Halloween 2007

Well, Halloween is here and I just returned home from church. Every year we do a giant Fall Festival where we have cars backed up to provide a staging area for trunk-or-treaters, carnival type games (ring toss, shooting targets, throwing games, etc) as well as free hotdogs, candy, hot chocolate, and lots more. It is a giant event for Sparta and we expect more than 3000 people to show up this year. I left as it was getting started and I would imagine we have at least 3000 people show up...there were cars already lined up down the road.

School is going well and the semester is about half over already. I can't believe how fast the semester is zipping along. I have some of the larger classes I have had since coming here with almost 90 people in one of my MBA classes. The bad part of the semester is right after I take up case reviews/papers. I then have to spend hours reading 90 different case write-ups on the exact same case. Not a lot of fun but a necessity in this line of work.

I also just got word that my older brother (and sole other single person in my family) is getting married. He is 4 years older so I guess I might still find some babe to marry me one day. To be honest I have no real desire to marry but there are days when I think it might be nice to have a companion to travel and do things with. Thankfully I have some great friends here in Sparta (and around the world) that let me hang out with them. Anyway, he will get married this December right after Christmas. I think they are making plans for the week between Christmas and New Years so that the whole family can and will be around to celebrate with them. The funny thing is that she and my older sister were friends and class mates way back during their college days. So now I am the last of the singles in my family (other than my nieces and nephews).

Air Fete 1987: First AF trip to England

I had been at Plattsburgh AFB, NY for less than 4 months when my crew was tasked to fly to an airshow (Air Fete ‘87) at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom (UK). My flight crew at the time included Capt. Geoffrey Doherty (AC), me (Co-Pilot), Capt. Bob Learner (Nav.) and Sr Airman Kraig “Bam-Bam” Coates (Boom Operator). I was the most inexperienced and lowest flight time crew member on our crew. The rest of the guys had been flying for years and had been a crew for several months when I arrived on station. Geoff was an excellent pilot and was good about getting me up to speed in the KC-135.

I arrived on station at Plattsburgh AFB, NY in late January/early February of 1987. After a couple of months of flying with this crew, we got hit with a no-notice check-ride. We did OK and survived unscathed with a Q1 “good” qualification. I had only been at Plattsburgh about 3 months when the no-notice check was given. After we got through that we settled down and started to get some real continuity going. I kept getting better and as a crew we were getting to know each other and the time was helping us know what to expect from each crew position. Much of the SAC world was brand new to me having never experienced EWO alert, emergency war order flight taskings, etc in Air Training Command (ATC). I was a bit overwhelmed at first. We were stationed at a nuclear bomber base and with that comes much responsibility. We had to know where to be and what to communicate and what not to communicate when we hit our refueling points as the bombers made their way to their primary target. Each crew position had unique responsibilities in time of war and we were expected to know our specific roles backwards and forward.

Anyway the commander called us in one day while we were on alert. He told us the good news on our trip and most of us were excited about the opportunity. We made plans and finally left Plattsburgh in late May for a week long trip to RAF Lakenheath, England. We arrived on station at RAF Lakenheath and were welcomed by local Airshow personnel. The nice thing about flying into the UK is that for the most part Britons love aviation and appreciate the men and women who train in and fly military aircraft of all sorts. It was not unusual to see numerous people lined up along the runways and base fences with cameras and notebooks taking notes on tail numbers and snapping pictures as aircraft arrived and departed. More than one person offered to buy us drinks during the week we spent in England for the airshow.

The day after the airshow we were assigned to a 2 hour re-positioning flight from RAF Lakenheath to RAF Mildenhall AB. The unique thing about this flight is that the 2 bases are less than 10 miles apart. So with 2 hours of lying time to use for a 10 minute flight we got to be creative in our flight planning. We took off from Lakenheath and climbed to 1500’ AGL and flew a visual sightseeing tour of the central part of England. We flew down over the white cliffs of Dover and then turned back towards the Northwest and flew over the Queen’s summer palace before finally flying back towards RAF Mildenhall to position our plane for the return flight to the USA two days later.

I still remember the British controllers and their willingness to give us the clearance we wanted for our flight. I requested an altitude and it was immediately given. We asked for clearance to fly towards Dover and the controller told us the optimal altitude and approach direction to have the best views of the cliffs. After orbiting around a few minutes taking pictures and checking out the area we turned back towards Mildenhall to land. After a few miles the controller actually suggested the tour of the Queen’s palace since none of us even knew where or what it was. He gave us vectors and then kept giving us other points of interest as we flew over the beautiful English countryside. It was quite an experience and lots of fun for an inexperienced aviator on his first international trip to be flying around at 1500 feet above the ground cruising at 300 knots. And, the whole purpose of the flight was to basically sight see and re-position the aircraft.

England is not really known for their fine food but with the huge influx of people from other parts of the world there is some wonderful food to be had. This trip was my first time to sample traditional fish and chips from a small storefront “restaurant” in the village of Mildenhall. It was excellent and despite the fact that the fish and chips (French fries) are simply fried and then wrapped in a piece of newspaper and doused with vinegar and salt was excellent. For lunch one day I ended up trying the ka-bob plates that were also offered. The ka-bob is shaved lamb, chicken, or beef served in a gyro style bread with vegetables (usually chopped up cabbage). You can then add hot sauce or a yogurt sauce. I would recommend the chicken ka-bobs to anybody who ever travels to England. The ka-bob is still one of my favorite foods EVER.

Upward Football season ends

As many of you know this was the first season for Upward football here in Sparta, TN. My church sponsored the league this year and Kurt was the head man behind the scenes. He and Tim did most of the work to get this season up and going while arranging coaches and then organizing the 8 week season. Both also coached teams and made sure every week that speakers and refs were lined up. Many in our church stepped up and did their share as well from the picture takers (Cameron, Ryan and Beverly) to the refs (Dustin Bing, Dustin Benn, Jeff M, Rick P, Jeremy A, Cody W, Doug and JD R, and several others) to the coaches who are too numerous to mention. It was a great season and I know the kids enjoyed it but more importantly they heard that God loves them and is calling them to Him. Overall it resulted in a great program that was done well...thanks Kurt.

Today's games went well with the weather becoming cold and overcast and it definitely felt like football weather. We've been fortunate to not have any inclement weather for the entire 8 week season. The only bad news was that because I made Ryan come help me 2 times yesterday (move a safe that never actually happened) he had to skip football and go to work this morning. Sorry Rhino.

If you want to check out pictures from the football season you can go to the FBC Sparta website and click on the appropriate link. The pictures on the website can be seen as thumbnails but can be downloaded as full resolution pictures to print out. Thanks to the great photography team they look fantastic.

We Find God only because we are found by God

I just finished watching an excellent DVD (Amazing Grace) presented by the Apologetics Group that details the reformation movement with the History and Theology of what we know as Calvanism. They sum up man's quest for meaning and redemption with the end of the story as the Lord "seeking and saving that which was lost" as stated in Luke 19:10. The DVD was well done and the reformed theology is presented and defended with scripture. Additional insight is added by the host Eric Holmberg as well as many well known theologians including RC Sproul, Stephen Mansfield, Thomas Nettles, Walter Bowie, Roger Schultz, D James Kennedy and others. Another great passage that was presented was Psalms 65:40 which reads: "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and caused to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts."

Of course everywhere in the Bible it is clear that without God seeking us we would never seek Him. It even tells us that while we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10) and hated him He loved us enough to send His son to die on the cross for our reconciliation to Him. What an incredible Truth.

Today I got to attend the traditional Pizza Hut gang for lunch. It is always a good time of fellowship and fun. We meet, pray, eat and of course talk about issues surrounding our individual lives as well as events in and around town. We have a couple of big events coming up in the next week or so. The church is having/hosting our annual Fall Fest on October 31st. We usually have around 3000 people show up for food and fun. It is a safe alternative to regular trick-or-treating and we offer attendees a chance to meet with someone on staff for spiritual counseling. We also follow up over the following few weeks with families who are looking for a church home or just need to know more about our God.

Then in early November we have the annual High School wide lock-in we call The Happening. It is hosted by several local churches and includes a revival/evangelistic team who presents the gospel through song and preaching. Each year about half of the kids at the HS attend and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ presented without compromise. Many each year rededicate their lives to following Christ and usually several kids make a first time surrender to His amazing grace. I pray He will give each of us the faith we need to take up our cross each day and live for Him.

Then, this afternoon I was supposed to pick up a safe that I bought from a fellow here in Sparta. Well, the safe weighs a ton and the guy we lined up to deliver it didn't have a truck/lift system that would handle the safe. Anyway, I wasted Tim and Ryan's time on two separate occasions. Hopefully I have somebody lined up on Monday who can actually do the job.

08 Fred Thompson 2008

Well, as all of you know, I have been a traveler and wanderer all of my life. I, of course, blame my parents for this since they started my travels early and kept me going frequently all of the way through my HS years in Taiwan. I guess the military helped with my travel desires since they also kept me going and traveling with many deployments and trips to places around the globe, but it still is mostly my parents fault. Having shared these facts, I wanted to then share with you plans I have for my next year or two should God allow me to stay here that long.

I have a potential opportunity to spend some time in Chile conducting academic research as well as pursuing my desire to learn Spanish through language study. It will probably not be the summer of 2008 like I originally had planned but is looking like a fairly certain deal for the summer of 2009. I am also learning of a similar opportunity that might be developing in Brisbane Australia (minus the language study) for the summer of 2010. I am thinking that as long as I earn tenure this year I might request a sabbatical year for the academic 2009-2010 year. This would allow me to spend the summer of 2009 in Chile studying and researching and even extend it for a few months if I so desire. I can then return to the USA for Christmas and part of the Spring and then travel to Australia in May and stay there for a few months until school starts back in September of 2010. From this perspective I can’t think of a more rewarding and fun year. I’ll keep you informed as details emerge and doors open or close.

As I mentioned earlier, my tenure package was turned in on October 15th and now the decision rests with the college and university committees and ultimately the Board of Directors. I think I have a good record of research and teaching and I feel confident that my boss and others in the college are happy with my performance to date. At this point there is nothing I can do except continue to do my job and trust God to let me see where He wants me. I love the job and the people I work with, but I am always open to other options and opportunities if they present themselves.
Here are some pictures of my Van with the Fred Thompson 2008 window decal... GO FRED.

Photo (Heady Pictures, Inc.)

The Pakistan Years: Grades 1 through 3 (part 2)

One day my sisters and I were out in the front yard playing when my dad yelled at us to stand still. He ran back inside and returned with his shotgun. He loaded it and then pointed it as he had us slowly walk towards him. He took a couple of shots towards where we had moments before stood. We ran over to him and then all of us went back over to see what he had taken a shot at. There lying on the ground was a giant 6 foot plus (long) King Cobra that had gotten into our yard. Still another day we were all out playing when a wild dog started trying to attack us. This time he grabbed his hunting bow and shot it as it raced around the yard trying to decide whether to attack us or run and hide. He ended up killing it with the bow and we buried it in the back yard. I remember these two events but it sounded like (from stories told after we were older) this events were just a couple of incidents among many similar occurrences that took place in Faridpur.

Our church (Bengali church) was right across the street from our house. It was located in the huge field/yard that was in front of the school. I remember it being weird to me compared to church back home in TN. This was in part due to the language not being English but also because in that culture it was required for the women and men to sit on opposite sides of the building for worship. I still remember several Sundays in Pakistan when we would have worship and the church would have a large feast or dinner on the grounds. It was similar in idea to how we do it here in TN but the food was obviously very different. The cooks would spend hours hand grinding spices and ingredients and after the food was cooked it was served in giant banana leaves. The rice was placed in first and then the spicy curry and vegetables were piled on top. In that culture being overweight was a sign of honor and wealth. My dad wasn’t really fat back then but compared to the locals he was, so they called him some special name. They would say something like “who’s the fattest man here, the big foreigner”, and then repeat it a couple of times for emphasis. Anyway, they said it was out of respect but it doesn’t sound too respectful to me.

Because Pakistan was so isolated and third world we were required to have all kinds of shots and immunizations. I remember getting shots all of the time and having to get cholera shots every six months to protect us and keep us from getting sick. Our Aunt Mavis was assigned to and lived on a small island (Cyprus) in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and would travel to countries in the region to care for us. After we left Pakistan and had been in Taiwan a couple of years she was murdered by some local men who decided she didn’t belong there and decided to take her life.

In November of 1970 a giant cyclone (Bhola) hit the coast of East Pakistan. The resulting tidal wave hit our low-lying country with an incredible effect. The tidal wave that made its way inland for many miles was devastating. After all was said and done estimates of 500,000 lived lost were reported. My dad and several other SBC missionaries went to the devastated areas and dug wells to provide fresh water to those who weren’t killed in the storm surge. Many of the 500,000 who died as a result of that storm died of disease resulting from contaminated drinking water. Thankfully, I don’t have any memories of the devastation but do remember mom telling us kids that dad had gone to help people who were in trouble and might potentially die. He was gone for several days and even months later the needs were there and the government in the West did little to help. It was the beginning of the war that was to result in a few short months.

Pakistan was an incredibly poor country and even though the USA gave millions of dollars in aid none of it founds its way to the East. In March of 1971 East Pakistan having fought for every benefit and right they had from the selfish and corrupt government in West Pakistan decided it was time to become independent. Pakistan was, and really still is, a third world country. East Pakistan was even further behind their rich countrymen in the West. Everywhere we went we saw people starving and begging for food to feed themselves and their families. The corrupt government in the West would receive aid from the USA and then never send any to East Pakistan. Anyway, on March 7, 1971 the leader of the East made a plea to his countrymen to fight for freedom. The war was fairly short but many died in the fight for independence. I think March 26th is considered Bangladesh independence day. We were still in country when the fighting began and were eventually evacuated with many other foreigners.

We flew out of Dhaka on Pakistan International Airways (PIA) into Tehran, Iran. We spent a week in Iran with an American military family at a US base (1st Tactical Air Base, Tehran) waiting for my 2 older brothers who were at boarding school (Murree Christian School) in West Pakistan. Once my two brothers joined us we went on to London for a day or two and then on to the USA. I think we arrived home to TN by going through NYC. As I remember it we were met by reporters as we stepped off of the airplane in NYC. They were trying to get reports from the civil war and my parents told me later that before we landed they had briefed each of us kids not to speak to reporters about Pakistan or the war. I guess a reporter came over and started to ask me questions and I reportedly told him that “my mom told me not to say a word about the war”. We returned back to TN and after a brief visit (few weeks) at my grandparents home we left for Taiwan and my dad’s next job at Morrison Academy.

The Pakistan Years: Grades 1 through 3 (part 1)

We arrived in East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh) in 1968. My parents were to be assigned to an industrial arts school in the town of Faridpur out in the boonies. The first year we spent in the capital city of Dhaka where my parents attended language school and us kids attended Dhaka American Society School (DASS). DASS is now known as the American International School/Dhaka. I don’t remember much about Dhaka other than the incredible poverty that was obvious even to a 6-year-old kid. We lived in mission owned housing that was arranged as a duplex. The family that lived beside us was also associated with the Southern Baptist mission in Pakistan.

I do remember an incident I had with a cat while in Dhaka. One day I was playing with the other kids on the playground when a cat came running over to the group of us. A classmate picked the cat up and handed it to me. About that time the cat got spooked and clawed at me as it tried to jump to the ground. The claw caught me on the upper lip and cut a pretty good gash that bleed for a while. I still have a pretty good scar from that silly cat. Thankfully I didn’t get tetanus or any other disease from it. I don’t remember anything about the school or teachers or any fellow students other than the Youngs. The Youngs were with the US Embassy in Pakistan and they had 2 kids in my grade at school. I think my folks still stay in touch with them some 40 years after living in Pakistan.

During the summer between 1st and 2nd grades we moved from Dhaka to Faridpur a small community way out in the sticks. My dad was the headmaster of a technology training school. It was established to provide trade training (welding, metal working, woodworking, and other trade type skills) for locals while also exposing them to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have memories of my older brothers riding around in a go-cart that students in the school had made. It was the typical rough cart that had a lawnmower engine for its power plant. My memory has it being pretty stout and able to withstand some serious abuse. One of my brothers tried to run it up a tree without them or the machine being seriously damaged.

We lived in a large colonial style house right beside the school in a compound of about an acre or so. For some reason there was a monkey that lived on the grounds (kind of a pet of a previous resident) that hated children. He would attack anytime one of us (Becky, Beth or I) would go near it. He was OK with older kids and adults but hated kids because the Bengali children would throw rocks at him and tease him. He therefore developed a hatred for kids and he took it out on us (the three younger siblings). One day I got too close and he rushed and took a couple of bites out of my shin. I still have some scars from that stupid monkey. I hit him with a plastic baseball bat when he was biting me and he let go and ran away. Needless to say I hated that thing and from then on I always carried that bat with me when I was in our compound.

Another vivid memory I have is riding my bicycle around and having all of the local kids running after me trying to pull me off of my bike. They would also see me coming and hide and throw rocks at me. After having this happen a few time I learned to carry rocks so that I could return fire. I was a pretty good shot and remember hitting a couple of them and the rock throwing tapered off after that. I’m not recommending that tactic for any kids reading this post, but it seemed to work for me at that point in time.

Another injury I received in Pakistan was the scar that I have on my scalp that resulted in a small bald spot. The story goes that I was running around on the roof of one of the mission houses when I slipped and fell hitting my head on the concrete surface. It hurt a little but not much and I soon forgot about it. About 2 weeks later when we were back home in Faridpur I woke up and my head was really tender and I had a large bump. I told my mom and dad I didn’t remember hitting my head and neither did they. So, with no recollection of the bump, my dad thought it should be lanced (no nearby medical facility) and decided to slice a small cut to allow it to drain. Anyway, it was simply a bruise and the cut he made resulted in a scar that keeps hair from growing in that spot. So, as you can tell from this blog post, from my short 2.5 years in Pakistan I received all 3 of my visible scars. I was traumatized for life; maybe that’s why I don’t care for that part of the world. Having said that though, I have started to have a desire to return to see what it is like there in Bangladesh.

Another one of my memories from Pakistan is the friends that my older sister Becky had. She had a few Bengali girlfriends who would come to the house and play with her and my little sister Beth. Anyway, they all spit on the ground often and I guess I hated that. Well, as any child would do, when they found out I hated it they spat even more often. The story has it that I would follow them around and yell at them for spitting on the ground and they would laugh and spit even more. About the last year of life in Pakistan I began to play soccer with the kids in the large lot right next to the technology school where my dad taught. We would play for hours. I don’t think I was very good, but I did start to develop an interest for the game of football (soccer) during that last year in East Pakistan.
(to be continued)

The Taiwan Years: Grades 4 through 6

We arrived in Taiwan towards the end of the calendar year of 1970 when I was in 4th grade. My parents attended Chinese language school there in the city of Taichung located near the Central Taiwanese West coast. The job my dad was to eventually be assigned was to the faculty of Morrison Academy (see link in the Links of Interest) at Christian missionary school organized by 4 supporting mission organizations. -- They were the Oriental Missionary Society (OMS), the Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM), the Conservative Baptist Mission (CBInternational), and the Orient Crusades (OC). The school was renamed Morrison Academy in honor of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to Mainland China. In 1957, the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB) joined the founding missions in the administration of the school.--

The school was located on the then Western part of the city and included a campus that had recently been split in half by a fairly large road. The main part of the campus was on the East part of the road and the gymnasium and swimming pool were across the street. There were also a few faculty housing units that were on the swimming pool side of the street and our Taiwan missionary sponsors were the Wilsons. The Wilsons had 6 daughters who were all attractive and so immediately became my favorite family in Taiwan. 4 of the daughters were older than me and 2 younger. Sally was one year ahead of me and Sheri was one year behind me in school. During my time in Taiwan I had the most interaction with Sheri and Sally than any of the other sisters. Sande was in my older sister Becky's class.

At school I was assigned to Ms Lambs 4th grade class and had quite the time adjusting to a classroom school setting. For the last 2 years in Pakistan my mother had taught the three younger kids in my family so hadn’t been in a classroom for a couple of years. I had also really struggled with spelling my 3rd grade year and I think my mom was almost convinced that I would never pick it up. Well, for whatever reason 4th grade saw significant improvements in my spelling and probably school overall. I had a big crush on Ms. Lamb and even made her cookies one time. My class included a number of missionary kids from several Christian missionary organizations doing work in Asia as well as numerous military kids whos parents were stationed at Ching Chuan Kang AB (CCK).

CCK had previously been named Kung Kuan Air Base but was renamed in 1966 and became a joint use base with a large US military presence until 1978. This was the year that President Carter recognized Communist (mainland) China and turned his back and betrayed the trust of Taiwan a long time US ally. Not our finest hour, and NO, I'm still not over it. Anyway it was during this time that I first started thinking about flying Air Force jets. CCK had permanently based F-104 Star Fighters but also had TDY jets of all types including US EB-57, KC-135, F-105, F-4 to name a few. I still remember seeing four ships of F-104, F-4, and F-105 fighters screaming over the Morrison campus on their way back to CCK. On occasion the aircraft would get a little aggressive and break the speed of sound while over the city. When that happened you would get a huge sonic boom and the windows with rattle and shake. One afternoon a couple of my best friends and I were on the soccer field when a 4 ship came screaming over at no more than 200 feet and man were we impressed. It was almost like a scene out of a movie it was so awesome and in your face with the speed and the incredibly loud noise those jets made as they passed overhead.

I was too young at the time to fully understand the sacrifices that these fine men were making as they flew dangerous sorties over Viet Nam. They risked their lives simply because they were asked by their country to do so. They served half-way around the world in order to defend people who didn’t want communism taking over their homeland. Since that time I’ve read a lot about Viet Nam and our multi year war with Soviet, Communist Chinese and North Vietnamese forces and am convinced that even with significant loss of life on both sides it was a worthwhile effort. My only observation is similar to what I would say on how we are currently conducting the Iraq conflict … we pussy-footed around instead of really taking it to the enemy. Every time we had them where we wanted, we backed off and gave them opportunity to kill more of their own people in the South and our fine men fighting against the advancement of communism in Asia. We as a country never seem to learn, but if an issue or cause is really worth going to war over (and communism was/is) go all out and the results are more sure and always costs less in loss of human life on all sides.

But, I digress. Some of my more memorable memories from 4th grade included seeing the older kids on campus play basketball and soccer, sing and play instruments at recitals, and perform in theater productions. The big events were when Morrison played basketball or soccer against one of the on-island HS rivals. In the Southern city of Tainan there was a significant American presence and a high school named Jonathan Wainwright. In the Northern city of Taipei there was another high school that was originally a missionary kid school named Taipei American School (TAS). Taipei also had a significant American military presence and TAS was soon swallowed up to become a more traditional international school with little influence by the founding missions on school governance and philosophy. Anyway, I don’t remember who won or lost games but I do remember the energy around campus during these weekend sporting events as Morrison battled the 2 schools for the championship of Taiwan.

4th grade was a significant year for me in many ways. Up until that year I was scared to death of water and wouldn’t go near a swimming pool or pond/lake if I could help it. My dad said I would hold on to him or mom whenever the family went to the lake back home in TN. In 4th grade PE class we were expected to swim and part of the class involved swimming and water safety. For some reason I guess it was time because I listened to the talks and when it was time told the teacher that I didn’t know how to swim but was ready to learn. I took to it like a duck to water and quickly became a good swimmer. I also developed some strong friendships during that class and through sports with Ron Heinsman and Jon Reeser. The three of us in that grade stayed friends through 8th grade when Jon moved back to the USA. Ron and I graduated HS together and he has since returned to work in Taiwan as a missionary. Another fond memory of one of my classmates is a guy named Eric Gray. Eric was a big guy (lineman’s build in my memory) for his age and could run like the wind. He took a few steps to get started and then none of us could catch him or stay in front of him. He was the fastest guy on the playground including the older kids in 5th and 6th grades. He had an older brother who was in my brother Bob’s class.

In 5th grade I ended up living near a fellow Southern Baptist MK named Jon Varner. Anyway Jon and I lived across the street so many mornings we would ride our bikes to Morrison together. One afternoon after school we decided to share the gospel of Jesus with the Buddhist monks at the local monastery. We grabbed some tracks and made or way inside their temple and started to tell them in English about Jesus and how He loves them. Of course they were very polite and patient with two American kids who were trying to give them tracks and were speaking to them in some weird unknown language. Anyway, none of them accepted our tracks but they did take us up into the giant Buddha statue that was on the grounds. It was probably 200 feet tall and had stairs that allowed you to access the hole in his belly (where his belly button would have been on a live human). It was kind of cool because even at that point in his stomach you were probably 50 to 60 feet off of the ground.

The 2 Jons and I also discovered some riding trails that allowed us to wander around the countryside near campus investigating and playing. In Taiwan there are huge Banyan trees that have numerous trunks and large spread out branches. You could climb around in a Banyan tree for hours and not get to every branch. We would ride the trails until we found a target tree for exploration. The only negative is that again we weren’t overly sensitive to the fact that these trees are also considered sacred and aren’t to be played on and carved upon. We used to also buy small fireworks that could float in water and still explode. The way they were ignited was by using the striker stripe on a box of matches. We would light the firecrackers and then throw them into the open sewer canals that wandered throughout the city. At times the explosion would throw water and sewer 10 feet in the air. You can imagine three 10-year-old kids playing and fooling around with all of these cheap and somewhat dangerous toys available. One day we decided it would be a good idea to stick a few of those firecrackers into the stump of a bamboo grove to see what it would do to the stump. Well the first few just made some noise and sounded cool. About stump number 6 the explosion caught some surrounding brush on fire and was quickly building in size and strength. We had no water near and were starting to panic as the fire was starting to gain momentum and was headed for a cut and dried rice patty which had that happened would have been disastrous. Thankfully I yanked off my shirt and got the worse part out, then Jon started digging and throwing dirt and got the remaining fire out before it got completely out of hand.

My fifth grade year was the year that we moved from our physically divided campus to a brand new facility out in the then far Western suburbs of Taichung. It was/is a beautiful campus, encompassing almost 17 acres of land that includes a soccer field, baseball field, tennis courts, swimming pool, auditorium, administration and of course classrooms. The campus had a large outdoor plaza area that is still there and still serves as a general meeting and fellowship area for students and faculty alike. I spent the rest of my school years at the Shui Nan Morrison campus and graduated there in 1980. I’ll fill in the remaining years in a future post.

Difficult Tasks

I talk tough but I really hate conflict.. Recently I had the task of going to somebody and tell them that I didn't think they were living up to their obligations. I wouldn't wish that task on anybody. Imagine going to a pianist and telling them that after hearing them play you can tell that they can't play the piano, or a pilot and tell them that you've been watching them fly and it's apparent that they don't know how to land. Difficult to do and even tougher I imagine for the recipient of that tidbit of information. Now imagine doing that in a fairly close nit community, even tougher on both sides of the event.

The good thing is that we were able to pray together at the end of our meeting and hopefully left with things out on the table. I really hope and pray that both of us will continue to seek God's will in the situation and both will know the proper path to take in the future. I have no idea where it will go from here but am confident that God is in control and I will leave it to him until he presses me to act again.

The Fall semester of school is already half over. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the semester moves once it starts. I've always heard that as you get older the years seem to accelerate and I am finding that to be true in my life. Which makes sense...1 year is only 1/45th of my life today where as at 10 it was 1/10 of my life at that point.

Over Christmas break I plan to do a little traveling with a short planned trip to Montreal to see some friends and attend an academic conference. I will aslo spend a bunch of time in Woodbury (hereafter referred to as Woodvegas or simply 'Vegas) at my parents house. Each year those of us in the USA meet in 'Vegas for Christmas with my older brother coming in from Texas, mu other brother who lives in 'Vegas, my older sister coming in from Virginia, and my little sister coming over from California. OF course they bring the spouses and kids as well. It is usually a lot of fun and we have time to catch up and spend quality time fellowshipping and visiting.

On a completely different note... I finally met with my bulldozer guy today about my land. I think he is going to get started here pretty soon and get some dirt moving. I laid out what I was wanting to do and plan to get the perk test done as soon as I can so he knows what dirt not to move as he starts excavating around the home site. I am looking forward to getting started on this house and property project.

I plan to post a new historical post in the next day or so. I might skip all the way back in time to my childhood in Taiwan or maybe even all the way back to early elementary school in Dacca, Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Stay tuned.

Air Force UPT: T-38 Training (part deux)

One of the cool missions we got to fly in the T-38 was the low level mission. Generally low levels were planned and flown at 1000 feet and 360 KIAS. On one of my low levels I planned a flight that involved flight over one of the hot fishing spots on a desert lake just North of Phoenix. My IP on that mission was an old head in the T38 and liked to have fun while flying. He had me plan the mission and then as we were briefing for the flight he had me make some adjustments to the speeds and altitudes we planned the flight for. Usually we flew at 360 KIAS at 1000’ above ground level (AGL). He had me recalculate it for 500’ AGL and at 450 KIAS. On our low level missions we used charts but all planned routes were to be flown on timing. We would plan out our entire route using timing for turn points and for entry and exit times.

I changed the plans as he dictated. The day of the flight we were cruising along at about 450 KIAS right down on the desert as we approached this known fishing spot on the lake. He had me descend down to about 200 feet and about 5 seconds before we arrived over the lake he had me plug in full after burner. It engaged just about the time we arrived over the lake’s edge and we flew over that lake at about 500 knots right on the surface and he got to laughing and carrying on. We exited the way-point in a turn and I started a climb back up to 500 feet and slowed back to 450 KIAS. He told me that the fishing boat that I barely saw pass under me had a couple of guys on it that just about capsized as we came screaming over at an altitude and speed too extreme to admit to, until 20 years later. Anyway we landed without incident and never heard anything about it. A few weeks later the whole squadron got a reminder during an unplanned safety session about flying at Air Training Command (ATC) minimum altitudes (and no lower) and planned airspeeds (and no faster). We never were sure if those fishermen got back to civilization and called us in or if the timing for the safety session was mere coincidence.

Much of T-38 training involved formation flying. We had numerous flights in 2-ship formation as well as a few flights made up of 3 other aircraft in a 4-ship arrangement. Formation flying was lots of fun but was also very challenging. My class section lost 2 guys in the last few weeks of training due to their inability to master formation procedures. We flew formation flights predominately in wingtip formation which involved flying off of your leads wingtip tucked in to a distance of about 3 feet. We practiced this during departure from the base as well as on recovery. Once the flight arrived in the practice flight area we would also incorporate trail formation, rejoins, and even extended trail where essentially we practiced getting into a position to fire upon our flight lead. The goal was to be as smooth as possible as lead and to stay in position no matter what happened as number 2. The rejoin was one particular skill that took some time to master. There is nothing like flying around at 500 knots 3 feet from another aircraft. Now imagine you are flying around at 500 knots per hour and there is another aircraft flying around that you are supposed to fly towards and then swing your aircraft up into position on their wingtip. The first few times I attempted this rejoin maneuver I either crept in like a little girl or came flying in balls to the wall trying to get all of us killed. As you practiced rejoins, the picture became more clear and the speed differential became more apparent and it just seemed to eventually click. What a blast those flights were.

My last flight in the T-38 was on August 20, 1986. It was my Instrument check ride and was scheduled for an out and back from Williams AFB, AZ to Amarillo International Airport, TX. Usually the ride involved the outbound portion where you did all of the planning and flying as you were evaluated and the return flight was from the back seat so the check pilot could ride up front and play as he flew the jet back home. I almost screwed up this check ride while being vectored onto the instrument landing system (ILS) approach I was cleared for a weird clearing turn but asked the controller to confirm and managed to get a clearance that made sense. Thankfully he felt I handled everything appropriately or at least safely and passed me for my last training UPT test/check ride experience. There was no feeling like knowing I was finished with UPT and was now officially an Air Force Pilot. The tradition is for newly pinned Air Force pilots to break their wings in half.

"Tradition dictates that the first set of wings received by an Air Force pilot must be broken in half. One of the halves is to remain in the possession of the pilot while the other half is to be retained by an honored trustee. During the pilot’s life the wing halves are to remain separated, for bringing them together while the pilot is living is to invite bad luck. Upon the pilot’s death the wings are to be rejoined and interred with the pilot’s earthly remains," Quoted from - David M. Kroontje.

I did this at graduation but have no idea where my 2 wing halves are at this point in time. Maybe when I die they will resurface and be rejoined as the author suggested above. As I wrote in one of my blog posts, UPT was the best, worst, shortest, longest, hardest, most challenging year of my life. My doctoral program was relatively easy compared to Air Force UPT. I realize now that it need not be that stressful, but I guess the Air Force feels differently and from what I understand the process and environment of UPT is still like it was when I passed through Williams AFB those many years ago. I have to say that for anybody interested there is no greater job than flying Air Force jets for a living. I would recommend it to anybody who is interested - even with the 10-year commitment required of all new pilot candidates.

My year at Williams AFB was made significantly more satisfying because of my involvement with North Phoenix Baptist Church (NPBC) and a singles department there. I also had the benefit of having the Jacques (former missionaries in Taiwan) treat me like family. I spent many a day and night at the Jacques hanging out, eating and just relaxing. They prayed for me and with me as I dealt with things during that year. It was at a time in my life where I wasn’t always striving to serve the Lord with all aspects of my life and they helped me stay focused on what was really important. I had never been involved with such a large church as NPBC but found that it seemed much smaller after I plugged in and got active with my Sunday school class and singles ministry. I made some great friends during that time who I still communicate with to this day.
(to be continued)

Air Force UPT: T-38 Training (part 1)

As soon as primary jet training was over we were transitioned to the T-38a Talon and our time in advanced training began. The first week or so we attended classroom sessions on T-38 systems and emergency response actions. My logbook shows that there were two weeks between my last T-37 ride and my first T-38 ride. I ended up taking my Instrument check fairly late in the cycle and some of my classmates had closer to 3 weeks between jets.

The first flight in the T-38 felt like you were almost a foreigner in a strange land. The T-38 was so much faster accelerating and had a top speed in excess of Mach 1 (760 MPH / 661 Knots at sea level) compared to the T-37s top speed of 275 (315 MPH) knots indicated airspeed (KIAS). On takeoff the T-38 accelerated fast and was at the 240 KIAS flaps up speed before you were ready if not diligent and careful. During takeoff you kept the jet at 300 KIAS during climb-out and even in the Arizona desert heat you were climbing quickly and had little time to really enjoy the ride at first as you were worrying about getting the climb checklist complete and making sure all systems were working within limits and that you were talking to the correct controllers for clearances. After a few flights this was no longer as much effort and you had plenty of time to enjoy the ride but still had to maintain awareness as things still happened quickly in the T-38.

As with primary jet training the first 30 minutes or so of each day on the flight line involved stand-ups where each of us sat ready to answer emergency response situations and explain how we would respond to hypothetical in-flight situations. The T-38 had more complex systems and required a thorough understanding of these systems to properly diagnosis potential emergencies to arrive at appropriate response scenarios. A crucial part of many stand-up sessions during UPT was having students quote boldface procedures. Many of the most critical emergency responses (bold-face procedures) had to be committed to memory and we spent hours learning them and then reviewing them to ensure they were drilled into our minds. Many of the boldface procedures are still in my head 20 plus years after having flown the T38.

Of course some of the bold face are similar to bold face procedures in all aircraft with slight modifications. If you are aborting a take-off you have to retard the throttle/s and apply the brakes in any aircraft you are flying so these two steps are standard in most any aircraft. With speed brakes, spoilers and other drag inducing devices many aircraft have additional steps in their respective bold face procedures. As a pilot moves into bigger iron you might include thrust reversers and other active steps as well. The spin boldface in the T-37 is one of the more famous boldface procedures in the US Air Force. I can still say the entire boldface with little effort. It read like this - back in the day…not sure if it is still the same or not, but imagine it is.

Throttles – IDLE
Rudder and Ailerons – NEUTRAL
Stick – ABRUPTLY FULL AFT AND HOLD
Rudder – ABRUPTLY APPLY FULL RUDDER OPPOSITE SPIN DIRECTION OPPOSITE TURN NEEDLE AND HOLD
Stick – ABRUPTLY APPLY FULL FORWARD ONE TURN AFTER APPLYING RUDDER
Controls – NEUTRAL AFTER SPINNING STOPS, RECOVER FROM DIVE

Most of the guys I met who were AF pilots can still say the T-37 spin recovery bold face. I am not sure why this procedure sticks in my head so well while some of the others I have to really think about before I can say them or write them. Maybe because this one was the one that was stressed on the ground and then performed a few times in the air as we learned how to deal with an inadvertent spin situation. The T-38 was not an aircraft that one wanted to spin. Maybe the aircraft was spun during flight testing, I don’t recall if that was told to us, but we never talked about spins in the T-38 except to stress the importance of seeing the potential of a spin well in advance and avoiding the spin. We did all of the regular stalls including power on, turning, landing configuration, etc but we never spun the T-38.

The solo experience in the T-38 was slightly different than it was in T-37s. My logbook shows that I soloed on April 23, 1986 without a previous dual flight on that date. I do remember it was a pattern only ride and required us to take off and then fly around the larger outside pattern until we had burned down enough fuel to be able to land safely within the weight limitations for the T-38 aircraft. The T-38 was not only a fast airplane in climb and cruise it also required faster speeds in the traffic pattern.

For a typical recovery in VFR conditions we would fly up Initial at 300 KIAS and then break for the overhead pattern with the throttle being retarded to Idle. As we rolled out on downwind the speed brakes would come out and we would continue slowing to below 240 KIAS for landing gear and 220 KIAS for flaps to start our turn to final and a landing. By the time we arrived at the perch point (the point in the pattern where you start the final turn for landing) we were fully configured with landing gear down and flaps set to the desired setting. Final turn speed and final approach speeds were weight dependent in the T-38 aircraft as in most aircraft. The speed for the final turn was 175 KIAS plus * and for the final approach was 155 KIAS plus * (1 knot for each 100 pounds of fuel over the base of 1000 pounds).

The T-38 usually launched on a typical mission with around 3600 pounds of JP-4 fuel and we never did landings over 2900 pounds of fuel on board. So for the first approach for my initial solo I had 2900 pounds of fuel and my speeds were calculated at 175 KIAS plus 19 knots for the final turn and 155 KIAS plus 19 knots for final approach. This calculates to almost 195 knots for the final turn and 175 knots for final. At these speeds an aircraft’s turning radius is rather large. Needless to say on my first solo I got sent around because I rolled out on final about 1/4 mile wide of the runway (almost lined up for the center runway) and would have had to make an aggressive move back towards the runway to get lined up. I would guess just the nerves of being solo for the first time, being watched from the tower, and afraid of getting sent around ... the results of my first landing pattern were kind of a forgone conclusion. Of course the next pattern was much better and the rest of the day I did well and managed myself in the traffic pattern as they wanted. On all flights there were IPs stationed in the runway supervisory office (RSO) (a little "tower" facility near the runway with great visibility) and each landing was rated and each pattern critiqued. My ratings were excellent except for that first pattern.

One of the cool toys/tools that the T-38 had was an angle of attach (AOA) indicator which helped us in the traffic pattern visually see if we were too slow or pulling to hard (G loading) without having to even see the airspeed indicator. It was very useful since it was positioned up on the windscreen right in your line of sight while looking outside of the aircraft. The T-38 was configured in a tandem seat arrangement with the student pilot occupying the front seat and the instructor occupying the rear seat. From the back seat visibility is not great and the few rides we as students took from the back seat made us appreciate the great visibility afforded from the forward pilot position.

On one of my cross country instrument rides I ended up flying with a guest IP to CA, NV and back to Williams. We usually flew these missions on weekends and would depart Friday afternoon and return Sunday evening, or at the latest Monday morning. Well, my guest IP was kind of a knucklehead, in that even though he was married he felt the need to try and impress his students with his ability to chase women and carry on. Anyway, his wife was a beautiful woman and was also very nice as well. So on this trip he ended up meeting this fat girl while we were at Miramar Naval Air Station (Top Gun fame as the former home of the Navy's Top Gun Fighter Weapons School) and disappearing with her for the night. Obviously I was not impressed for many reasons the top one being the fact that it was a one night stand (wrong/sin - what ever you want to call it), the second being that he was married and he was carrying on with a one night stand (again - sin), and thirdly she was a big pig (obviously he had no taste what-so-ever). Anyway the next morning he briefed me again on the rules of TDY (before we left Williams he had briefed me on his rules for TDY). I'm pretty sure Vegas copied the military aviator's creed because this was years before the slogan was in Vegas ads. He told me that "what goes TDY, stays TDY" he also told me "that I shouldn't mention this or anything that happened on this trip around the squadron building or at any class events". Whereupon I told him to make sure nobody asked me (especially his wife) about it because I wasn't going to lie to cover his sorry butt. He got mad and ended up failing me for one of the flights that weekend as a warning, I guess to show me that he had power over me. After I left Williams AFB I never did hear if he and his wife stayed together.
(to be continued)

Air Force UPT: T-37 Training

For the first few weeks of pilot training the classes were all ground training based and included classes on basic weather, physiology, as well as aerodynamics and general aircraft systems. During the training we practiced parachute landing falls using a tower built to practice jumps of around 10 feet or so. We then all headed out to the desert one fine day and the instructors showed us how to para-sail behind a pickup truck. Then each of us hooked up and was drug behind the truck as we ran until we became air borne. I think the line was around 500 feet and the truck got fast enough to get us up around 300 or 400 feet in the air. We then hit a release switch that allowed us to then float down to earth under our parachute where we made our landing falls (PLF) using the techniques they taught us. It was actually a lot of fun and nobody in my class got hurt though one of my landings/falls was more backwards onto my rear than is recommended. During the weeks of ground training everyone in the class started to really know each other and ended up starting to give each other nicknames. Since we were in AZ and since my name lends itself to Spanish names I quickly received the nickname Co-Jones (with the “J” being silent and said more with an H sound). That name stuck with me all through pilot training and even on into my transition training into my follow on aircraft. Once I arrived on station at Plattsburgh AFB, NY I received my actual AF call sign, Bfargin. Thus, the name for this blog as well as my email address’ origin.

The last few weeks before we hit the flight line our academic classes began to shift towards aircraft specific information as we studied systems for the Cessna T-37b aircraft. We hit the flight line and quickly realized how good we previously had been treated (the first few weeks of training). The whole time we were on the flight line our 14 to 16 hour days switched back and forth from early shows (4 to 6 am) to late shows (10am to 12noon). Each class would be on early or late report for a week at a time and then switch. So each week we switched back and forth between early and late report. It was difficult to get totally used to any set time or schedule since it changed each week and even within the early and late report times there was variance. I’m not sure what the purpose for the schedules was but it definitely added another level of stress to an already stressful year. The last couple of weeks in each aircraft things lightened up a bit and we were given a little more flexibility and freedom.

During T-37 training I was assigned to No Loss flight and had Capt. Fernando Cano as my instructor pilot IP. Capt. Cano was from Panama and had flown the A-37 Dragonfly for several years in Panama. He was a great guy but ended up being a better pilot than IP but we had fun and flew most of my flights together. About 2/3rds the way through training he was reassigned and returned to his home country so I was assigned to a new IP. I’ll share a story later about a flight that Capt Cano and I flew to Luke AFB. Now back to T-37 training.

The first couple of weeks we would report to the duty flight room and then have stand-ups. After stand-ups we would then have a while before the sun rose and we started flying. Usually we would end up studying up for the day’s activities since we were always assigned to fly at least once during the day. Many days included two sorties or a sortie and a simulator training session.

Stand-ups were basically a half hour of pure “terror” for most of us. All of us would officially report in to our IP and then take a seat across the table from them. The room was arranged so that we were essentially in a large circle around the room. The flight commander (usually a more senior ranking IP) would then start the stand-ups period. This involved general questions about aircraft systems, emergency procedures, general area flight procedures as well as anything else they could think of to shake us or make us give incorrect answers. The first few weeks the IP would tell a story and it would usually involve flying a training flight on a clear beautiful day when all of the sudden you notice smoke coming from under the glare shield. He might also tell you that you also noticed the back-up altimeter was frozen in place (unreliable). Then would say “OK, Lt Jones, you have the jet.” You would stand to your feet at attention and inform the group that “you had the aircraft and that you would continue to fly the aircraft while scanning the instruments for more information…” Usually there was some back and forth exchange as you tried to diagnosis the problem and inform them of your actions on how to resolve the issue. If you took too long or if you made a misstep that the IPs felt was egregious you were sat for the day. And, usually you were sat with a nasty statement about you being an idiot and not taking things seriously enough. Then we were reminded that each of us was only 3 flights away from washing out of UPT and would be fortunate to return to a life of selling shoes at Sears.

We had a guy in our flight from Oklahoma with a serious drawl who also spoke really slowly. He took more abuse than anybody else but we all got our fair share of abuse and ridicule from the IPs around the room. One day early in our flight training he was asked to orally detail and list the steps to take in the departure from Williams AFB to one of the practice areas. He ended up detailing a flight to downtown Phoenix (the headings and altitudes were all wrong) and got sat for the day. The stated purpose for all of this was to see how well we handled pressure, in order to make sure we were ready to fly Air Force jets safely and proficiently. I remember another stand-up during T-37 training where the student was also asked about local flying procedures involving the departure and recovery. He told me later he couldn’t remember where he was that exact minute but in actuality stood there in fear unable to speak until after what seemed like an hour (actually about 5 minutes), finally the IP yelled at him to sit down.

If you got sat down during stand-ups you didn’t get to fly for the day. You also usually ended up getting additional duties like cleaning the bathroom, manning the canteen (mini store) or just sitting around bored to death but not able to find a place to sneak off to and sleep. I only got sat down one time during the year but was nervous every morning until stand-ups were over. At another stand-up one day my table mate (fellow student pilot) was asked a question on hydraulic systems for the T-37. My IP was kind of a smart alec so under his breath said some ridiculous answer to a question that should have been obvious to the student. Needless to say the student didn’t catch the silliness of the answer and thought he was really helping him out, so he blurted out the most ridiculous answer imaginable. Of course what was supposed to be a serious time turned into chaos, as even the IPs couldn’t keep a straight face. He got sat down and didn’t get to fly for 2 days. While for the first few flights the T-37 seemed like a rocket we soon learned what a pussy cat it really was compared to the T-38a Talon. We flew the T-37 for about 80 hours before transitioning to the Talon.

At the end of the first 12 or 13 hours in the T-37 we were ready for our solo. The day of our solo the IP flew a sortie with us and then after taxing back to the ramp area he exited the aircraft and gave us any last minute instructions. We then restarted the engine on his side of the aircraft and taxied back out to the active runway. The first solo was essentially a pattern only ride where we took off and stayed within 3 miles of the runway and did a number of touch-and-go landings. I can still remember with great detail (20 plus years later) that initial euphoria of lifting off and looking over where the IP should have been and seeing nobody. It is hard to describe that feeling and there is none other like it. Even though we still had months to go that was when I really started feeling like a pilot and not just a student. My first solo in an AF jet was in the T-37 on December 3, 1985 at Williams AFB, AZ.

After we landed from our initial solo flight our classmates would intercept us before we made it back to the flight room and carry us to the solo tank. Each squadron had a solo tank (water tank full of water) where newly soloed pilots were taken and thrown in. Usually the class going through the solo phase of training would paint the tank in their class colors/designs. If you happened to make it back into your flight room without being stopped you could avoid the dunk tank. If not you got doused and had to buy everybody a beer at the Officers Club that night (even if you yourself did not drink). Nobody in my class made it back into the duty room unscathed (dry).

During this phase of training we had 3 check rides to mark progress in the T-37b aircraft. The first check ride was the Contact Check and included basic flight maneuvers as well as pattern work and limited acrobatics. After more flight training we then had an advanced Contact Check, which included more advanced acrobatics as well as other airmanship maneuvers. Then after more training including instrument training we had the third and final check ride. The Instrument Check, which included instrument procedures as well as instrument approaches and landings. This check ride included non-precision as well as precision approaches down to minimums. At the successful completion of all three check rides you were promoted on to the T-38 Talon (the White Rocket). I ended up with approximately 77 hours in the T-37 by the end of our training. I ended up flying the T-37 for three more years while at Plattsburgh AFB, NY in the ACE program.

Rental Property

Murfreesboro used to be a college town when I lived there and attended Middle Tennessee State University. The town has grown up and while it is still a university town it has plenty more to offer residents and visitors alike. MTSU has grown in size from 9,000 when I attended back in the early 1980s to over 23,000 students currently enrolled. The university is now competing in division 1A athletics and has excellent radio and media programs as well as an outstanding aviation and aerospace undergraduate degree programs. They have a flight training program at the local airport and also offer programs in airport management, maintenance, and even aviation asset management. Most of the guys I went to pilot training with from MTSU had degrees in one of the aviation areas. I write this to let you know the town and why I thought it might be smart to own property in Murfreesboro.

I bought a tri-plex in Murfreesboro near MTSU's campus that I rent to students and young singles in the area. The area where the property is located consists of mostly homes that have been converted into multi-unit apartments. The yards are small and the houses are fairly close together and this makes it even more difficult to make the houses look nice/presentable. It isn't a slum area but it isn't a nice looking home or nice looking community either. But, I am trying to make it nicer and plan to redo the front yard and landscape with a fairly maintenance free plan. I am also going to have the driveway resurfaced to provide a better place for the residents to park. I'm also looking at providing a covered picnic area in the back yard to provide some outdoor living space.

Recently I rented one of the units to a very young couple who have been giving me grief by not living up to the requirements set forth in the lease. I guess the guy is a smoker so he dumps his ashtray in the driveway and yard, he leaves trash in the driveway, and also does not mow when it is his turn to mow the yard. It wouldn't be that big a deal except that I live over an hour away and this makes it more difficult to manage things. My older brother helps out with tons of stuff at the property and without his help I'm sure I would be looking to sell it outright. I guess as long as he is willing and able to help me keep it running smoothly I'll hold on to the property and keep it rented. It provides more than 12% return even after taxes and maintenance (not even taking into account any property value appreciation) so it is a decent investment overall. But renters really can be a pain in the behind.

At one point in time (1998 to 2002) I had 3 rental houses as well as 2 additional apartments in the house I lived in. While it provided for good cash flow it was definitely a task keeping everybody happy and content. Overall I would definitely recommend property as a long term investment just make sure you are in a position financially that if half of the units are empty you can meet any mortgage or tax obligations you might have. Also ensure that you buy in a neighborhood that is increasing in value and has a high demand for transient housing (near a university or other institution with continual comings and goings). Just my .02.

House plans

The last few weeks I've been trying to plan the optimal use of my 25 acres behind my house. It is a nice piece of property with slight roll to it. I had originally planned to clear off and smooth out a runway on one side of the property and still might do that. But, for now i am going to have the bulldozer guys come in and grade a driveway where the runway might one day be. They will also excavate and grade where the house and garage will eventually be. Before they come start moving dirt I am having the local earth work inspector come and do a perk test and advise me on what not to touch in order to comply with all of the rules.

The overall site plan is to have the long driveway/runway that leads back to where I plan to build. The building spot is right above the large pond (with island) up on a small knoll. The nice thing about this property is that it is in town and yet you can't see any buildings or roads except parts of the hospital. I hope to have a local nursery plant a bunch of pine trees to act as a natural block to isolate the building site even more. I hope to install a sidewalk that leads from the house along the side of the knoll to a bridge that crosses the pond onto the island. I might even see if my brother will help (read do the work) me build a small pavilion on the island. I imagine a sort of Chinese water garden type setting if we can get it done.

The actual house is probably going to be a dome type house made of concrete and rebar steel. Most probably I will go with house plans from geodesic domes or monolithic domes. One of the companies sells kits that are assembled and the other just sells plans and you have local contractors do the actual work of forming up and building the concrete dome. With the kit you can hire almost anybody to install and build the dome, but with the plans built they recommend hiring a company that has previous experience with poured concrete domes.

Part of me is thinking that I should hire the company to come on-site and pour the dome for me and then once it is up and ready hire local contractors to complete the finish work inside the dome. I am leaning towards a single dome of 40 feet diameter for the main house and maybe 2 or 3 smaller 20 foot domes to house a bedroom and bathroom each. This would allow me to have plenty of guests but would limit the amount of energy necessary for heating and cooling as the domes don't need to be be cooled or heated unless inhabited. The main house would include the kitchen, dining and living rooms, utility room, office and at least one bedroom and bathroom. I'll probably also build a second floor bedroom so that a guest could stay up there as well (plus it will use up some otherwise wasted vertical space in the dome).

I was contacted today about buying an adjacent piece of land and will try to speak with him later this week. Buying this land would give me most of the block and would further guarantee that nobody builds on or develops the land right next to me. I'll let you know if we can make a deal for the property. I've thought of a few potential uses for the land, I could lease the land to a local farmer for cattle, develop it into playing fields such as soccer or football fields for the kids in the Upward programs at church, or even getting a couple of retired military aircraft and make a small aviation museum on the front part of the property. As you can tell I dream alot but so far haven't stepped up to get it done.

Air Force Days: October through December 1990 – Desert Storm buildup

It was September of 1990 and I was still assigned to Plattsburgh AFB, NY though I had been recently offered a chance to move to Reese AFB, TX to fly T-38 aircraft. I decided against it and was currently the aircraft commander (AC) for crew C-132, which consisted of me, my Co-Pilot (Co), Paul Murphy, my Navigator (Nav), Gene Moty, and my Boom Operator (Boomer), Eric Prince. We had only been a crew for a few weeks but seemed to get along well with each other and were flying well together. Iraq had already invaded Kuwait (August) and the build up to war was evident. This was also the point in history where the Berlin Wall had been torn down and things were beginning to change all over. In light of these world events Strategic Air Command (SAC) and AF leadership in general were looking at our current mission including our hard alert commitment.

For years during the Cold War period SAC had bomber and tanker crews on alert in the event of a Soviet (USSR) attack. I was "privileged" to sit alert for 5 years while stationed at Plattsburgh AFB, NY from 1987 until 1992. For about 4 years solid, I spent every third week of my life confined to a small part of the base marked as the alert facility. That equates to 1.3 years locked in an alert shack. The alert facility was bomb proof and parts of it were under ground. Days on alert seemed to drag on but most of us found a way to be productive or at least to keep ourselves entertained. I spent much of my time on alert playing basketball, playing cards, studying the KC-135 Dash-1 manual as well as emergency war orders, visiting the Base Exchange (BX) or just simply hanging out talking and joking around with fellow crew dogs. I’ll devote an entire post to Alert at some point in time.

Anyway, in September of 1990 my crew was on alert when we were told that we would be tasked with an upcoming 45 day temporary duty (TDY) to Anderson AFB, Guam. I was excited since this Air Force base is close to where I had grown up in Taiwan. The year before I had requested a permanent Kadena assignment and had so far been denied that opportunity. I was also excited because I knew that while in Guam at the Pacific Tanker Task Force, trips to Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, and even Australia were possible. We were scheduled to depart Plattsburgh on October 15th and were expected to return on or about November 30, 1990.

We left Plattsburgh on the 15th as scheduled and flew some B-52 crew members and aircraft parts to Griffis AFB, NY. We had a quick turn (30 minutes on the ground) and simply dropped off the passengers and cargo and headed up to Loring AFB, ME for another quick turn. After again dropping off some passengers we took off from Loring AFB and flew straight to Castle AFB, CA to prepare for our trip to Guam (first day's total: 8.9 hours of flying time). After an overnight stay in CA to refuel and get some crew rest we took off from Castle AFB direct to Hickam AFB, HI arriving on October 16th (5.5 flight hours). We stayed in Honolulu for one night and then got up the next afternoon to fly over and down to Anderson AFB, Guam. What was cool about this 8 hour flight from Hickam to Anderson was that we flew directly over Wake Island which resulted in an unexpected drop in for a touch-and-go landing. Wake Island is a small atoll in the middle of the South Pacific with lots of WWII significance. We arrived in Guam on October 18th and prepared for a few weeks of over ocean flying.

The first few days in Guam we attended some safety classes on Guam specific issues such as ocean and scuba safety, over water ditching procedures (review), Anderson AFB flight operations etc. This was just to make sure we were familiar with flight operations in the region and were up to speed before being turned loose on our own to fly required missions. One of our first missions was a 3 day trip to Clark AB, Philippines in support of F-15 and F-4 operations. We returned to Guam on the 27th and immediately left to go to Kadena AB, Okinawa for a 2 day trip. On the way to Kadena we flew within 100 miles of Taiwan so I radioed the control tower in Taichung so that they could phone patch me through to my parents who were living there at the time. They weren’t home but I left a message on their answering machine. We arrived in Kadena and flew 3 missions supporting F-16 and F-15 operations. On the 30th we flew to Osan AB, Korea for a week long TDY to support operations during an annual training surge. While at Osan we flew under very different flight rules and most of our flight recoveries were under visual flight rules (VFR) and included flying up initial and making a break to land. This is a standard flight maneuver for fighter type aircraft but not standard for heavy aircraft like the KC-135. It isn’t unsafe just merely non standard. We had a blast cruising up initial and breaking hard to the left for landing. The fighter guys were not impressed for various reasons that included: we were faster than the A-10s, slower than the F-16s but still required way more airspace than either of them in the break or for any maneuvering whatsoever. We had a blast though and spent time at the officer's club playing crud and hanging out with some of the guys who were on their remote tour flying F-16s or A-10s. We flew every day while we were in Korea which is about as good as it gets (the flying) for a crew dog.

After our week at Osan AB we flew back to Guam via Clark AB, Philippines. After a day back in Guam we were again tasked with a week long deployment this time back to Kadena. The weather coming into Kadena was windy (crosswinds with 20 to 30 knot gusts) and cloud ceilings down at about 500 feet. I was a fairly new AC and only had about 70 hours of left seat command time but was good at my job, had a good crew, and knew it wouldn’t be a problem. My Navigator who was used to flying with more senior commanders wasn’t so sure at the beginning of our trip. Anyway, this particular day we broke out of the clouds at about 300 feet in a 20-degree crab into the wind, he really didn’t know what to think. We were right on runway centerline and I made a smooth transition from sky to terra firma. Another KC-135 was on final right behind us and had to go around because of the severe winds. I think I earned my crew’s respect on that TDY. We got blown all over the place on final but I kept reassuring them that it was fine and we were well under control the whole time (which was true). It also got out around base and we were offered some good flights due to our proven ability and sound flight operations. We felt good and were being recognized as a flight crew who would get the job done and not complain about any TDY no matter where or when we had to fly. The week we were at Kadena we did a lot of missions supporting F-15 aircraft based out of Okinawa and C-130s and F-16s out of Japan. We flew the KC-135Q model which was the main refueling platform for the SR-71 and were tasked on one flight to be the spare for a SR flight. We weren't needed that day but I was really hoping we could have refueled the SR-71 while in Japan.

One ot the big benefits of flying a large airplane like a Boeing 707 overseas is that there is plenty of room to bring home things from the locations you visit. The Philippines is known for their wood working craftsmen and near Clark AB are several shops that hand carve airplanes and then paint the aircraft any way the customer requests. The work is exceptional and the prices are rediculously cheap. I ended up buying a few models and even got a 6 foot wingspan KC-135 with my airplanes nose art painted on it. I also bought a 5 foot long F-16 Falcon (still the sexiest/best looking fighter ever built). Each of these huge aircraft - hand carved, painted, and detailed to incredible levels, cost me 250 US dollars. I still have both of them as well as several smaller models of different aircraft including military and civilian designs.

We flew a few more flights in and around Guam before returning home to Plattsburgh AFB, NY on November 21, 1990. The trip had taken us to 7 countries (Wake Is, Guam, Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Korea) and involved refueling more than 100 different aircraft during 100 plus flight hours of operations. We returned home just in time to be tasked to deploy to the desert South West (and I’m not talking about Arizona) for the short yet still uncompleted Operation Desert Storm.

People and the church

Hello again. I felt compelled to express some thoughts on my church and activities and behaviors that I have observed lately. I've been a member here for the past 4 years and love the people and actually feel in many ways like I have lived here forever. Having said that though I wanted to share some thoughts on churches in general and my church specifically. I realize the church is Christ's so I am not trying to take ownership but merely referring to the local body of believers that I join together with to serve and worship God.

In general I find it rather amazing that in most churches as with most organizations in general about 10 to 20 percent of the membership does 80 to 90% of the work/service (Pareto's Principle). The principle doesn't state what I wrote above exactly but many academicians ascribe this principle to organizations and workers efforts as well. My church sadly does not stray from this fairly universal truth. With that in mind I write to explore some ways that we are thinking of to change the mindset in our little part of the church universal. Pray that God would lead us to make appropriate attitudinal adjustments.

Several members stumbled onto a church in MO that was challenged by their pastor to become a complaint free zone. And, while I certainly don't subscribe to the doctrinal beliefs that this particular church preaches the idea of a complaint free world is rather appealing. We are now praying and thinking of ways to encourage our membership to adopt this thought process as well. I've listed some of my thoughts on how it potentially can happen in a church.

1. Stop pointing to mistakes (complaining) and start working.
If you see something being done incorrectly or not the way you think it should be done then volunteer to help those who are already working in that area. Don't sit on the sidelines complaining about things. Step in and get busy, otherwise pipe down and accept the way things curently are and say "thank you" to those who are doing your share of the work.

2. Quit receiving (taking) and start giving.
If something or some ministry is not being done at all but you see the need then step forward and volunteer to do it. Sadly as stated above and evidenced by actual event participation most members are there to gain something rather than to give something. Give your time, energy and money to make the ministry bring others to God.

3. Find your gift and get busy.
Quit thinking that all jobs are the paid staff's responsibility. This goes along with number 2 above. Step up to the plate and take on jobs for yourself. Usually it's the busiest members who end up getting tasked with additional committee membership, responsibilities and tasks. Do yourself and the busy people a favor and get busy working for the Lord rather than watching as others get the pleasure and satisfaction of working. Don't start doing just any job, but find your gift and use it to minister and aid others. If you love teaching and are gifted in that area, teach...if you are gifted in administration or management, then help with church organizational issues and administration...if you are good with technology, then work with lighting systems, computers and networking, website development, TV or Radio ministry, or even the sound system for the church.

4. Open you pocket book and give freely.
It is sad to me to know the salaries of many of my friends and fellow church members and know that many are not giving anything to God's church. I have seen estimates (A - see below) that Christians give less than 2% of their income to the church. What a sad statement on our commitment level to our Lord if we are not even willing to give back a small portion of what He so generously gives us. Paul tells us to give freely from what we have (II Corinthians 8:10) that our plenty will help those who are in need and when we are in need their plenty will be available for us. We are also told by Paul that Jesus tells us that it is "more precious to give than to receive". (Acts 20:35). Be generous.

I know I'm kind of preaching here but I'm preaching to myself as much as to any reader who stumbles onto this blog. It is just frustrating to me when fellow church members grumble and complain and bring down those in the church who are working and striving to glorify God through both their Word and Deed. If all of us would do less whining and more working we would all be happier, more peaceful and much more effective in spreading His gospel.


A - Barrett, David B. and Todd M. Johnson. 2003. “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 2003.” Int’l Bulletin of Missionary Research, 27:1, p. 25.

Airplanes

As most who know me are aware, I love airplanes and flying. I had the privilege of flying some of Uncle Sam’s big iron for a few years and still miss doing that for a living. There was nothing like getting ready for a 60-day deployment to Alaska, England or Japan to get my juices flowing. Usually on those deployments the flying was more frequent and more diverse. We would get notified of trips sometimes hours before we had to launch to places we only dreamed of going. It was a blast and I still reflect back fondly on those days.

These days I fly a much smaller and lighter airplane (Titan Tornado S) and of course I have to foot the bill for all fuel and maintenance costs. I haven’t been flying much lately but went up for a spin the other day and got to reminiscing about my flying-for-a-living days. That reflection is mostly what prompted my recent historical posts and also got me thinking about the subject of this post.

Airplanes are marvelous inventions that allow mortal man to take to the air like a bird. I owe the Wright brothers and men like them an eternal debt of gratitude for opening up the skies for thousands of pilots who fly, both for fun and for a living. While I have always dreamed upwards, recently the skies have been the focus of congressional attention as well. They decided it was time for them to look for ways to fly safer with the increased amount of air traffic to account for. If you haven’t flown commercially lately you have missed out on all of the delays and unexplained hours of passengers sitting on airplanes waiting to deplane after a flight. There have been a couple of incidents that made the news that involved people waiting on the airplane for 4 to 6 hours after their flight had landed. What’s wrong with just taking a bus out and getting them off on the tarmac? I’d go insane if I had to sit on a parked airplane for 6 hours after it landed for no apparent reason, that’s just CRAZY!!

Well, with these incidents hitting the news our “government of the people” is looking into solutions. I’m not overly optimistic about the results. The bottom line is that more and more commercial traffic is trying to fly into and out of already busy airports and at peak times. If you check out South West they have far fewer delays and flight timing issues because they tend to fly into secondary airports such as Dallas Love field or Chicago MidWay. This allows them to be on time at a higher rate than those airlines flying through DFW, ATL, and even O'Hare.

As far as congress' take on the situation the tax word has been avoided and replaced with “user fee” so they can again stick it to those of us who fly for pleasure, by charging an additional tax. While all credible records show that the airlines account for more than 90% of the FAA’s air traffic control usage they pay substantially less than that percentage while the average weekend pilot pays more than their fare share. Currently the control system is paid for with tax money from the general fund as well as money generated through fuel taxes and surcharges on aviation related products. The current system, while still slightly favoring the airlines, isn’t totally unfair and is what we know and are used to. I can just hope that our government sees the big picture and rejects all forms of user fees. We have seen the effects of user fees in Europe with decreased general aviation activity and increased risky flight operations in an attempt to avoid some of the expensive fees assessed. We don’t need that here in the Land of the Kinda Free. If you fly let your representative know your position, if you don’t fly, let them know anyway.

Activism or not: what is one to do with life and death issues?

I’ve recently been pondering the issue of when we as individuals should become activists for issues we hold dear and know are right. As any of you that know me realize, I usually speak my peace about an issue and really don’t care what somebody else thinks about the issue unless it is grounded in Truth (insert Biblical Truth from God – the only real Truth). Of course I am not always right and there have been plenty of times when my brothers and sisters in Christ have shown me the error of my ways. Of course some issues are so evident that I am amazed that they are under debate among “Christians”. I used quotes because I am not completely convinced that all in the debate are Christ followers.

Abortion – I know, I know, sensitive subject, open to personal opinion and conviction, and not an issue that most feel comfortable touching. Well, it is an issue that all of us who claim the name of Christ must deal with. Since 1973 the USA has murdered more than 45,000,000 innocent babies. I have seen estimates as high as 60 Mil and as low as 45 Mil but either number is staggering and should be sobering and gut wrenching for any who know of it. Even the far fringed on the political spectrum realize the gravity of this murder so they couch it as a “woman’s right to choose” and always refer to the baby as a “fetus”. As has been said more than a few times, isn’t it ironic that all of those calling for the murder of the unborn, were themselves, born. The bottomline is that the most fundamental human right is the right to life - and is guaranteed by both our Creator and our country through the Declaration of Independence and later by the 14th Amendment of our Constitution (except if found guilty of a capital crime - tried and convicted).

I myself have been guilty of over analyzing the issue and trying to think of the possible situations when a woman is raped or a young girl is raped by family – what then? I know those are tragic situations but as I read accounts from several women who were raped and chose to bring their children into this world – they all decided that they couldn’t murder an innocent baby just because a scumbag chose to rape them. Their point was that how would that make the original crime (sin) better or less hurtful for them to then go and commit the horrendous crime (sin) of murder. If this were to happen, the victim simply becomes the criminal (murderer). I fully understood what the women were saying and respect them trremendously for stepping forward to try and prevent this stopable murder. I still struggle with the idea that if a family member of mine were raped or murdered I would be tempted to take the criminal’s punishment into my own hands. Not so much for revenge, as to prevent it from ever happening again by that same criminal. But, then as I reflected on that situation, I realized that is likely one situation Christ was referring to when he said “love your enemy”. So I guess the right thing, instead of wanting to kill the criminal, is to make sure we use the legal system to ensure they never have the chance to repeat the crime against another innocent victim.

I know I’ve rambled on here but the bottom line is that if we are afraid to stand up for the yet-to-be born, who will? The world has no moral compass and yet even they realize it is murder as is evidenced by their conscious choice to call the baby a fetus and to prosecute murderers who kill a pregnant woman and her baby … and yet even those of us who claim to have that moral compass aren’t too keen on standing up for it (or actively living by it). Are we active and diligent in attempting to get the country to respect those precious lives that are snuffed out and thrown away every day. May God forgive us for the years we have turned our back on the innocent children and may He now give us strength to stand up strongly for them.

Air Force Days: July 1985 - Road-Trip to AZ

The events of this story took place in July of 1985. I graduated from MTSU in December 1984 and my Air Force pilot training slot was for July of 1985. I decided to spend the Spring of 1985 in Taiwan at my Alma Mater (Morrison Academy) teaching classes and spending time with my folks. At the conclusion of a great semester of teaching and playing in Taichung I returned to the US in late June and began to prepare for my trip to AZ. I bought a car (1980 Corvette) and started to pack and assemble all of my worldly possessions together. Training was scheduled to be right at 52 weeks long and would be across the country in Phoenix, AZ. The good thing was that the WX should be great for the year and I had friends from Taiwan who lived in the Valley of the Sun. Karen Moore and her husband as well as Dr. George Jacques, Charlene, Michael, and Cassie all lived in the area. Dr. J worked on staff at North Phoenix Baptist Church which became my church home during pilot training.

I loaded up the car and met up with 2 friends: Thomas and Joe (I graduated with them and they were also going to pilot training at Williams AFB) to drive from Nashville, TN to Phoenix, AZ. All 3 of us had been assigned to attend Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) at Williams AFB in Chandler, AZ. The drive was crazy as you can imagine with 3, 22/23 year old "kids" all with sports cars driving through some pretty sparsely populated areas in West Texas. On one stretch of road between Dallas and El Paso we drove for almost 3 hours at 100 mph or more.

Now, remember this was back in the "old" days when the speed limit was set ridiculously low at 55mph all over the country. The moron liberals had convinced most lawmakers in DC that for the good of everybody the speed limit needed to be set insanely low. What a waste of 15 years of good driving opportunity for me. Thankfully in AZ anything 20 miles per hour over and less was simply a waste of natural resources fine and didn't affect ones driving record. Needless to say while in AZ I had a couple of wasting natural resources citations.

But, I digress... back to the trip, we had pre-arranged that since I had the radar detector if I slowed down rapidly the others would know that one of TX's finest was nearby and was looking to nab us. Obviously something was lost in translation because about 100 miles East of El Paso my radar detector lit up like a Christmas tree and I hit my brakes and slowed down. As I slowed the other two guys decided to pass me and never slowed down ( I was waving my arms trying to get them to slow as they zoomed past me). Well as you can imagine about 1500 feet down the road we met the TX State Trooper. He power-slid a U-turn through the Interstate median just as I was going by at about 55MPH and lit em up as he hit the pavement right next to me. He zoomed around me and tore after the 2 knuckleheads that I call friends. About 3 miles down the road he had both of them pulled over and as I cruised by at 58mph I gave them a big wave. They never saw me as they had their heads down staring at the ground getting an earful from said State Trooper. They later told me he chewed them out pretty good and still gave them each a ticket. I forget the exact amount of the fine, but for a brand new college graduate 2nd Lt in the AF it was for more than they could afford.

After 2 days of driving we arrived in Chandler, AZ and reported to Williams AFB excited about the next year of our lives. We were all initially assigned to student casual status while we waited for our specific class dates. We ended up getting an apartment together out near the intersection of Power Road and Superstition Freeway. I stayed with them for about a month and then moved to a permanent house with some of my classmates. I was selected to start UPT in class 86-08 (last class of the training year) which was made up of mostly Air Force Academy Graduates (Zoomies). Tom was in my class (the other section though) and Joe were assigned to class 87-01 which was the class right after mine. The fact that the class was full of Academy grads was both a blessing and a curse. All of these guys and gals knew the AF and what to expect and how things worked. The few of us in the class (~8 out of 70) who were ROTC graduates had no clue what to do nor what to really expect. Each UPT class was divided into 2 sections and my class section was assigned to No Loss flight for T-37s and Tipper flight for T-38s. Thus began the longest, shortest, best, worst, hardest years of my life.