ARunnerLearningToFly

Got Planes?

2009-07-12T18:55:00.001-07:00

Today Liz and I celebrate our one month anniversary. Hopefully we'll celebrate by not doing any decorating today. Two weeks ago Liz came back down from VA with her parents and all of her household goods. I didn't know that she had that much stuff but then again I've been learning a lot about life since we got married. One important lesson is about pillows. There are two types of pillows in this world, decorative pillows (which look comfortable and actually do feel comfortable as well) and pillows that you can use. On our bed I counted 10 pillows of which 4 are open for sleeping. The rest are only for looks. I don't entirely understand the necessity of putting on so many extra pillows when making the bed but it's very important.

I had a few friends from OCF help us move all of Liz's furniture into the house. They enjoyed watching my reaction to all of the boxes labeled "teaching materials" and "decorative flowers/wreaths/PILLOWS." All of them had been through a similar experience when the house where they lived was fairly empty and bland until they were married, but it was a new thing for me.

Liz's parents spent the week down in Pensacola with Liz and I, visiting some of their friends, the beach, and of course the Naval Aviation Museum.

Liz found the guy out front to be fairly good looking. Of course, who doesn't love a pilot?

We saw an IMAX movie called "Straight Up" about helicopters and by the end of it Liz wanted me to fly helicopters. We all enjoyed looking at the extensive collection of aircraft and especially the Coast Guard Aviation section, which was by far the coolest section of the museum.

We went out to dinner a few times with her parents and enjoyed their company. I told one of my instructors that I had in-laws in town and he said he could get me duty if I wanted to escape but luckily Liz's parents are great and that wasn't necessary.

The next week was uneventful except that the house was a little more decorated and organized each time I came home. I'm sure Liz will be doing a before-and-after post soon so I won't post any pictures of the apartment.

This past Saturday we went to the Blue Angels air show down at Pensacola Beach. It was, by far, the best show that either of us had been to. Last November I went to the homecoming air show, which is held on NAS Pensacola at the airfield. That show had more performances and was very good, but for this show we were on a Coast Guard buoy-tender right off the shoreline at the beach.

We boarded the tender down at NAS Pensacola and had about an hour ride out to the beach. They had breakfast for everyone on board (pastries, donuts, fresh fruit and yogurt) during the ride out to the airshow, and had ice chests full of water and gatorade placed throughout the boat. It was a perfect day for a boat ride, sunny, a slight breeze, and calm seas.

We arrived at our destination and we were about 500 yards from the beach. The show started with a Coast Guard demonstration of a helicopter deploying a rescue swimmer and then retrieving him. As you can see, the beach was a madhouse. Some of my friends were on the beach and they left at 7 am for the air show, which didn't start until 12:30! Not only that, but it took about 4 hours to get home because of all the traffic. Needless to say we were glad to be on the ship and not have to deal with all of the chaos!

They served us lunch and we awaited the start of the show. We thought the planes would be flying between us and the beach, but we were wrong. They were doing many of their tricks right over our ship! I don't think I'll ever be at another show where we have F-18's flying less than a 100 feet over us, flying upside down, crossing, etc. It was awesome. Liz commented that she'd never forget that air show and I don't think I will either. The only thing that would be more fun is to ride along with them as they perform....maybe someday!

Missing Lizzy!

2009-06-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

So Liz is up in VA with her (our?) family for a wedding and to move her belongings down to our FL home. We've only been married two weeks tomorrow and already I don't know what to do when she's not around! How did I survive without her for these past few years?

Show and Tell

2009-06-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

So I promised that I'd post some videos from API, so here they are. This first video is from the mile swim we had to do during the first few weeks of API. It wasn't that bad except that the flight suit was mildly uncomfortable to swim in during the first few laps and went downhill from there. Other than that, it was just a matter of avoiding the person in front of you (we had about 8 people per lane so that led to a lot of kicking and waiting to pass anyone who might be holding you up).

The survival classes were a combination of powerpoint lecture and some videos produced in the 1950's. The videos were actually highly entertaining and there was a lot of laughing in the background as the videos were played. This portion of a video isn't very funny, but it provides the ambiance of 1950's Navy survival videos.

One of the survival instructors was this prior Navy Seal. I think he lives somewhere in the forests surrounding Pensacola in a thatch hut that he made after watching old Navy survival videos. I didn't get a clip of him teaching us how to capture squirrels but he was very enthusiastic about it....I think he probably dines on squirrels fairly often. Here's a clip of him teaching us about dandelions or something...I guess the point was that you can eat dandelions but that was lost on me amid his hilarious commentary.

Here's a clip of him teaching us how to make a fire with a stick, some parachute cord, and a few ounces of awesomeness.

The much talked about pressure chamber. You'll see in this first clip that everything is going fairly well at this point. Patty-cake isn't too hard to do (although we still had a harder time than most 1st graders), and the children's toy isn't too complicated for a 24 year old military aviator.

Things are starting to get more difficult, but you might be able to see more smiles on the faces of some happy, hypoxic aviators.

It seemed like every group had one person who went a little crazy, this guy was our group's. He was the same one playing with the stick/weight in the earlier clips, except now his hands are trembling, he's completely confused, and is trying to do the stick/weight task with his oxygen mask assembly; however, he's quite the happy camper.

Also of note, today is the one week anniversary of my marriage to the best wife in the world! I already have a hard time remembering what it was like to live down here without her, except to remember that it wasn't even comparable to how great it is to share life with Lisette.

2009-06-05T19:34:00.001-07:00

Well, normally I'd feel bad about not writing anything on here for such a long time, but I've been so busy planning the wedding that I just haven't had a spare moment to write!

Just kidding, we all know that's not true. Lizzy's been on top of all of the wedding planning, which is good because I actually started flight training shortly before my last post. Aviation Preflight Indoctrination was the first step of the program. It's about 6 weeks long, which doesn't sound too bad but it felt like much longer than that. The first four weeks were half academics and half swimming lessons. The swimming classes were actually a welcome break from sitting in a class and watching death-by-powerpoint lectures. Even though I was interested in the subjects (aerodynamics, airplane systems, meteorology, FAA rules and regulations, etc) it was hard to pay attention to day long lectures that were all based on powerpoint; however, all went well during academics and during the 4th week I was finally able to wear a flightsuit! Since being a pilot is basically 95% just looking cool, it was good to be able to look like a pilot for a change...I thought it was funny that they actually issued us sunglasses along with our flightsuit...I guess it would reflect poorly on military aviation if we don't look too cool for school.

The final two weeks of API were actually a lot of fun. The first few days were spent learning how to survive if we bailout of the plane. The guy teaching the class was all about surviving in the elements...we learned how to trap squirrels, eat plants, and make fire with a piece of parachute cord, a stick, and a piece of wood. I felt like quite the hunter-gatherer by the time were were finished in survival school.
Next up was the hypoxia and vertigo training, which was hands-down the most entertaining portion of API. After a day of classes on vertigo and hypoxia (oxygen deprivation), they put us in a pressure chamber and pumped out the air to give us the feeling of breathing at 25,000 feet. They gave each of us very simple tasks, like putting different shapes of wood in the right shape (triangles, squares, etc), or playing patty-cake with each other. After a few minutes my fingertips were tingling and I was starting to white out and lose coordination (patty-cake was very hard at that point). I went ahead and put on my oxygen mask and started breathing 100% O2 and enjoyed watching everyone get stupid. Some guys just kept going, which was highly entertaining. They started to turn bluish and started to become extremely challenged with simple tasks. Triangle blocks do not go into square holes. Not only that, but they started to smile and really were enjoying themselves immensely (euphoria is one of the symptoms of hypoxia). Eventually they were ordered to go on oxygen but they couldn't figure out how to turn it on...the instructors had to put it on for them. The point of the training is to give us the opportunity to experience the symptoms of hypoxia so we can diagnose ourselves in the air and get on oxygen as needed. When I get a chance I'll post the videos of the pressure chamber.
Next we headed next door for the vertigo training, which was actually a ride designed by Disney engineers in conjunction with the Navy. The voice of the narrator reminded me of the rides at Disney and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same person doing the narration. The ride spun around at high speeds and we were assigned various tasks that made us move our heads around, which caused various canals in the head to be affected, which changes the motions that your body senses. Going through the classes it was amazing to contemplate how complicated our bodies are. We need a certain percentage of oxygen in the air we breathe to survive, which the earth just happens to have. We need a certain amount of carbon dioxide in our systems. Our ears have different canals that give our brain the information to keep us balanced and stable. Our eyes have rods and cones that allow us to see during the day and at night. At night our eyes have a pigment called Rhodopsin that allows us to see in low light (it takes about 30 minutes to take effect fully), but it photobleaches in high light and doesn't affect how we see during the day. I don't know how people could come to the conclusion that this is the result of chance and changes over time, except that "claiming to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22).
After hypoxia and vertigo training we spent a few days learning about parachutes and how to fix various problems that we could encounter if we eject. We spent the majority of one day jumping off a platform and falling down. Only in the military would you spend a day learning the right way to fall down and not hurt yourself.

The final few days of API were spent "drown-proofing." Of course, that meant ingesting large amounts of water. We were dropped into the water with a parachute over us, dragged through the water in a parachute harness (to learn how to get out of it if we land in the water), and dragged through a field. Getting dragged through a field involved getting into a parachute harness which was attached to two lines. The lines were manned by 6 of your classmates who ran as fast as possible and dragged you around while you got out of the "parachute." It was actually fun to do, but very tiring when you had to drag everyone else around the field. The last part of "drownproofing" involved learning how to get out of a plane or helicopter if it lands in the water. First we were placed in chairs and blindfolded, then the chairs were flipped upside down in the water and we had to find the "window," open it and get to the surface. It would've been fun except for all of the water going up my nose. Finally we faced the helicopter dunker. The helicopter dunker is basically laid out like the skin of a helo. 6 of us at a time would sit in the dunker and get into the harnesses. The dunker would lift into the air and then be lowered into the water and flip upside down. After it stopped moving we were allowed to get out of the harness and feel our way to the "windows" or doors and make our exit. Of course they blindfolded us to make it a little harder, which meant you had to keep a handhold on the dunker while you were making your way to the exits, otherwise you'd get disoriented and wouldn't be able to get out (don't worry mom, they had divers there to give us oxygen so it was very safe :) ). I have some good videos of this that I'll post at a later date.

After API I reported to Whiting Field to actually start flying. The first few weeks were more groundschool where we learned the airplane's systems and the emergency procedures. After that we started flying the T-34, which is a completely different experience from any other flying that I've done. Before we didn't have instructors sitting behind us who constantly asked us questions...my knees were shaking so badly while we were taxiing that I had a hard time holding the breaks while doing the checklists; however, I've since grown accustomed to the whole process and might even begin to enjoy it eventually!

As much as I enjoy flight school, I've missed Lizzy! The time seems like it's gone by slowly as I've counted down the days until our wedding, but now it's only 5 days away! We've been keeping up with letters, phonecalls and texts but it's been a poor substitute for being with her. My roommate has been moving out this weekend and his dad came down to help him move. He saw a picture of Liz and I and said "she's a pretty girl, but must have bad eyesight if she's getting married to you." I agree. Don't go to the eye doc before Saturday Lisette!

Long time no write...

2009-03-02T16:20:00.001-08:00

It's about time that I posted something, even though I don't have time for much. I finally started API this week! It's nice to be doing something again and to be working towards the goal of getting winged (i.e. graduation from flight school and getting the golden wings on the uniform), and I'll finally get a flight suit and be able to wear pajamas to work in 3 short weeks. Right now it's mostly classroom work and some swimming/water survival classes, but I'll post some pics and videos when we get to some of the more interesting portions of the training.

That's all for now, time to get back to studying.

What a great vacation!

2009-01-06T17:56:00.001-08:00

I spent the last few weeks in MD and VA, visiting family and my soon-to-be family. I had a great time throughout my vacation and was reminded again that I'm incredibly blessed with a great family and now with a new family. One of the highlights of my Christmas vacation was going up to my parents' with Lizzy. It was a good time of relaxing with my family, visiting with grandparents, and doing some shopping and wedding planning. I think my mom was happier to have Liz around than me :) After all, she had two other sons around but no daughter in the house. We went out for dessert with my brother Andrew one of the nights and the first two pictures are from around Naptown.
We spent one of the nights in town having dinner with my friends who have two daughters who will be in our wedding as junior bridesmaids. When I went away to the academy they had a picture of me in my uniform and would pray for me everyday! It was great to see their faces light up when we asked them to be in our wedding...it's their first wedding and they were extremely excited, as I guess all girls are to be in a wedding.

After spending Christmas morning with my family we drove down to VA to spend the rest of the Christmas day with her family. After Christmas Liz and I did some registering for our wedding, which took a little longer than I was anticipating...for the most part we were in agreement on what to register for, but I drew the line at a deviled-egg platter. Now that I've put that in the blog I can see us getting a lot of deviled-egg platters from people helping out Lizzy. For some reason I just object to having a platter around for deviled-eggs when you're probably only going to use it once a year at most. It was funny because every girl that we related that to agreed that a deviled-egg platter is a must, "well, what are you going to bring deviled-eggs to parties on? They'll slide all over the place on a normal plate" was the normal response. I guess it's a major faux pas to not bring eggs to a party. I grew up in a house with two brothers so I have a lot to learn about these things.

Liz bought some shirts and sweaters for me for Christmas, one of which looked somewhat similar to one owned by Clay. Luckily, we're guys and it's not a big deal to show up somewhere dressed like another guy. Jordan will have to get one too to fit in.

This past weekend I drove down to Augusta, Georgia, and spent the night with my cousin and her family. I had a great time playing with my second cousins Maddie (a two year old girl) and Ethan, who's 5 months old and mostly good at eating and sleeping. Sunday I spent most of the day driving to Pensacola. When I arrived it was 75 degrees and sunny and it felt good to be back in my own place despite having to leave my family and friends behind. The past few days have just been spent doing some organizing and cleaning around the apartment and doing some studying on the side. I'm looking forward to starting the next phase of my training in February, which is probably the most difficult part (mostly groundschool and the part of the training where they try to weed people out, so I'd appreciate your prayers!).

Well I was going to write something deep and profound about New Year's resolutions and accomplishing goals, but it's my birthday so I'm giving myself a hall-pass until later in the week when I'll (hopefully, not promising anything) get around to doing another blog post. Happy New Year!

2008-12-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

It's about time that I got around to posting, but as I'm sure you already know, I've been busy getting engaged! It was extremely hard to keep the secret for the past few months with Liz asking about what I planned on doing during Thanksgiving with my parents, when I was leaving, etc etc...
Finally, after handling her questions for a month Thanksgiving week arrived and I flew out to Mansfield on Wednesday to meet Lizzygirl - We now interrupt the story to bring up this side note: I'm sometimes corrected on the pronunciation of her last name, which sounds French instead of Slavic and was made up by her grandfather, so I don't know why she's so particular about it :). Yet another reason to marry her, my name is pretty hard to mess up! Now that I think of it, her grandfather actually changed his last name because he didn't like the way people were pronouncing it...I guess it runs in the family - We now return you to your show -

Despite traveling on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving my flights were uneventful and I arrived in Mansfield right on time. That night Liz and her family were at her grandmother's house and gathered around the living room. I was hiding behind a curtain that led out to the porch and was listening to their conversation. Her uncle was supposed to say something about the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I was going to pop out and say something about how I can't stand the Steelers (Her dad and uncle insisted on having a codeword...I think we all secretly wish we could be spies). They started saying "Pittsburgh Steelers" and I decided to wait and see how many times they would say it before giving up. At one point her uncle just said "Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers." After that I decided it was probably time to make my entrance...I knew that the surprise had worked when Liz glanced up, did a double take, and asked me what I was doing there! I don't think she said anything after that for a good minute.
I won't go through all of the particulars of the proposal since Liz wrote a great narration already. I guess I can avoid THIS on Christmas! I hope you enjoy that clip...it's the funniest commercial I've seen in years, possibly ever. Just click on "Who's in the doghouse" to watch the video.

This week I had Christmas caroling with OCF. Now, where I come from, we dress up in Christmasy clothes for caroling (I've never actually been caroling before, but dressing up in red/green seems appropriate and should be a rule, shouldn't it? At the very least a corny sweater with reindeer on it is appropriate!). In Florida, they haven't gotten the memo yet. As you can see in the picture on the right, everyone in the group is wearing "normal," bah humbug clothes.

In the Coast Guard, we do things differently, so I made a trip to the Goodwill and found some great clothes....very dapper if I do say so myself!

Here's the video of Lizzy being surprised. I don't think it really sank in that I was there for a few minutes and you can hear her gasp when I pull the curtain aside.

2008-11-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks for me since finishing IFS. I had talked to my bosses and heard that my starting date for API would be in late January, so I hurried through my final IFS flights to get in line for API as soon as possible; however, that plan has backfired a little bit. During our weekly meeting on Monday I was told that my start date for API would be delayed until late February!
Two weeks ago I took advantage of all of the time off and made a trip to Tallahassee to see a Florida State Seminoles game. I'd never actually been to a big-time football game before so it was pretty fun, although the incessant "ooooohhhh-ooooh-OHHoohhhhh" tomahawk chant gets a little annoying (for those unfamiliar, it's the same as the Atlanta Braves chant that was so annoying in the World Series of the early 90's). I went with one of my friends from the academy who drove up from Miami and we were able to stay with his brother, who also got us tickets.
The game started with Clemson jumping out to a 10-0 advantage before the Seminoles started playing some great defense and began their comeback with a defensive touchdown. This sparked yet another "ooooohhhh-ooooh-OHHoohhhhh" chant.
We happened to have seats right near the away-team seating area, which became interesting when Clemson started losing and our fans started heckling, which the Clemson fans didn't take very well. This went on for about a half hour, while all of the Seminoles fans in the area started booing the Clemson fans and heckling even more. This culminated at the end of the game with the Seminoles fans bringing out their car keys and shaking them while yelling "warm up the bus, warm up the bus." The one of the guys sitting in front of me and Bryan started talking to us in the first quarter and didn't let up the whole game. He knew everything about the Seminoles for the past 20 years. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy that I had to borrow the shirt I was wearing and that I didn't even know the name of our starting QB, much less famous plays from 15 years ago. I mostly nodded and agreed with him that the Seminoles had a magnificent history. They take football seriously down here!

Kevin (Bryan's brother who goes to Florida State) said that their band had 500 people in it, but they were "only dressing 300 for the game today." We had 850 students total at the academy...

Today I woke up to find it was a clear, sunny day (despite predictions of showers and thunderstorms), so I decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Blue Angels homecoming airshow over at NAS Pensacola.
They had numerous acts throughout the day, all of which were amazing to watch...as a pilot myself (haha) I know how difficult those maneuvers are (you can start laughing now). Above are a P-51 Mustang (WWII era plane and probably my favorite plane ever), F-16 Falcon, and an F-15 Eagle. The announcer mentioned that the F-15 has 100,000 horsepower, which is slightly more than the 150 I had in the Piper Warrior.One of the earlier acts in the day. During this show I was hanging out in the shade of a KC-10 refueling plane with an older couple. A guy drove up in a golf cart and asked us if we'd like to see the show from one of the corporate chalets, we of course accepted and he gave us passes to the Home Depot tent, which was right next to the field. It was great to be able to hang out in the shade and enjoy the free food and drinks they provided. It was a huge blessing for me especially since my skin isn't made for the Florida sun.
One of the guys was nice enough to take this picture, but he must've been standing a little crooked...I guess I should be happy that he didn't cut off my head in the picture!
The Opposing Solos are pretty amazing. Here are some of the pics I was able to get....unfortunately I don't have a professional camera so it's hard to take pictures of planes that have 1000 mph of closure. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how well some of them came out!I had to include the clip of the C-130 "Fat Albert" taking off. After all, it's the plane that I want to fly! I don't know if you'll be able to see it in the small video window, but look at how early his gear is up...he's flying a C-130 a few feet off the runway with his gear up!

2008-10-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well I've been busy flying since my last post. Right now I'm on pace to finish this phase of the training ahead of schedule and get in the waiting line for API (the navy groundschool portion of training). I talked to the people in the office and it looks like I won't start that until late January/early February, which is actually a great schedule since it'll allow me to enjoy Christmas/New Year's back in VA and MD! On Sunday night I had my first night flight, and unfortunately I don't have any pictures since they just won't turn out at night and using a flash to take a picture in the cockpit is out of the question since we'd lose our night vision. I took the plane out on my own and flew around for a bit to kill some time before picking up my instructor at the terminal for the night portion of the flight. Before the sunset we flew to a grass airfield and landed there a few times. It was a little unnerving to be landing in a grass airfield...the field was much shorter and there was a picket fence around it to keep cows or other animals off the field; however, it was a great experience to have since it's unlikely that I'll get to land in a grass field with a Navy or Coast Guard aircraft (at least not on purpose!). We took off as the sun was setting and flew around as it got dark and the lights came on around the city of Pensacola. During flights like that I can't believe I get paid to do this! We did some touch-and-goes at Pensacola regional airport inbetween the jets flying out of there and then flew back to Milton to land for the night. Milton airport is actually unlit at night, and you turn on the runway lights by clicking the microphone 7 times on the airport frequency, and then adjust the brightness by clicking a certain number of times for different brightness.
Today I did my first "Cross-country" flight, which was actually just to Mobile airport, about a hundred miles away. Since my instructor is out of town I flew with Steve instead. After landing in Mobile we took a little break and sampled the cookies they had in the reception area there...I felt like a glass of milk and a nap, but instead we hopped back into the plane and flew back to Milton. Along the way we basically just talked about how awesome flying is (just kidding, he was mainly teaching me things). We also flew over the Coast Guard base in Mobile and checked it out while we were there.

On Monday I went and took advantage of early voting in Florida. I think it's a little bit ironic that Florida has early voting since it's the land of the infamous butterfly ballots and hanging chads. You would think that they would ensure that their elections were running smoothly and were constitutional, but anyone who has read the constitution knows that early voting shouldn't even be allowed: "The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States."
Of course, it doesn't seem like the Constitution means that much anymore...apparently it's just an inconvenient document that prevents government from "doing more for" the people (or more to the people). Anyway, the line for early voting was wrapped around the building and it took about an hour or so to vote. There were people holding signs for various local candidates and asking me if I'd heard of their candidate. I told a few of them that I'd researched their candidate and there was no way I would ever vote for them. Before voting I dropped by the local Escambia County Republican Party office to get some information on local elections since I didn't have much background knowledge to base my vote on. I also volunteered to drive people to the polls on Election day if they needed it. They didn't have anyone at the time that needed a ride but I'm on call. So, with that in mind I went to the Escambia County Democratic Party HQ and signed up to drive their people to the polls. I figure I can drop them off in the woods somewhere and disenfranchise their vote (maybe it'll cancel out a few dead people or Acorn Mickey Mouses who will be voting democrat this year). Just kidding of course, but I was seriously tempted.

I've been reading through Isaiah lately and was encouraged about the elections through my reading. There are so many occasions listed, both in that book and many others, where God used rulers, both good and bad, to bring the people's hearts back to Him. Not only that, but it's good to be reminded that He is in control, that He is worthy of our trust, and that when our trust is in our God then we're placing our faith on a rock and not the shifting sand that is so evident in our culture. "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:3-4)." If our only source of strength and shelter was in our government than we would have good reason to worry, and it's still important to pray for our nation and its leaders; however, it's good that this election campaign has reminded many of us that our sense of security has been misplaced. I'm hopeful that even if this election turns out poorly for our country that God will use it to bring us back to Him.

2008-10-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally flew down to the beach and I was able to get some decent pictures. On Tuesday we had to kill some time so I could get the required 10 hours for my check ride and solo. We decided that since it was a nice day we'd spend some time flying around the beach and taking pictures. The first one is just my instructor looking cool and trying to show that we pay attention while we're flying. Most of the time we're actually busy talking about football or something completely unrelated to flying. When we've been talking about it for a little bit and he's starting to get me distracted he likes to cut the power to the engine or do something else that requires going through emergency procedures. I guess it's good practice but it always makes me a little wary when he's getting me to talk about something unrelated to what we're doing at the time.

Once again, my instructor assured me that I looked cool and it'd be a good picture for Lisette.
The only problem with flying over the beach is that you see the sharks that are swimming along the coast and it makes swimming in the gulf a little less palatable. After the morning flight I went on another flight with a different instructor for my stage check. Before flying solo they test pilots on all of the different maneuvers they've learned so far to make sure they'll be able to fly safely and also be able to deal with any emergencies that might occur. At the end of the stage check the instructor cut off the engine and I had to coast in for a landing. Normally when making an emergency landing you come in a little high because it's easy to lose altitude but really hard to make the plane go higher without an engine. It's probably my favorite kind of landing because you get the opportunity to use forward slips or some other maneuver to lose altitude. Basically, in a forward slip you push the rudder all the way down to throw the plane sideways and use the ailerons to keep the plane going straight. It makes you lose altitude without gaining too much speed. Right before touching down you straighten the rudder so you don't land sideways. It also looks pretty cool from the ground when you see someone pull it off.Pulling a little steep turn over the beach...makes for good pictures.

Tuesday afternoon I went and played a round of golf with one of the other flight students. I had to practice for the Navy tournament the next day. I played with two of the OCF group leaders and the Deputy Commodore. We finished in a respectable 3rd place (out of 25 or so teams) but should've won the tournament. None of us had been playing much golf recently so that didn't help our cause.

Wednesday morning was my first solo. It was a 7 a.m. flight, which is nice because it's usually pretty calm early in the morning and it makes it easy to land the plane. I went up with my instructor for the first half hour so he could gauge the conditions and make sure it was safe for my first solo. After a couple landings I dropped him off at the airport and taxied down to the beginning of the runway for my first takeoff. I went through the pre-takeoff checklist one final time and made my radio call to take off "Milton Traffic, Warrior three-two-niner-niner-zero, taking off runway 36 Milton." I taxied out and lined up the airplane and couldn't help but smile at the fact that I was going to takeoff and land a plane. I took off and flew around the airport and came in for my first landing. "Milton Traffic, Warrior three-two-niner-niner-zero on final approach runway 36 Milton, Full-stop." My instructor had a radio back on the ground and was monitoring just in case I had a problem during my flight. The winds were fairly calm and it was a fairly easy landing. After I landed and headed back to the beginning of the runway I noticed my instructor had a wood bat and was practicing his swing...I now just refer to him as Mickey Mantle.

Tomorrow I'm headed out on a solo flight to the beach. Obviously I won't be taking any pictures since I'll be the only one in the plane and the FAA probably frowns on pilots (especially student pilots) snapping pictures instead of focusing on flying. I'm certain the Navy doesn't permit it either. There's a saying amoung pilots: "To err is human, to forgive is divine, neither is Navy policy."

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. It's been a really good time down here so far, and I've been developing some good relationships with other Christians that have been very helpful in my walk and I know that's a direct result of the prayers of my friends and family.

2008-10-14T17:55:00.001-07:00

Well, if you've been checking this blog in the hopes of reading an update recently then I apologize for my lack of writing. It's been a few weeks since I last posted anything.
To quickly update you I've started the civilian portion of flight school. The first week was all ground school (FAA regulations, priciples of flight, navigation, etc). After a week of instruction we took the FAA exam for a private pilot's license and then began flying the next day. The last few days of flight school I was sick but I didn't want to delay the beginning of my training and so I stuck it out and luckily began to feel better when it came time to actually begin flying (don't worry, I wouldn't actually fly if I didn't feel well). I just finished my fifth lesson today and I've been having a great time so far. I feel incredibly blessed to have a job that consists of studying for flight and flying on a consistent basis. Lately my schedule has consisted of waking up in the morning, doing some reading over the morning cup of coffee and then reviewing the aviation weather forecast to see if my flight will be canceled or not (it also helps to plan my flights since it has all of the clouds and winds so I can determine if there will be a cross wind or how high we'll be able to fly). I'm usually scheduled for one flight per day and maybe one flight on the weekend as well (it doesn't feel like work so I'm happy to fly anytime!). Afterwards I usually hit the gym, although in the past few weeks I haven't felt up to it. Last Friday morning my instructor and I took off at around 7 am to practice emergency landings and do some area familiarization. There was a low cloud bank about 20 miles from the airport that we were flying around and the sun was rising...I wish I'd had my camera (actually, I did have my camera but had neglected to charge the battery!). At this point the instructor is basically letting me fly the plane and only taking the controls or talking on the radio to demonstrate a new maneuver to me. I should be doing my solo flight sometime early next week!

By far my favorite flight so far was Friday afternoon when I took off from Pensacola as a passenger back to Virginia to see Lizzy! Unfortunately I was unable to get on an early flight because of my flight lesson early that morning and I didn't get into Newport News until almost midnight. I slept the night (I would normally say crashed, but that word has been stricken from my vocabulary by Lisette) at my old place in Newport News and drove down to Lizzy's in the morning for breakfast. It was great when the door opened and there was Lizzy again after a little over a month apart. She made a great breakfast and I enjoyed sitting and talking with her family (Clay and Katy came over as well). It felt like old times with Jappers singing in the background without realizing it.
That afternoon we went canoeing (blogger says that isn't a word!) with Clay and Katy at Northwest River Park. We had a fun time trying to steer the thing down the narrow passages and only ran into one other canoe. I may be able to drive a ship pretty well, but a canoe is another story!
We had a family dinner that night and I did a little fishin' and picin' with Jordan and Clay (despite the pictures of catching fish on their blog we caught more tree limbs than fish on this particular occasion).
Afterwards Lizzy and I headed out to the beach to walk on the boardwalk and talk. Usually we see some people wearing some funny t-shirts or doing something that amuses us, but on this occasion we were the ones dressed strangely with our Virginia Tech and Ohio State sweatshirts. We didn't plan it that way but were amused by it when we realized what we were wearing.
Sunday morning we went to Sovereign Grace and it was great to see all of my friends there! I've been blessed with Christian friends down here in Pensacola and with a church that so far seems to be a good fit for me, but it's still hard to be apart from all of the friendships that I developed in Virginia. After church we had lunch with her parents and hung out at the house before going to dinner at P.F. Chang's. Unfortunately the ferries from Portsmouth to Norfolk weren't running so we were unable to do that and were reduced to seeing a movie which was entertaining but not really that great.
Monday morning we went out to breakfast at Panera and had a good time talking and people watching (as you've undoubtedly read on her blog, all of the people in there seemed to be military enjoying their federal holiday).

Today I finally managed to get some pictures while flying. My instructor was cool about taking pictures during our lessons and told me it was fine to bring my camera along anytime. He understood that it was important to "keep the girlfriend happy with cool pics" (his exact words).

The instrument panel on the Piper Warrior (it's not much of a "Warrior" but it's cool to say your callsign as "Warrior 32990" when you're calling your approach or talking to the air traffic controllers).

My instructor

My instructor assured me that Lizzy would think I looked cool in this picture.

The view from out the windshield. Tomorrow we're flying over the beach weather permitting and I should be able to get some "cooler" pictures!

Just When I Thought the Navy Couldn't Get Any Worse It Totally Redeems Itself.....Or Not!

2008-09-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally finished my flight physical today. I arrived at NOMI (Naval Occupational Medical Institute, or some other version that means the same thing) at 0730 to get checked out by the flight surgeon. I was pleasantly surprised to hear my name called a few minutes after I arrived, which was good because the bass fishing magazine had quickly lost my interest. I went back into the doc's office and she asked me various questions about my health. There was another doc in the office and I was afraid that she was going to break some bad news to me when I walked in, but as it turned out the other doc was getting qualified to be a flight surgeon. I was more than happy to have my examination completed by someone who didn't know what they were doing...I figured she (yeah, female doctor for a fairly invasive exam) would miss anything wrong with me. After my (cough) exam she went back to the other doc who signed off on my "up-chit" allowing me to begin flying. I was out of there in about 30 minutes and beginning to feel that the Navy wasn't so bad after all...that's where they get you. They wear you down, make you feel comfortable, and then hit you with another round of inane tasks. More on that later.
I had another appointment at 1300 (1 p.m. for you none military types or reservists) so I killed time browsing the exchange and getting lunch. I also went over to the Coast Guard Liaison Office and filled out paperwork to change my residency to Florida, the land of no state income tax. Take that Maryland!
I headed over to my appointment at NAMI (Naval...ummm...it doesnt really matter, does it?...medical institute) and reported promptly at 1300. I filled out some paperwork about my background and sat down at the computer. I was intrigued about this test because all we had been told was that it was a multi-tasking test. On the left side of the computer monitor they had a jet throttle and on the right side was a joystick. I was hoping that I was going to fly an F-18 into a dogfight with boogies all over the sky and maybe shoot them down. Better yet maybe we would all be pitted against each other and we would shoot each other down? It was a big mistake to get my hopes up, big. The first phase of the test was just a spatial recognition test, where you basically see the view from an airplane and you just figure out if it's diving, climbing, in level flight, turning, or a combination. I finished that quickly and moved on to the next task. This is where it started to get ridiculous. I should have known that it would go downhill quickly because the test was taking place in the psychiatric department. The next phase was a little airplane, shown with Atari graphics (if you're under the age of 20-25 just think Donkey Kong or some other basic Nintendo game). It moved constantly and you had to move the throttle up or down to follow the plane with your gunsight. It should've been pretty easy but the throttle would go from slow to incredibly fast with very little movement, which made me feel like I was incompetent. The next test was a hearing/multitasking test where you had to listen to the headphones, and they would call out number and letters in both ears, but you would only answer for one ear at a time. You would pull the trigger on the joystick for an even number and "shoot a missile" in your left hand for an odd number. It was actually pretty fun with the numbers and letters coming in both ears and trying to focus on just one ear. The next test was just following a plane with the cursor with the joystick, which proved to be impossible. I know that I wasn't the only one having trouble because I watched some of the Navy ensigns doing it and they also looked lost.
I thought it couldn't get more ridiculous...again, wrong. The next test took the listening, following with the throttle, and following with the joystick and you had to do all three at the same time. It was so ridiculous I started laughing a little bit. They then added "warnings." You would have a fire, instrument, or propeller warning and have to follow the emergency procedures, which you had to memorize quickly before the test. That part actually went pretty well but I still couldn't follow the plane on the screen with my throttle, or the other plane with the joystick. I finished the test and thought I was done. Again, wrong.
The next phase was 140 questions where I was presented with 2 statements and had to chose which one was more like my personality. The problem was with the questions. "Would you cheat on procedures if your boss wasn't around" or "I often show up late for work." So, I'm either a cheater or I'm lazy? "I rarely ever exercise and need someone to motivate me" or "I often make hasty decisions without thinking of the consequences." So I'm either fat and out of shape, or I'm rash and make stupid decisions? I finished that test, only to have to take another 94 question test...that had the same questions that the 140 question version had. One Navy ensign finished before me, despite showing up late. He was gaming the system by just clicking randomly and not reading the questions. He finished and The proctor knew exactly what was happening too. She looked up at him and said, "done? You must've just clicked through without reading, huh?" The Navy ensign was pretty proud of his work and was clearly happy to have cheated the system. Again, big mistake. He left and went to the auditorium to check out with the guy in there. I felt a little dumb for subjecting myself to these inane questions, but luckily I was almost done.
I finished my test and went to the auditorium to check out, only to find the Navy ensign filling out yet another personality test. I figured that was his punishment and went to check out with the guy up front, only to find myself filling out another 100 question personality test. I finished the test, turned it in and was expecting to leave (at this point that was 334 questions, surely I was finished?) only to be given another test. I asked the guy how many tests he had and when I could go, he just replied "I have 30 tests, but we won't finish them all in the time we have today." "Well," I said, "how much time do you have?" "Until 1515." Great. At this point I was more than a little tired of the Navy. The questions were pretty ridiculous on these tests as well. "Do you wash your hands after handling raw meat." Yes, I have common sense. "Do you often get angry easily?" No, but you're treading on the line with all of these questions. I finally decided to go with the old ABCDCBABCD strategy, but when he looked at it he just handed me a fresh sheet and told me to do it again. I figured I wasn't losing anything by doing it again because he was just going to keep me there until 3:15 anyway. Well, I finally finished my third test in that room (up to 534 questions at that point) and was handed one final sheet. This one had questions about prior military experience, whether you were USCG/USN/USMC/USAF, etc. The final part was this gem: "Do you grant NAMI permission to use these results to conduct research?" NO!!!!

Boy, I really like the Coast Guard right now.

2008-09-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

It's been an eventful past few days. After my last post I went out to Pensacola beach with some friends from flight school. Usually the waves in the Gulf of Mexico are pretty lame, but thanks to Ike we had some decent surf. I did have one local lady tell me that she was going to "paddle my bottom" if I went back out in the waves but luckily she was all bark and no bite. It would've been a little awkward to get a spanking from some lady that I don't know.
I received a call on Friday morning informing me that I would be allowed to start the initial flight screening on Tuesday (today), even though my flight physical isn't complete. I still have to go into the flight surgeon on Thursday and hopefully get my "up-chit," which will allow me to begin flying. Today I attended the in-brief, which should have taken 20 minutes but took 4 hours. I guess it's the Navy way to cram 20 minutes of material into 4 hours of repeating the same things over and over. I'm beginning to see why they call this the "Coast Guard Appreciation Tour" because I'm already looking forward to graduating and getting back to the Coast Guard full-time.
This weekend I went camping in Apalachicola, which is not something that I would recommend. The trip started well with a stop at the Ponce De Leon freshwater springs. These were the springs that were supposedly the "Fountain of Youth," and while it was very refreshing to take a swim in the cool water I didn't gain everlasting youth. The springs were pretty cool because you could swim down to where the springs were pushing out the cold, cold water (67 degrees) and you could feel the large amount of water they were producing. According to a plaque near the springs they produce 14 million gallons of fresh water daily! Pretty amazing.

After leaving the springs we went to a local BBQ establishment right down the road. One thing that you notice down here in the south is that to have a southern accent all you need to do is make up words. "Ah aint skeered" "go'on en git" etc etc. Life is definitely different down here with these laid-back country folk. The tables in the restaurant had literal legs, which I thought was pretty inventive, but a little freaky.

We left the springs and headed to the campsite in the Apalachicola forest. We made camp and headed out to go fishing in the Apalachicola River. We caught some small fish but heard from the locals that there really isn't great fishing in the area. The local town, Blountstown (apparently pronounced in a mumbled Bluntston) had a largemouth bass on its "Welcome" signs, but when asked about it the locals laughed and said it was "a lil' misleadin'." After fishing we headed back to the campsite and this was when things began to go wrong. My friend Jesse (the huge 6'6" guy next to me in the springs) had a scorpion drop on him from a tree. While it was a "small scorpion" (probably 3" or so) and wasn't poisonous it was still disconcerting to have scorpions dropping from trees. There were also fire ants (which bit us) and numerous spiders that resembled black widows. We attempted to fire up the camping stove that Jesse had brought (and had fired up the day before to make sure it was working), but were unable to do so and had to make a fire on the grill to cook our dinner. I actually slept in the back cab of the truck to avoid making friends with fire ants and scorpions, and I actually slept rather well considering the situation.

The following day we packed up our stuff and headed back to Pensacola. On the way we stopped at Falling Waters State Park, which features Florida's highest waterfall, which was unique because it started at ground level and fell into a sinkhole that was about 80 ft deep.
At one of the gas stations we saw this gem: 2 ft of pure sugar. I'll put that at the top of my list of foods that my kids would never eat on a long car trip. I can only imagine the sugar rush the "Big Fat Hissee Fit" would produce.
Although I had a good time on the trip overall, I was reminded that I'm not really an outdoorsman. I like "camping" where you maybe go on a hike or go out on a lake during the day and sleep in a cabin with running water, heat/AC, and a full-size bed. I know that's probably not really camping but it is comfortable!

I have to include this last picture to sum up the trip. It's lovebug swarming season, and they were all over the place when we were driving down I-10. This picture was taken after we arrived in Apalachicola, so just imagine the truck with twice as many bugs on it! We also hit a small bird on the way back and had a patch of feathers stuck to the windshield for much of the return trip. I was hoping that we could also hit an alligator and a deer, but we were unsuccessful.

Back Online!

2008-09-11T14:34:00.001-07:00

You don't realize how much you use the internet until you don't have it. It's especially tough to be in a new town and not be able to look up businesses or get directions...I actually used a phonebook for a few days and felt like I'd gone back to the dark ages. As I'm sure you know, I've moved to Pensacola, FL since my last post. I was able to spend a few days up in MD visiting family before heading back down to VA to spend my final days with Lizzy and all of my friends in the area. Luckily Lizzy hadn't started school yet and we were able to spend my final four days together (as I'm sure you've already read in her blog). On my way down to Florida I stopped halfway to visit my cousin and her family in Augusta, Georgia. I hadn't seen my cousin(Madelaine) since she was a little baby. She's at the age where she's starting to talk and it was fun to spend some time playing with her. Apparently nothing has changed since I was a kid because Curious George is still a big hit. I left Augusta after spending a night there and drove to Pensacola and got the keys to my new apartment (pictures to follow if I ever get it presentable). I spent the weekend in a hotel since I didn't have my furniture yet. I spent a few days driving aimlessly around town to familiarize myself with the local sights before reporting to flight school on Monday. I expected my reporting-in day to be fairly short, little did I know that my captain would spend 6 hours telling us about all the ways we could get kicked out of flight school! The last few days have been spent organizing my new home and dealing with the mountains of paperwork that the Navy has kindly given me as a welcome present.
It's been tough to leave all of my friends and a church that I love, but God has kindly provided me with numerous friends here already. There's a very active Officer's Christian Fellowship (OCF) that meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and that has provided me with fellowship and encouragement. I also attended a church (Grace Community Church) that I think will be a good stand-in for Sovereign Grace as I'm away. Lizzy and I have been able to talk everyday since I've been gone and I've gotten off a few letters for her to put in the letterbox and we are both hoping that I'll be able to make it back up to Chesapeake soon! However, I've already been told that I would be attending a class starting next Wednesday, only to be told the two days later that it was canceled, only to be told the next day that the class was back on, only to be held in limbo by my flight physical. I went to my flight physical this morning (at 0630) and was told that I would have to come back next Thursday to complete it since I was old and decrepit (old is apparently anyone over the age of 25) and would need a full physical. They're awaiting the lab results on my bloodwork and I'd appreciate your prayers that all would go well when I meet with the flight surgeon next week (just to clarify, nothing is wrong that I know of, but they're good at finding some condition that you didn't know of. One guy was disqualified because he had "dry hands." When he asked the flight surgeon if he could just use a moisturizer, the surgeon said, "that would only make it worse." The Navy is crazy like that!).
Well, I'm off to the beach with some of my friends to watch the surf (20-23' waves because of Ike), thanks for all of your prayers and support, I've really felt a lot of peace about the move and next phase of life and am excited about the new opportunities that have been opened to me!

P.S. I miss Lizzy!

Our Garden

2008-08-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

What a message today. It really tallied with some of my thoughts this past week on tending to the garden of our mind. One verse that really hit me was Matthew 13:17 : "...and righteous men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them." How quickly we look at the mirror of the word and forget what we see or don't even see it. I know for me personally it's most often the cares and riches and worries of this world that choke out the joy of the gospel. I was at work and finishing the book Boy Meets Girl by Josh Harris. In the final chapters he was talking about the provision of the cross and what God has accomplished for us. I think the main point that was impressed upon me in the final chapters was the completeness of God's provision for us. It wasn't that the topic was new, but rather that it was just freshly brought to the forefront of my mind. There's a lot of places in scripture where God's people need to be reminded of old truths...we tend to forget even the most basic but important truths of the bible if we don't tend to the garden of our mind. The weeds of everyday cares and worries choke out our hope and our joy and leave us feeling barren if we don't take care to seed our minds constantly with that which is good and pleasing and brings joy. Two definitions of a weed that I found were: "a valueless plant growing wild, esp. one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop" and "any undesirable or troublesome plant, esp. one that grows profusely where it is not wanted." What weeds are we allowing to grow in the garden of our mind to the injury of our desired crop of righteousness? Weeds grow fast and can quickly overcome and obstruct our vision of the desired crop. We have to be constant in our work towards santification...it's something that requires a lot of work, but luckily it's not all our own doing. God uses the rod and staff of his word, and also corrects us with our parents, those Christians around us who are seeking to sharpen us and spur us on, and the events of our lives that cause us to stop and take stock of our lives. Are we fighting for faith and for joy? If not we will not see what God has done for us and the lamp of his word will grow dim in our sight. Reading those final chapters of Boy Meets Girl just refreshed in my mind how God has provided. He gave us life and a world of ceaseless variety to subdue and care for. He gave Adam a wife and presided over the first marriage. When we sinned he made clothes for us and covered our sins. He constantly pursued His people and reminded them that he watches for them and hears their cries. He disciplined his people and then blessed them when they turned from their wicked ways and came back to his welcoming arms. Then, as if everything else wasn't enough, he sent his Son to write the law on our hearts and abolish sin with abundant grace. He poured out wrath on the perfect Son to make heirs of pedophiles, adulterers, murderers, liars, idolaters, thieves...me! What kind of God does that? How wicked of us when we doubt His love and care for us. Doesn't it make you want to focus on the important things and work to benefit His kingdom? Doesn't that make you want to stamp out the pride and other areas of weakness in your heart? Doesn't it make you want to be steadfast in reading His words for us, the words that bring life and show us how to live in His will? When I'm reading the word and spending time with my Creator the lamp that lights the narrow path seems to increase in its brightness. I know that it is always the same brightness but I feel like the sunglasses are removed during those periods and it brings illumination that brings me joy. I want to be the tree planted by waters and yielding its fruit in due season, but that isn't done by sitting back and relying on grace and being content. I have to be constantly weeding the garden of my mind so that I will produce fruit, otherwise those weeds will grow to the detriment of the desired fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. I want to grow in those areas, and have plenty of work to do, but it's worthwhile work. Don't you enjoy being around people who have these evident in their lives? I know I do, but more importantly it's our Savior's desire that these fruits be present in our lives. Let's live in light of the fact that we've been purchased at a price and our not our own. Let's spur eachother on and encourage and correct one another in love...that is a life worth living!

Olympic Success

2008-08-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

While at work the other day we were watching one of the swimming races that Michael Phelps was in. We have a few different television screens so we've been keeping NBC, MSNBC and USA on different screens so we don't miss anything. It was the 100 m Butterfly race that he barely won, and before the race most of my fellow watchstanders were hoping that he would lost because they were tired of hearing about his success (and the coverage was getting ridiculous because why is it that I know he has "a 6'7" wingspan, is 6'4" tall, has size 14 shoes and hands like dinner plates?"). One thing that even the casual observer couldn't get around was every newscaster talking about Phelps' diet (or lack thereof). Apparently the guy burns so many calories that he eats 8-12,000 calories a day just to keep up with his metabolism. Well, people were getting tired of hearing about Phelps' success and tired of hearing about 6-8 hours in the pool training everyday. I asked one of the trainees why he wanted Phelps to lose, and he really couldn't give me a great answer other than the usual "I'm so tired of hearing about him." It reminded me that I often resent the success of others, if not on the surface than somewhere inside. Rather than applauding them for their success we belittle them so we can compare ourselves more favorably. The other week I was playing golf with Clay and Wes. One thing I can't stand is losing in anything, and I'm admittedly somewhat of a poor sport when I don't win. Anyway I started to lose and my attitude about it was horrible...and of course I criticized his game rather than just admitting that he was outplaying me that day (speaking of losing, it reminds me of playing Lizzy in something called "Speed Scrabble." I couldn't form a word because she was yelling "draw" every two seconds after completing a new word. If you want to work on humility I recommend playing that game with Liz and her family). As Christians this criticizing of one another's success has to be stamped out of our thinking. We should be encouraging and helping one another, "sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Prov. 27:17). Even though we are told to encourage others in love, I feel like I spend more time dulling the blades of others than I do sharpening them. Have you ever used a really dull knife? It's not a very useful object although it might look cool. I'm not saying that we shouldn't help others in areas where they struggle or have blindspots, but our motivation should be to help them improve, not to bring them down. Sharpening can be painful and abrasive at times, but it's goal is to yield a sharp, useful instrument. Let's be encouraging and correct one another in love, seeking the good of others instead of seeking our own glorification. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8)."

Pictures!

2008-08-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

Alright, time for some pictures...they're pretty much all Coast Guard related, mostly from my days at the good old CGA.

This picture is from down at the docks at the Academy. We would take out these 70 ft WWII era "T-Boats" and practice docking, man overboard drills, etc. I think this was the same day that my instructor wasn't happy with our approaches (even though they were going along fine) and said he was going to show us how it's done. He proceeded to ram the dock at nearly full speed (I say nearly because at the last second he realized he was going way to fast and yelled "all back full") and took out on of the pilings on the dock. Luckily those boats are indestructible and we didn't break the boat in half. This was the same instructor who backed over a buoy and got the buoy chain wrapped around the propeller. Your tax dollars at work!I don't know if you've ever been to Mobile, but there's not a ton of things to do there. We went thrift store shopping and found these gems and decided to wear them on the flights back to the Academy. I felt a little sorry for the lady sitting between me and the guy in the orange on the flight back. We told her we were high school football coaches on the way back from a coaching clinic. She probably believed us because who else but high school coaches would wear those shorts? Didn't everyone have a coach who wore these growing up? Yeah, they're pretty ridiculous.

This is my roommate Joe. We roomed together most of the time at the academy. For some reason, they thought it was a good idea to make us switch rooms every semester, which was a huge pain that took all day.

Junior summer we spent a majority of the time training the incoming class. It basically involves walking around and looking angry and yelling a lot. There's no air conditioning there so needless to say it gets a little hot and humid in the barracks when you're doing PT. Not only that, but I have the distinct memory of the stench that we would give off because they didn't let us do laundry often enough.

Most of my swab summer (first summer, we called the freshmen swabs, probably because it's just about the most demeaning term you can use legally. A swab is the "nautical" term for a mop, and that's mostly how you get treated) was spent standing on the bulkhead, looking straight ahead and trying to memorize material that they required us to know. For your entire freshman year you were required to memorize three meals in advance, which really required 4 meals because after breakfast they would ask you about breakfast the next day. Yeah, I know, it's pretty insane.The best part about the Swab Summer was the week spent on the Barque Eagle. It was a prize of war from Germany after WWII. There were still some Nazi symbols on the wall in the engine room. My favorite part would be sail stations when we would climb up in the rigging and set the sails. You haven't seen a sunset until you're up on the Royal (it's the top sail on the mainmast that's about 140' in the air) at sea.

I once gave a keynote speech at the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Only 2 of my classmates listened but let me assure you, it was a masterpiece. I think I saw tears a few times.

Cadets at the academy have to stay in shape. This was probably my 1212th rep.

The best day of any cadet....graduation day. Most college students miss their days at school, and while I miss being with my friends every day, I don't miss that place one bit!

Doing fisheries boardings in the North Atlantic. I wish I had pictures from on the fishing boats (you see some weird fish onboard), but it's kind of unprofessional to be inspecting their vessel and taking pictures at the same time. I think I saw the Old Man in the Sea on one boat. He was the captain of the vessel, and was 77 years old and still fishing. He was probably the most grizzled person I'd ever seen.

A CG Jayhawk helicopter. If you've never ridden Coast Guard Airways I recommend it.

I thought it was a good idea to hold the monkey in Roatan, Honduras. I probably took 15 showers after this picture was taken.

Swim calls were always a good time during long patrols. We would just stop the engines and go swimming, although we only did it a few times in the two years I was on board. Jumping off the flight deck was fun so I decided to move on to bigger and better things....
Jumping off the ship near the bridge seemed like a good idea at the time, but this picture didn't end well for me. After this one I stuck to the flight deck for future swim calls.

Finding a good barber underway can be difficult (barbers are usually bad enough, and when you factor in a ship that's pitching and rolling and a novice barber it's pretty bad), so I just shaved it at the beginning of the patrol. I'd just shave it now but Liz won't let me!

My last watch underway as the sun was rising. I miss seeing the sunrises and sunsets, and the amazing night sky that you can only see out to sea where there aren't any lights to blot out the sky; however, waking up at 3am to stand watch is highly overrated. Overall I'd say getting stationed on land is definitely preferable.

A little background

2008-08-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, if I do this blog I guess I should give a little background with some pictures (more pics to follow). I grew up in the Annapolis area my entire life until I left to go to the Coast Guard Academy. My dad was in the Coast Guard and still works for them as a civilian, but we never had to move from the street I grew up on...very unusual for a military brat to have that stability! As you can tell from the picture at the left I was a complete angel growing up, as my mom will attest (actually I was pretty good as a kid but had my moments as a teenager...luckily I had parents who were wise and who prayed). I left home in 2001 to go to the Coast Guard Academy. July 2nd, 2001 is a day I'll never forget. Hours of standing on the bulkheads "braced up," staring straight ahead and studying the indoctrination package we'd been given. I know at least one of my "classmates" dropped out of the academy on the first day. It must've been demoralizing for his parents to still be on the campus when he quit. Of course, there were times I wanted to quit the academy (about 28% of my class dropped out or were kicked out during the 4 years), but there was no way I was going to go home as the guy who couldn't I hack it. The great thing about the difficulty is that I built some incredibly strong friendships with my classmates. I still talk with many of them on a consistent basis and we make it a point to get together during vacations. I graduated in May of '05 and went to the CGC FORWARD, a 270' cutter out of Portsmouth, VA. I was the Weapons Officer for the first year on board and I felt like I was thrown to the lions. My division was very antagonistic at the beginning but by working with them and spending a large portion of my time with them we developed a great working relationship by the end and I still keep in touch with them via email. While on board I was able to visit a lot of countries: Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Guatamala, Guantanamo Bay (not really Cuba), Haiti, Curacao, Bermuda, and the Bahamas. Getting to transit through the Panama Canal was one of the highlights of my tour on board. I have a few pictures of that below. Another highlight was a search and rescue case off of the Dominican Republic. There was a sailboat with 42 people on board that capsized and all of the people went into the water. We arrived on scene about 12 hours later and rescued three men holding onto a gas can just before sunset. That night I was on watch as the OOD (Officer of the Deck, basically responsible for driving the ship while captain is down below) and we heard voices off the port bow. I slowed the ship down and we were drifting towards them. We adjusted the speed to keep them in our lee while we piped "Man Overboard" to wake up the crew. We picked up three more survivors in that group. That night around 2 am we found another group of four people. Three of them were uninjured and were able to hold on to the cargo nets while we pulled them on deck. The last one was cut and injured and unable to hold around, and there was a shark swimming around him. We lowered the small boat and I went with them to haul the guy out of the water. We quickly pulled him on board which is a moment I won't forget. During the next three days we rescued another 8 people, each time it was exhilarating to be saving people. We picked up our final survivor on the last day of the search, 96 hours after the boat had capsized. He lacked the strength to hold on to the nets so we sent in a swimmer who put him in a harness and he was hulled on deck. I've never seen someone so exhausted and dehydrated. He just laid on deck while we put him in blankets (he was hypothermic despite the warm water temperature) and he was slowly given water and later food.

After finishing my tour on the ship I was given orders to the LANTAREA Command Center. I was disappointed with my orders to say the least. I had requested to transfer out of the area and expected to be moving since the detailer didn't call me to consult about my orders; however, I think in retrospect that it was divine providence. In Ruth the bible uses an unusual phrase, in some versions it's "it just so happened." It just so happened that I was re-stationed in the Portsmouth area. It just so happened that I started going to Sovereign Grace. The "it just so happened's" are endless. I was on shore and had plenty of time off. I got plugged into a great church where I've been able to develop some great relationships and have been given sound teaching that has helped me in my Christian walk. Remember the guy we picked up after 96 hours in the water? That's what I felt like spiritually when I came to Sovereign Grace. I felt malnourished and exhausted from walking alone. I've been fed well spiritually in the past year and am looking forward to establishing myself in the community down in Pensacola. For those of you who feel alone and discouraged the best thing you can do is get involved in your local church. Find good people there and sacrifice your time to develop relationships with them. For those who are already in a great church and have those friendships and do feel well fed I hope you look for people on the fringe. There's a lot of people who go to church and leave...they're in and out and don't have the supportive community that you have. I know we tend to talk to the same people week in and week out, but we need to be seeking out others and inviting them in. I've felt very welcomed in the church, and I hope you continue to welcome others.

And so it begins...

2008-08-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

I suddenly remember what it was like at the Academy, preparing to write a paper and opening up Office Word to see the little line blinking at me as if to taunt me. The only way to silence the blank page is to being to fill it with something, to begin moving towards a completed work. Often this would necessitate going back over what I had previously written and completing substantial revisions, or scrapping it altogether. Isn't that similar to our experience in life at large? We have tasks set before us that seem so daunting "15 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins," and we don't know quite how to begin; however, we begin by seeking guidance through reading, prayer, and consulting others (or extensive research if you're still hung up on the paper analogy), and then begin to walk. The steps are often slow and hesitant at first, yet we learn and eventually begin to run towards the prize at the end. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it" (1 Cor 9:24). Athletes are concerned about nutrition, they know it's essential to be well fed by the right foods in order to run their race effectively. Are you watching what your eyes and ears are feeding you? I'm weening myself off the "McDonalds Spiritual Diet" slowly, and trying to seek the right foods...scripture, Christian friendships, and prayer are all great sources of food. Athletes also have trainers who help them develop. Do you have counselors who will give you godly advice? If not seek them out and it will benefit you greatly!

I don't have it all figured out, and I'm learning how to run the race just like you. I hope future posts encourage you and help you as you seek to run your race. I only have this life, and I don't want to waste it walking or staring at the blinking line.