This has been an odd week.
Sat, 12Jul:
After checking in and a few briefings, I leave USAFA to spend the night with Dad and Emily at Dad's little house (Jon was off at some CAP thing). Emily and I went for a walk that evening and took some pictures.
Sun, 13Jul:
Went to church, hiked Eagle's peak, came back to USAFA.
Mon, 14Jul:
AM 490, basic freefall, begins at 0600 at the USAFA airfield. PT test and about 10 hours of ground training ensue. We learn the fundamentals of freefall, door position, landing, and canopy controllability.
Tue, 15Jul:
More ground training, another 10 hours with tons of emergency procedures, malfunctions on your main chute, malfunctions on your reserve, collisions, and about anything else that could go wrong.
Wed, 16Jul:
The last 10 hours of ground training culminate in an evaluation with a "high level of distraction." We were suspended in these harnesses and put through scenarios that we had to work through verbally (using word perfect verbiage) and physically (pumping risers, pulling ripcords, steering with brake toggles). All the while, we were assualted with random loud noises (whistles, car horns, people banging on stuff, people yelling), spun and shook around, having people jump on us, doused with water, and the like.
Thu, 17Jul:
We arrive at the airfield around 0520 I'm on the 5th or 6th load, 5th jumper out of the plane. I'm pretty much scared to death. Two passes, four jumpers out. Jumpmaster turns to me and says: "David, Stand in the Door." So I do. Holding on to the edge of the plane, I stick most of my body out the door of a very nice plane traveling ~90 knots at 4500 feet above the ground. "Go!" yells the jumpmaster. So I do.
Fri, 18Jul:
Jump 2, I'm the 5th jumper out of the plane again. Still pretty scared. "Stand in the Door...Go!"
After being pretty unstable during both my jumps (our freefalls were taped from the ground), I had a long talk with a LtCol who decided that I was too unsafe to continue jumping (otherwise I might've had 5 jumps).
Sat, 19Jul:
I helped out in the gear up room, ran load slips, called in loads, and ran some errands for the operations guys. We finish at the airfield around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, afterwhich I left USAFA to spend the night with Dad and Emily at Dad's little house (Jon was still off at some CAP thing). Emily and I went for a walk that evening and took some pictures.
You could hardly tell that a week had gone by. But it had. I had spent 30 hours training, and then jumped out of a plane, twice. And hadn't died.
20 July 2008
05 July 2008
sometimes i love british reporting
"American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.
fixed doors
fixed lights
fixed generators
replaced switches
mixed cement and filled holes
ran around the woods shooting people
set up an expeditionary landing zone and drop zone
watched an aerial parachute drop
watched a C-130 land and take-off of said expeditionary strip (4 props creates a sizable dustcloud)
gone to meetings
done physical training with CE
played in a basketball tournament with CE (me and 2 other cadets were the only white people in the gym)
It has pretty much been the most epic 2 week internship so far, and I still have another week at Pope. They let me come home for the 3 day weekend, so I'm in Elon right now, but I'm driving back tomorrow evening. After I finish at Pope, I'm doing basic free fall parachute training (hopefully 5 solo free fall jumps) and global engagement (the army side of things...chem gear, gas tents, village assault, maintaining base camp, etc). The AF has hooked me up with a pretty fun summer this year.
After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4276486.ece
Brit's are also pretty funny people: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2248463/Moon-mistaken-for-UFO.html
fixed doors
fixed lights
fixed generators
replaced switches
mixed cement and filled holes
ran around the woods shooting people
set up an expeditionary landing zone and drop zone
watched an aerial parachute drop
watched a C-130 land and take-off of said expeditionary strip (4 props creates a sizable dustcloud)
gone to meetings
done physical training with CE
played in a basketball tournament with CE (me and 2 other cadets were the only white people in the gym)
It has pretty much been the most epic 2 week internship so far, and I still have another week at Pope. They let me come home for the 3 day weekend, so I'm in Elon right now, but I'm driving back tomorrow evening. After I finish at Pope, I'm doing basic free fall parachute training (hopefully 5 solo free fall jumps) and global engagement (the army side of things...chem gear, gas tents, village assault, maintaining base camp, etc). The AF has hooked me up with a pretty fun summer this year.
08 April 2008
just two (and a half)
一 )
Lauren and I started a photography "project:" www.geminusproject.blogspot.com. Look for new images 3 times a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It will be amazing.
二 )
Yesterday's weather:
going to breakfast (715): cold, cloudy, foggy, overcast
going to the gym for PE class (940): Warm and sunny
leaving the gym for noon meal formation (1140): windy, cloudy
noon meal formation (1200): light snow
going to 6th period (220): blizzard
going back to squadron area (dorm, 330): warm and sunny, steam rising from ground
intramurals (400): warm, partly cloudy
Silly Colorado...
Finally, a great little music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo
Lauren and I started a photography "project:" www.geminusproject.blogspot.com. Look for new images 3 times a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It will be amazing.
二 )
Yesterday's weather:
going to breakfast (715): cold, cloudy, foggy, overcast
going to the gym for PE class (940): Warm and sunny
leaving the gym for noon meal formation (1140): windy, cloudy
noon meal formation (1200): light snow
going to 6th period (220): blizzard
going back to squadron area (dorm, 330): warm and sunny, steam rising from ground
intramurals (400): warm, partly cloudy
Silly Colorado...
Finally, a great little music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo
03 April 2008
3 things, in order of length
1.) bubbl.us Cool bubble diagram thing, useful for brainstorming/idea generation, organizing thoughts, and other such things. It is also free and doesn't spam your email.
2.) Do you agree with this:
The political track of our strategy is based on six core assumptions:
• First, like people in all parts of the world, from all cultures and religions, when given the opportunity, the Iraqi people prefer to live in freedom rather than under tyranny.
?
Is yearning to live free inherent in the human psyche?
3.) A big part of the Iraq strategy is to gradually give control back to the Iraqi's so that we can leave (eventually...).
Most people can probably quickly tell you that the number of US deaths in Iraq is just over 4000, but ask people if they know how many Iraqi provinces have been transferred back to the Iraqi's...if they even know how many provinces are in Iraq (admittedly, I didn't until this afternoon).
Do a few web searches to see if you can find the how many provinces are back under Iraqi control. See if you can find out which ones have been transferred. I did so today and could hardly find a number, let alone a list of names.
[you don't have to, of course, but i would encourage you to at least try for 38 seconds or so]
Turns out we've transferred or are close to transferring half of the 18 provinces that comprise Iraq.
Map:
The following provinces are under Iraqi provincial governments:
Dhi Qar
Basra
Maysan
Najaf
Al Muthanna
As Sulaymaniyah
Erbil
Dahuk
Control of Al Anbar is expected to be transferred this month.
2 provinces were given back to the Iraqi's in 2006, 5 in 2007, and at least one should be transferred in 2008.
So.
1.) Are we dieing over there? Of course.
2.) Are we achieving security gains? Of course.
But will you ever hear about #2? Of course not.
[caveat: I'm not a fanatical hawk, nor necessarily a big fan of many US strategies in the Middle East and in Iraq. But seriously. Half of Iraq. And you can even find that info very easily. Come on. Can you say "let's shoot americans in the back" any better? *sigh*]
2.) Do you agree with this:
The political track of our strategy is based on six core assumptions:
• First, like people in all parts of the world, from all cultures and religions, when given the opportunity, the Iraqi people prefer to live in freedom rather than under tyranny.
?
Is yearning to live free inherent in the human psyche?
3.) A big part of the Iraq strategy is to gradually give control back to the Iraqi's so that we can leave (eventually...).
Most people can probably quickly tell you that the number of US deaths in Iraq is just over 4000, but ask people if they know how many Iraqi provinces have been transferred back to the Iraqi's...if they even know how many provinces are in Iraq (admittedly, I didn't until this afternoon).
Do a few web searches to see if you can find the how many provinces are back under Iraqi control. See if you can find out which ones have been transferred. I did so today and could hardly find a number, let alone a list of names.
[you don't have to, of course, but i would encourage you to at least try for 38 seconds or so]
Turns out we've transferred or are close to transferring half of the 18 provinces that comprise Iraq.
Map:
The following provinces are under Iraqi provincial governments:
Dhi Qar
Basra
Maysan
Najaf
Al Muthanna
As Sulaymaniyah
Erbil
Dahuk
Control of Al Anbar is expected to be transferred this month.
2 provinces were given back to the Iraqi's in 2006, 5 in 2007, and at least one should be transferred in 2008.
So.
1.) Are we dieing over there? Of course.
2.) Are we achieving security gains? Of course.
But will you ever hear about #2? Of course not.
[caveat: I'm not a fanatical hawk, nor necessarily a big fan of many US strategies in the Middle East and in Iraq. But seriously. Half of Iraq. And you can even find that info very easily. Come on. Can you say "let's shoot americans in the back" any better? *sigh*]
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