I visited CIF today to get my Korea gear. They sent me home with a depth and variety of cold weather gear which, while gratifying to have, implies an almost terrifying lack of warmth. It comes with an instruction manual entitled “Generation III Extended Cold Weather Clothing System.” The illustration on the cover diagrams in [...]
I’m finally out of inprocessing, or at least the formalized briefing portion of it. There’s still a bit more to go, but the rest takes the form of a checklist of tasks to complete. Mainly it revolves around people to meet and notify of my presence; it will hopefully not take more than a day [...]
For a few days before leaving Ft. Rucker, I had no duties (having completed outprocessing early) and stayed in Army Lodging, which was pretty much a cheap hotel. Like much of my time in Alabama, it was low stress, low key, low rent. Yesterday after arriving in Korea, I had no real duties and stayed [...]
Whenever I see a Warrant Officer in the news, their rank is invariably given as Chief Warrant Officer. It’s almost correct, and it certainly sounds like a military rank. The only problem is that it is incomplete. Unlike every other rank in the Army, which we imported wholesale from the British, the Warrant Officer corps [...]
As per tradition, on this the last day of flight of any kind in flight school, we collectively as a class goofed off. We were in the AVCATTs again, and we just played. Due to the limited number of simulators, we had to go in batches, which shaped the nature of our play. The morning [...]
With less than a month left before I head out, the number of required tasks before that time is becoming finite. I just found out exactly what my receiving unit will be, and simply knowing this makes things a lot easier. Knowing my unit tells me where in the country I’ll be stationed, what missions [...]
Flight school just ended. With my final checkride complete, I have no more flight instruction required before graduation, and no more flight time at all until I get to Korea. There is more to do, of course. There’s a mandatory leadership course before graduation, presumably to remind us all that while we’re all peers and [...]
I have to admit that there is no small joy in having a profession for which they send you home early on a Friday just because of some low clouds. I’m going to Korea this spring. I don’t know where, precisely, that’ll be yet; people who have been there are encouraging me to try for [...]
It’s my birth month, which means that like every other Army aviator on their birth month, I went in yesterday to get a flight physical. It’s a pretty comprehensive exam, but they run through it quickly here; they get lots of practice. It’s not difficult or particularly painful, but still nobody looks forward to it; [...]
It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to properly fly in formation. The big challenge is altitude control: you need to stay within about +- 10 feet of the altitude of the person ahead of you. If you go too low, you run into their downwash and get to deal with problems ranging from turbulence [...]