Zaragoza, Spain

Early in January, our squadron went TDY to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain for two weeks for training with Spanish F-18s and to use Bardenas Range...their bombing range. Zaragoza was a USAFE base back in the day during the Cold War, but we have since moved out and now only Spanish military use it. I was the assistant project manager for this trip with a major in our squadron responsible to plan and coordinate all the necessary things we would need to go and maximize our training there. This included hotel rooms (for pilots and all the maintenance personnel), jet fuel, fire trucks and how many practice bombs we would need etc. There is a lot more to just flying the jets to Spain. All this coordination goes through USAFE headquarters up in Germany and they task respective units to provide the necessary equipment needed. Some of our supplies were trucked in from Aviano and the rest flown in by a few C-130s.

The flying in Zaragoza was pretty good. We were able to fly low levels a lot and get some good time at the bombing range. I had a low level/bombing range FLUG ride while there where I lead a 4-ship low level to Bardenas Range. I also had my air combat maneuvering (ACM) FLUG ride while there. ACM is where we maneuver as a 2-ship to quickly "kill" those trying to "kill" us. It was great because I was able to flying it against the Spanish F-18's. Of course, we cleaned house as expected! We were able to out turn and maneuver the 18's pretty easily and get shots off before they were able to.

In addition to the flying, there were some great sites to see in Zaragoza as it's a pretty large city. One of the main attractions is the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar. It was about the same size as the cathedral I saw in Seville, Spain on the cross-country trip but this one was much taller...very impressive. Lana was able to join me for a few days on the trip and we also saw the Aljaferia Muslim Palace in the city. Spain was controlled by Muslims in the past, and there are still historic buildings reflecting this. The architecture was cool and very different from things I've seen in Europe so far.

The trip to Zaragoza was beneficial for me in a few ways. First, it was eye opening to see how much coordination and preparation goes into making a TDY like this work. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of people needed to make it successful. Second, I was able to get through a couple FLUG rides flying in Spanish airspace and against a different fighter than I'm used to. Third, I was given a new callsign "Nuke" instead of "Durka"...I had enough money to buy a new name is basically how it went even though it's against fighter pilot tradition...didn't care much for "Durka". It has the same meaning but in stead of "doesn't understand ROEs kills all" it now stands for "no understanding kills everything." Then Fourth, I was able to spend a few weeks in a different country and different culture than my own. I had been to southern Spain passing through on the cross-countriy, but the north is different and I had more time to enjoy the Tapas (the food Spain is known for) and culture. Our next TDY will be back to Turkey like the first one I went on with the Buzzards back in 2006, but this time it's to a different location I'm unable to talk about at this point.

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Zaragoza, Spain

Wrapping up 2007

While Lana and I were on our honeymoon, my squadron was in Bulgaria for a training exercise...while there, our squadron commander and operations officer announced who would be next going into what we call the flight lead upgrade (FLUG). It consists of 10 graded flights were we have to brief, lead and debrief the flight. There are also academics involved before each different phase of the upgrade. It's going to take a lot of study and preparation so I'm ready to brief well, lead well in the air and then pull the lessons learned from what went well/wrong during the flight. We start off with 1v1 BFM (close in dogfighting) and then work our way up to a 4v4 and 4v2 at the end. At the completion of the 10 rides, we're a 4-ship flight lead able to lead around the 3 other jets in our formation. I'll be in the lead and making decisions, but along with that comes much added responsibility because lead is responsible for safety of all those in his flight whether in training or in war.

It's great to finally get my change at going through the FLUG. While we were in the desert for 5 months we were not able to do any upgrades, so naturally I was starting a little later than usual...but, later is better than never! My first FLUG ride was in late November and I was able to finish the BFM phase before Christmas break. The time off was great, but I spent a lot of my time getting briefing guides ready for my next flights when I returned.

This Christmas, Lana and I flew to Denver, Colorado for a few days to enjoy the mountains and snowboarding. Since she's still new in her flight attendant job with Lufthansa, she had to work over Christmas. So, I jumped on the flight she was working to Denver so we could be together on our first Christmas. Flying business class for about $100 round trip isn't anything to complain about...it's great being able to fly for cheap! We spent our days at the 16th Street Mall and snowboarding at Breckenridge. Christmas day brought snow as well, so it was a nice way to spend our first Christmas being married.

After Denver, we flew back and spent the rest of Christmas in Germany snowboarding a couple days south of Munich in the Alps. We found a nice pensione (basically someone's home were they rent rooms out to guests) in the mountains for that and then spent New Years in Munich at a restaurant owned by a friend of Lana's. Germans are crazy when it comes to fireworks...I've never seen so many fireworks being shot off at one time! It's a good thing they build their homes out of mostly concrete or else all of Munich would have gone up in flames!

Well, that wraps up 2007 already...it's crazy we're already into 2008! God continues to be good to us and we're looking forward to another year in Italy. Sometime towards the end of 2008, early 2009 we'll probably be moving so we'll keep everyone up to date with the latest.

The Wedding & Honeymoon

Lana and I got married on October 6, 2007 here in Sacile, Italy. It's great being married to such an awesome woman and we're both enjoying married life! I had family members from both the USA and Canada and Lana had family from Germany, England and Scotland as well. It was definitely an international wedding with Lana's dad wearing a Scottish kilt, her mom and aunt wearing German dirndls and an uncle of hers wearing German lederhosen. My family flew over a week early from the US to enjoy Italy and do some site seeing before the big day as well.

We didn't exactly have nice weather on our wedding day...we woke up to thunderstorms and driving rain. But in Italian tradition they say, "Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata" which translated means "A bride who is rained on is a lucky bride." Thankfully during the wedding service the rain stopped. As Lana and I were walking around town after the wedding for pictures, all the Italians kept saying, "Que bella" with smiles on their faces meaning "How beautiful!" I agreed 100%!

After the wedding and reception, Lana and I spent the night at a nice hotel close by at the base of the mountains before jumping in the car the next morning for our honeymoon on the Island of Sardinia. The island is off the west coast of Italy, so we drove down through Florence and did some sightseeing on the way. The first night we spent in San Gimignano, which is a great city from the Medieval times. The next afternoon made our way through Siena before catching a night ferry from Piombino to Sardinia where we spent a week enjoying the sun and beaches. We started our time in the north at Castelsardo, moved west on to Alghero and then finally over to the east coast at San Lucia and Cala Gonone. I highly recommend Sardinia...especially the northeast coast! The water is so blue and clear...it's really amazing to see. We rented a small boat for a couple of days in order to take advantage of some of the great beaches you can only get to by boat. A lot of the east coast has cliffs, so the beaches are otherwise unreachable. On our way home we stopped in to Pisa to see the leaning tower as well. It was a great week and a great way to start our married life together! Here's to many more years together with Lana!

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Wedding; Honeymoon

Flying Around The Mediterranean

This summer has come and gone very quickly! It doesn't seem too long ago I was stepping off the plane after being deployed in Iraq...

The beginning of August I volunteered (not a tough decision) for a 5-day cross-country in the F-16 throughout the Mediterranean region, and thankfully I was one of the 4 pilots allowed to go. Our route of flight took us through Sicily, Crete, and the a couple different places in Spain. As we flew from place to place, I remembered the fact we were flying over many of the places talked about in Biblical time...specifically as Apostle Paul traveled around. Here we are approximately 2000 thousand years later retracing some of the same territory in an F-16! We didn't spend much time in Sicily other than to get gas on our way to and from our different locations. Flying to Crete was my first time in Greece and I'd really like to go back to visit Athens or Corinth if I have time. We flew into a US Naval Station, Suda Bay, on the island to leave our jets so we could enjoy a night out on the town checking out some sites.

After one night in Crete, we took off to head over to Spain for three days hitting Sicily on our way for gas. Our first stop was a the Spanish Air Force Base, Torrejon. We used to have F-16s stationed there back in the early 90's, but they've since moved elsewhere. The Spanish military was very hospitable and gave us a ride to our hotel in downtown Madrid. Madrid is a cool city, but I need more time to check everything out. Lots of history and great buildings. After a night in Madrid, we were on to another Spanish / US Air Force Base (USAFE) called Moron. We spent a couple days there so we could fly against the Spanish Eurofighters at the base. It's a very capable aircraft and much newer than the F-16. It was great for me to see something different since the last time was during the B-Course at Luke AFB. Of course, we think we kicked their butts...but, we didn't get into the classified stuff in our debrief to really see the outcome. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do the same again before I leave Italy. While at Moron we stayed in the nearby city of Seville. I personally liked Seville better than Madrid because it was a smaller and very nice.

Flying around the Mediterranean in the F-16 will be one of my highlights while here in Aviano, and I hope to do it again next year. I've done some other traveling since getting back from Iraq and I'll try to post some pics on here in the near future. I hope all you flyer types are doing well...congrats to those I've talked a little with about getting at pilot slot to OTS! Keep up the hard work and Buzzards Rule!

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Cross-Country Sep '07

Cinque Terre, Italia

Over the Labor Day weekend, some friends of mine from the squadron and I decided to take a weekend trip to Cinque Terre, Italy. The drive was only about four hours, so it was an easy trip. We parked the car in a town called La Spezia just to the south and took the train 10-15 minuets north to a town called Monterroso. Cinque Terre is made up of five (cinque is Italian for five) small towns/villages along the northeastern coast of Italy, which is very hilly and has some nice cliffs. Monterroso is the one farthest north, which is the town we spent most of our time in. You can actually hike between all five towns over the course of a day or two.

The second day we were there, we decided to hike from Monterroso to Vernazza which is the next town to the south. The hike took a few hours through the hills and vineyards along the way before we arrived. Vernazza is a smaller town packed into the hills around a small harbor which has a small pier to break the waves of the Med. The sun eventually came out and we were able to jump off the pier and enjoy the water for the afternoon before catching the train back north for dinner and an evening out on the town. The next day we spent at the beach again before heading home on Monday. As with many places in Europe, I would highly recommend Cinque Terre if you're in the area. It's a cool place to see and what you would picture Italy looking like.

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Cinque Terre