Wake me when it’s over

20. October 2004 · Comments Off on Wake me when it’s over · Categories: General, Politics

I will be so glad when the election is over. Not that I expect it will be over Nov 3 unless it’s a complete landslide. Oh, even then the National-level Democrats will most likely be crying that it was stolen again, unless they steal it. I have decided that I am in election-year overload. Since discovering the blogosphere, I have a wealth of information at my fingertips. During my 5 years in the UK, the Early Bird, CNN, and Fox News were my primary sources of news. Every now and then I would watch Sky News, and watched BBC news for the weather, but I didn’t watch (or read) any of those sources with any regularity.

I got involved in politics, to an extent, when I turned 18. It all started with a phone call from my friend Kim asking if I wanted to be a poll worker in the May primary. So my first real paying job was for my county’s Democratic Committee, and yes, I was a registered Democrat. It was a great educational experience for me. Granted I had almost always gone with my parents when they voted, and know the basics: the voter signs the book, gets a ballot, fills it out, and puts it in the box. That first primary I worked, I learned the whole process. I had also heard my parents claim for 18 years that the elections were fixed, at least in our county, so I was on the lookout for it. There was none at that precinct. We were by the book, and the book was the law. We still had paper ballots then, and we were meticulous about counting them. For our table, Kim and I kept the counts while the ballots were read to us. If we came up with different totals, we started all over. I would end up working not only the Democrat Primaries, but also the general elections for the next 4 years.

Although I was a registered Democrat, I was a candidate voter. I voted against Clinton for governor, but voted for his Lt Governor. Of course, that was before the Lt’s indiscretions came out. I voted for Bush 41 both times, but I just couldn’t bring myself to vote for Dole. Since a vote for Ross Perot was a vote for Clinton, I sat that one out. I would have voted for Bush 43, but it really didn’t matter that I didn’t since Gore lost in Arkansas anyway, along with his home state of Tennessee. Heh. J I didn’t really have anything against Gore at the time other than the fact that he was associated with Clinton, until the after election debacle. Now I wish he would find his way back to whatever cave he crawled from.

I am now an undeclared voter in North Carolina, about 15 minutes away from Senator Gone’s hometown of Robbins. I can’t say that I have been happy with every decision President Bush has made. I had really hoped that he wouldn’t invade Iraq, not that I didn’t think Saddam deserved to be de-throned. Knowing now what I do about the UN’s Oil For Food “program,” I’m glad we went in. Expose those arrogant, worthless French as the criminals they are. And the Germans. And definitely Kofi Annan with his blind-eye-to-genocide. I would also like to see them all kicked out of our country. But that’s just my opinion, and off my original subject. I don’t think Bush lied to me about the WMD’s in Iraq. I didn’t think Clinton was lying about them, or Gore, or Kerry, or anyone else in the world who said Saddam had WMD’s since the first Gulf War.

I don’t see how anyone who has listened to Kerry can think he would make a better President than Bush. I think Hillary would make a better president than Kerry, although that thought will give me nightmares tonight. At this point though, I’m sick of the ads, I’m sick of the MSM and their tired line of negativity, I’m tired of the signs (with the sole exception of my co-worker’s “Al Qaeda for Kerry” sticker), and I’m tired of Kerry & Edwards. I wish I could be certain it would be over after the next 2 weeks.

I am a geek

13. October 2004 · Comments Off on I am a geek · Categories: General Nonsense

I was in denial for years, but during the last five years, I not only accepted being a geek, but also have embraced my geekiness. It was easy to deny being a geek in high school as I was listening to all kinds of music, smoking cigarettes, learning to play the guitar, and having a pretty good social life running around with my friends. Sure I took honors program classes, but a lot of kids in my class did. Sure I was in band, but just one year. I had dreams of becoming a rock star, and spent hours playing my guitar along with my Fleetwood Mac tapes, and later CD’s. However, deep down, there was a geek with aspirations of programming.

Computer Science was my second of three majors in college. I loved it. I would spend hours writing programs, then hours typing it in. (My best friend calls it hunting & pecking.) I can type, just not that well. After typing in and compiling, I would spend several more hours debugging, until I got my program running. I can remember excitingly telling my mom, in painstaking detail, about the steps I took to get a program running, then finally noticing that blank look from her telling me she had no idea what I was talking about and didn’t care to learn, but would sit there and listen to me anyway. Alas, I eventually had to take assembly language and never “got it.”

I spent the better part of last week figuring out how to disassemble our old Compaq Presuckio, oh I mean Presario, just to replace the failing cdrom drive. Reason being, it was still a good machine for the kids to play games on. After replacing the cdrom, I discovered that the hard drive was hosed, and the proprietary POS wouldn’t accept a cdrom not made by Compaq. Hence, it is now fully disassembled for spare parts, although I think the floppy drive is the only thing salvageable.

I am also a Trekkie. When I was at Tinker I put together several Star Trek models. I had 3 Enterprise models: 1701, 1701A, and 1701D. I had a Klingon Bird of Prey, a Romulan Warbird, a Ferengi Marauder, Voyager, and the Deep Space Nine space station. I kept them at work on top of my hutch, and was amazed at the people who would ask whose Star Trek models those were. I would think to myself “Duh, they’re on my desk…” but generally it’s not a good idea as a SrA to say that out loud to a Lt or Capt. I nearly got into gaming while at the JAC, but always managed to not progress beyond computer gaming. I do see the day in the next few years when my husband and I will be playing D&D with our kids. They would already be playing Neverwinter Nights if their video card could handle it.

Revenge is a dish best served cold

05. October 2004 · Comments Off on Revenge is a dish best served cold · Categories: General

A few years back I had a little rivalry going on with a guy I used to work with. It started at work, but we soon let it spread to other places, such as the post office, commissary, and BX. We would try to sneak up on each other. Not scaring, although we could have gone there. He got me 7 times one morning as I was working on a problem and couldn’t watch out for him. It was payback time. After about a week of failing to get my revenge, one of my office mates suggested that I add my rival to all of the email aliases on each of our servers. Oh yeah, that’s the ticket. We had 4 servers, and each one sent out emails at least once an hour to the admins. Friday afternoon, I made the addition to the alias files.

Monday morning, I get an email from the co-worker who made the suggestion. He just happened to be working help desk that week, which just happened to be where my rival worked. He overheard this question the rival asked another help desk tech: “Did you get like a million emails from…from superuser?” HAHAHA!!!! So now I have to make a trip to the help desk. When I arrived, there he was with his inbox full of system emails looking extremely frustrated. I looked him in the eye with a big grin on my face and said “Gotcha!”

Getting fat

04. October 2004 · Comments Off on Getting fat · Categories: Stupidity

Leave it to the Army to put a set of scales in the break room between the fridge and the microwave. I got on them while my lunch was heating, and cringed.

I went on a little drive this weekend, mainly because my kids can’t run in the car, and tend to go to sleep thereby eliminating the screaming as well. In other words, I needed some quiet time. I stopped by McDonald’s since they were complaining about being hungry, and even though I prefer Wendy’s, McDonald’s is the easiest/less messy to eat while driving. For some reason I started thinking about fat people who blame fast food restaurants for why they are fat. It amazes me how some people can tell the whole world they are stupid and lazy just to try and get some easy money. See, I know why I’m getting fat. I quit exercising, and quit eating relatively healthy. Plain and simple. I can remember early September 2001 I had to go to a medical appointment. I had managed not to get weighed prior to this for several months, probably prior to my MEB in March/April of 2001. I got put on the scales and nearly freaked. I was 2 pounds over my max. I took off the 3 lbs for clothing, and that still put me in taping territory. It wasn’t an official weight check, so I decided to take steps to lose some poundage, mainly because I had less than a year before terminal leave and was NOT going to buy new uniforms because I got fat. I also didn’t want to deal with the hassle of the “fat-girl” program, officially know as “Weight Management.”

First thing I did was cut out chips completely. That was not easy as I love my chips. Second thing was to take my fat-ass to the gym 5 days a week, even on days off. I then altered my diet to avoid eating so much deep-fried food, and opted for foods with less fat. I didn’t avoid carbs or calories, just fat. I still drank regular soda rather than diet. My goal was to lose 20 pounds. It took a year (OEF took care of my trips to the gym), but I did it. Of course, by the time I reached my goal, I was on terminal leave and threw the diet and exercise out the window. Now I need to lose 30 pounds. But I digress.

Back to the point, fast food restaurants should not be held responsible for individuals getting fat. If you’re fat, and don’t have a medical condition, get off your lazy ass and exercise, and eat healthy. Otherwise, shut up and color.

TGIF

02. October 2004 · Comments Off on TGIF · Categories: General

I am so glad this week is over. Last night I mentioned antifreeze spraying out all over my garage. Today I was still holding out hope that it was just a bad hose. Called the hubby after lunch to get the verdict. “You’re radiator is f***ed!” That was so not what I wanted to hear. He and a friend bought and installed a new radiator, so I have my car back now. I had to drive the truck to work today. Now I love trucks and the only reason I drive a car is because I have about an 80 mile round trip each day. I was looking at good mileage. However, every time I have driven my husband’s truck to work, it has rained. Problem with that is, it needs new tires, and therefore has crap for traction on wet pavement. Add to that the wipers. They are new…and suck. Right in the middle of your field of vision, it just kind of puddles up the rain. Naturally I expected rain today as I get a lot of visits from Murphy. Checked the forecast this morning, and there it was-30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. To my amazement, it was sunny when I walked out of my building to go home after work. I could see some ominous looking clouds in the direction of home, but amazingly I made it home without so much as a drop. And they left my old radiator in the garage for me to see. OMG! My husband’s description was spot on.

What has happened?

30. September 2004 · Comments Off on What has happened? · Categories: General Nonsense

Here I am working late. I say “working” when I am in fact just waiting until after duty hours to do system maintenance that will require about 5 minutes of downtime. I’m doing a little reading while checking my emails every few minutes for signs of locked accounts and/or forgotten passwords, and checking the audit logs every few minutes for signs of inactivity. I’m listening to the free Classic Rock station on Launch, and coming close to breaking out those 3 bucks a month to get my personalized station back. Now, my idea of “Classic Rock” is the Beatles, the Doors, the Stones, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and various other late 60’s and 70’s artists. I’m even willing to concede to including late 70’s Van Halen and Heart. Suddenly I realize “Hey, that’s the Police.” Then I hear some Poison, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Loverboy, Foreigner, and (gasp) U2. What the? When did the stuff I listened to in high school and college become “classic” rock??? How can Van Hagar be classic rock??? It hasn’t been that long…has it?

Update: The maintenace took 30 minutes. I walked out of the building, and noticed the “Dilbert cloud of doom” overhead. Got out of the car at home and thought “What is that spraying noise?” The antifreeze shooting out of my radiator all over the garage. What a day. Then I go through the mail and find a card from a friend, who is a former JACster as well. I open up the card to the photos placed inside and almost busted a gut over these. Heh heh. And I will never accept Van Hagar as “classic rock.”

How I Became the Dragon Lady

28. September 2004 · Comments Off on How I Became the Dragon Lady · Categories: General

I can’t say that I liked additional duties, but they were necessary. One I had at Tinker was PRF (Personnel Readiness Folder) Monitor for the squadron. Each flight had one, too. The way I approached this one was to keep up with any changes in requirements from Group, and pass this info to each flight so that everyone would have everything up-to-date and correct in their individual folders. This was part of readiness to deploy on short notice. Basically, I kept the most current checklist and distributed it to the rest of the squadron. This checklist listed every item you were to keep in your 6 part PRF, and was also one of the required items in the PRF.

About the time I got this dubious honor, we started the buildup to an ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection). ORI’s produced several practice run exercises prior to the actual inspection. During one of the practice Air Mobiles, several squadron personnel were simulated deployed, which included a PRF check. Now, of course the rest of the squadron’s PRF’s needed to be checked too, as you never know when or who might be a replacement. So each flight brought me a boxful of PRF’s to check…by myself. There were probably 50-80 folders to go through. Not hard mind you, but oh so mundane. To this day I have the immunization requirements memorized.

It took me about 3-4 days to finish as I still had to do my primary job. I would just go through the checklist. For each requirement on the list, you either had it or you didn’t. I think out of all four flights, there were maybe 5 folders that passed. All the others had at least one thing wrong. A MSgt from one of the flights looked at the results for his flight, and then looked at me. “You are the PRF Dragon Lady.” As far as the actual ORI, our squadron received a 100% passing score on PRF’s.

It all looks different now

27. September 2004 · Comments Off on It all looks different now · Categories: General

When I was in high school, I remember reading a letter to the editor in my hometown paper written by a woman whose brother had just died from cancer. He had fought in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange. Around the same time, John Ritter starred in a movie about a Vietnam Vet/teacher who had been exposed to Agent Orange and later died from cancer. I was 16 or 17, and full of idealism, although I thought Ronald Reagan was the man. During my junior and senior years I did a couple of reports on the Vietnam that were very critical of the government’s involvement in Vietnam. I became quite anti-Vietnam.

So here I am now, double the age I was then, a veteran, and keeping up with current events which I didn’t bother with as a teenager. Just in the past 5 years or so I learned that we never lost a major military battle against the North Vietnamese. I hear John Kerry boast about his 4 months in Vietnam. Then I hear about his post-war testimony and anti-war activities. Then the Swift Boat Vets come out against him. I am starting to look at Vietnam again in a different light.

When I went through ALS, they gave us General Robbie Risner’s book, The Passing of the Night. It was encouraged reading, but not required. A few of my classmates read it during those weeks, and said it was great, so I resolved to read it someday. I finally read it over this past weekend. I’m not so anti-Vietnam anymore. Abu Gharib was a pajama party compared to the Hanoi Hilton. I think again about John Kerry’s 1971 claims of war crimes being committed by US soldiers. It sounded just like what the North Vietnamese were torturing the US POW’s into “confessing.”

We were not the bad guys in Vietnam. We’re not the bad guys now either.

Gary

27. September 2004 · Comments Off on Gary · Categories: Home Front

Something has been bugging me all weekend. The kids and hubby are irritating me to no end, but I know it’s not them. I think I know now what my problem is. A couple of weeks ago, I read a post on Blackfive written by a Navy doctor leaving Iraq describing what was good and what was bad. Of course I broke down, and sent the link to all my friends and family. Naturally a few replied and bitched at me for making them cry, but one of my cousins replied and told me how she thought so many take the sacrifices military members make for granted. Then she thanked me for serving and told me how proud she was of me. Well, there I went bawling again. See, I don’t feel that I ever really made that much of a sacrifice. Sure I missed my daughter’s first Christmas when I was in Kuwait, but thousands of men and women miss a lot of their kid’s Christmas’s, and birthdays, and anniversaries than I ever did. But that’s not what’s bugging me either.

I have another cousin who joined the Army National Guard about 14 years ago. His unit deployed to Iraq a few months ago. I know he is no more or less important than any other soldier over there, but he is the only one that I have known my whole life. He is the only one over there that I used to sneak off with to smoke cigarettes when we were teenagers. He’s the only one over there I cruised around town with listening to AC/DC’s Who Made Who tape. He’s the only one who was standing next to me in front of our Granny’s casket and saw her eyelid flutter. (I would have thought it was my imagination, but he saw it too.) I think that’s my problem. It’s hitting close to home. There hasn’t been a war or conflict before this one, in my lifetime, that someone that close to me has been involved in, because I was too little to remember Vietnam.

Godspeed Gary, and be safe. I am proud of you.

Rivalry between branches

24. September 2004 · Comments Off on Rivalry between branches · Categories: The Funny

My time at the JAC, being a Joint unit, made for some fun, good-natured rivalry between the branches. One day a couple of my friends were bickering, not seriously mind you, but it escalated to the good-natured threat. The SPC made some sort of threat to the SSgt, but I don’t remember what it was now. The SSgt, who is female, looks him in the eye and says “You and what Army? Oh, right! You’re an Army of One! BWAHAHAHA!!!!”

An Introduction

21. September 2004 · Comments Off on An Introduction · Categories: General

I don’t want to be the last to introduce myself, so here goes. When I was 17, I was thinking about joining the National Guard. I let my thoughts fall out of my mouth in front of a friend’s dad and he very quickly talked me out of it with his tales of swamps and snakes at Ft. Polk. I went to college, changed majors twice and got my 4-year Bachelor of Science degree in 6 ½ years, getting married during the last year.

Following graduation in August 1994, after 2 interviews, the company decided not to fill the position. I was all bummed and not looking forward to going back to the box factory. So, after going to a different Temp Agency, I decided to join the Guard. (Ft. Polk story was forgotten.) I told my husband my plan that evening to get his opinion, and he gave me his full support as a husband and advice as an Army vet. “You don’t want to join the Guard. You’ll be happier as active duty. And don’t join the Army; join the Air Force.” I called the Air Force recruiter, and within a week I had retaken the ASVAB, and took the AFOQT. I basically both enlisted and applied for OTS, eventually opting to enlist. I scored high enough on ASVAB to pick my job. I was put in delayed enlistment and it would be nearly 4 months before basic.

Now, I flipped through page after page of enlisted AWACS jobs. All of them had “Combat” somewhere in the job title so I just kept flipping. Finally the MEPS recruiter asked how I was doing and I told him I would prefer something on the ground. He flipped the book a few more pages, and I saw “Computer Systems Operator.” My second major had been computer science, and the job description looked like a breeze. I then envisioned myself in an office, in blues (class B’s for the non-AF), and picked that one. I went to basic in January 1995, and I can remember sitting in a basic training class with the instructor telling us “You’re all going to war, and you might die.” Well, I sat there all smug thinking “Not me. I’m going to be in an office in my blues.” Then I got to tech school and got my orders. 32nd Combat Communication Squadron. There’s irony at work.

I didn’t go to war, but I did deploy to Kuwait when my daughter was 6 months old. Not a good Christmas for me that year. I kept my dream sheet updated the whole time and applied for Special Duty assignments in a futile effort to leave. Finally, I gave up and decided to get out. That’s when I got a special duty assignment to England. So I reenlisted, and arrived in England in March 1999, about a week before the Kosovo campaign began.

I was a database system administrator there and loved it. I got out in 2002, and got a job as a defense contractor, aka blood-sucking or scum-sucking contractor, and stayed at Molesworth for 2 more years. I just moved us back to the U.S. this past summer, and wonder how I made it 5 years without WalMart. A few days after we got back my mom told me that now she can walk past pictures of me without crying. I changed companies, but still work as a contractor, now for the Army.

What really bugs me about Abu Gharib

21. September 2004 · Comments Off on What really bugs me about Abu Gharib · Categories: General, Military

“I was just following orders.” Hmm. Now, I don’t claim to have some special insight into Army training being an Air Force vet, but the “just following orders” claim just does not sit well with me. I remember well in Basic Training being taught the difference between a lawful and unlawful order. The My Lai massacre was the primary example used to teach us that you don’t just blindly follow any order your given because “I was just following orders” does not exempt you from morality and you will be held just as accountable as the person who gave the order. I also think it was brought up during the annual UCMJ refresher training. My husband is an Army vet and said he was given pretty much the same general military training as I did in the Air Force regarding UCMJ and Law of Armed Conflict. LOAC being the Geneva Conventions training, and for us it was annual just like UCMJ. Having said all that, I just don’t buy those people saying that what they did to those Iraqi prisoners at Abu Gharib was justified because they were “following orders.” Whether they were ordered to do what they did is irrelevant to me, although if they were ordered to do it, whoever gave the order needs to rot in Ft. Leavenworth. In my opinion, the treatment of those prisoners showed a lack of moral courage from those who committed and/or participated in it. Why else would they have taken pictures if they didn’t think it was ok? Is it just me?

A Proud Day

20. September 2004 · Comments Off on A Proud Day · Categories: General

It was early June 2000, and was to be the last time that all of the 303rd Bomb Group Vets would try to attend the annual Hangar Dance at RAF Molesworth where they had served in WWII. The command decided to gather the JAC together in a ceremony to honor the vets as they arrived since it would be the last time the majority of them would be able to come. The Air Force members formed up on one side of the street, and the Navy, Marines, and Army formed up across the street facing us. As with every ceremony involving formations, we were in place 15-20 minutes early. I hated ceremonies and would avoid them if at all possible. I couldn’t get out of this one, though. We stood there for what seemed like forever at parade rest. Finally the cars and buses arrived, and we were put at attention. As they came up the street approaching us, we were given the “Order Arms” command and rendered our salutes. I have no idea how many cars and buses drove by, as there were several, and every one contained elderly men and their families with tears in their eyes saluting us back. As the tears rolled, which they do even now when I think about that day, I felt myself stand a little bit taller, and felt great pride that I was able to be there to honor those brave men, and the memories of those who never made it back. That day marked the proudest I ever was to wear a uniform.

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