Angels We Have Heard (of) on High

"Fear not," then said the Angel, "let nothing you affright, This day is born a Saviour Of pure Virgin bright, To free all those who trust in Him From Satan's power and might." O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy. -- O Tidings of Comfort and Joy vs 4

Angels from the realm of glory -- here is a great feel good story for Christmas. I was thinking as I read this story, it would be a good response to some advertisements I've seen on metro busses in the DC area asking why would any one believe in God sponsored by some group of so called progressives that are against religious faith. Hmm... I'm glad God continues to believe in what He is doing on our behalf even when His own children won't acknowledge His grace and glory.

Encounter

When I drove down to Alabama I made a stop to take some pictures on Roan Mountain Tennessee. At the foot of the trail that ascended the peak from where this photo was taken from, I met a family resting having just hiked that section of the Appalachian trail. There was a tall middle aged bearded man, very thin, almost gaunt with what looked to be years of experience already lining his face. With him was a young boy, maybe eight years old looking quiet tired and solemn. His wife was somewhat more rounded out with long brown hair. All were dressed in well worn trail clothing with several layers as it was quiet chilly that day. I stopped to speak with him. He had quite a story to tell.

He is a former Marine who served as an explosive ordinance technician. He shared that during a training evolution he had to jump off a bridge to avoid the concussion of an ill timed explosion and injured his back. He was told he would never walk again, but his spirit undaunted, he began a long road back that was now seeing him walking the AT. However, his spinal column is damaged and leaking fluid which he said will claim his life within the next few years. When he shared the news with his family, they asked what he wanted to do, and he said he would like to hike the entire AT before he died. His family joined him. He had completed the hike shortly before I saw him. They were redoing the TN/NC section as it was his favorite section.

There are those people you meet and forget. And then there are those you will remember forever.

Back Where I Come From

This past year I enjoyed several trips to East Tennessee. The last one, was passing through on my way to Montgomery for SOS. As I stood overlooking one of the numerous mountain ridges, it dawned on me that this was the first fall I have spent any portion of in East Tennessee since 1995. I pulled out my camera and took as many photos as possible. Some are captured in this video along with some others from the last year of my trips back home.

I love the Air Force and I love my job -- but there are times I really miss my mountains.

Merry Christmas friends and family in East Tennessee

Graduation

0700 tomorrow - one last walk for SOS - this time across the stage for graduation. Then a long drive to Mom's for some celebration! She is cancer free! Saturday I should be back home with my wife and kids.

The picture is of a helicopter parked on the ramp here at Maxwell near the flickerball fields. When I attended the dedication of the 9/11 memorial for the Pentagon this past fall, it was mentioned that the last Army troop to board a helicopter in Vietnam during the evacuation from Saigon was killed sitting at his desk at the Pentagon. It was this helicopter that he boarded. It truly is a small world.

It will be good to be home; to see my family. I'm especially looking forward to Tuesday when my oldest daughter has her band concert. She makes me so proud in so many ways.

Light at End of the Tunnel

Whew! It has been a busy last six weeks. Climbing over Project X obstacles, writing papers, doing briefings, and taking the hardest test I have ever taken in my entire academic career but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Had one major bump in the road. Got injured but after some good medication from the doc here and some rest on the physical side of things I am on the mend and think I'll be back up enough to resume my duties at Arlington without any hitch, but I probably won't be running for a few weeks yet.

One of the most meaningful events for me was when I was asked to provide an invocation for the class during a POW remembrance ceremony following our last flickerball game (operation).

Friday I should be on the way back toward home and family in time for the holidays.

It was tough but definitely worth the time and effort. I learned a great deal that I think will help make me more productive as an Air Force officer.

Good Week

It has been a busy fast paced but good week. Team is currently second place in the entire SOS 09A class. The program is really starting to come together. We had job briefs this week and several other tasks. The brief was my favorite, because in 6-8 minutes I learned a great deal about what each one of my flight mates does in their day to day job. Some of them do some pretty awesome things. We've got a F-15 driver, a CROW, and a flight nurse who has flown wounded into Andrews, where I used to meet the wounded and take them into the ASF at the hospital there. Small worlds.

Played my first real game (sorry, operation) of flickerball today. We won.

Earlier in the week we tackled Project X. I found myself climbing a 4X4, hauling bodies over water obstacles on rather interesting weight bearing contraptations that we assembled, balancing on some pipes a good distance of the ground and so forth. Not for the timid. (Esp. at 43.) The ole joints are getting a workout.

If you are coming to SOS I will give one piece of advice. Be in physical condition. You will need it. You don't want to try to be doing it here.

And know your knots!

And stay calm. Be ready to adapt and perform under pressure.

Sunrise - Sunset

Up at the crack of dawn or before -- to bed way after sunset. That is part of what SOS is about. But it is way more than hard work or long hours.

First and foremost it is about teams and leadership -- with the emphasis being on leading oneself before leading others. Just a week in and it has already been a great learning experience.

The picture from the right is taken after a flickerball practice. I can't say much about how we are doing or what we are going to do in the flickerball events as that is classified. :)

We have been conducting a couple of simulations that are designed to test leadership and teamwork. First time around we were the highest in the entire SOS class. Today I don't think we did as well, but we improved our score -- but others still outscored us. But we learned a great deal about each other and working together. Tomorrow is our 3rd and final exercise with this particular instrument and I'm on point. So I guess I'll learn a bit about what I do when I've got the ball and the pressure is on. As they say, "winners always want the ball".

The weather has been great for November. Perfect time to be in Montgomery. Been doing lots of course preparation and research, even some collateral research into systems dynamics that compliment the curriculum here. Mostly reviewing what I've covered before, but I have discovered some new ideas out there too that help expand one's knowledge base of how people work when you put them together.

A typical day for me thus far goes as such. Up no later than 6am. Class between 0700 and 0800. Classes or experiential learning events until lunch, hour for lunch, then more of same until 1700. Then quick dinner, PT, and back to room to work on academic stuff. Then throw in team meeting to prepare for team events and so forth and it get quite busy.

I can't say too much about SOS as the curriculum is designed to test you with some stuff coming out of the blue so I shouldn't say to much about what is done how. Just there is a combination of instruction then some experiential learning event that will allow you to put it into play but also will test you. The bar is high. The school sets the bar high and the competitive nature of the flights (team versus team) pushes it higher. I feel good about our flight's potential. We aren't there yet as a great team -but we can get there. We have the talent, intelligence, experience, and so forth. We'll see if we get it all together before the end.

One word of advice if you are coming to SOS. Actually 2. First, do it in corrospondance. That will take some of the academic stress off if you know stuff already. Second - be in physical condition. Don't come here to get in physical condition. Come here to put your body to work for you. SOS won't kill you, but it is no walk in the park either.

Not Bad for an Old Man

Once again I'm the "old man". When I went through boot camp in the Navy, I was the old man at 24. At COT I was the old man turning 40 while I was there. And now at SOS I am the old man in the class at 43. So not bad for an old man. Today we had a physical fitness eval to make sure we can do the physical evolutions of the training. Ran my mile and a half in 11.23 and had 60 situps and 50 push ups in my minute time frame for each. I've slowed down a bit since my navy days when I could run between 9.45 and 10.15 (I have had one 10.23 since coming on active duty a couple of years ago).

I have a great flight!!! I marvel at the level of expertise of some of these operators - flyers, Special Operations, Engineers, active and reservists: even an international officer. Motivation is high. A great diversity of career fields and great expertise. I think it is going to be a great ride! Our flight instructor from SOS itself is a man who flew on looking glass for some time. He has already been great to us and got us off to a great start.

Hooah!

Crede viam

Trust the path.

I am here in Montgomery Alabama once again for PME (professional military education) having been selected to attend SOS (squadron officer school) in residence.

On my drive down here, I detoured across the Tennessee river into Dayton Tennessee. It was from this area some four years ago that I made my journey from civilian parish ministry into the military.

I stopped into my favorite place in Dayton: Jacob Meyer's Deli. It is co-owned by a friend of mine whose name is not Jacob or Meyers. You would have to ask him how he and his brother came up with the name. But I love the place. It is a soup/sandwich shop with coffee bar and the best pumpkin logs I have ever had. And the soup is great too!

It was truly a blessing to see my friend that I had no seen for several years and to find him prospering though grieving for his father who recently passed away.

Anyway, as I drove out of town back to my original route, I was listening to a book on CD "Out of Egypt" about the young Christ child coming of age and understanding. Driving to Montgomery gives one a great deal of time to think.

When you look back on life, you might never have guessed that you are where you are. And we might grow suspicious that we have no real way of knowing where we are going to wind up and what we are ultimately going to experience as life has its ways of bring new unexpected things. But we do know that ultimately we shall die. But for the Christian death is a door, a passage, into new and resurrected life beyond sickness, death, and even evil. Walking the path of life is much like walking a path through the woods like the Appalachian trail. You don't know what you may experience or what is around the bend - but you trust the destination and that the path will get you there. Or like driving to a new town following a road never traveled before, but trusting it will take you to the destination as advertised.

Trust the path. And enjoy it.

I am an American Airman

Today I and my fellow airmen buried an American Airman who served his country during World War II and beyond with full military honors.

Want to know what it means to be an American Airman? This video is who we are.

Wow! Video of AF strike in Afghanistan

Check out this video of an Air Force strike against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

PS: I gotta get me one of these!

Saturday I had the privilege of assisting with the laying of a wreath in memory of the 90th Bomb Group, the Jolly Rogers, at the grave site of its former commander at Arlington. I truly enjoy the opportunities to visit with and talk to these incredible veterans of World War II, though in many cases it is the widow who comes as their husband has passed. It is humbling to think that too soon the last veterans of the great conflict that ushered America truly onto the world stage will have passed away and only memory and legacy shall remain. But that is true of us all.

I have been quite busy preparing for my upcoming TDY to Maxwell. Last week I was incredibly surprised to learn that I had been selected to attend Squadron Officer School in residence in November-December. The selection process is competitive and it is a true honor to have been chosen to be the first to attend this fiscal year to represent the 11th Wing. I have stepped up my physical conditioning program as well as started diving into provided course materials so I can hit the ground running. The school is a five week training evolution designed to teach and test leadership in an environment of intentional pressure and stress. I suspect it will go quickly.

Media Truth

As a philosophy major one quickly learns that there is a major difference between truth, meaning, and opinion. One learns how people's opinions can be shaped and molded by the information provided and the amount of information provided. If one says the same thing enough times, for instance, people start to believe it. So my philosophical radar popped up this morning as I read a story concerning the number of reporters in Iraq now that the situation is improving militarily and economically. It would appear that good news just is not something that news outlets want to report on as much as blood guts and dire news. (Hmmm... wonder how that trend is impacting the economic markets today too. Is it really as bad as it is or could the approach be making what is a bad situation look like a disaster?)

Anyway, the Washington Post is reporting that with the improvement in safety and the economy in Iraq, the number of embedded reporters shrank from this time last year from 219 to 39. That is an 83% reduction.

A corresponding 83% improvement in the DOW from Friday's figure would take us back to 15465.67 -- WOW. So a $10,000 dollar investment made at the peak of the market would have declined to $5,700 in value on Friday in difficult economic times and if one got out and quit the market they would loose almost half of what they started with - that would be a disaster in my opinion. But if they stay in (which I plan to do by the way) and there was a corresponding increase in the market their invested value would rise to $10,500 - and one would actually be better off for enduring. I think anyone would say that would be a huge improvement to where we are right now and a huge reversal of fortune. Of course it will take a great deal of work to get there, financial leaders with some great judgment, patience, some time, and stick-to-it-ness. But I think as far as the financials go - the economy will recover. Americans can tackle difficult situations and overcome when we work together and keep on keeping on.

Of course I am comparing apple's and oranges because the decreasing in reporters in Iraq has no direct impact on when, how, or how much the American/world economy will bounce back. But I do expect, that once the economy gets back on track it won't make the news quite as much as before.

At least there is good news in Iraq. But there was good news when I was there some two years ago - but you don't read about it too often in the printed news or hear it too often on the networks. I wonder why? Do people really relish the bad stuff and not celebrate the good stuff?