Jets & Tractors

I have officially brainwashed our son Liam into only thinking about jets and tractors.  A few times a day he'll walk to the computer and say jet or tractor since he's hooked on youtube videos about each.  We had the chance earlier this week to take a short trip to Canada to see some of my family there and see my Dad's farm...Liam also had his first tractor ride.  I hadn't been to the farm since 2003.

Yesterday I took Liam to a John Deere dealership to check out more tractors.  He was so excited when we drove in and saw all the machinery.  He's growing fast and it's quite fun to "hang" out together doing these types of things.

Weapons School Patch Night and Graduation

I'm officially now a USAF Weapons Officer.  Having "the patch" put on my left shoulder this past Thursday night is something I will never forget.  The part of Patch Night where we receive our patches is only attended by those who have previously received one.  The night started with the history of the F-16, followed by us all making fun of each other for some funny things that happened throughout the course.  Eventually we each had a patch put on our shoulder, with a punch to "ensure" it was securely in place.
 

Since F-16 Weapons School started back in the early 80's, 679 pilots have gone through the course. I'm patch #676. A lot has changed since I drove away to Officer's Training School (OTS) back in 2003 with my goal at the time to hopefully get an F-16 out of pilot training!

It was nice to have friends and family in town for Graduation on Saturday. The ceremony was quite a bit bigger than I anticipated with about 1,000 people in attendance. The class started with 108 students (across all airframes) and ended with 90. Thank God I made it through and had the chance to walk across the stage and receive a graduation certificate. The gravity of what we all went through over the past 5.5 months will settle in later I'm sure.

Lana and I are currently in Boulder, CO on our way back across the USA.  We're on our way to Michigan and Ohio for Christmas and New Years before we drive back to South Carolina.  It's a 2,000 mile drive, so we have about 2.5 days of driving left.  Looking forward to decompressing at home for a couple weeks with family!

Graduation Video:

Weapons School Complete!

My Weapons School experience is essentially over, except for Patch Night this coming Thursday (where the patch in the picture below is put on our left shoulder...it will be there for the rest of our time in the Air Force) and Graduation this coming Saturday.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, the time here at Nellis has gone both fast and slow depending on how I looked at things.  Slow when it came to family time, but fast otherwise.  They say an accomplishment means more when it takes a lot to achieve, and I can say this is the case with finishing WIC.  Weapons School has been the hardest thing I've done flying the F-16, yet the most rewarding. I used to wonder if I could make it through, and here I am on the other side thankful I did and had a great experience in the meantime.

This coming Thursday night we will finally receive the Weapons Officer patch, a symbol of hard work and credibility.  Since the beginning of the course, the left shoulder of our flight suits have not had a patch of any sort in anticiaption of the Weapons Officer patch we were working towards (you can see this in the picture below).  A Weapons Officer should be humble, approachable, and credible in order to build, teach, and lead other fighter pilots.  It's a big responsibility, and one I'm looking forward to as we move to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany this coming April.

Starting on Wednesday evening, our family and friends begin arriving for Patch Night and the graduation ceremony on Saturday evening.  Graduation is a formal ceremony where we receive graduation certificates and the leadership gets a chance to explain what we've been through over the past months to our guests.  On Monday the 12th, Lana and I plan to hit the road for the long drive to MI and OH for the holidays before making our way back to SC.  I'll  put more info on here from Patch Night and Graduation in a few days.

Thanksgiving 2011 - Grand Canyon & Sedona

Lana, Liam, and I just returned from a long and relaxing weekend in Arizona.  Last Wednesday we departed for the Grand Canyon, and then made our way to Ft. Tuthill military recreation area in Flagstaff.  This was Lana's first time seeing the Grand Canyon and my third, but it's still just as impressive as the first time I saw it! 

The next day we made our way down to Phoenix for Thanksgiving lunch with some friends of our from our previous time at Aviano Air Base, Italy.  Both of our families have grown since then and it was a nice time to catch up.  The following day we drove from Ft. Tuthill alone the Oak Creek Canyon Highway to the town of Sedona.  The drive almost made us feel as though we were back in Europe again; winding roads and rock faces thousands of feet high.  The red rocks of Sedona are quite the sight to see with it being the first time for both of us.

We spent Saturday as a family relaxing at Ft. Tuthill and went on a short hike back in Oak Creek Canyon.  It was a great way to celebrate Weapons School being essentially over, with two more flights left.  We'll be on the road home in about two weeks!

More Pictures:
Grand Canyon & Sedona

Next Assignment...Spangdahlem, Germany!

This coming spring, Lana and I will be moving to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany where I'll be the Weapons Officer of the 480th Fighter Squadron Warhawks!  It was a surprise to us, and the news came about in the course of 2-3 days.  We're excited at the chance to live in Europe again, especially Germany since Lana is from there.

We'll be leaving Shaw AFB around mid April to arrive at Spangdahlem the beginning of May.  Lana is due 19 Feb with baby #2, so this will give us time to get the passport for our flight over.  We have enjoyed our time at Shaw, and can hardly believe it's been almost 2 years since we arrived.  We're moving about 10 months early according to the 'normal' 3 years time on station military members usually have at a particular assignment.

Well, I need to get ready and head to work...3 more flights in the Weapons phase here at Weapons School, and then a nice long Thanksgiving weekend with the family!

The Light Is Getting Brighter

Weapons School graduation is about one month away, and it's hard to believe we're already at this point in the program.  The days 'fly' by when going 100 mph from the time you walk in to the squadron until leaving 12-14 hours later.  After a quick dinner, trying to figure out exactly what to brief for the next day's flight and some sleep, it's time to do it all over again the next day.  The days go slow when you desire to spend more time with your wife and child.  I'm looking forward to a nice long break over the Christmas holiday with them and family!

I have three more flights in the Weapons Phase before Thanksgiving his here.  The flying has been better than any other I've done, and will be the part I miss the most after WIC is done.  Just yesterday I planned, briefed, and lead a destruction of enemy air defenses (DEAD) flight consisting of 10 x F-16s, 4 x F-15Es, 3 x EA-18Gs, and 2 x B-1s...it's the best training in the world.  The flight went well too, which is always a bonus after the long hours of preparation.  God is good!

For the long Thanksgiving weekend, I'm taking Lana and Liam to Ft. Tuthill military recreation center in Arizona from where we plan to visit the Grand Canyon and Sedona.  It'll be a nice break together after completing Weapons!

WIC...Almost To The Last Phase

Since the last post we have entered the close air support (CAS) phase of Weapons School.  This type of training prepares pilots who execute this mission in situations where the Army needs over watch by fighters ready to employ weapons on the enemy.  CAS has been what F-16s have been doing in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 10 years, but that is in a very low threat environment.  Here at Weapons School CAS takes place with multiple surface to air threats we have to avoid while still providing support to the ground troops referred to as high threat CAS.  At the end of this next week CAS will be over and we'll be on to our last phase: Weapons.

Weapons is the final phase where all the different platforms integrate on every mission working together to accomplish the mission.  Lots of long days and hard work ahead, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little brighter.  I just finished my research paper this afternoon as well...35 pages!

Lana and Liam arrived earlier this month and are staying with friends of ours we met while stationed at Aviano.  It's great having them here, and it's amazing how much Liam changed while we were apart.  Lana is 5 months with our #2, who is due in February.  We spent last weekend in San Diego at the Navy base on North Island across the bay from downtown.  It was a nice and relaxing time for us after the time apart.

Our "Little" Man

Lana and Liam will be here in a couple weeks.  Three months was long enough!

Weapons School...Half Way Through

Completing this week marked the half way point of WIC, and being busy has made the time go fast.  The flying ahead will continue to get better and more difficult at the same time.  Up to this point we have been flying specific missions within the air-to-air and air-to-ground arenas, but we're now beginning to integrate them together using the previous phases as building blocks.

Since my 300' checkout and dropping the live bombs, we've moved on to escort, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), destruction of enemy air defenses (DEAD), and surface attack (SAT).  These phases will be complete, barring any busts, the end of next week before we go into another full week of academics.  My research paper has reached 25 pages, and I'm about 85% through.  This coming Thursday I'll give a 30 min presentation on my topic to the squadron commander, director of operations, paper advisor, and academic advisor.

Being half way through WIC also means Lana and Liam will soon arrive!  They'll be here in early October, just before our 4th wedding anniversary.  Lana has put up with a lot being apart and prego chasing a 16 month old, high energy boy around Germany.  Thanks Lana...your support means a lot!

500 mph @ 100 feet

This past week our training transitioned from air-to-air to air-to-ground.  Our academics and mission planning prepared us for our 100 ft familiarization flight, and dropping live 500 and 2000 lb bombs on different targets on the NTTR.  All fighter pilots are qualified down to 500', but during WIC we're qualled down to 300' and get that chance to see 100'.  Flying at 100' is fine until you make a turn that low going 500 mph...there isn't any room for mistakes that low.  There may be a few less cows on the range after my wingman and I finished our low level training.

Later in the week we had our first night flights here at WIC, carrying either 500 or 2000 lb live laser guided bombs (LGBs) with 210 rounds of 20 mm bullets in the gun.  It had been awhile since I'd dropped bombs and the first time shooting the gun at night using night vision goggles (NVGs).  My wingman and I hit all of our targets, which burned pretty good.  So much so, I had to pick a different strafe target for the gun since looking at the fires through the NVGs gained them down too much.  This was just the beginning of our bomb dropping.

Lana, Liam, and I have used video Skype quite a bit lately since she is still in Munich with her Mom.  Liam has changed so much, even since we were together at Spangdahlem only one month ago.  I miss them both a lot, and they'll be here at Nellis in a month from now...really looking forward to it!

Hill AFB Missile Shoot

Today we returned from our trip to Hill AFB in Utah, a few days ahead of schedule. We were all scheduled to shoot either an AIM-120 or AIM-9M air-to-air missile, but only 4 out of 10 were able to shoot. The drones ($750k/drone) that are launched for us to target and shoot had problems on day two of the shoot, so we packed up and flew back to Vegas early. Each person doesn't shoot down a drone, but typically 4-5 people are able to shoot at the same one. They will turn the drone around far enough away or use flares to defeat most of the missile shots. I've never shot a missile before, so it was a little disappointing. But, we were able to enjoy a few days away from the desert heat and a less stressful schedule.

The first two months of WIC are almost over and the time has gone fast so far.  We finished defensive counter air (DCA) last week, and are moving on the air-to-ground phase.  In DCA we simulate we're protecting a high value target from the enemy...both fighter and bomber aircraft.  Our enemy bombers were simulated by US B-1s, flying 600 mph at 500' off the desert floor.  Merging with a B-1 at those speeds and that low is a pretty cool thing to see.  DCA went pretty well for me with no busts.

Lana and Liam will be back in the USA in approximately one month, and I'm looking forward to having them around more.  WIC will continually get more and more difficult, but they'll help to break the stress bubble on weekends.  That's all for now...

Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany - WIC Simulators

Our week of simulators in Germany was great, especially the time I was able to spend with Lana and Liam.  My schedule was such that I was able to spend all but one night with Lana at a friends house 15 minutes from the base, and do some sight seeing with her as well.  Lana had never been to this part of Germany, so we took some time to see Cochem Castle, Trier, and Bernkastel. 

The simulators were preparation for this next week's flying, tactical intercepts (TI).  We'll be flying as a 4-ship against a number of adversaries, and will be graded as #1 or #3.  I spent some time this afternoon working on my research paper and getting ready for tomorrow's flight.  The jet lag is slowing my work ability, so we're going to grab some Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

ACM Complete...Off To Germany

This past Tuesday I finished the ACM phase here at WIC.  The briefs, flying, and debriefs went well and I was able to make it through "unscathed."  Today I had the day off and was able to get a lot done on my research paper (20-30 pages), which has a first draft due date of 5 Sep...not sure when I'm going get the time to type it all, but something will work out.  Tomorrow I have a BFM-5 flight...another chance to get a little better at my job!

This Saturday we're flying to Germany for a week of simulator training at Spangdahlem AFB, about 2 hours from Frankfurt.  The week is filled with 4 v X training, with four 1.25 hour simulators every day.  I'm not sure what the schedule is like, but it's going to be a good week.  Lana and Liam already have their train tickets and will be meeting me on Sunday.  Video chat on Skype is good, but I'm really looking forward to seeing them again!  More when I return from Deutschland...

BFM Complete...On To ACM

The BFM phase is already over and this next week we're moving on to aircraft combat maneuvering (ACM). I flew BFM-3, 4, 4X & 4S this past week passing BFM-3 the first try, and then busted BFM-4 on Tuesday. The flight wasn't terrible, but there were three days left in the phase and I had one BFM flight left...  I then passed BFM-4X on Wednesday, which was the last BFM flight of the training phase. So, on Thursday, I had a chance to fly BFM-4S which is essentially a "free" flight to get better at BFM with less pressure. The next time I'll be talking to / teaching anyone about BFM I will be the looked to as the expert in the squadron. I big responsibility!

ACM is the next building block phase in our WIC training. We fought 1 v 1 in BFM, now we're moving on to 2 v 2. Our two adversaries will be Nellis aggressors, either an F-16 or F-15 as show in the picture below. The goal of ACM is to efficiently maneuver as a 2-ship to quickly "kill" the adversary and bugout in the smartest direction to preserve range from follow on adversaries.

Once ACM is finished this next Thursday, we're catching a flight to Germany for a week of 4 v X (X being the number of adversaries the instructors want to give us since it's simulated) Tactical Intercept (TI) simulator training at Spangdahlem. I'm really looking forward to seeing Lana and Liam again, as they'll be taking the train up from Munich to visit! That's it for now...

WIC BFM-1/2 Complete

Week two of WIC finished today with 10 hours of classroom academics starting at 0700...after finishing a debrief at 1200 am the night prior. It was a good week because I passed my BFM-1 & BFM-2 flights! All the credit goes to God. It's always a battle between the stress and anxiety of an upgrade sortie and resting in the fact that God has lead me to Weapons School; it will work out as planned in the end.  The jets in the picture below are the same configuration we're currently flying...I actually flew 729 on Thursday.  The WA on the tail is the Nellis AFB designator.

BFM-1 was our local area orientation (LAO) flight, giving us a chance to see the local flying area and become familiar with Nellis flying operations.  It was a gradesheet flight (still potential to not pass), but is typically a pretty low threat flight...all 10 of us passed.  BFM-2 was our first flight leading and our first chance to show the weapons instructor course (WIC) instructors a "good act."  First impressions go a long way, and getting off to a good start is the goal.  Thankfully I had a good brief / flight /debrief and I was able to perform well enough to pass.  Four out of 10 in the class passed BFM-2.

Next week we're all flying Mon-Thurs with a 10 hour academics day on Friday. This will be a standard weekly schedule for us, so a lot to do in 5.5 months at WIC.  Some of us are going to catch dinner and a movie tonight and take tomorrow off, then it's prep time on Sunday afternoon for more BFM!

WIC Flying Starts Next Week

Our first week of academics is over and flying starts this next Wednesday. We've had two tests and will have two more on Mon / Tues. Things are going well so far....lots of PowerPoint briefings and coffee to stay awake. Below is a picture of our dorm. I feel like I'm back in Korea again as far as the living accommodations go.

Being here at Weapons School is such a great opportunity. Being here is amazing and humbling. It's great to be a student again and not have to worry about additional jobs we normally do like scheduling, training, and safety; everything is about tactics and becoming a better instructor pilot / leader in the F-16...what we joined the Air Force to do!

The two flights I have this next week (BFM-1 / BFM-2) are exactly like those I flew in my spin-up. They are Basic Fighter Maneuver (BFM) flights, or dogfighting. BFM is one of the initial skills all pilots learn in F-16 training and is one of the basic building blocks used to teach effective maneuvering in relation to another aircraft while employing missiles and the air-to-air gun. This is my first chance to make a good first impression on the instructors, and I'm ready. We have dry erase boards in our rooms to practice our briefings as we prepare as well. Below is my Offensive BFM briefing board.

There have been no pilots (that I know of) that have gone through Weapons School and not busted (failed) any of their flights. I'm expecting a few of these along the way, and it's all to make sure we're the best we can be before going back to a squadron as the tactical expert to lead guys. The tough thing here is to not let it "get to your head." I know God has directed me here, and I'll have confidence in this when things get rough. More to follow...

2,250 Miles, 10 States, 2.5 Days

I'm finally in Vegas at Nellis AFB after almost an East to West coast drive across the USA. The drive was 2,250 miles, took me through 10 states (not including S. Carolina), and spanned 2.5 days. I was expecting it to take longer, but I kept pressing as long as I didn't feel tired at 80-85 mph.

The first night I stopped in Little Rock, AR and the second in Holbrook, AZ. Each morning I woke up "early" because my body was on East coast time as I gained time passing through the time zones. I arrived in Las Vegas at 1100, checked in to my dorm room for the next 6 months, and then went to lunch with one of my F-16 classmates who I flew with in Aviano.

Most of the class arrives tomorrow and we start off on Tuesday morning with inprocessing and academics already. We're anxious, but looking forward to the great flying ahead of us.