Planning for a Very Odd Future

Now that my extension through May 2015 is all done except the confirmation paperwork, I can start making more concrete plans about the future.

Or not.

I will be 62 in May of 2015 and hope to spend part of the 2015-2016 academic year in Rwanda with my wife and three or four sons.  I want them to live in a black-majority culture to experience how different that is--especially for their white parents.  And Rwanda has the advantages of being among the poorest and at the same time most bicycle crazy countries on the planet.  The country is healing from the mid-90s genocide through both sides--Hutus and Tutsis--cheering for the national bicycle racing team and their international bike race, The Tour of Rwanda.

If all goes well, we will go there for a semester.  My wife will lecture on math at the University of Kigali, my sons will do there best to attend high school Kigali, the capital, and I will teach English as a Second Language with a definite emphasis on bicycle vocabulary.  Rwanda has great roads that are keep smooth from lack of heavy vehicle traffic.  Thousands of young men build their racing muscles dragging heavy loads behind and on their bicycles.  For these young men to become racers they have to be literate and learn both the bike and the complex tactics of racing.  Hopefully, I can help.

If it turns out I go to Afghanistan before I get out, I will have just that much more experience in a poor culture.

Since I will be some form of retired by then, it is good to know that the cost of living in Rwanda is very low.

I GOT THE FULL 2-YEAR EXTENSION!!!!

The battalion Command Sergeant Major called me today and left a message saying, "I have good news, call me back."

He did have good news.  The Pennsylvania Adjutant General signed a two-year extension of my enlistment.  My new discharge date is 30 May 2015, just after my 62nd birthday.  So I now have three years and a month before I will officially be a civilian again.

Chinook Flies Sideways During Sling Load Training

Days Like These are Why I Want to Stay In!!!!

Friday night I got a text message from our operations officer:

0730 at west field for first CH movement.

That was all the info I had.

I drove to West Field arriving at 0720. When I arrived two Chinooks sat in the middle of a large field.  Along the north edge in front of the tree line were more than 200 soldiers lining up in groups getting ready to fly to hill tops on the ridges on the north side of Fort Indiantown Gap.

As the infantry lined up, Chief Witmer put me on the second aircraft so I could take a picture of the first aircraft landing and the troops running off. The plan did not work out--at least for pictures.  The first aircraft was so fast it was flying away from the landing zone before we arrived.

So I did not get the pictures, but for the first time I had the experience of landing on top of a cliff in a Chinook with the tail wheels on the cliff and the nose wheels off the edge while 30 infantrymen ran out the back of the aircraft.  The landing was very smooth and so was the hover while the infantrymen ran down the ramp and off the aircraft, but I could look out the forward door gunner's window and down the side of the cliff.

It was very cool.

The two Chinooks flew several more sorties ferrying tropps up to Media Ridge.  I recently exchanged my cracked Blackberry for an iPhone so I took movies of some of the landings and takeoffs.  I will post them later this week.  I climbed on the last flight returning from Medina Ridge.  The troop exercise was over by 11 am.  But the days excitement wasn't over.

Still Getting Good Stuff While I Am In

My oldest daughter just called to tell me she could get tickets for the Richmond NASCAR race for my three sons and I (next son moves in tomorrow).  It is a night race at the end of April on a 3/4-mile oval and arguably one of the best tracks in NASCAR.  The tickets are for Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans.

If my extension does not go through, I will have just one more year to score this kind of swag for currently serving veterans.  Chalid, our new son, said he would like to go to a race.  I did not know when we could go, but free tickets made the planning much easier!

Lost Paperwork at Higher Headquarters, Starting Again

I got an email this morning from my CSM saying that higher HQ did not have my request paperwork.  he asked for some info I sent him in January so he could start the process over again.  Although my discharge is not for another 13 months, the CSM said in December I had better get started now.  He has 34 years of service and knows what can happen to paperwork.  Good thing he is looking out for young guys like me.  (Even if he is 7 years younger than I am.)

Survey of Veterans

Interesting survey of veterans reported by Jim Dao on the NY times "At War" blog.  Veterans care most about jobs and want to work for the government.  And he reports real joblessness among veterans is double the national average.

First Time I Missed a Drill Weekend

I am sick.  Right now I am getting better, but Friday morning I got a flu that came in stages.  Friday I was throwing up.  Saturday morning I felt OK.  I really felt good mid-day and went to drill.  Saturday evening I was bad again--at the other end.  All night I made a dozen trips to the bathroom and spent most of Sunday in bed.

This morning I ate a little and feel better.  At this point I have lost ten pounds in four days.  Like my other diets, I do not recommend it.

Ran NYC Half Marathon--Right Through Times Square

Twice a year Times Square gets closed to traffic:  on New Year's Eve for the ball drop and party and  on the Sunday nearest St. Patricks Day for the NYC Half Marathon.

I ran the race this year with 25,000 of my closest friends.  More entered but there was a lottery to get in.  The BEST part of the whole event was running out of Central Park straight down 7th Avenue through Times Square--it is really cool to run down the middle of 7th Ave. but not a good idea most of the time.

Here's what the Ave looks like with nothing but runners.  I am in the middle acting like I won, but there are 12000 people ahead of me and six miles to go!

Newsletter or Facebook Page

Last summer I started a Facebook page for my unit.  But last drill, a couple of people asked about when I was going to do another newsletter.  I wrote weekly newsletters in Iraq, monthly after we got back to America, and stopped once we had a Facebook page.

But new media does not quite replace old media--at least not for everybody.  That newsletter was a lot of work.  The Facebook page is easier because it can be done in little pieces.  Doing both is more than I could ever have time for.

Let me know if you think one is better than the other--assuming I could choose between the two.

And, of course, if you are on Facebook, please "Like" our page!