) starts centered on one end of the table and one person starts at the other end of the table and gets 3 shots to hit the object ball and put it in play (this is harder than it looks, and even harder on a large crud table). if the guy misses three times he loses a life. each player has 3 lives and the winning team is the team with the last man standing. after the object ball is hit, the 1st person on the other team has to grab the cue ball, get to one of the short ends of the table, and hit the target ball before it stops. however the 2nd guy on the other team gets to play some level of defense, depending on what rule set you are playing by during this particular game. we generally do not play 'combat' crud here at lajes, and really noone else does much any more either.... its bad ORM. but there is actually a lot a defender can do without tackling the shooter. :) after that guy hits the object ball the second guy on the second team does the same and so on until the ball is pocketed or it stops. if the ball is pocketed then either the last shooter (previous) or the defender/next shooter loses a life, depending on which one had the best chance to prevent the ball from going in. if the ball stops then whoever is shooting/has the cue ball "in hand" loses a life. playing non-combat rules teaches strategy. combat rules teach violence. both are important to the military member. :) they say that crud teaches all the principles of being a good fighter pilot. the losing team buys the winning team alcoholic beverages. generally the highest ranking member at the club referees the games, and his drinks are free for the duration of the game. never let another crud player catch you reading these rules. :)

My Christmas List....

2004-11-07T21:51:00.000-01:00

Apparently I need to get my Christmas orders in early or they won't get here in time.... I am going to list all the things I want/need sometime relatively soon. I know most of the things I am listing are too expensive for most of my readers, no worries. I'm just posting them for the wealthier readers so they have a shot to get me things before I buy them for myself. I will update my listed items are more advanced technologies become available in each field. Remember, most of these things will last me almost forever, so... if mom and dad can't afford them I'll end up getting them for myself. Please communicate amongst yourselves (and honestly, you all know I would rather get more stuff than be surprised, so you can feel free to let me know what you are thinking about getting me and ask for clarification on model numbers, etc) as many of the things I will list will be completely worthless if I don't get some of those near the top (ie, a dvd player won't do me a bit of good without a TV).

1. Large, plasma or LCD tv. Necessities: HDTV capability, good picture, computer input capable, Surround sound capable. Research at internet sites like Cnet.com and check shipping methods as I cannot get FedEx or UPS. Mail by US Postal Service should be the same price as shipping to Illinois, but be careful and research the shipping method, and insure it, I know what happens to the mail on its way here! If I were to order my own tonight, my dream TV is probably http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-6482_7-30916296.html?tag=also. But anything of this quality, computer input and HD capable will do, nothing smaller than 20". Indeed, it wouldn't even need to be plasma.... some LCD projection, etc, also accept computer inputs.

2. Home theater speaker system. My house is small, but this will probably last me a while, so I am ordering for a slightly larger room than I have on purpose and will be able to fill my whole house. This system is pretty close to my dream system: Stereo system
but it is not-in-stock anywhere online right now. This one comes with a DVD player.... if you get one that doesn't then add a decent dvd player.... Progressive scan to use the capabilities of my awesome tv better.

3. Fairly powerful, fast, multimedia computer. Will fill in specs on this later when I know more what I want. But my poor old laptop has about had it. Don't know yet how much I/you will spend on it and still gotta research and stuff to see whether I can go with the apple G5 or if Dell comes out with good christmas deals, etc. This is one reason my TV having computer monitor ability is kinda important... cuz if I go with the apple G5 i wouldn't need to pay for the monitor with it.... (monitors for it cost about the same as the 42" TV i am looking at....) and any other nice computer I get would be able to hook to my tv and stereo system so I can use my computer's music, etc.

Combat Nighthawk, and some funny stuff

2004-11-03T22:23:00.000-01:00

This week I am on Combat Nighthawk (Gen Foglesong, the USAFE commander, has these pet programs "Combat _____" that deal with different aspects of life). Anyway, nighthawk is a program that gets CGO's and SNCO's out of their little worlds to see what the rest of the base does. 2 CGO's and 2 SNCO's (and 2 regular NCO's) break into 2 teams and take 1 18:00 to 0000 shift and one 1200 to 1800 shift (this is why it is call "night"hawk) and you go around to the places that are open during your shift..... I did my late night shift last night, got up in the RAPCON/Tower, got to watch a few planes do touch and goes a few times through the pattern from the tower. then i got to weather, which is also cool, we have access to satellite imagery and have our own doppler radar. other than that i had actually been to every place we went to, just hadn't had tours. the other part of nighthawk is that we have to do the daily "standup" briefing. which is a briefing on whats going on to ALL the colonel's on base. the good thing about it is that they actually stand up during it, which makes for a quick meeting. :) I did the briefing monday and today, with only minor little mistakes, all of which turned into relaxing jokes. which is fun.... making all the colonel's laugh at me. :)

In other news..... I came home tonight and seem to have been adopted by a puppy. there was a little black terrier/lab mix (guessing as to the mixture.....) in my yard when i came home. its cute and has a collar and stuff and upon researching i think she belongs to Lt Barajas. I played with her a little before I came in to chat and cook myself dinner. I cooked some steaks and clam chowder.... I would like to note that steak doesnt come from a box or a can :P. then it started raining and the dumb dog is afraid of my garage, just sat outside my door staring at me instead of going in out of the rain in my garage. so.... i puppy proofed my living room and let her in, we shared a few beers and then i put her back out when the rain stopped.

halloween

2004-10-31T20:02:00.000-01:00

Well, tonight (sunday the 31st) must be when portuguese kids trick or treat. :) i got my first trick or treaters ever in my very own grown up home.... and what did i have to give them? beer. haha, just kidding i didnt give them anything because i dont have anything to give. the only fruit i even have is limes! i know, some of you are thinking "thats our alcoholic robbie, he only has limes cuz he uses them in drinks." well, in my defense they are actually from before i went to asbc. i had them for my party, otherwise i wouldnt use limes in my drinks alone... i am trying to only drink wine alone, and thats just cuz "its cheaper than water here" which makes it socially acceptable to be an alcoholic and get drunk every night with dinner (apparently a good excuse). last night i went to the base haunted house and spent the night digging pop cans out of a cooler full of water and dry ice. someone thought that would be brilliant. it does make a cool effect, but it sucks to be the one that digs out the cokes! the pop selling was the comm fundraiser of the night. it was nice to stick my hand in the ice though part of the time.... cuz they had this speed pitch competition and, well, i had to get the comm squadron on the board! it was fun cuz it was in kilometers instead of miles.... it just feels good to have a 114 next to your name at the speed pitch competition. unfortunately i didnt win though.... i was as high as 2nd for a bit, but the winner ended up being a major (at least 8 years older than me) with a 122 i think. but i should get bonus points for the loudest throws.... i hit the cardboard every shot.... its amazing how i could probably not play catch with someone at that distance without throwing the ball away a few times but i can step up with no practice and no warmup and hit the strikezone sized square 9 times in a row at 110+ kph.

i'm really kinda liking this bachelor stuff..... i havent completely washed a dish with soap and water since i've lived here. water is plenty for me.... and i have used plastic cups and bowls and sometimes plastic flatwear ever since i got all my glasses dirty and there is noone here to whine that that is disgusting. (if only i had a dog.... then i wouldnt even need to rinse them myself) :) and noone cares if i eat hamburger or tuna helper for every meal and i can drink my wine in plastic glasses and feel completely fine about it. noone to tell me how ghetto that is. and if i want to have pizza rolls and/or peanut butter and jelly and beer for dinner (or breakfast) thats cool too. now i just need a hot masseuse to come visit nightly and i'll be set! i'd never need to settle down and get married. :)

Been back on the rock for 2 weeks!

2004-10-30T06:07:00.000Z

Sorry, I haven't written since I've been back at Lajes..... I'll try to do better.

Anyway, life is good here! The weather is definitely worse than it was before I left, however, I still can't complain... its as cool as its gonna get and its still not been less than 50 or so degrees. :) It has rained almost constantly since I've been home and it is getting awfully windy. When I got home my gas tank (runs my stove and hot water heater) was empty. So I showered at the gym for the first week and a half. Thats not a problem really, I work out every day anyway, I just have to plan ahead and make sure I have all my uniform parts and/or all types of clothes I may need to change into after my shower. And having to shower at the gym makes me work out even on days when I might have been a slacker if I didnt have to shower. My first week back was pretty slow and simple. I found out the day before I left that my assignment for the next few months was going to change, I just didn't know exactly how at that point. My flight commander was moving up to be an exec at the group level, which left the flight commander position open. :) Thats where I came in. But not immediately. There were several things considered. 1, the flight doesn't really need an officer..... only the post office needs an officer in charge. 2, the flight superintendant is an awesome Master Sgt who really could run the flight herself if needed. 3, my squadron commander doesn't want Lt's as flight commanders. However, my MSgt hooked me up. :) When I first got back, I was going to be the OIC of the post office. But she wanted me to be the flight commander, move into his office and take care of his job. She is awesome, so respectful and everything of the rank, even though she has earned way more of my respect than vice versa (in my mind.... legally she's right) and she has gone to bat for me in several small ways. She actually might have talked to my squadron commander and told her she wants me to take the flight commander job and write her EPR and everything. I dont know yet if they are going to call me the "flight commander" but everyone on base pretty much knows I am the flight commander, so we'll see if it goes on my OPR. Anyway, I might get to run the flight until June! Which would be really really awesome for my OPR and for my learning in my opinion. If I'm here that long I'll get to write/review EPR's for people in my flight, be in charge during the inspection coming up early next year, and be in charge of all the preparations for that inspection. And it wouldn't hurt my ACE Lt status, because I want to extend here anyway and that would give me plenty of time to get to the other flights and to be an exec for a while. I know she has talked to someone because I am now on the CS commanders email box and have access to all the things I need access to as the commander (which I didnt have access to before).
Anyway, so that first week I was back I spent most of at the Post office, helping out with the christmas rush, yep, its already the christmas rush at the Lajes post office. My flight commander was still running things on the management end and that left very little for me to do, so i helped out at the post office. But THIS WEEK i got to move into the BIG office, complete with my own desk, desktop computer (I have an AF issued laptop for my work because I'll be moving from office to office for the ACE stuff), couch, coffee/magazine table, and a coat/hat rack. I also have my first set of Air Force keys! They open the building door, I am the only officer in the building, which puts me in charge of 40+ if we have a fire/etc. My flight is only about 20 strong, and several of those are at the post office and not in my building. Oh, my flight is called the Comm Support Flight (CS/SCS) and we're responsible for all the base photography, videography, Video Teleconferencing, Visual Graphics design, Base records management, and base publication management, as well as the base post office, which is actually a huge operation because of the remote location of Lajes.

So, I haven't had any real problems to deal with yet as the commander..... some standard ones in my flight are the fact that the post office is severely undermanned and the Video Teleconferencing never works as well as the commanders would like. Also with the fact that we are soon going to be deploying people from Lajes to support wartime missions around the world my records management personnel are important.

I got my gas tank changed out and I can now cook and shower at home. I still shower at the gym most of the time because my house is a little chilly to walk around barefoot etc. I have my space heater all ready to go and stuff but I just dont know how long the tank lasts and stuff and dont want to run it too much. With the ability to cook I have gotten more protein recently. haha I was really not getting enough protein for the way I was working out before, there were a few days there when I just had a 6 inch subway for lunch and an iceburg salad at night..... not nearly as much as I should be eating. But now I have found some easy things I can make without a lot of time, etc. Tuna helper and hamburger helper are great. There is a ton of protein in tuna. I can do spaghetti with meat sauce or manwich or just cook hamburgers also, and I still have the staples of ravioli and clam chowder. :) Baby steps. :) My diet has improved a hundred fold since I've been home. Next step is something with a recipe and not out of a box! We'll see when I make that step.

Well, thats about all I've got for now, I will be posting pictures to http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbiefaith00/ and will be creating links to it and stuff when I get around to it. :) Hope all is well at home and in Argentina and anywhere else people might be reading from! Post comments so I know who is reading!

2004-10-17T23:25:00.000Z

Spring 2004 Nationals

2004-10-17T23:23:00.000Z

Me in Hawaii, Winter Break 2003-2004

ASBC is almost over!!

2004-10-06T23:27:00.000Z

Hey ya'll, sorry its been so long since I've written. :)

Anyway.... last time I wrote I was still on my lovely little subtropical island. :) Now I am in not-so-lovely Montgomery, Alabama, at Maxwell AFB for Air and Space Basic Course. ASBC has been fun, but it is a complete waste of USAF money and a lot of Lt's time. But hey, if the Air Force wants to take me away from my base and keep me from learning my job for 6 weeks and let me hang out with 740 other Lt's and be close enough to my friends and family that I can go visit them this weekend then I'll just suffer through it I guess. :)

Those who aren't interested in ASBC (non-cadets and people who don't love me all that much) skip this paragraph because it will be all about the curriculum and stuff of ASBC. The classroom time was all basically a review of stuff I learned in ROTC, to a little bit of a deeper level, but not too much. We did a lot of doctrine, learned the major aircraft, satellites, and missiles the USAF flies, had to do a basic ROTC style briefing, and I'm sure there were other things in there that weren't even important enough to remember having learned. We did do 3 different computer based "wargames". The first two were actually kinda fun. My flight won all three. :) Oh, I guess that is a relevant thing to tell you cadets. The organization for the majority of ASBC is broken into 8 Student Squadrons, I am in the Orions, each with 10 flights of 13 or 14 people. My ASBC class is 740 people, roughly 3oo from ROTC, 300 from the Academy and the other 140 are OTS Lt's. The flights are randomly selected I think, so they are a pretty decent sampling of the whole class. There are 5 Academy guys, 6 ROTC guys and 3 from OTS. Honestly the only thing ASBC is actually accomplishing that would have been more difficult if we went straight to our bases is the way they mix the different commissioning sources together. There are definite differences..... for example between the ROTC and Academy experiences (and OTS is even more different), but by meeting 300 academy people at once, you dont judge the whole academy by 1 or 2, which could be very very bad for the academy (or for ROTC, imagine if people judged ROTC Lt's by looking at Stall, , Pulido, or Poon for example!) :) Hmm, other ASBC stuff..... the VOQ here is definitely different from other bases because its all for Air University. I have basically an average hotel room but I have to share a bathroom with my neighbor. The PT program at ASBC is a complete joke. My squadron at home works out much much harder. They do this stuff called PRT, which they say they got from Army Airborne or Ranger school or something, but its worthless. And it takes up time that we could be spending running or lifting or something on our own. And there are no team sports activities. Honestly the problem solving exercises are more of a workout than the pt program. There are 3 "warrior challenges" that earn your flight points toward honor flight type awards in each squadron and probably the whole class has a top-flight too. They are very similar to the "rescue the downed pilot" type exercise at field training. Each person gets a clue card and someone gets a map and they have to run someplace, (anywhere from .5 to 1.5 miles, which is why I said it can be a workout compared to the pt crap) and solve a problem in x amount of time. And there are always 3 parts to those warrior challenges, so, three runs which add up to nearly 3 miles on all 3. Those are also probably the most fun part of ASBC too. There were a few other physical events that are team oriented. There is a 3 mile "warrior run" for time and each person earns or loses points based on how they compare to the "average" time for the 3 mile. I think they call average 28 minutes, so even I beat that. Not that tough. and the other one was broken down into 3 groups, 1 group does the obstacle course (which you do another time as well, not at all challenging and nothing like the one at lackland.... no running between obstacle or water or any of the other hard parts about lackland's course) 1 group does a 2 mile run and the 3rd group does pt (200 situps, 160 pushups, 40 pull-ups, and 4 300 m shuttle runs (divided however you want between the 4 people in that group). Hmm.... there are 2 academic tests during ASBC, neither of which is too difficult, I got a 94.x and a 97.x on them. You have to get a 75 on both of them and a 75 average to pass. (that sounds funny i know, but if you dont get a 75 on the test then you retake it to pass that test.... and the first score from both tests has to average over 75 to pass ASBC. hopefully none of you will have to worry about it. the only other requirement to pass ASBC is to run a 1.5 mile in less than 15.5 minutes.... not a big challenge. and you have to show up to everything on time and not get arrested or anything bad like that. i've succeeded so far...

i think that sums it up for the ASBC stuff..... now what have i been doing for fun to make me not completely hate being here away from my island life..... well, my class is pretty tight. we have played a lot of poker, gone out for food together (japanese steakhouse, olive garden, smokeybones, etc) quite a bit, and of course work out and stuff together some too. i have earned enough money playing poker to feed myself while i've been here..... so my tdy money will be all profit. havent played for a whole lot of money at a time....started out playing $5 buy-in no-limit texas hold-em tournament style..... winner take-all except 2nd place normally gets his money back..... then during the hurricane when we were playing a whole lot we played for $2 tournament style and now we have started playing non-tournament style..... just buy x number of chips and play till you want to quit. i actually think i make about the same amount of money both ways, but tournament style takes a lot longer and you have to win while regular you can just win some of people's money without having to get it all. :) i like poker. i hope i'm not too terribly addicted cuz i will have a hard time finding an officer's game back at my base. there arent too many of us and most of them are married with kids, etc.

This weekend I will be in the great city of chicago to hang out with all my friends and to see my parents and people like that before i leave the continent again.... probably until may or june this time. I arrive at the airport friday night at 10:30 and will be there until 3 pm monday afternoon. i plan to eat lots of good food that i cant get on my island, drink lots of good alcohol that i cant get on my island, and hang out with lots of cool friends that cant get to my island. :) so.... any of ya'll that want to eat out any this weekend, let me know so i can make sure you know where and when i'm going! cadets especially let me know when you can go to ponchos! i cant get good mexican on my island, so....... other meals planned will be thai, chinatown, maybe pakistani, probably some chicago pizza, maybe korean (cant get any of those on the island either really, basically cant get anything but italian, brazillian and portuguese!)

Getting ready for ASBC, first projects, etc

2004-08-18T17:00:00.000Z

Hey ya'll, I haven't written in a while, sorry I got busy.

Hmm, life is good though. I got my Jeep in last friday. There were some minor little difficulties with that. It got here with a dead battery from bein on the boat for a month, etc. They make you put it in the port almost empty too, so it had very little gasoline in it. Well, I got her jumped and let it run some but couldnt let it run long enough because I couldnt buy gas (w/o paying about $6.00 per gallon off base) until the base gas station opened at 1000 saturday. So i ended up getting her jumped like 4 times friday night and ended up crashing in my dorm room instead of driving home so I would be guaranteed i wouldnt run out of gas and i would be closer to people i knew to get jumped if necessary. I ended up not needing a jump in the morning, she finally decided she wasnt mad at me anymore and hasnt given me any problems since. I got her gas and have driven a couple hundred miles since, exploring the island.

friday night i had a couple of going away parties to go to, which were actually a lot of fun, even completely sober, then saturday i spent taking care of my jeep mostly. went to the air port to tell a new friend (colonel silver's daughter sabrina) good bye on her way off the island and ended up spending a few hours with her at the airport which was actually alot of fun, which really kinda sucks.... getting to know a person and having a lot of fun talking to her when you know she's leaving and you may never see her again sucks. but i did give her my email address and aim and msn nicknames, so hopefully we'll get to chat some and stuff and she'll probably come visit her family at some point and she already wants me to take her out when she's here. so far it hasnt gotten me in trouble, and since she left col silver personally got me on the hometown greetings project i will talk about later and i've gone golfing with him, etc. so....for those cadets laughing at me for the predictability of me and the col's daughter..... it may not get me in trouble.

haha i miss you guys. as much fun as i'm having here i would rather be at o'week with ya'll, training little cadets. Ya'll better make sure your calendars are clear to come see me and party with me the 18th of September!

anyway, my first project is the inspection, should be done before i leave (29 Aug).
My second project i was signed up for was the AntiTerrorism/Force Protection drills for this month. I dont have continuity, but the idea is that the comm squadron has 7 buildings, all of which require fire drills, bomb threats, and suspicious package checks before the end of august. so, i get to go around pulling fire alarms and leaving suspicious packages for the next week and a half.

My third project, i actually volunteered for, before I got my training rip for ASBC. The project is done by the Army and Air Force Hometown greetings team and it is basically for people to send videotaped messages home to family members and friends, etc. The requirement for the project is at least 120 people have to be signed up for the two days or they may not come next year. So, I was pretty excited about doing the execution part of that project, unfortunately i wont be here so i have to be that much better at planning. so that sucks. but its still another project that will have my name on it and everything.

well, i better get back to work. I will be leaving the island the 29th and will be at maxwell afb for 6 weeks. the plan is to come to chicago the weekend of the 18th and 19th for a big party and to see as many of you as possible! Plan for the 18th to be a big party in jacqueline and juju's room, for their early birthday celebration (since they are so old it doesnt have to be on their actual birfday (see, I even miss poonie, who, by the way should be encouraged to come to chicago that weekend if she wants) anymore), late Air Force birthday celebration, really late commissioning party for me and poonie and anyone else who can be there, etc. so invite everyone you know to come to chicago and drink my college alcohol leftovers!

Praia fest, another week, etc

2004-08-07T14:55:00.000Z

Hey, its been a little longer week this week, but still altogether fun. :) my moral is still among the highest in the air force. :) i moved into my house monday, spent most of the week in meetings and stuff, and had friday off of work. so.... thursday night we had a going away party for lt warren (i wont miss her any) at the italian restaurant in my back yard. then i went to praia fest, which was a blast. hung out with several different groups of americans and met some very cool portuguese people, etc. since i didnt have to get up the next day i ended up staying and catching the last Lajes Against Drunk Driving (LADD) van home (0500) and sleeping all day friday. i didnt do anything friday but hang out and watch the water and stuff. today, saturday i had to be up and ready for randy (LT pletzer) to pick me up for our AWANA leader training at 0900 today. THen i went and worked at the post office from when that was over until 1400. and then i came to the library to write in my blog and check my email and stuff. I got lots of responses about my being in america in 3 weeks. mostly from people in my ecot class that are gonna be there too. i wont have the longest flight to asbc! amber is coming from japan, and christian is coming from alaska (probably a lil longer than mine). i think i am going to plan to get to chicago the weekend of the 18-19 of September (weekend before Jacqueline's birthday and julia's birthday) so ya'll in chicago better plan a killer party for a combined Jacqueline's bday/Julia's bday/LT faith coming home party. :) remember we didnt ever really get together for my graduation and commissioning party either, so make it that much bigger for me. :) and add a really late bday party for lebay since his party wasnt quite as big as it could have been either. haha, and it is the weekend after the Air Force's birthday, we cant forget that. hmmm, sounds like some crazy partying to me! well i gotta go pick up the ladd van, call the guy thats supposed to help navigate, and get some sleep so i can stay up all night. :) i hope ya'll are at least a little pumped about my first tdy back to the states. (yeah yeah, i know, it will still be a loooooong way away from chicago, but its closer than i am now!)

MY home phone

2004-08-02T18:39:00.000Z

My home phone number from the states will be 011-351-295-515-215. My cell phone number from the states is 011-351-967-076-885. I don't know yet for sure if i will be spending the night tonight in my new house or not.... I wasn't able to buy sheets, blankets, and some other essentials yet today because the movers too longer than expected. Please spread that number around! I want to start getting some phone calls! there is no answering machine, so it shouldnt cost you anything unless i answer, but i wouldnt let it ring too many times. it rings loud enough i'll probably hear it even if i'm at the pool, so if i dont get the first one, give a minute and call right back. :) just in case i was by the pool. the furniture and appliances were all brand new, in the original boxes even! gas stove and oven, gas run clothes dryer, gas water heater, big-nice fridge (the appliances are all probably nicer than my family has ever had at home), etc. :) well, ya'll can come visit me and see my house for yourselves!!!

1st weekend of Praia fest

2004-08-01T16:42:00.000Z

Praia fest is a lot of fun, not nearly as crazy as i expected though. Friday night we (me and 7 captains) went down and ate at a portuguese restaurant from one of the other islands. i had fish, it was like a fish casserole, it was good. there were some that had veal and grilled kid (haha, a kid is a baby goat.....funny translation though huh) and we all enjoyed our food with sangria. then we had some port.... apparently one of the famous things abot the festival. some tasted a lot like creme de cassis, and the older ones tasted like frangelico mixed in. haha, port ranges in proofage from like 20 to 38 from the ones i saw.... so they are pretty strong wines. and they dont taste too bad. after that we went and walked around and went to the dancing place at the festival. noone was there friday night. we were supposed to leave at 0100 but ended up staying till like 0400 drinking and i even danced a little. not as much as the jag did though. she was enjoying herself quite a bit. but yeah..... i was pretty drunk when i laid down at 0430.... had to be up and at the chapel by 0900 for AWANA, the youth group program i am going to be a director for. sat there awake from 0900 to 1200 and didnt really need to be there. haha then i crashed until about 1700, ate a ton of food at the dorm cookout. i think they were trying to keep me from moving out tomorrow. after we ate we went to praia fest again, the parade was supposed to start at 2130. it ended up being closer to 0000. it was cool though. mostly just floats with pretty girls on them in these big old fashioned dresses. after the parade we (me and the captains) had a few drinks, then some of them went home early. i was walking with the ones that were staying at the festival for a while and stopped to talk to another friend and they left me..... i never found them again. haha, turned out they left about midnight. i ended up going from american group to american group talking to everyone but not wanting to spend too long with any group for fear of frat.... i had to be at the airport to meet the base vice commander at 0330, and didnt want to sleep before that, so i ended up staying until like 3. the dance floor was lots more crowded, but i wasnt feeling like dancing, so i didnt. haha didnt have enough to drink i guess. but it was very cool. praia is a cool little town. so old. today i went to church at 0900 and took a long nap and i think we're gonna go see "the stepford wives" tonight. then back to work tomorrow. i'm gonna eat leftovers from the dorm party last night for dinner tonight. hope ya'll are having great summers and getting all ready for school!

25th through 29th of July

2004-07-30T00:16:00.000Z

Hey, its been a while since I've written cuz I havent had much to write about...... Hmm, Sunday I went to church at 0900 and had some good fellowship time with Col Silver and his family, as well as several of the comm squadron officers. That was cool. Then I took a nice long nap. Then I got up and worked out some and chatted and thats about it for Sunday. Monday was a killer pt day. We did some Killer 11 or something like that. 11 sets of 11 of Pushups, crunches flutterkicks and squats. none of that was too horrible except immediately after all those squats we ran 1.8 or so on the hills. Wow that hurt. But it didnt kill me, so it must have made me stronger. I am still sore from it on Thursday however. :) Other than that Monday I spent all day tossing mail and got started on the inspection checklist at the very end of Monday. Tuesday I worked on the mail and did some more of the inspection checklist. Tuesday night I went out with a bunch of captains and another Lt for dinner. Brazillian restaurant, all you can eat meat. :) it was awesome too. They basically cook all the meats on skewers like kabobs, and bring each skewer out and cut off chunks onto your plate. All different kinds of meat, including chicken, beef, pork, buffalo (or bullfrog, couldnt really understand him, but it was good), chicken hearts, and so on. It was great. They also bring out grilled pineapple and fried bananas and black beans and rice and bread with goat cheese, etc. 15 euros for the food, and we had a couple bottles of pretty good wine (there were 7 of us on the outing, but 3 wine drinkers). The wines were like 7 euros a bottle. great night. and it was awesome meeting new officers. they are all in the dorm too so far.

Wed we had an ORI in ss blues with ties. That was pretty cool I guess. I had a perfect inspection. THe main reason for it was that lots of the enlisted don't have uniform parts, etc. The silver name tags, for example. It was actually somewhat amazing how many people had put their belts on backward for their respective sexes. but overall i think everyone was squared away. the rest of the day was somewhat shot, didnt get much work done on my inspection but oh well. I made my way down the hill to the comm headquarters for the staff meeting but ended up stopping to talk to pletzer who made me late and ended up not having to go, so I didnt go. Didnt want to walk in late. then after work i went home and changed out of my bdus and into civies and shot some pool with one of the captains, then we went to the base movie theater to watch "the day after tomorrow" which was pretty good. then we had some jack and coke and shot pool until like 1 am or so. then i checked my email and chatted a bit. so, I am tired today. haha oh, and while i was drinking and shooting pool col ramos came in and we had like a 20 minute conversation or so.... that was pretty cool. she doesnt seem nearly as mean as people try to make her sound. :) and today i have been here, went on the mail run, did a little on the checklist, and this is the best part of today so far, found out that my jeep will be here on August 10! The people at st louis must have busted their asses to get her to norfolk before the strong patriot (the car carrying ship) left. so thats awesome. now i'll only be off base for a week without a car. :)

this weekend is the beginning of praia fest! i have talked some about the festivals before, but they are just like 2 week long block parties with several different events, dj music and jazz music every night, some relatively big name bands..... this year moody blues and "Population 1" (used to be Extreme??) are the "big name" groups. otherwise there are 2 or 3 street bullfights and a beach bullfight. the beach one is supposed to be the best cuz the bull has a better shot at the drunk portuguese guys. the bull gets better traction but the people dont. :) there is also an international food fair.... similar to taste of chicago and stuff like that. so..... i'm looking forward to praia fest, and those of you who have called or chatted with me I may or may not be around at all this weekend. :)

Golf, friday and saturday

2004-07-25T05:00:00.000Z

Friday was a pretty good day, we ran the 5 k, which wasnt that bad at all. we ran it down on near the flight line, which meant it was somewhat flat.... on a 3/4 mile lap block. So we ran 4 laps (which would be shorter than a real 5 k, so i dont know if the 3/4 mile was approximate or if we really dont run a full 5 k). it wasnt bad at all, i wasnt the fastest, but i sure wasnt the slowest either. honestly, it wasnt nearly as bad as a 1.5 mile at keesler at 3pm! after that we had time to shower and get in uniforms, and i reported to work at the post office. worked until after the first shift lunchers came back, then i took an extra long lunch so i could get down to the portuguese terminal (down the 1000 steps, by the flightline) to get my cell phone and stuff all set up. so, i now have a cell phone, see yesterday's entry for the number. cell phones are different here from my cell before. its more of a prepaid thing. i can receive calls for free, so anyone who wants to can call me anytime. they charge x number of euro cents per minute, and i have 35 euros worth on the phone. when those run low i just call and get more for calling out. i dont plan on using it too much to call out, but i figure 35 euros is about $45 which is what i paid for my cell at home, so if i use that mucha month it isnt too much. especially since i make more money now, having a job and all. after lunch i got back and emailed my people here my number, posted it in my blog, and emailed anyone who was in my email list the number. anyone reading this that isnt in my email list can email me at faitrob@gimail.af.mil and i'll add you to my list. after work i helped out around the post office some more. people feel special when an officer goes to get their packages for them. or at least thats what they tell me. at about 5 pm we were "off duty" and my flight commander had some beer in the post office fridge for us. i still dont lik beer, but its not that bad at 5 after a long day of running, walking up and down the 1000 steps, etc. then i went home and changed into golf shorts and went golfing with SSgt Aguilar. (no, i'm not gonna get busted for fraternizing, George is sorta the ncoic of the comm squadron intramural golf team.... and will probably be my partner next week in the semifinals, and intramural sports are allowed..... but those using this as tips for later, make sure they call you sir or Lt, never your first name.... even at church, golf course, etc. and no, this isnt a mistake i made and was corrected on, but something that was brought up as a "make sure ya dont," which is cool and i wouldnt have, luckily i've gone by faith forever anyway and stuff.)

the golf course is in the prettiest place i've ever played golf. the fairways arent always cut any shorter than the rough and little stuff like that, and the greens arent the tightest cut i've ever played on, but its a very fair challenge and a lot of fun. I played the old 9, which for those of you that golf is inherently more open, longer, but easier than the newer 9. I hit driver every hole and only had to count on the golf course monkey to throw one of them back in out of the trees. :) the trees were all old, tall, healthy coniferous trees of some sort, and under them in most places were these flowerbushes, the kind of flowers that grow in big balls of flowers, and can vary in color from blue to pink, all on the same plant sometimes. so, sometimes the balls are findable, but rarely hittable. i know this cuz sgt aguilar was nervous and didnt hit a single fairway..... at least i hope i made him nervous, cuz otherwise i need a new partner. the course is surrounded on all sides by little cow farms.... making for a slight smell of cow crap when you were on that side of the course, there werent any flowers, and the wind blew the wrong way, but nothing unbearable. there are steep mountains on all sides of the course. the mountains, like the rest of the island, are broken up into small pastures and farms divided on all sides by walls of volcanic rock. the mountains arent the tallest i've seen, but they sure go up sharply in some places, and are tall enough to affect the weather and to be up in the clouds. which makes for beautiful scenery. the only thing that might be cooler is if the course was cut on the ocean side of one of the mountains.... then they could have holes that bordered the ocean cliffs on one side and the mountain on the other. it was beautiful. i didnt score real well, i had one hold where i was hugging one set of trees and pulled a few wedges just a few degrees and hit the trees like 3 times in a row, and i didnt put well, but i was hitting the ball very well. the yardages are marked in meters (does that make them meterages?) which means basically add 10% of the number to get an approximate yardage. which is simple enough and was about the yardage that things felt like and i hit the right schtick on my approaches. there are a few scary approach shots, with steep valleys on both sides with sand traps in them. but i plan on being close enough with my drives to take sandwedges in and it wont matter.

after golf sgt aguilar took me (as in drove me, not paid, as ya'll know, lettng them pay is another no no.) to this amazing seafood place. dang, i cant think of the name now. but it was awesome, no english menu, and aguilar, though fluent in spanish does not know specfic words in portuguese (like fish names) any better than i do. still, we could go up to the fridge with the fresh (caught that day) fish and point if we hadnt been curious of the names (cuz i will be here eating seafood for 15 months, i want to know the names). i will recognize them in the menu next time, though i cant think of them right now. but for 12 euros, i had this huge cut of fish, actually like 3 cuts..... of this awesome whitefish, similar to swordfish (which i could have had at the same price) cooked very well, lemony, garlicy, just the right amount of sal, and some potatoes, as well as these ugly little things called crackies? that were similar to like, an oyster or muscle, but you use a nail to dig out the meat (which comes out with the top of the shell) and eat it, and drink the juice..... they were awesome. and bread with fresh goat cheese and butter made on the island that is very good. george (its ok for us to call them by first name), though i dont generally in person), for the same price, had a huge plate of grilled squid, which was also very very well cooked and good ( i had a bite) . so, i'm really looking forward to getting my jeep and some friends to go eat with all the time. :) then i came home and crashed.

today i was supposed to go golf again, but i missed the phone call somehow and havent gotten ahold of them. so today has been a very nice, relaxed day of writing emails, chatting with a friend, and enjoying the perfect weather outside. i have church tomorrow, i'll go the 0900 service, then hopefully get out to the golf course for another game. otherwise tomorrow is just a relax day again. so, i may not post so much tomorrow, if at all. hope ya'll are enjoying, and before you call me on my cell phone check with whoever your phone cards are through, i know jacqueline's phone card company charges 9 times as much for a call to a cell phone as a landline (thats what it was supposed to charge, but somehow it charged her a lot faster than that....... ). i will have a landline soon enough. move in day for my apartment was pushed back to the 2nd of august because the "inspector" (actally a translator) cant be there friday. thats fine with me though, as i dont have a vehicle yet, and my furniture wouldnt have been there till monday anyway.

MY cell phone

2004-07-23T16:25:00.000Z

Hey everyone, I just got a cell phone. I dont know if it will cost you more to call it than a landline (i dont have a landline yet, but you can call the dorm lounge like i mentioned in a previous blog.) but ya'll can call and see if it lowers the number of minutes on your phone card. The number is
011 351 967-076-885. so call me!

the post office

2004-07-22T22:13:00.000Z

hey ya'll, today wasnt as exciting, no fires, no generals, nothing. haha, i was at the post office all day, i was in charge of the comm squadron for the random antiterrorism exercise. which was uneventful. other than that, i got to go on a mail run to the airport to pick up a load of mail, and i got to help sort the mail and stuff. i dont envy those guys' job at all. it would be pretty boring if you had to do it every day. the only job i wouldnt mind down there is the actual person that gets to give the packages to the people all day. that person gets to talk to people and get to know lots of people and stuff. but the others work in a warehouse-type environment, dealing only with bags of papers, boxes, etc.

i think i have a golf game after work today with sgt aguilar and others, and i think i will be playing number 4 on the comm team in the intramural semifinals over the weekend. there aren't necessarily 3 guys better than me, but there are 3 guys with handicaps under 10 that have contributed a good deal to getting this far. so.... i'm not real sure how fair it is to have a ringer like me added in the semifinal. or how fair it is to whoever used to play number 4. but i want to play some golf, and they can probably use me. i think they play 2 man best ball matches for points, somewhat like ryder cup scoring. and apparently we have lost once and cant lose anymore. but i love playing matchplay style games, so we probably wont lose. :) hope i get with whoever hits 'er the straigtest so i can break out my driver.... if he cant hit the fairway i wont hit driver, sounds like the course is tight and unforgiving.

fires, etc....Wed 21 Jul

2004-07-21T18:50:00.000Z

today was a pretty good day.... we had a waste of time cheerleading appearance this morning for the general thats here to inspect the base.... that was instead of pt though, which is ok i guess.... i dont dread pt that much though. its pretty fun and good for me and the troops. then all the officers on base were invited/expected to attend a little mentorship briefing from general findlay. he's a pretty cool guy. has had some really cool joint command jobs. he flew tankers and airlifters, which is where his joint commands came in, he was in charge of airlift for the afghanistan war. had some cool things to say for us. that got me to lunch, for which i went to the protestant men of the chapel Bible study. they had portuguese soup (similar to pasoule (or however you spell it)) and portuguese rolls and they are finishing up a study on Nehemiah. that was pretty cool, there were only 4 this morning, me, my sponsor, another Lt (same guy that was smokin and jokin with me and the pilots last night) and a senior master sgt. good cooked meal for lunch for free and decent study and discussion.... then i got to kill some more time cuz i rode back to work with Lt Pletzer (randy, my sponsor) and he had to stop at the education office. so i got back to work and followed tsgt dennis, our records and publications nco, and today she was dealing with preparing some unnecessary records for destruction and i got to help with that. while we were in the records cage we started smelling smoke. i could tell by the smell it was electrical and started hunting for the source (a fire back there would be really bad, all that paper, including some permanent records that would be hard to impossible to replace). we eventually found out that one of the overhead lights (ancient flourescent light fixtures) was smoking. it was actually pretty cool, the light bulbs were not working, but when we discovered the problem and flipped the switch, the bulb that was not on with power came on when the power was cut. somehow the capacitor was charging and discharged as light when the power was cut. the others didnt see it the first time, so we turned it back on and off so they could see it. we called the fire department, which is right across the street, and they said to hit the fire alarm even though it wasnt a fire yet. so, we did. haha, and everyone had to evacuate to the parking lot across the street, then the firemen suited up and went in in full gear, with only directions to it, they wouldnt let me go back in to show them where it was..... they cleared us to go back in and called an electrician, cut the power to that room, etc. but we couldnt lock up the room, and it couldnt be left unattended because there were privacy act protected paperwork in there, etc..... so, we got to chill while we waited an hour+ for the electrician. then the lock was broken, so i got to ride to CE for a new one with SSgt Aguilar. he's a cool guy too, grew up in costa rica, played college soccer there for 2 years till they found out he was american and said they wouldnt pay his scholarship anymore. so, he enlisted in the AF. this is a cool first assignment because there are hardly any really young, new airmen. because its a small base, pretty much every enlisted troop is at least 5 level in their specialty and most are tech sgts or above. all experts. makes us leaders' job easy.

i also just got assigned my first additional/special duty. i may ahve written about it earlier, but i am the anti-terrorism officer for the comm squadron. we have an exercise tomorrow at 0800 and i have to call security forces and stuff. the exercise is probably classified, so i cant tell ya what it is..... and that finished up my day pretty much, i went and chatted a bit at the community center where i can use msn, then made an appearance at one of my nco's wife's baby shower, helped them carry stuff out, then rode my bike down to the library. so, now i am here, finishing this up and chatting till the library closes, then i'll go answer a few phone calls at the dorm and hopefully crash, but if not i will either watch a movie with the girls on my floor or go to the lodging office computer to chat some more. well, i guess thats it for today! tomorrow i'll be at the post office for a lil party and to start the inspection process! my first project. :)

Tuesday night at the OSS

2004-07-21T07:51:00.000Z

tonight after work i went to a barbecue at the OSS, (operational support squadron) which is our equivalent of a flight maintenance squadron, they take care of the planes and pilots since we dont have our "own" planes. anyway, i didnt know what i was going to when i got in my flight commander's car to go..... but there were probably 30 majors or above, a bunch of master sgts and above, and 3 or 4 cgo's. (cgo means company grade officer, which means Lt's and captains) so, i tried to hide, unsuccessfully.... so i met and shook hands with the base commander, the visiting general, and a whole bunch of other lt col's and majors. but.... the highlight was a couple of fighter pilots. :) the coolest of them flew cobras in the army, then f-15's for the af, then F-117's for the af. he suggests i do ground school online, and save up my leave so i can go home for 3 weeks and fly twice a day to get my ppl. which sounds like a plan to me. :) well, its about bedtime..... i'll write more tomorrow!

My apartment, etc

2004-07-21T00:30:00.000Z

I signed the promissory note on my first apartment yesterday! I'm excited, cant wait to move in. Cant wait to get a phone and dsl connection and be able to upload pictures for you all!

We had pt yesterday morning and i was talking to my flight commander about the place and he said "you better go talk to them immediately so it doesnt get taken." apparently this place is the nicest spot on the island, a really popular spot and everyone is shocked that it was on the market for a whole day. So, I went straight to the housing office, gave them the address and asked if it was still available, they said yes it was, and so i spent some time with them, asking questions about the rules and stuff. Being my first pcs, my first assignment, my first overseas living, etc, i asked lots of questions. The overseas stuff is different from everything i ever learned in rotc about housing and stuff in conus bases. The way it works here, for ya'll who will be doing this in a few years, etc, is I have a certain amount of money, $1031 for my rank and place here, that the air force will pay for my house/apartment each month. My place is going to be $800 a month, but i dont get the difference overseas. In addition to the overseas housing allowance (the $1031) I also get $250/month to pay for utilities, the air force provides me furniture and appliances, and I get like $900 cash "move-in allowance". That $900 is apparently a one-time per overseas assignment thing just to get set up. You know how much alcohol I could buy for that? haha, just kidding.... I might buy some pots and pans, a cheap little grill, and maybe a blender with that though.

hmm, more specifics about the house: it is a two story place, the upstairs is currently occupied by another comm LT and i get the bottom floor. it has a fenced in, gated yard and drive way. the gate is electronically, remote operated with a little garage door opener thingamajigger. it has a two car garage, living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen. i didnt look around the inside too much, because it is about 100 feet from the picina, with an italian restaurant kitty corner between me and the pool. the "pool" is actually saltwater, its a little swimming hole divided off from the ocean by a ring of volcanic rock. there is lots of sunbathing area, and when i was there there were probably 20-30 portuguese people sunbathing and a bunch of kids swimming, and this was in the middle of a wednesday afternoon. so, basically i am about 100 feet from the atlantic ocean. :) The neighborhood (or town actually) its in is Porto Martins, which has been described as "little America" because so many air force people live in the area. I think all the single comm Lt's live in that area, and probably all the single Lt's period. But there are a good number of portuguese in the area and all the sunbathers were portuguese, etc. Lt Warren and Lt Callie both have dogs. I still dont know if i'm gonna get a dog, a cat, a goat, or nothing, but this place would allow all three. :) I will be able to move in on the 30th of July, and my furniture will arrive on the 2nd of August. My household goods should be here around then too hopefully. My mailing address wont change, so those of you who love me enough to send me stuff please do. :) I am gonna talk to the telephone people about making sure I'm set up with a phone and getting dsl connection and stuff as soon as possible so you will all have a place to reach me.

Other than housing, I got to work a little today around the SCS flight. SCS is the comm support flight, and they are responsible for the post office, photography, illustrations, graphics design, and records management for the base. The main thing I had to get accomplished before the 22nd of Jul is/was Information assurance training on the computer. it was a big pain in the butt because everyone in the air force has to do this training by 22 jul, so the website had so much traffic that we were basically causing our own denial of service attack. so... i stayed after work until like 11 or so working on that. it downloaded finally at like 1930 or so and i could have been done by 2100 or so, but i was chatting on aimexpress while i worked on it. so, i was here until like 11 last night, chatting and doing that course and test on my computer. otherwise, yesterday i listened to the graphics designer talk about his job for a few hours and watched some of his work. he makes posters basically for wing functions.

today i have spent most of my day with the photographers, they take pictures for those of you that may not know. :P everything from people who cant do their own passport or id photos to pa stuff for the newspaper or for the usafe website or whole af stuff. today they are taking pictures of all the new master sergeant select's for senior nco stuff. and the mpf just got the ability to take pictures of people for passport/id purposes and so they went and took pictures of the mpf people taking pictures of a little girl for her id. it got me out of the office for a little bit. that was nice. tomorrow is operation combat proud inspection day and there will be a 2 star select here "inspecting" the base (thats what we painted for all day friday, etc) for a competition between the usafe bases. yeah, i've decided i'm not gonna explain any more acronyms, ya'll have computers, you can do a little quick search and figure them out for yourselves. :P they can do some pretty cool stuff with photoshop, as can the graphics artists. kinda cool. oh, i got my first little bit of leadership today! i am now the base anti-terrorism officer. woohoo. haha. it sounds like i will be getting lots of little extra duty spots for leadership experience, which is all good, will help me come pilot boards time and will add some info to my opr. col silver suggested for me to get involved in as many of those types of things as possible.

Poonie's safely at vandenburg for anyone who didnt know that.... hmm, my computer is safely at keesler afb. :( haha i'm gonna call the keesler post office today and find out what they can do for me. :) they do have my forwarding address, they could mail my computer on to me by usps. hmm, we'll see. Lt warren still hasnt heard from the other LT's about a car, so i'm still carless. well, i'm gonna post this, then go see if anyone is taking any interesting pictures or something. email me!

i also hit this cool online christian radio station that i can get to until the air force finds it: http://tvulive.com/radiou/listen.htm if you want to feel closer to me by listening to the same music! thats kinda a cool thought i think, its broadcast in near real time all around the world via the internet, so the same song will be on there as is here! :) somewhere, out there, someone's listening to muuuuusic, somewhere out there, out where there...... :)

1st week at Lajes

2004-07-19T09:50:00.000Z

Hey ya'll, I just started a blog to post to instead of writing such long emails that sometimes send and sometimes dont and i never know who got them and who didnt. This way anyone who wants them can get them. :) I'll still probably send some stuff via email, but this way I will know you can get them. I just pasted my first two big emails in this first post, and from now on i will post to this instead of writing such huge emails. :)

Hey ya'll!! i am safe and sound and have been busy busy busy. probably already lost a pound or so. :) Lets see, I got here, got my stuff, my sponsor met me, he is old (like 30!, prior enlisted) and married with children, his name is Randy Pletzer, he is active with the chapel youth (AWANA commander) which is cool so I have an in there, his wife and daughters are in Oklahoma visiting family for 2 more weeks, he is gonna let me borrow her car as soon as I get a Portuguese license (probably tomorrow). Saturday night we just moved our stuff into my temporary room, called TLF (temporary lodging) and he left me on my own for sunday. he had college classes sunday and didnt get to go to church or anything. I went to the noon service, actually my room clock was set an hour and a half fast and thereby caused me to go to church in time to be just a little late for the catholic service, thinking i was a little late for the protestant (Gospel at noon, traditional at 0900). So, I walk on in, they were still welcoming and stuff, and realize shortly my mistake. But i didnt realize all of my mistake at first. first i thought that the minister was lutheran :P, which didnt make much sense cuz AF protestant services are normally non-denominational. then i realized he was catholic, and i was a the catholic mass. it was somewhat amazing how stuckup the catholics were compared to the gospel service (my second service, making up for my lack of going at Keesler :) ) The gospel service had me introduce myself and stuff and they were all very friendly and stuff. The service really reminded me of rejoyce. the choir was all black, all fired up and excited and had rhythm and stuff. the majority of the congregation were black, and the other whites sorta seemed like they were just there cuz they had slept in. My group commander (Col Silver, one of the other white families) was there, and sure enough, the only attractive girl in the entire place (i saw her before i knew he was a colonel) was the colonel's daughter (probably not legal anyway, which would explain why she isnt married like everyone else :P). hahahaha, imagine that. My sponsor slammed my finger in his car door saturday night, so even if i had rhythm clapping was tough. After church I walked and walked and walked, looking for the library and other points of interest on base. The base is very beautiful, can see the ocean and everything but/and it is extremely hilly, and i havent found a downhill walk yet, even for a short distance, its all uphill. I did find the library eventually but it wasnt cooperating with my email, so i didnt get any email out till now. After all that walking, i still couldnt sleep last night, too excited maybe. So, hopefully i'll make it till bedtime tonight and sleep really well. Today the squadron had pt, at 0730, and it wasnt that difficult at all. I really think I'm gonna already be able to lead from the front, even if i have to work a little harder than everyone else. as far as today went it was an easy day. but from what i saw the unit isnt in such great shape that i'm gonna be embarassed. normally they do calisthenics and stuff and then run, i think friday is gonna be the tough day. 3.2 mile run after pushups and situps and the end leg is up the big hill. oh, the other thing i did sunday was go down to the flightline bx and buy a bicycle and helmet. so i had to ride it back up that big hill that we will be running on friday. that was a workout. today after pt i went home and showered and my sponsor picked me up for work, took me in and i met some more people. my acting squadron commander is my real flight commander and is a captain. the colonel that is normally the squadron commander is on leave. he is cool, as is everyone else i've met. after going through some inprocessing at like 3 different places, i went and moved out of my temporary room into a room taht i could stay in the whole 15 months (yes, it will just be 15 months) if i want to. it is mostly a senior NCO dorm, but my squadron commander, a lt colonel, lives on my floor, just a ways down. it seems really weird to think of a colonel in a dorm room. they are nice, a little living room that randy says is as big as his 1st house off base and a bedroom that is also as big as his off base bedrooms (they had 3 bedrooms, but each was the same size as mine) and a microwave and a refridgerator and a stove and oven and cabinets and stuff (all the cabinets and fridge and everything were empty, i even had to buy my own toilet paper, supply my own towel, etc (i'm not sure how much maid service i have now, but the bed has linens on it, so i would assume they clean them once a week). on my floor there are 2 washers and 2 dryers and a game room with a pool table and big tv and a vcr. would be really cool to live there with a group you were allowed to hang out with. and i have finally got it starting to cool down, i stocked the fridge with lots of non-alcoholic beverages, didnt buy any food though except some oatmeal. didnt know what i wanted yet, and i dont have any means of cooking real food yet. I did buy service for 4, plates, bowls, glasses and mini plates, and flatware for 4. so now i have something to microwave in at least. i will be wearing bdu's the whole time i think. i got 4 ACC patches and 2 squadron patches and need to order nametapes and af tapes so i can get new bdu's too. 2 sets will be tough to live, especially while i'm walking to work. my computer will probably never get here..... they shipped it to keesler already and fedex doesnt even service my island. i still need to get on my jeep stuff, or i'll never get it either. I am gonna have to buy a phone (room has a jack, but no phone) and phone service to have a phone in my room, am gonna look into using a cell phone as my primary phone to see how that would work. so, i dont have a number where you can reach me yet, but i'm working on it. i do have a snail mail address though!!! 2nd Lt Robert Faith JrPSC 76 Box 1267APO AE 09720so, after i moved my stuff into my new room i had an appointment for communications security stuff at 1400, and after that randy said go get all the stuff you need and get situated in your room. so... i did, spent all day shopping at the commissary and bx and then lugging the stuff i bought up the hills! i made 1 trip to the commissary in bdu's after i signed up for my post office box, carried all that stuff (it was soooo heavy, and the hills suck), changed, went back to get shower supplies from the bx (i had to get a towel and shampoo and soap (the dorm doesnt supply them like a hotel)) before i could shower. now i think i'm pretty much set though. tomorrow i will be inprocessing all day, called rightstart. i'll be taking care of things like portuguese driver's license, safety, about the island and people, things like that. then wednesday's gonna rock, they take us off base, downtown in the 2 towns closest to here and tour around, then we eat our first portuguese meal! tomorrow is in uniform, wednesday is in civies. i dont know whats up for thursday and friday, but it will probably be getting my computer (i'll probably get a laptop for work, since i will be rotating and stuff and they want us to have our email and stuff with us so we dont have to copy and things like that when we changed desktops (or worse, ahve to move desktops with us)) and get email accounts and network accounts setup. the commander has authorized us to use our work computers for private use after 5 pm, so, i should be able to use it for email and stuff once i get it, which will be awesome. and next week i will probably start actually getting moved in and started working in my first flight, which is SCS flight (visual communications, making powerpoint shows, making training aids, etc). dont know how i'm gonna fill my first weekend! probably try to see a bullfight and get off base and stuff if possible. Tuesday I was at meetings all day.... called "right start," did all my inprocessing, tomorrow I go downtown and around the island, off base! can't wait. well, i really dont have anything much more to talk about tonight. i need a car so badly. and i cant wait till the other Lt's get back from ASBC! Saturday i'm going paintballing with the squadron (or maybe wing wide), officers and nco's against enlisted. should be a great time and i'll get to know people! Still didnt get a phone number set up, will probably be a week from when i start doing that before it is up and running. so, i'm sorry but ya'll will have to resort to snail mail and email to get to hear from me. :P just kidding, i'm so on the losing end of this no phone thing. i cant even tell all the chicks i'm not meeting to call me. :P once i do set it up though i'll have dsl connection in my room, so i can use msn! and hopefully i'll get a work computer soon, since it'll be a bit for my new computer to get here.

hey everyone, its saturday here, and i havent written an update recently. i have had several suggestions to do a blog or xanga site instead of emailing all of ya'll, and i might do that in the future when i get time to set something like that up (hopefully at the same time i can set up a place to post my pictures for ya'll to see my island). but for now i will just email all of ya, and if you dont like it, tough. :) i think wednesday was my last updated day, so.... thursday i had medical right start, which was just a way to meet my doctor here and basically learn how to get care if i had an emergency or something. there is no base hospital, just a small clinic, if i have anything big i would have to go to the angra do heroismo hospital (where they dont speak english, etc). angra is the second closest city on the island, but apparently they have a good hospital. and we can call and get a translator to come meet us there so we dont have a bad experience sort of thing. actually i may not have talked about wednesday much, which was the day we got off base and went on a tour of the island. we went to a big old pretty church, a fancy garden and lookout point where we could see all of angra and had my first portuguese steak. all were good. i was an idiot and didnt take my camera with me, so i'll have to get back up that way to take pictures for you. then we circled around the island and back to praia da vitoria, which is the closer and more interesting in my opinon, town. it has the only sandy beach, and several little swimming holes where they have built walls to keep the sharks out (hammerheads breed in praia bay) but that way they can still swim in the salt water and lay out around it and stuff. that is actually very very close to where i might be moving to. one of the other lt's (the only single one here) is pcs'ing in august and just moved out of an apartment there by the pool. she took me out for dinner (an italian restaurant right between that pool and her apartment) and to see her apartment and stuff like that. her apartment is in one of the best places on the island for parties, etc, and i am gonna try to move in there before anyone else does. :) thursday afternoon i had to go do some finance stuff, work on my travel voucher, etc. and continue inprocessing, i also got my air force laptop that i will be using for work, and therefore on monday can start working on the training i have to do before i am supposed to be allowed to be on the base domain (security stuff). after i do that training i will begin doing my actual job, which for this month is to follow the graphics artist, the photographers, and the illustrators around and learn what they do, etc, then go to the post office and work through their new inspection procedures that have never been done, to see what applies to this base, etc. i will also have to read a bunch of afi's on the flight, freedom of information act stuff, privacy act stuff, etc. so that will probably be homework. sounds like that inspection could really take my whole month, cuz the post office is undermanned and they dont get out of their work at all ever, let alone to help conduct the inspection or answer my questions. the last guy that tried it didnt get very far, so... we'll see how that goes. friday i met col silver, the mission support group commander (my boss's boss's boss) which was good, he flew f-16's and is from someplace just a little north of terre haute, IN, grew up watching the indiana ANG fly F-4's over his house (part of the reason i want to fly so badly is the indiana ANG F-16's that have flown over my house my whole life). i actually met him at church sunday but didnt really get to talk much. i told him about my dream to fly and he is gonna help me achieve that. he knows Col King too. i wore full service dress, it was hot, but that looked sharper than bdu's. after i met with him i changed into civilian clothes to help my flight paint their buildings and the post office and stuff. there is this competition going on between the USAFE bases for the prettiest, nicest, base and the winner gets $100000 to be spent on whatever the commander deems necessary. i bet she spends it on the network (if she's smart) cuz the network here is not up to par. so, everyone who didnt have customers or have major work to do was out painting, moving furniture, etc to get ready for the 2 star general-select coming in on Tuesday to "inspect" the base. so i still have paint on me in some places, but it was a good time. we barbecued for lunch and got to know some more of the people. everyone is really nice, but they whine about pt alot. :) after we finished painting our building we went and painted and helped sort mail at the post office. i ended up getting home at about 7 pm, checked my mail and watched some tv, faxed mom a copy of my id so she can take it to st louis for me. so, i may get my jeep before the other lt's get back and steal their cars back. haha i am gonna borrow a car from one of the lt's that are at asbc and try to move into lt warren's old apartment and get set up for the year and 2 months. i think internet costs her $40 euros but otherwise i dont think she's spending any money on it. today, saturday, i got up at 0315 to meet a new nco that pcs'd to the island and a new postal worker on the early rotater. it was raining the whole time we were down there. oh, i also got some shots friday, typhoid and hep a. typhoid makes ya sore, its a live-virus vaccine, which pisses your body off. i was gonna get up at 8 and go mountain biking with some of the comm guys, but it was still raining when i went to bed at 0600 or so, so i didnt set my alarm until noon. when i got up i went to the comm squadron fundraiser car wash at the commissary. my shift was 3-4, but i got there early and we worked a little later than 4. then i came here to chat and email some. tomorrow i ahve a golf game scheduled after church with 2 other Lt's, it'll be nice to get out and around the course and stuff. and i will probably get one of the spare cars while i'm with them tomorrow, which will give me more freedom to explore. :) and meet people. um, well i cant think of anything else, but i will stick my phone number where i can be reached in here in case there are people who didnt get it last time i sent it.the phone number of the day room/lounge in my dorm, where you can call and ask for me and if the person who answers doesnt know me ask for room 211. the number is 011-351-295-57-2324. if noone answers hang up and call back a different time, and remember the 5 hour time difference! i have heard 10 10 297 is a good way to call here pretty cheap. otherwise there are other ways to call pretty cheap on the internet, so..... but i wont be hurt if noone calls. haha, i havent called anyone either. :) but i would love for ya'll to call!